BMU Memorial Lecture: Amitav Ghosh calls for rethinking resilience amid planetary crisis

Ghosh observed that discussions around global disruption today encompass multiple, interconnected risks, including climate change, biodiversity loss, emerging technologies, pandemics and geopolitical instability.

BML Munjal University (BMU) recently hosted 2nd BML Munjal Memorial Lecture which was delivered by author Amitav Ghosh. In his address, Ghosh examined how ideas of apocalypse and societal collapse have evolved over time, noting a shift from religious interpretations during Cold War era to contemporary technological and scientific frameworks. 

“The difference, however, is that this time those who have taken lead in imagining and preparing for an apocalypse are not religious fundamentalists, but technological and scientific elites,” Ghosh said.

Drawing on historical examples as well as contemporary developments, Ghosh spoke about growing interest among sections of ultra wealthy in self sufficient retreats and fortified shelters designed to withstand large scale disruptions. He situated these trends within a broader historical context, linking them to long standing ideas about survival, progress and inequality.

A key focus of the lecture was vulnerability of modern, highly interconnected societies. Ghosh noted that breakdowns are more likely to occur through a series of cascading failures across systems such as infrastructure, ecology, supply chains and governance, rather than through a single dramatic event. “Collapse isn’t that everything collapses all at once. Systems collapse one by one,” he said.

Challenging assumption that wealth and advanced technology alone can ensure survival, Ghosh emphasised that communities with deep-rooted relationships to land, ecology and collective forms of living may be better equipped to endure periods of severe disruption. He highlighted agrarian, Indigenous, and subsistence-based societies as possessing long-standing knowledge and skills shaped by generations of living with environmental uncertainty.