Ranjani Srinivasan (Critical Conservation ’18) has been awarded a January Term Research Grant by the South Asia Institute to complete her field work and research at the Kolar Gold Fields (KGF) in India. Ranjani’s research using the analogies of Waste and Value traces the historic development of Kolar Gold Fields from the pre-colonial to the present day post-extractive economy. Its existence as a small industrial township, born out of colonialism and stratified caste labor, raises larger questions about the Indian developmentalist State, urbanization and social relations.
The proposed actions at the KFG ranging from seeking World Heritage status to the construction of a new town on the site become forms of forgetting, either by ignoring the social injustices of the industrial town planning or by covering them with a new community. Ranjani’s work brings well-documented knowledge from a perspective that has been omitted from the plans, establishes a counter-proposal and becomes a form of agency for the disempowered workers who have a role and history on the site but no voice. Her work is a bold step in questioning the normative conservation practices in India which are derivative from British colonization and supportive of the Anglo-British elite that keep the colonial hegemony alive at the expense of a voice of independent India.