Embodied political ecology: Sensing agrarian change in north India

Abstract

In this article, I consider what an attention to embodied experience can add to our understandings of the Green Revolution and other currents of agrarian change in north India. I present and analyze organic farmers’ narratives of agrarian change in Uttarakhand, demonstrating how these accounts foreground issues of embodiment including health, disease, bodily strength, sensory perception, and memory. Developing these narratives toward a political ecology of the body, I consider how these embodied perceptions shape farmers’ accounts and valuations of agrarian change, inform farmers’ decision making, and potentially motivate them to become involved in forms of collective action. In closing, I reflect on how a focus on farmers’ embodied perceptions might complicate histories of the Green Revolution and inform on the ground efforts to support transitions to more sustainable forms of agriculture in north India.