Asia
Water in British India: The Making of a ‘Colonial Hydrology’
By , Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (June 2006)
Sections: Asia
Subjects: Imperial, Colonial, and Postcolonial History, History, Colonial History.
Places: Asia, Southern Asia.
Period: 1000 - 1999.
Key Topics: agriculture, farming, imperialism.
Abstract
The environmental history of India has moved on and considerably broadened since the first studies of Indian forestry were published. This essay surveys studies on water in British India, which it has clustered into three themes. While providing a rough description of some of the most important debates and discussions on the issue of colonial rule and its hydraulic interventions, the essay argues that interest on the subject must now attempt to pursue grand questions as well. Towards to this end, it is argued that much insight and theoretical traction may be gained from pursuing the conceptual notion of a ‘colonial hydrology’: the attempt to characterise the British experience as comprising an altogether distinct paradigm for hydraulic interventions.
DOI: 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2006.00336.x
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