Sarandha J | Columbia University (original) (raw)
Papers/Articles by Sarandha J
History of Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine in India, 2022
The story of oil’s proliferation into quotidian life and culture in colonised India is a less tol... more The story of oil’s proliferation into quotidian life and culture in colonised India is a less told one. Thus far, the few narratives on oil have explained it in terms of individual heroism, innovation, infrastructural development and high politics. The role of oil in the complex shaping of social worlds and its long cultural shadows in the Indian Subcontinent have escaped academic scrutiny. Triumphalist histories have downplayed the impact of oil as an exemplary ingredient in making everyday modern life and politics in India. Beginning with meeting modest needs such as lighting and lubrication, petroleum steadily displaced coal as the energy monarch. Oil consumption gradually overwhelmed the everyday subsistence of Indians, as they moved from being subjects of the British Empire to becoming citizens of an independent republic. By narrating two snapshots of oil shortage – the World Wars and the oil shock of 1973 – I aim to explore how petroleum usage becomes a conceptual vantage from which to understand state politics and everyday life.
Journal of Energy History, 2020
This paper traces the history of oil being reined in by the British Raj, from the 1870s to the ea... more This paper traces the history of oil being reined in by the British Raj, from the 1870s to the early 20th C. I argue that oil is not a self-evident object, but a category built by regimes of thought. Second I argue that oil became an infrastructure, used by the colonial state to elaborate itself. Nonetheless, neither the disciplining of petroleum, nor that of its popular use were straightforward because it involved several actors and was not driven by the Crown alone, presenting obstacles and surprises. Being a slippery substance, oil stealthily exposes the chinks in the armour of the colonial state. Being a networked system, it draws attention to distributed sovereignty within colonialism. By tracing the encounters between oil companies, the state and oil’s materiality, I chart a journey of oil as it became government but also escaped government.
NMML Occasional Paper Series, 2015
The discovery of petroleum and assembling its industry in India is a less told story. Thus far, t... more The discovery of petroleum and assembling its industry in India is a less told story. Thus far, the few narratives on oil—with humble beginnings in the colonial period to becoming a critical energy resource in Independent India—have explained it in terms of individual heroism, innovation, infrastructural development and high politics. Instructive as these writings are, the story of oil in the complex shaping of social worlds and its long cultural shadows in the Indian Subcontinent have escaped rigorous and wholesome academic scrutiny. Such triumphalist histories have downplayed the impact of oil as an exemplary ingredient in making everyday modern life and politics in India.
Beginning with meeting modest needs such as lighting and lubrication, petroleum was steadily used to displace coal as the energy monarch. Oil consumption gradually overwhelmed everyday subsistence of Indians, even as they moved from being subjects of empire to becoming citizens of an independent republic. By discussing two snapshot moments—oil shortages in British India during the two World Wars, and the oil shock of 1973 in Independent India—I aim to explore how petroleum usage in the everyday becomes a conceptual vantage from which to understand politics, technology, infrastructure and the writing of modern energy histories.
Countercurrents, Oct 27, 2013
What do you call a country that acquires land from farmers to build a Formula 1 racing track for ... more What do you call a country that acquires land from farmers to build a Formula 1 racing track for a sport that pollutes, thereby furthering global warming; and also acquires farm land to build nuclear power plants, dams etc., claiming that ‘clean energy’ is an imperative and an urgent necessity in the era of climate change? Forget climate change and clean energy for a moment; what do you call a country that forcefully acquires land and livelihoods from poor farmers for extravagance and opulence like Formula 1 racing? (Daily bread vs. elite sport, I wonder which is more important!) Schizophrenic.
Himal SouthAsian, Mar 15, 2013
Down to Earth, Nov 18, 2011
Down to Earth, Jul 31, 2011
Down to Earth, Mar 31, 2011
Dams, Rivers and People, Nov 2009
"A water body is an ecosystem, not just a carrier of water that is susceptible to pollution. It i... more "A water body is an ecosystem, not just a carrier of water that is susceptible to pollution. It is a system unto its own that is dependent on plant and animal activity around it. The problem isn’t always pollution and the solution isn’t always separation of humans from nature. The solution lies in nurturing a healthy, democratic and accountable relationship between humans and their natural habitat, for the sustainable survival of both. The notion of protecting the environment from pollution by rigidly divorcing it from humans who live off it is problematic. There are some basic assumptions this notion is guided by, which need to be questioned. Who is causing the real pollution? Why is it that the
people who are in direct contact with the environment are always the ones fingers are pointed at? "
Counter Currents, Aug 31, 2008
Books by Sarandha J
The crisis of river Yamuna is pronounced by a deep sense of loss afflicting the lives of riverfro... more The crisis of river Yamuna is pronounced by a deep sense of loss afflicting the lives of riverfront people who were crucial in shaping the river's many rhythms and cultures. In the present mood of transience and conflict, amidst the emerging riverfront politics, these communities seem to be caught in the eye of the storm.
This book makes an effort to encapsulate this present conflict. Deconstructing the nature of claims and stakes that riverine communities have on the riverbanks today, it is an attempt to describe the current processes of marginalisation of certain groups, and disengagement with nature for the sake of 'development'. The author makes an attempt to capture this current reality of India by discussing it in the framework of one of its holiest rivers trapped in a modern city. It aims to respond to a mood of confusion about what Delhi symbolizes today and what the Yamuna has come to mean to this modern, yet historic city.
Tracing the river from Yamunotri to Allahabad, the book delves into her cultural essence and the various meanings she symbolizes across time and space. The Yamuna comes out as a versatile fluid, a cultural mosaic and an emotional power that comprises infinite realities. The book describes the multiple ways in which communities have engaged with the river—religion and mythology, livelihood, recreation, and now, technology and economics.
It discusses the ideologies behind these different notions of the Yamuna and how these conceptions have come in conflict with each other and are now leading to contests over her terrains. The crisis of riverfront communities in Delhi is meticulously illustrated. Alongside, a debate on ecological democracy is unfurled with the lingering question of 'how does one engage with nature today?'
Shedding new light on controversies that envelop the river today, this book is a sharp critique of the way the Indian government and economy have dealt with this situation in particular and the larger case of the environment and communities in general. While rooted in current and tangible realities, the narrative transcends that element and engages in a form of philosophical rumination. A personalised narrative with many poetic musings, it is an academic discussion laid out in a lyrical format.
"This is India's first and most comprehensive survey presented in an attractive 2-volume set on t... more "This is India's first and most comprehensive survey presented in an attractive 2-volume set on the state of its water and its management. It is the 7th Report in our highly popular SOE Series. It would be of immense value to professionals and decision makers in the Central and State Governments besides academicians, researchers, NGOs and all major Libraries.
In these two volumes you will get to know the water-waste profiles of 71 Indian cities. Within their pages lie the model for a sustainable and affordable growth."
Book Reviews by Sarandha J
Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal, 2021
Review of: Dolly Kikon. 2019. Living with Oil and Coal: Resource Politics and Militarization in N... more Review of: Dolly Kikon. 2019. Living with Oil and Coal: Resource Politics and Militarization in Northeast India (Culture, Place, and Nature). Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Himal SouthAsian, Apr 8, 2013
Girja Kumar's book on the Indus and the cultures tied to it obscures a tremendous wealth of inter... more Girja Kumar's book on the Indus and the cultures tied to it obscures a tremendous wealth of interconnected histories and beliefs.
Dams, Rivers and People, Nov 2009
There is a wide-ranging coverage of issues related to water and law. However, neither is it a boo... more There is a wide-ranging coverage of issues related to water and law. However, neither is it a book about water laws, nor about all water issues. It lies in between, where water and legality converge – a book dealing with legal questions over water related issues.
Himal SouthAsian, Jan 2009
To study a river, one needs to think like a river – meandering, playful and capable of diversity ... more To study a river, one needs to think like a river – meandering, playful and capable of diversity in form. However, the bureaucrats and engineers who are assigned the task of dealing with Southasia’s watercourses seem to work best with numbers and structures. They are used to thinking in straight lines. When they encounter a river, they are able neither to understand nor to speak the river’s language. Finding it hard to adjust their way of thinking, they prefer to mould rivers into straight lines, like their minds – linear, blinkered and uniform. Trapped! Between the Devil and Deep Waters, chronicling the Kosi River of Nepal and Bihar, authored by an engineer, has been launched at a time when the linear thinking behind the mega-projects of river management lies fully exposed, in the wake of the Kosi embankment breach of August 2008.
Talks by Sarandha J
The India-China Institute at The New School is hosting a series of online seminars from February ... more The India-China Institute at The New School is hosting a series of online seminars from February 27-March 10, 2023, titled "Flows, Infrastructure and Citizenship in India and China." The seminars are being organized by Dr. Sarandha Jain, the 2022-3 post-doctoral fellow at ICI. The four dialogues explore how flows, infrastructures, and citizenship encounter each other, and what their co-arrangements mean for the evolving nature of the state. How do flows of people, objects, and natural substances facilitate and/or obstruct the constructions of infrastructure, and vice versa? How do these flows relate similarly to constructions of citizenship? The dialogues position a scholar of India in conversation with a scholar of China to discuss common themes in their work. The opening dialogue lays the groundwork for the series’ broader intellectual aims by connecting the three conceptual and empirical frameworks. The three subsequent dialogues, while still focusing on the triadic relationship between the frameworks, emphasize each of the elements by engaging scholars of India and China who specialize in flows (for the 2nd dialogue), infrastructure (for the 3rd), and citizenship (for the 4th).
History of Science, Technology, Environment, and Medicine in India, 2022
The story of oil’s proliferation into quotidian life and culture in colonised India is a less tol... more The story of oil’s proliferation into quotidian life and culture in colonised India is a less told one. Thus far, the few narratives on oil have explained it in terms of individual heroism, innovation, infrastructural development and high politics. The role of oil in the complex shaping of social worlds and its long cultural shadows in the Indian Subcontinent have escaped academic scrutiny. Triumphalist histories have downplayed the impact of oil as an exemplary ingredient in making everyday modern life and politics in India. Beginning with meeting modest needs such as lighting and lubrication, petroleum steadily displaced coal as the energy monarch. Oil consumption gradually overwhelmed the everyday subsistence of Indians, as they moved from being subjects of the British Empire to becoming citizens of an independent republic. By narrating two snapshots of oil shortage – the World Wars and the oil shock of 1973 – I aim to explore how petroleum usage becomes a conceptual vantage from which to understand state politics and everyday life.
Journal of Energy History, 2020
This paper traces the history of oil being reined in by the British Raj, from the 1870s to the ea... more This paper traces the history of oil being reined in by the British Raj, from the 1870s to the early 20th C. I argue that oil is not a self-evident object, but a category built by regimes of thought. Second I argue that oil became an infrastructure, used by the colonial state to elaborate itself. Nonetheless, neither the disciplining of petroleum, nor that of its popular use were straightforward because it involved several actors and was not driven by the Crown alone, presenting obstacles and surprises. Being a slippery substance, oil stealthily exposes the chinks in the armour of the colonial state. Being a networked system, it draws attention to distributed sovereignty within colonialism. By tracing the encounters between oil companies, the state and oil’s materiality, I chart a journey of oil as it became government but also escaped government.
NMML Occasional Paper Series, 2015
The discovery of petroleum and assembling its industry in India is a less told story. Thus far, t... more The discovery of petroleum and assembling its industry in India is a less told story. Thus far, the few narratives on oil—with humble beginnings in the colonial period to becoming a critical energy resource in Independent India—have explained it in terms of individual heroism, innovation, infrastructural development and high politics. Instructive as these writings are, the story of oil in the complex shaping of social worlds and its long cultural shadows in the Indian Subcontinent have escaped rigorous and wholesome academic scrutiny. Such triumphalist histories have downplayed the impact of oil as an exemplary ingredient in making everyday modern life and politics in India.
Beginning with meeting modest needs such as lighting and lubrication, petroleum was steadily used to displace coal as the energy monarch. Oil consumption gradually overwhelmed everyday subsistence of Indians, even as they moved from being subjects of empire to becoming citizens of an independent republic. By discussing two snapshot moments—oil shortages in British India during the two World Wars, and the oil shock of 1973 in Independent India—I aim to explore how petroleum usage in the everyday becomes a conceptual vantage from which to understand politics, technology, infrastructure and the writing of modern energy histories.
Countercurrents, Oct 27, 2013
What do you call a country that acquires land from farmers to build a Formula 1 racing track for ... more What do you call a country that acquires land from farmers to build a Formula 1 racing track for a sport that pollutes, thereby furthering global warming; and also acquires farm land to build nuclear power plants, dams etc., claiming that ‘clean energy’ is an imperative and an urgent necessity in the era of climate change? Forget climate change and clean energy for a moment; what do you call a country that forcefully acquires land and livelihoods from poor farmers for extravagance and opulence like Formula 1 racing? (Daily bread vs. elite sport, I wonder which is more important!) Schizophrenic.
Himal SouthAsian, Mar 15, 2013
Down to Earth, Nov 18, 2011
Down to Earth, Jul 31, 2011
Down to Earth, Mar 31, 2011
Dams, Rivers and People, Nov 2009
"A water body is an ecosystem, not just a carrier of water that is susceptible to pollution. It i... more "A water body is an ecosystem, not just a carrier of water that is susceptible to pollution. It is a system unto its own that is dependent on plant and animal activity around it. The problem isn’t always pollution and the solution isn’t always separation of humans from nature. The solution lies in nurturing a healthy, democratic and accountable relationship between humans and their natural habitat, for the sustainable survival of both. The notion of protecting the environment from pollution by rigidly divorcing it from humans who live off it is problematic. There are some basic assumptions this notion is guided by, which need to be questioned. Who is causing the real pollution? Why is it that the
people who are in direct contact with the environment are always the ones fingers are pointed at? "
Counter Currents, Aug 31, 2008
The crisis of river Yamuna is pronounced by a deep sense of loss afflicting the lives of riverfro... more The crisis of river Yamuna is pronounced by a deep sense of loss afflicting the lives of riverfront people who were crucial in shaping the river's many rhythms and cultures. In the present mood of transience and conflict, amidst the emerging riverfront politics, these communities seem to be caught in the eye of the storm.
This book makes an effort to encapsulate this present conflict. Deconstructing the nature of claims and stakes that riverine communities have on the riverbanks today, it is an attempt to describe the current processes of marginalisation of certain groups, and disengagement with nature for the sake of 'development'. The author makes an attempt to capture this current reality of India by discussing it in the framework of one of its holiest rivers trapped in a modern city. It aims to respond to a mood of confusion about what Delhi symbolizes today and what the Yamuna has come to mean to this modern, yet historic city.
Tracing the river from Yamunotri to Allahabad, the book delves into her cultural essence and the various meanings she symbolizes across time and space. The Yamuna comes out as a versatile fluid, a cultural mosaic and an emotional power that comprises infinite realities. The book describes the multiple ways in which communities have engaged with the river—religion and mythology, livelihood, recreation, and now, technology and economics.
It discusses the ideologies behind these different notions of the Yamuna and how these conceptions have come in conflict with each other and are now leading to contests over her terrains. The crisis of riverfront communities in Delhi is meticulously illustrated. Alongside, a debate on ecological democracy is unfurled with the lingering question of 'how does one engage with nature today?'
Shedding new light on controversies that envelop the river today, this book is a sharp critique of the way the Indian government and economy have dealt with this situation in particular and the larger case of the environment and communities in general. While rooted in current and tangible realities, the narrative transcends that element and engages in a form of philosophical rumination. A personalised narrative with many poetic musings, it is an academic discussion laid out in a lyrical format.
"This is India's first and most comprehensive survey presented in an attractive 2-volume set on t... more "This is India's first and most comprehensive survey presented in an attractive 2-volume set on the state of its water and its management. It is the 7th Report in our highly popular SOE Series. It would be of immense value to professionals and decision makers in the Central and State Governments besides academicians, researchers, NGOs and all major Libraries.
In these two volumes you will get to know the water-waste profiles of 71 Indian cities. Within their pages lie the model for a sustainable and affordable growth."
Ecology, Economy and Society–the INSEE Journal, 2021
Review of: Dolly Kikon. 2019. Living with Oil and Coal: Resource Politics and Militarization in N... more Review of: Dolly Kikon. 2019. Living with Oil and Coal: Resource Politics and Militarization in Northeast India (Culture, Place, and Nature). Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Himal SouthAsian, Apr 8, 2013
Girja Kumar's book on the Indus and the cultures tied to it obscures a tremendous wealth of inter... more Girja Kumar's book on the Indus and the cultures tied to it obscures a tremendous wealth of interconnected histories and beliefs.
Dams, Rivers and People, Nov 2009
There is a wide-ranging coverage of issues related to water and law. However, neither is it a boo... more There is a wide-ranging coverage of issues related to water and law. However, neither is it a book about water laws, nor about all water issues. It lies in between, where water and legality converge – a book dealing with legal questions over water related issues.
Himal SouthAsian, Jan 2009
To study a river, one needs to think like a river – meandering, playful and capable of diversity ... more To study a river, one needs to think like a river – meandering, playful and capable of diversity in form. However, the bureaucrats and engineers who are assigned the task of dealing with Southasia’s watercourses seem to work best with numbers and structures. They are used to thinking in straight lines. When they encounter a river, they are able neither to understand nor to speak the river’s language. Finding it hard to adjust their way of thinking, they prefer to mould rivers into straight lines, like their minds – linear, blinkered and uniform. Trapped! Between the Devil and Deep Waters, chronicling the Kosi River of Nepal and Bihar, authored by an engineer, has been launched at a time when the linear thinking behind the mega-projects of river management lies fully exposed, in the wake of the Kosi embankment breach of August 2008.
The India-China Institute at The New School is hosting a series of online seminars from February ... more The India-China Institute at The New School is hosting a series of online seminars from February 27-March 10, 2023, titled "Flows, Infrastructure and Citizenship in India and China." The seminars are being organized by Dr. Sarandha Jain, the 2022-3 post-doctoral fellow at ICI. The four dialogues explore how flows, infrastructures, and citizenship encounter each other, and what their co-arrangements mean for the evolving nature of the state. How do flows of people, objects, and natural substances facilitate and/or obstruct the constructions of infrastructure, and vice versa? How do these flows relate similarly to constructions of citizenship? The dialogues position a scholar of India in conversation with a scholar of China to discuss common themes in their work. The opening dialogue lays the groundwork for the series’ broader intellectual aims by connecting the three conceptual and empirical frameworks. The three subsequent dialogues, while still focusing on the triadic relationship between the frameworks, emphasize each of the elements by engaging scholars of India and China who specialize in flows (for the 2nd dialogue), infrastructure (for the 3rd), and citizenship (for the 4th).