Available to Be Poisoned: Toxicity as a Form of Life
In Available to Be Poisoned, I contend that the saturation of the planet with toxic chemicals is not the “inevitable” price of progress but marks a deliberate and violent relationship with the Earth and its “others,” born of colonialism and capitalism’s entwined histories. I offer a new theoretical concept of “toxicity as a form of life” to signpost the ways in which chronic exposure to toxicity is normalised for some. Drawing on three case studies from India, I analyse the ways in which Nation-States weaponize toxicity to control populations existing on the fringes of our global political economy to make them “available for poisoning.”
Table of Contents
Chapter 1. Living in the Toxcene: Unnatural Histories of Our Toxic Present
Chapter 2. Peddlers of Poisons: Chemical Colonialism and Precarious Livelihoods
Chapter 3. Manufacturing Disaster: Bhopal as a Regime of Truth
Chapter 4. Creating Ecological Death-Worlds: Pandemic Politics and Repeating the Toxic PastConclusion: India’s Precarious Present
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Reviews
“Available to Be Poisoned is an extraordinary book about how toxicity is an ordinary fact of life for people everywhere in the world today due to the pervaisive distribution of toxic chemicals into our food, water, and air. It shows that the so-called ‘Green Revolution’ was anything but and has in fact seeded a long-term health catastrophe for India that the government seems unwilling to confront. It is an important book about a neglected topic.”
– Ian Buchanan, Professor of Critical Theory and Cultural Studies, University of Wollongong Australia
“Today, India is one of the most pollluted countries in the world and the contamination of air, water, and bodies is only getting worse. In this outstanding and thoroughly researched work by Mathur, we encounter toxicity as a form of life in India. Mathur shows that contamination is not simply an inevitable cost of societal development but that toxic politics is now a prerequisite for maintaining inequality. This is a must-read for critical scholars of environmental justice and environmental humanities in the new, exciting series on posthumanities and citizenship futures.”
– Cecilia Åsberg, Professor and Chair of Gender, Nature, and Culture, Linköping University, Sweden
“Available to Be Poisoned is an insightful appreciation of the way toxicity is produced and distributed through the Indian polity across generations. Mathur grounds her analysis in events and processes that have fundamentally shaped twenty-first century India, from the Green Revolution to the chemical disaster in Bhopal to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. This outstanding and original book is a reminder of how ecological devastation is intimately tied to enduring historical, economic, and political prejudices, which ahve normalized toxicity as a form of life for disadvantaged populations in the Global South.”
– Assa Doron, Professor of Anthropology & South Asia, School of Culture, History & Language, Australian National University
Book Launch Event
“IASH proudly presents the launch of a bold new book from Dr Dipali Mathur, Available to be Poisoned: Toxicity as a Form of Life (Lexington Books 2022).”
You can watch the recording of the Book Launch Event here.