Event in Mumbai, India, addressing how might we examine notions of power and ethics in order to address the current ecological crisis.

Keynote lectures, August 23-25, 2018

Taking place in Mumbai, India, the State of Nature in India conference aimed to better understand the complexities faced by the region in addressing the current ecological crisis, and offer a critique of the widely discussed Anthropocene concept. It sought to dissolve boundaries between multiple practices by creating open and cross disciplinary conversation, cutting across traditional disciplinary categories of knowledge making and bringing together artists, cultural practitioners, natural and social scientists, policy people, activists and thinkers.

The concept of the Anthropocene points us towards the interdependence of economics, politics, the environment, and human agency—thus, a reflection on the State of Nature also implies a reflection on the state of discourse, power, violence, and lastly capital. At this interdisciplinary conference, scholars gathered to analyze and disentangle these complexities through a focus on the regional specificities of India. In doing so, the aim was to trouble the boundaries between multiple practices and open up a discussion across traditional disciplinary categories of knowledge production.

The conference was divided into three broad parts to enable the sharing of diverse ideas by very different practices and includes keynote lectures and moderated panels, along with discussions with the audience. Such a conversation is proposed as a possible way of creating new trajectories through which the ecological crisis can be challenged.

The keynotes below offer thematic and theoretical entry points into the leading questions, discourses, and topics of the State of Nature in India. For documentation of the entire conference, please see here. 

State of Nature in India is conceptualized by Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai in collaboration with Ravi Agarwal.