| As we witness our rapidly urbanizing world, for the first time in history people living in rural areas are projected be in the minority (Lee, 2007). The transformation of the developing world is occurring at a rapid pace where livelihoods of rural communities are increasingly exposed to vulnerability and subsequent poverty. Further, it is increasingly becoming clear that rural developmental interventions designed on the experiences of the fossil energy based industrial world have proved inadequate for improving the living conditions of rural people.;This dissertation offers an enquiry into the dynamics of "modern energy" 1 and rural development from a critical standpoint to demonstrate the complexities involved in the 'energetic' discourses. Such an effort entails analysis of perspectives that shaped the development agenda and of frameworks that were operationalized to deliver modern, urban-oriented developmental goals.;The analysis in the dissertation is focused broadly on four main premises. First, the ideological foundations of development built on capitalistic values are shared by the major development approaches that began after World War II. The development frameworks from the 1950s to 2000s have tried to expand from a narrow focus on economic growth to recent efforts to accommodate environmental and social factors and to account for broader development objectives. Second, across the development discourses it is commonly argued that the amount of modern energy consumption reflects the level of civilizational attainment. Informed by such a way of thinking, these development frameworks emphasized an increasing intake of modern energy in rural areas to ameliorate rural conditions that were seen as blocking modernization. Third, there are fundamental differences between ways development is understood from a biomass energy-based rural perspective and from a fossil energy-based industrial perspective, and there are distinct differences between the pattern of energy use as well as the portfolio of energy resources in rural and urban contexts. Fourth, to achieve greater success in development interventions in rural areas, the development inputs both at the discourse and at the instrumental levels should aspire to complement indigenous worldviews and practices rather than to substitute exogenous values, resources, and technologies.;The dissertation offers a brief historical background of transformation brought by modern energy-based development to a valley called Lahoul, which is part of the Lahoul-Spiti district of Himachal Pradesh, India situated in the western Himalayas. In doing so, the experience of the Lahoul Valley is examined in the light of changes in livelihoods caused by cash agriculture that depends heavily on fossil based energy and synthetic farm inputs. It elaborates on the historical account of how livelihoods that the people of the Lahoul Valley evolved within the valley with limited exposure to the world outside of the valley have been marginalized by processes of commodification and marketization. Social role-relationships and the economic system have been transformed in a matter of few decades, challenging the efficacy of "rurality" -- the institutions, values, relationships, and aspirations of the longest standing human way of life in the valley.;Finally, the dissertation offers suggestions emphasizing the importance of adopting a more 'complementary' approach in contrast to prevailing 'substitutional' approach to development initiatives including the choice of energy resources aimed towards evolving locally meaningful development to rural areas such as the Lahoul valley.;1Modern energy here refers to fossil-based energy. 'The modern energy' and fossil-based energy are used interchangeably. It does not include the energy from renewable energy sources such as sun, wind, water and biomass using modern technologies such as PV, micro-turbines, biomass digesters. |
