Events

Over the course of the 20th century, a large hydroelectric grid took shape in the rain-drenched mountains that cut across Western India. Storing seasonal rainfall in sprawling dams, it transformed the contours of the region in an attempt to supply the industrial metropolis of Mumbai with smokeless energy. In 1967, the largest dam in this grid caused a massive earthquake, prompting international inquiry, and proving decisive for the development of a scientific consensus around seismicity triggered by reservoirs. By reconstructing the processes through which this dam-system was assembled, this talk will explore how an understanding of freedom that began to develop in 19th century Indian nationalist thought mediated the existence of this grid, and will argue that the material processes through which the dams were actualized challenge the very ideas that brought them into being. In doing so, this talk will seek to bring a constellation of concepts and practices that is imbricated in the bursting forth of the Anthropocene into sharper relief.