Reclaiming Indigenous Rights: Decolonial Pathways to Climate Adaptation in Bangladesh - Hardcover

Datta, Ranjan; Murmu, Khokon Suiten; Chapola, Jebunnessa

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1969318902 ISBN 13: 9781969318900

Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks, 2026

Synopsis

Reclaiming Indigenous Rights: Decolonial Pathways to Climate Adaptation rethinks climate adaptation by centering Indigenous knowledge systems, land-based relationships, and decolonial methodologies. Moving beyond technocratic and policy-driven approaches, it frames the climate crisis as a historically rooted process shaped by land dispossession, structural inequality, and epistemic marginalization. Drawing on long-term, community-engaged research with Garo, Marma, Rakhine, Khyeng, Munda, and Santal Indigenous communities in Bangladesh, the book explores how climate change is experienced through interconnected disruptions to land, food systems, health, culture, and knowledge transmission. Rather than portraying Indigenous peoples as passive victims, it positions them as knowledge holders and leaders in climate adaptation. Through storytelling, land-based inquiry, and intergenerational engagement, the book highlights community-led responses grounded in relational understandings of environment and wellbeing. Combining political ecology, decolonial theory, and Indigenous land-based epistemologies, the book challenges dominant Western scientific paradigms and argues that meaningful climate adaptation must include the reclamation of Indigenous rights, including land rights, knowledge sovereignty, cultural continuity, and self-determination. Bridging empirical research and theoretical innovation, it contributes to debates on climate justice, Indigenous sovereignty, and decolonizing research methodologies.

About this title

About the Authors

Ranjan Datta is Canada Research Chair in Community Disaster Research at Mount Royal University in Alberta, Canada. His community-based research spans Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities in Canada, Ghana, Bangladesh, and Nepal, focusing on disaster research, resilience, environmental resource management, Indigenous sustainability, and community-led governance. He has received more than thirty-nine grants totaling over $15 million and has published more than eighty peer-reviewed articles and several books. His awards include the 2023 Sustainability Champion Award and the Excellence in Cultural Resource Management Award.

Khokon Suiten Murmu is a Santal Indigenous rights advocate from Bangladesh, a National Committee member of the Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum, and a project coordinator at the Kapaeeng Foundation. His work focuses on Indigenous land rights, environmental justice, community advocacy, Indigenous knowledge systems, environmental governance, and GIS-based mapping. He holds a postgraduate degree in environmental management and sustainability from Flinders University.

Jebunnessa Chapola is a racialized settler scholar whose work is grounded in anti-racist, decolonial, and community-engaged research. Drawing on her experiences as an immigrant and practitioner, she examines how colonialism, patriarchy, and racial inequality shape climate vulnerability, particularly for Indigenous and marginalized women. Her work supports Indigenous sovereignty, women-led movements, and community-led, land-based climate adaptation.

Edition details

• Publisher: Common Ground Research Networks
• Publication date: 2026
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1969318902
• ISBN 13: 9781969318900
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 224