ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the different concepts of materiality in natural and social sciences, and their impact on the way in which materiality and the destruction of nature has been marginal to capitalist industrialisation including the industrialisation of agriculture and the expansion of commodity production under capitalism. The political history of relations between technology, production and energy is examined, particularly between energy and electricity in South Asia, notably India, and their roles in the trio of environmental, climate and energy crises facing the region. The chapter explores three main elements of India's GDP and alternative approaches to technology for them. Altvater contrast, does not believe capitalism can survive. For instance, India is developing an energy-intensive infrastructure whose working life stretches some 40 to 50 years into the future. The chapter concludes by asking whether capitalism, in particular India's capitalism, is equal to the task ahead.
