Law, Colonial-Capitalist Floods, and the Production of Injustices in Eastern India

Insights for Climate Adaptation

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4609934
AutoresBirsha Ohdedar (0000-0002-7040-0697, SOAS University of London, autor correspondente)
Ano2024
Volume13
Fascículo2
Páginas264-285
Data de publicação2024-07-01
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoTransnational Environmental Law (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 2047-1025 • E-ISSN: 2047-1033
EditoraCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s2047102524000074
OpenAlexW4396698049
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas14

Floods are not merely 'natural' disasters; rather, they emerge as socio-natural phenomena shaped by political, social, and economic processes. Law plays a pivotal role in producing and sustaining these processes and contributes to the creation of unjust environments. Drawing on political ecology and environmental history, this article analyzes the role of law and its interactions with colonialism and capitalism in the Damodar river valley in Eastern India. The Damodar river valley is an intensely engineered and hazardous region, a site of multiple interventions and developmental and ecological experiments for over a century. Colonial and post-colonial legacies have left a lasting imprint on legal, policy, and institutional frameworks, establishing a path-dependent trajectory for addressing future climate change adaptation challenges. While focusing on a specific case study, the article's approach and findings have broader significance, especially in the context of climate adaptation. The central argument underscores the need to understand the political and legal dimensions of flooding, and reinforces the need for a shift beyond incremental adjustments that do not tackle the underlying structures that produce the injustices associated with floods. It highlights the importance of 'transformative adaptation' approaches that address the root causes of climate-related disasters, such as restructuring power relations between actors, reconfiguring governance structures, and scrutinizing ideologies that mediate how water is used and distributed

Colonialism · Development economics · Economics · Environmental ethics · Political economy · Political science · Sociology · Agricultural risk and resilience · Hydropower, Displacement, Environmental Impact · Law · Philosophy · Psychology · Water Governance and Infrastructure