How do blood and water flow together? Hydropower dams perpetuating fear and violence in northeast India

Given the state’s persistent fetish for infrastructure, several hydropower dams have had detrimental effects on the human-environment system in northeast India. Yet such violence is consistently overlooked; the state aims only to shape the discourse of growth and national security. In this article, we present conceptual and empirical insights into infrastructural violence , drawing on hydropower projects at different stages of construction in the Brahmaputra River Basin. We conceptualise infrastructural violence comprising four key fragments—physical, psychological, cultural, and ecological. Employing a qualitative research methodology and inspiration from feminist political ecology, in-depth interviews were conducted with activists, environmental lawyers, journalists, and local communities residing in the areas surrounding the Lower Subansiri, Dibang, and Siang hydropower dam projects. We found that perpetuated fear is central to the psychological fragment of infrastructural violence, driven by concerns about displacement, dam failure, and the brutality of state agencies against resistance. These fears influence the minds of protesters and residents before, during, and even after the projects’ completion. This critical research advocates for a renewal of infrastructural justice in northeast India, which has been dismantled in the name of ‘nation-building’ through water infrastructures.