Surya-shakti-sharir: Embodying India’s solar energy transition

Abstract

ABSTRACT Aspiring to India’s COP26 pledge of attaining 500 gigawatts of non-fossil energy capacity by 2030 will entail nothing short of a colossal transformation of rural spaces. Solar park development has already disrupted the lives and livelihoods of marginalized peasants through land dispossession, uneven provisioning of electricity and water resources, dislocation of fuelwood and grazing access, and the diminution of labor opportunities. However, it remains unclear how affected peasants internalize the burdens of decarbonization. The aim of the paper is to address the following questions: How are the geographies of solar energy transitions embodied? How do dispossessed peasants respond affectively? Drawing on feminist political ecology literature and fieldwork that included household surveys and semi-structured interviews, the author finds that the dispossessed embody a range of affective responses, including emotional geographies and embodied resistance, that enable or constrain the place-making of equitable alternative sites of solar energy generation. The author concludes that as India rapidly erects large-scale solar infrastructures—indisputably imperative efforts to confront the climate crisis—the embodiment of injustices suffered by the dispossessed will haunt low-carbon futures.