“Mitti se Sona [Gold from Dirt]?”: Solar India and colonial modernity in Agropastoral Rajasthan

Abstract

Reflecting the prioritization of techno “fixes” over the socio-political dimension leading to anthropogenic climate change, there is a global surge of interest and investments in lower-carbon energy projects. India seeks to project itself as an energy transitions frontrunner, touting the world’s fourth-largest installed capacity of lower-carbon energy. Central to India’s aspirations is a 500 GW target of installed non-fossil energy capacity by 2030, accounting for half its electricity generation. This ambitious goal contrasts starkly with negligible solar capacity at the 2010 launch of the National Solar Mission, underscoring the monumental shift powered by solar photovoltaics. Alongside the impressive strides of Solar India, in part deployed for ostensible sustainability transitions efforts, the imaginaries and praxes of energy futures have caused socio-ecological harms in the present, particularly concerning land access and resource control in fragile desert geographies. Drawing from rich traditions of political ecology, energy geographies, and agrarian studies, our research unravels nuanced facets of India’s energy transition, focusing on Rajasthan state as a pivotal case study based on ethnographic fieldwork. We argue that while the bleak implications of Solar India for rural agropastoral communities are not inherent to energy transitions as such, they are deeply entrenched within its current regime and manifest through colonial modernity, an imposed project of assimilating indigenous and agropastoral peoples towards industrial lifeways.