Feminist Temporalities of Agrarian‐Climate Crises: Synchronisation and the Afterlives of Speculation in India

This paper brings a feminist temporal perspective to understandings of agrarian‐climate crises in monsoon‐dependent regions of India, examining how time operates as a site of material struggle and social differentiation. Drawing on ethnographic research in Vidarbha, it explores how farmers synchronise diverse temporalities to navigate uncertainties, including unpredictable monsoons, crop and pest cycles, labour demands, market pressures and the cyclical dynamics of social reproduction. I trace how synchronicity operates as a relation of power manifested through frictions as productive and reproductive temporalities recalibrate to one another, generating uneven dynamics of vulnerability and speculation. I understand speculation as a temporal practice whereby farmers string together multiple temporalities to capitalise on uncertainties and expand its political economy into the realm of social reproduction. By tracing the unexpected temporal reach of risky livelihood decisions into the temporality of everyday life, the paper reveals the hidden temporal cost of speculation manifested in the dispossession of time for social reproduction.