This image informs understandings of the politics of toxics. It implies the enlivening of different kinds of political actions, which work at different scales and aim towards different outcomes. It suggests that the chemical toxification of waterbodies vitalises political activity and conflict, which might be productive of change.
The image is rich with information and meaning. The caption could give more information about the place of the Ennore Creek - it's industrial history and its significance to the local people (such as the old woman), and about the interplay of different kinds of toxicity.
This image seems to have been created by the ethnographer. Its scale of attention and composition focuses on the old woman's body - in a strong stance of protest. The ethnographer thereby highlights the significance of the human body in political-administrative and industrial processes, or the imposition of such processes on the human body, and the attempt of the human to impose herself back onto these processes.
I would like to learn more about the toxicities of the local area and how the ethnographer conceptualises them. For example, I think this image and caption indicates two kinds of toxicity: the chemical shift in the waterbody caused by industrial effluents, and a toxic dynamic between industry/government/local residents, or even between late capitalism/local residents' sense of place.
The old woman's sign, her stance and her position at the banks of a river indicate the conflict over waterbodies in India. The conflict is between political-administrative representations and the lived experience of the land/water boundary. The focus on the old woman's role in the protest implies a resilience and emphasis on lived, long-term experience of place. The sentiment is one of anger directed towards hidden political-administrative bodies.