Becoming the Monsoon Forest – Emergence in the Breakdown of Categories

Seetharama Bhat, H. 2021. Becoming the Monsoon Forest – Emergence in the Breakdown of Categories. GeoHumanities. 7 (1), pp. 6-23. https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566x.2021.1904786

TitleBecoming the Monsoon Forest – Emergence in the Breakdown of Categories
TypeJournal article
AuthorsSeetharama Bhat, H.
Abstract

How do we understand more-than-human vegetal emergence in/with/under monsoonal transformation. I often like to introduce the monsoon to people by telling them that it is the change in the direction of the wind that carries the ocean to the sky, blanketing the geological spatio-temporality of the Indian subcontinent, transforming its air and everything in its temporal wake with the possibility of life. This paper thinks through the invasive vilayati kikar which has overwhelmed native monsoon forests and arid ecologies. Drawing from fieldwork in the Delhi region conducted during monsoon 2018, 2019 and the winter of 2018, and by thinking with literature and reports from ecology, biology, politics, anthropology and natural science—I attempt a brief situated narrative that explores the vegetal emergence of the plant, its natureculture spirits and embodiment in/with the monsoon—finally, closing this work with an argument and discussion on the monsoon and its ontological stickiness.

KeywordsAnthropocene, emergence, forests, India, monsoon
JournalGeoHumanities
Journal citation7 (1), pp. 6-23
ISSN2373-566X
2373-5678
Year2021
PublisherTaylor & Francis
Accepted author manuscript
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Publisher's version
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1080/2373566x.2021.1904786
Web address (URL)http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/2373566x.2021.1904786
Publication dates
Published in print01 Jun 2021
Published online09 Jul 2021
Supplemental file
License
CC BY 4.0
File Access Level
Open (open metadata and files)
Project51808392
FunderH2020 European Research Council
Page range1-18

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