Description:
The nineteenth-century discovery of oil in the eastern Himalayan foothills, together with the establishment of tea plantations and other extractive industries, continues to have a profound impact on life in the region. In the Indian states of Assam and Nagaland, everyday militarization, violence, and the scramble for natural resources regulate the lives of Naga, Ahom, and Adivasi people, as well as migrants from elsewhere in the region, as they struggle to find peace and work.
Anthropologist Dolly Kikon uses in-depth ethnographic accounts to address the complexity of Northeast India, a region between Southeast Asia and China where boundaries and borders are made, disputed, and maintained. Bringing a fresh and exciting direction to borderland studies, she explores the social bonds established through practices of resource extraction and the tensions these relations generate, focusing on peoples' love for the landscape and for the state, as well as for family, friends, and neighbors. Living with Oil and Coal illuminates questions of citizenship, social justice, and environmental politics that are shared by communities worldwide.
Brief description: Dolly Kikon is lecturer in anthropology and development studies at the University of Melbourne. She received her PhD in anthropology from Stanford University in 2013. She is the author of Life and Dignity: Women's Testimonies of Sexual Violence in Dimapur (Nagaland) (North Eastern Social Research Centre, 2015) and Experiences of Naga Women in Armed Conflict Situation: Narratives from a Militarized Society (WISCOMP [Women in Security, Conflict Management, and Peace], 2004).
Review Quotes:
"Kikon has crafted the book skilfully with her narrative writing style...This book is an essential reading for those who want to understand the complex state-society dynamics in Northeast India."
-- "Cultural Geographies"