A Study in Pink: Gramscian reflections on Bt cotton, the pink bollworm and bio-hegemony in the Warangal District, India

Abstract

The use of genetically modified (GM) crops in agriculture is an ongoing scholarly and public debate, which has been dominated by a polarization between proponents and opponents: the pro- and the anti-GM sides. In 2002, Bt cotton was approved as the first GM crop in India and today more than 95% of the total cotton area in India is cultivated with Bt cotton, but recently Indian cotton fields have come under attack of the dreaded cotton pest: pink bollworm. Based on in-depth interviews, field visits, and textual sources, I employ in this thesis the concept of “bio-hegemony” in the context of Indian cotton production. In doing so, I enter into dialogue with an extensive field of academic literature on the use of Bt cotton in the Warangal District in the state of Telangana, India. The main research question raised in this endeavor is: How is the resurgence of pink bollworm attacks discursively managed within the Indian bio-hegemony? The genetic modification of Bt cotton consists of insertion of a gene from a soil bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) producing two types of Cry proteins, which are poisonous to certain insects, including bollworms. However, the pink bollworm has at least since 2015 started creating resistance towards the toxins and is now troubling cotton farmers all over India. In the light of this recent challenge to the country’s only GM crop, using a discursive approach while drawing on Gramscian insights, I discuss how the portrayal of the pink bollworm issue by key actors and the media discloses the discursive embeddedness of bio-hegemony in India. In addition, I discuss the impediments of the anti-GM discourse in challenging the hegemonic pro-GM discourse as a coherent counter-hegemony. Based on my empirical material, I conclude that the bio-hegemonic pillar of discursive power has been maintained despite the pink bollworm issue.