Politics and Resistance of Coal in Australia and India

Since 2009, international climate activism has focused on stopping coalmining in solidarity with local and Indigenous struggles that are resisting coalmining. Based on ethnographic and historic research in Australia and India, this book compares the politics and resistance to coal in the two countries, particularly focusing on the time period between 2009 and 2018, and the case of the Carmichael coalmine in Queensland and the Mahan coalmine in central India. This book shows differences and similarities in the political economy of coal and creates understanding about the significantly different imperatives and narratives of anti-coal environmentalism, in Australia and India. Through the Stop Adani movement and its collaboration with the Wangan and Jagalingou Traditional Owners and farmers against coalmining in Queensland, and Greenpeace and forest-based communities resisting coalmining in Madhya Pradesh, Ruchira Talukdar not only explores anti-coal movement dynamics but also how these movements grapple with the violation of Indigenous land rights through coal extraction, in both places. Drawing on differences and patterns in Australian and Indian anti-coal activisms, this book proposes a global outlook - an intersectional framework beyond the singularity of 'stopping coal' that can encapsulate visions for secure futures of communities on the frontlines of fossil fuel struggles - for climate activism. The conclusions help to decolonize climate activism as well as make it cognizant of global North-South contextual differences for effective solidarity. The author's unique vantage point through experience in environmental activism over 20 years across Australia and India combined with research in both countries, makes this book a crucial resource for scholars and practitioners in just transition, climate politics and environmental activism across the global North and South.

Ruchira Talukdar has worked in environment movement in India and Australia, in Greenpeace, Australian Conservation Foundation and Friends of the Earth, for two decades. Her research and writing focusses on comparative aspects of climate justice between the global North and South, with specific reference to Australia and South Asia. Her PhD thesis compared the politics and resistance to coal in Australia and India. Ruchira co-founded Sapna South Asian Climate Solidarity, a climate justice project based out of Australia, for effective global North solidarity for just climate futures in the global South. She is based out of Melbourne and Calcutta.

Contents Chapter 1: Introduction - A comparative ethnography of anti-coal activism in Australia and India 1. Research case studies and questions 2. Research approach, methods, materials and structure 3. Book chapters and literatures Chapter 2: Environmentalism of the global North and South: historic divisions and potential for common ground 1. A critique of wilderness-centric Northern environmentalism 2. Australian environmentalism 3. Indian environmentalism 4. Environmentalism's divisions and common ground in the climate era Chapter 3: Environmentalism of the poor in neoliberal India 1. Constitutional democracy 2. How the postcolonial State shaped Indian environmentalism 3. How the neoliberal State shapes environmentalism of the poor 4. Environmentalism of the poor in neoliberal India Analysis: Environmentalism's journey from democratising development to dissent as democracy Chapter 4: Countering coal in India: politics of the Mahan coal mine Background: Greenpeace's activism in India 1. Political economy of coal in India 2. Politics and resistance of the Mahan coalmine (2010-2014) 3. State crackdown and fight back by Greenpeace (2014-2016) Analysis: Countering coal through asserting democratic rights Chapter 5: An anti-coal movement in India's energy capital Background: discontent and displacement in Singrauli 1. Use and abuse of the Forest Rights Act 2. Formation of the Mahan Sangharsh Samiti 3. State-corporate nexus in Mahan 4. An unusual alliance and its resistance 5. A celebration of people's forest rights Analysis: Significance of forest rights in India's energy capital Chapter 6: Environmentalism in the era of Australia's minerals boom 1. Contradictions and unevenness of the Australian State 2. Minerals boom and contradictions of the Australian State 3. Narratives, politics and alliances of environmentalism during the resource boom Analysis: Environmentalism's transformation to End(ing) Coal! Chapter 7: Countering coal in Australia: the politics of the Carmichael coalmine 1. Political economy of coal in Australia 2. Environmental politics of the Carmichael coalmine (2012-2018) 3. Land rights politics of the Carmichael coalmine (2010-2018) Analysis: Countering coalmining through various scales of contestations Chapter 8: Resistances from coal's new frontier in the Galilee Basin in Central Queensland Background: Settler colonialism in the in the Galilee Basin 1. Tactics of anti-coal environmentalism 2. Rural discontent over coal and Farmers for Climate Action 3. 'We meet at the crossroad': Wangan and Jagalingou's alliances Analysis: The significance of countering Adani from Central Queensland Chapter 9: A global outlook for anti-coal climate justice activism 1. Varieties of climate justice 2. Green relations with Indigenous and farmers' groups 3. Indigenous land rights and resistances compared 4. Coal politics and environmental campaigns in Australia and India 5. Discussion: Possibilities and challenges in building a North-South intersectional outlook for environmentalism 6. Contributions to Political Ecology and Environmental Justice Research Conclusion Index

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