Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 2023
This article explores the thought of philosopher, historian, and activist Sharad Patil, pa... more This article explores the thought of philosopher, historian, and activist Sharad Patil, particularly the way he constructs theoretical arguments by drawing on, expanding, and critiquing the insights of his predecessors in radical anti-caste thought, Jotirao Phule and B. R. Ambedkar. Patil advances a particular reading of Phule-Ambedkarism to sharpen his critique of orthodox Marxism and develop a philosophy that could undergird revolutionary egalitarian change in India. The article focuses on two key theoretical insights elaborated by Patil and his reading of Phule-Ambedkarism: one historical, centering on the methodological and ideological importance of rewriting longue durée history; the other political-economic, centering on the way that circuits of exploitation and rule get reproduced. The article attempts to read Patil according to his own methodological and analytic criteria. Patil had little interest in purity of theory or in defending the boundaries of the one true Marxism or Phule-Ambedkarism. Even while critiquing Phule and Ambedkar, Patil insistently asked (as this article too asks): what did their philosophies of history, of knowledge, and of political economy enable them to understand about the past, present, and future of egalitarian struggle in India and beyond?
Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2022
Responding to recent calls to rethink space, nature, and social difference outside of North Ameri... more Responding to recent calls to rethink space, nature, and social difference outside of North American frameworks, this article draws on the anti-caste tradition in India to explore critiques of hierarchical “natures.” It focuses on the thought of the towering anti-caste leader Dr. B. R. Ambedkar (1891–1956), who put forward an egalitarian critique of Brahmanical (upper caste) philosophy’s emphasis on permanence and spatiotemporal fixity. The article situates Ambedkar’s critique in the doubly colonial—British and Brahman—context in which he formulated his thought, and emphasizes Ambedkar’s attempts to effect an epistemic break from Brahmanical conceptions of the world, including caste-based conceptions of space and nature. This critique, which is part of a broader tradition of anti-caste thought in western India, has received scant attention in international scholarship on nature and hierarchy. This tradition, the article argues, contains the seeds of an ecologically attuned anti-caste critique and can open new avenues for strengthening anti-caste/anti-racist solidarities. It particularly resonates with the works of Sylvia Wynter and those who have built on her insights about the struggle to define the human, and by extension, the nonhuman. This points toward egalitarian visions of ecology that break away from the fixity (or, more strongly, captivity) that characterizes hierarchical conceptions of nature.
Environment and Planning D: Society and Space, 2022
(Co-authored with Asher Ghertner) This article discusses the ways that Lefebvrian thinking on urb... more (Co-authored with Asher Ghertner) This article discusses the ways that Lefebvrian thinking on urbanization has found a purchase in Indian urban and anti-caste scholarship, and conversely, how compelling new figures of the urban have emerged from Indian scholarship that productively enliven Lefebvrian categories, refusing any separation between the experimentalism of everyday life and the political economy of space. The article explores a sense of "itinerant urbanization" at two levels: at an empirical level, it describes the urban as a tentative condition of becoming that is always on the move and intermixed with its non-urban other. At a more theoretical level, itinerant urbanization is an acknowledgment of the tremendous generativity of Indian scholarship's own itineracy, which produces a transversal relation with not only metropolitan urban theory, but also agrarian Marxism and rich scholarship on embedded geographies of caste. The article suggests that theorizations of the Indian urban-some expressly drawing on Lefebvre, but many not-offer spatial figures that work with but extend Lefebvrian dynamics of concentration and extension. It specifically draws from anti-caste thought to discuss circles, fractals and segmented planes as ways to capture emergent productions of space that avoid center/periphery binaries and to add explicitly postcolonial and anti-caste political commitments to urbanization debates.
This article analyzes the town of Mahad in the state of Maharashtra, using it as a lens to examin... more This article analyzes the town of Mahad in the state of Maharashtra, using it as a lens to examine protests and commemorations that are inseparable from Ambedkarite and Neo-Buddhist transformations of space. A key site of anti-caste struggle, Mahad witnessed two major protests led by Dr. B.R. Ambedkar in 1927: the claiming of water from Chavdar Tale, a tank located in a upper caste neighbourhood; and the burning of the Manusmriti. These events are commemorated every year with large-scale festivities. The article analyzes the ways that these protests and festivities have worked to produce a distinctly Ambedkarite space, one that is radically counterposed to hierarchical, Brahminical productions of space. Exploring the writings of Ambedkar and more recent Ambedkarite scholars, and putting these texts into dialogue with the spatial theories of Henri Lefebvre, the article contributes to a growing international literature on the spatiality of caste. The Navayana Buddhism pioneered by Ambedkar has been analyzed in terms of its ideology, its pragmatism, and its politics, but rarely in terms of its spatiality. Drawing on Lefebvre helps flesh out this spatial analysis while a serious engagement with neo-Buddhist practices helps to expand, critique and globalize some of Lefebvre's key claims.
Evaluative terms are a crucial part of the environmental discourse. These terms, and the evaluati... more Evaluative terms are a crucial part of the environmental discourse. These terms, and the evaluative frameworks in which they are imbedded, serve as important guides to action. “Natural,” a term commonly used as a positive evaluation, is problematic because it can both justify unfair social relations and obscure the connections between humans and the rest of nature. “Sustainable,” another popular term, is extremely malleable, and is too often elaborated in frameworks that are neither socially nor ecologically responsible. The term “sustainable” is sometimes used in the framework of ecosystem health, but even this approach can fail to highlight the interconnectedness of social and ecological systems. The framework of ecosocial flourishing, introduced in this article, is better suited for highlighting the interconnected nature of the world and for drawing attention to questions of environmental justice. Evaluative terms (like “natural”) and frameworks (like “ecosocial flourishing”) are part of larger narratives that help people make sense of their interactions with, and emotional responses to, the non-human world.
Developing a renewed love for nature is e some argue e a crucial component of addressing the envi... more Developing a renewed love for nature is e some argue e a crucial component of addressing the environmental crisis. However, the connection between emotional bonds to nature and effective environmental action is not always straightforward, especially given vastly different notions of “love” and “nature” in different cultures. This article evaluates different models of “loving nature” in terms of their relationship to action and the inclusivity of their scope. In Norway, several philosopher-mountaineers advocate loving nature through friluftsliv, or outdoor exploration; while this approach has promoted change in a wealthy, sparsely populated country, its wider applicability and its approach to gender is questioned. In India, the Chipko movement, which aimed to save trees by hugging them, seems to provide a more inclusive form of loving nature. On closer examination, though, some Chipko advocates rely heavily on a vision of nature that is highly feminized and divorced from social realities. Alternatives to friluftsliv and Chipko are then examined, including Sigmund Kvaløy’s political ecophilosophy and varkari movements in India. Those movements that have a more practical, less idealized, view of nature-love are more likely to effect lasting, positive ecosocial change.
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Papers by Thomas Crowley
have built on her insights about the struggle to define the human, and by extension, the nonhuman. This points toward egalitarian visions of ecology that break away from the fixity (or, more strongly, captivity) that characterizes hierarchical conceptions of nature.