LIVING RIVERS, COSMOPOLITAN ACTIVISM, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN THE BENGAL DELTA By Daniel Adel A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Humboldt State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Social Science: Environment and Community Committee Membership Dr. Mark Baker, Committee Chair Dr. John Meyer, Committee Member Dr. Anthony Silvaggio, Committee Member Dr. Mark Baker, Graduate Coordinator December 2020 ABSTRACT LIVING RIVERS, COSMOPOLITAN ACTIVISM, AND ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN THE BENGAL DELTA Daniel Adel This thesis explores the social movements and civil society activism to protect the rivers that flow through Bangladesh—the cradle and terminal delta floodplain of the transboundary Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna river systems—, as well as ways to build regional cooperation and watershed democracy in South Asia. The research drew on four overarching fields of study: environmental justice, southern environmentalism, ecological nationalism, and environmental governance. These four bodies of scholarship helped address the overarching question: how are civil society organizations analyzing and responding to the water diversions and degradation of Bangladesh’s transboundary rivers? Semi-structured interviews were conducted with civil society organizations and river activists who are mobilizing for river protection in Bangladesh. Constructivist grounded theory methodology was utilized to analyze interview data and relevant grey literature and visuals collected from the field. This research found that civil society is responding to the degradation of Bangladesh’s transboundary rivers through a near unanimous advocacy for a multilateral, basin-wide, integrated water resources management approach to river governance in South Asia. This includes an ecological approach to protect rivers from dams and diversionary infrastructure, restoring a river’s ii natural course through the abolishment of existing structures, and regarding rivers as the progenitor of various ecosystems and cultures. Bangladesh’s lowest riparian, deltaic setting, and relative political power in regional and global affairs is also prompting civil society groups in the country, across South Asia, globally, and in the diaspora to mobilize and build coalitions across and beyond established borders. This includes advancing water diplomacy and bioregional notions of river governance, with a goal of bringing South Asia’s common watersheds within a common water-sharing framework and actualizing true “watershed democracy.” iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Thanks to the Environment and Community (E&C) program for giving me the instruction and tools to carry out this research. I came into E&C as an activist and environmental practitioner, and the teaching emphases of its faculty have cultivated the ways in which I think about questions on nature, place, and society relationships. E&C faculty, particularly my committee members Dr. Mark Baker, Dr. John Meyer, and Dr. Anthony Silvaggio, are also credited for introducing me to many of the fields of study and methodological approaches grounding this master's thesis. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iv TABLE OF CONTENTS .................................................................................................... v LIST OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... viii GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE IN DIASPORIC ACTIVISM: INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 ENVIRONMENTALISMS AND SOUTH ASIAN RIVERS: A REVIEW OF LITERATURE .................................................................................................................... 6 Environmental Justice ..................................................................................................... 7 Southern Environmentalism .......................................................................................... 12 Ecological Nationalism ................................................................................................. 15 Environmental Governance ........................................................................................... 19 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 30 ENGAGEMENTS WITH CIVIL SOCIETY: METHODOLOGY AND METHODS .... 31 Journey to Bangladesh .................................................................................................. 31 Reflections from the Field ............................................................................................. 32 Semi-structured Interviews ........................................................................................... 35 v Participant Observation ................................................................................................. 38 Document and Image Analysis ..................................................................................... 42 Grounded Theory, Coding, and Memos ........................................................................ 42 ECOLOGICAL NATIONALISM, AND THE DOMINANT APPROACHES TO RIVERS ............................................................................................................................ 44 A Riverine Country, Sitting on the World’s Largest Delta ........................................... 44 Upstream Capriciousness, the Commercial Approach to Rivers .................................. 49 Water Scarcity Narratives and Supply-Side Solutions .................................................. 53 Dying Livelihoods and Ecologies ................................................................................. 58 Dams and Diversions, Cordons on the Bengal Delta .................................................... 63 Summary ....................................................................................................................... 64 DIMENSIONS OF CIVIL SOCIETY RIVER ACTIVISM: AN ANALYSIS ................ 66 Commercial Development from Above, Populist Resistance from Below ................... 66 An Ecological (Open) Approach to Rivers ................................................................... 71 Rights of Nature, Rivers as Living Entities .................................................................. 75 Living Rivers in Bangladesh ......................................................................................... 79 Contradictions and the Dominance of Bilateralism in Transboundary River Governance ....................................................................................................................................... 88 vi “Common Rivers,” Co-ripanhood, and Multilateralism in South Asia......................... 94 On the Frontlines of Environmental Justice ................................................................ 105 Riverine Culture, Heritage, and Nationhood ............................................................... 116 Masses and Experts, Expanding the Environmental Movement ................................. 127 Bangladeshi Environmentalisms ................................................................................. 141 Indispensability and Global Coalition-Building ......................................................... 153 TOWARDS BIOREGIONALISM AND WATERSHED DEMOCRACY: CONCLUSIONS............................................................................................................. 164 Relationships with Research Participants ................................................................... 168 Further Research ......................................................................................................... 170 Rationale...................................................................................................................... 172 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 174 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1: Halda River as a Living Entity seminar participants (River Ismail Gazi) ......... 39 Figure 2: National flag of Bangladesh during the Liberation War of 1971 (Wikimedia). (The current national flag omits the country’s outline due to the complications of mass rendering it.) ...................................................................................................................... 46 Figure 3: Polygon map of Bangladesh’s river delta ecosystem (Jamhoor) ...................... 47 Figure 4: Bengal Delta-inspired art depicting the flag and national colors of Bangladesh (Pinterest) .......................................................................................................................... 48 Figure 5: Combined Ganges-Brahmaputra-Meghna river system (Wikimedia) ............... 49 Figure 6: Location of the Farakka Barrage (SANDRP).................................................... 51 Figure 7: Farakka Barrage and its feeder channel (Foundation, Concrete, and Earthquake Engineering) ...................................................................................................................... 53 Figure 8: Components of the Indian River Linking Project ............................................