Imposing Worlds: Ontological Marginalization and Reclamation through Irrigation Infrastructure in Rajapur, Nepal

Abstract

In this article, I examine the Rajapur Irrigation Project (RIP), a large-scale infrastructure project to “modernize” a farmer-managed irrigation system in Nepal, as a political encounter between two ontologies or what Blaser called “ways of worlding”: Tharu farmers’ fluid practices of living with the Karnali River and engineers’ methods of structurally training waterways. In tracing how the logic and world-making practices of the RIP overwrote the place-based ontologies of local farmers through the concrete structures it enacted and left behind, I introduce ontological marginalization as a political process that can occur when one situated understanding of what the world is and how it should be (re)made is imposed on another through structural interventions. I demonstrate infrastructure’s power to enforce certain ontologies while marginalizing others, and I also explore how people reassert agency and world-making practices through acts of ontological reclamation in the aftermath of interventions. Ultimately, this article contributes to emergent discussions on infrastructure and its ontological impacts within geography by developing the dual concepts of ontological marginalization and reclamation as ways for scholars to better account for the political implications of infrastructure on diverse ways of worlding.

在这篇文章中, 我探讨了拉贾普尔灌溉项目（RIP）。RIP是一个大型基础设施项目, 旨在对尼泊尔农民运营的灌溉系统进行“现代化”。该灌溉系统是两种本体论（或布拉瑟所说的“世界化方法”）之间的政治碰撞：塔鲁农民与卡纳利河共存的流动实践、工程师的结构性航道训练方法。在追溯RIP逻辑和创造世界实践如何通过其制造和遗留的混凝土结构改写农民地方本体论的过程中, 我将本体论边缘化视为一种政治过程。世界是什么、世界应该如何（重新）创造？对这些问题的不同理解发生结构化冲突时, 就出现了这种政治过程。我展示了基础设施在实施某些本体论同时边缘化其它本体论的能力；探讨了人们在发生冲突后, 如何通过本体论改造行为, 重新确立影响力和创造世界的行为。最终, 本文推动了本体论边缘化和改造的双重概念, 旨在帮助学者更好地理解基础设施对不同世界化方法的政治影响, 有助于地理学关于基础设施及其影响本体论的迫切讨论。

En este artículo examino el Proyecto de Riego de Rajapur (RIP), un plan infraestructural a gran escala para “modernizar” un sistema de irrigación manejado por los agricultores en Nepal, a manera de encuentro político entre dos ontologías, o lo que Blaser denominó “formas de construir mundo”: Las prácticas fluidas de los agricultores tharu de convivir con el Río Karnali y los métodos de los ingenieros para adecuar estructuralmente las vías fluviales. Al rastrear el modo como la lógica y las prácticas de construir mundo del RIP sobrescribieron las ontologías de base lugareña de los agricultores locales con las estructuras de concreto que el Proyecto dejó, introduzco la noción de marginación ontológica como un proceso político susceptible de ocurrir, cuando un entendimiento situado de lo que es el mundo y cómo éste debería (re)construirse, se impone sobre otro por medio de intervenciones estructurales. Demuestro el poder de las infraestructuras para imponer ciertas ontologías al tiempo que se marginan otras, y exploro también el modo como la gente reafirma su agencia y sus prácticas de construir mundo por medio de actos de reclamación ontológica con posterioridad a las intervenciones. En definitiva, este artículo contribuye a las discusiones emergentes sobre la infraestructura y sus impactos ontológicos dentro de la geografía, desarrollando los conceptos duales de marginación y reclamación ontológicas a título de maneras como los estudiosos puedan dar mejor cuenta de las implicaciones políticas de la infraestructura en las diversas formas de construir mundo.

Key Words:

• infrastructure
• irrigation
• Nepal
• ontological negotiations
• political ontology

关键词:

• 基础设施
• 灌溉
• 尼泊尔
• 本体论协商
• 政治本体论。

Palabras clave:

• infraestructura
• negociaciones ontológicas
• Nepal
• ontología política
• riego

Acknowledgments

I am deeply grateful for the constructive comments that I received on earlier drafts of this article from editor Katie Meehan, the three anonymous reviewers, as well as Emily Yeh, Mara Goldman, Paul Lander, Eben Yonnetti, and other colleagues at the University of Colorado Boulder. I am especially indebted to Sanjeev Chaudhary and Ravindra Gyawali, who provided invaluable interpretive and logistical support during my fieldwork, and to the people of Rajapur, Nepal, who shared their time and experiences with me.

Notes

1 Oral histories were collected from descendants of Tharu families that originally settled Rajapur and members of the Sonaha community that previously occupied the island.

2 Scholars have documented other South Asia communities who live intimately with rivers, consider floodwaters essential to their livelihoods, and even use flexible irrigation structures similar those in Rajapur (Osti 2005; Cortesi 2018; D’Souza 2020).

3 Malaria eradication programs in the 1950s, for example, opened the Tarai to large-scale migration from Nepal’s hills, and land grants made to high caste elites and military personnel rapidly dispossessed Tharus of land and political power even as they maintained an ethnic majority (Guneratne 2002).

4 Chaudharys continue to organize delegations to Kathmandu requesting that DOI address sedimentation on the Budhi Kulo. In June 2018, when I last visited Rajapur, consultants with ADB had recently met with farmers to discuss the feasibility of a second intervention, projected to cost US$33.8 million.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship (Grant No. DGE 1144083) while the author was affiliated with the University of Colorado Boulder.

Notes on contributors

Sierra Gladfelter

SIERRA GLADFELTER is a human geographer, climate adaptation practitioner, and project manager at the Institute for Engagement & Negotiation at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA 22904. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include the uneven impacts of climate change and infrastructure interventions on communities.