'Geological Surprises' and the Politics of Risk in the Himalayan Borderlands

<strong>CENTRE FOR THE STUDY OF NORTH EAST INDIA SCHOOL OF SOCIAL SCIENCES</strong> (CSNEI SEMINAR SERIES 2016) <strong>'Geological Surprises' and the Politics of Risk in the Himalayan Borderlands</strong> <strong>Mabel Denzin Gergan</strong> Postdoctoral Research Associate University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill CHAIR BY <strong>Dr. Rakhee Bhattacharjii</strong> Associate Prof. CSNEI, JNU <strong>Abstract:</strong>&nbsp;The increased frequency of earthquakes and landslides especially near dam construction sites have raised serious doubts about the economic and spiritual viability of hydropower development in the Eastern Himalayan state of Sikkiim. As project developers soon discover, these projects don't flow uninterrupted into inert, empty spaces (Tsing 2005) instead, they encounter 'geological surprises' (Indian Power Ministry 2008: 27), which delay projects or worse, result in the loss of human life. Drawing on 14 months of fieldwork in Sikkim and interviews with indigenous groups and state technocrats, I examine how ecological precarity is actively deployed by both groups, to critique hegemonic state development practices. In this my research demonstrates how geophysical and spiritual uncertainty coupled with controversial development projects is reorienting the relationship between the Indian State and its Himalayan margins. Date:&nbsp;<strong>14 October, Friday, 2016</strong> &nbsp;