Who I am

Research Fellow

What I do

Cardamom picking

Anu Krishna

Universitätsstraße 150
Gebäude GA 4/53, Fachnr. 182
44780 Bochum
Germany

Email: Anu.Krishna@ruhr-uni-bochum.de

I am an anthropologist interested in the intersections of capitalism, ecology, and social inequalities, particularly in the Western Ghats of South India. Since October 2023, I have been a postdoctoral fellow in the MaMoGH project.

How I became interested in monocultures

My interest in monocultures grew from a combination of academic training, field research, and personal experience. Growing up in the Cardamom Hills in India, it was hard to miss how cardamom monoculture transformed the natural landscape and shaped everyday lives in the region. My training in social anthropology equipped me to translate this lived familiarity into an academic inquiry. Beyond the beguiling beauty of lush green cardamom plantations, I was drawn to the ways in which they are metaphors of colonial legacies, ecological damage, and spaces that reinforce caste-gender inequalities. In my current research, I delve into the ambivalences of monoculture systems, examining how they persist despite the challenges posed to planetary habitability and the futures of more-than-human worlds.

Cardamom plants sheltered under the canopy of shade trees.

When most people think of monocultures, they often picture vast fields of cereals, grains, oil crops, or beverage plants like tea and coffee. However, monoculture systems extend far beyond these familiar examples. My research contributes to the MaMoGH project by ethnographically examining the nature and complexities of the monoculture of spices. Currently, I am writing a book manuscript centred on cardamom monoculture, exploring the story of this aromatic spice and its entanglements with colonialism, ecological harm, and caste-based labour.

Cardamom plantation workers