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Water in British India: The Making of a ‘Colonial Hydrology’
Author(s) -
D’Souza Rohan
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
history compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.121
H-Index - 1
ISSN - 1478-0542
DOI - 10.1111/j.1478-0542.2006.00336.x
Subject(s) - colonialism , psychological intervention , subject (documents) , colonial rule , history , sociology , psychology , archaeology , computer science , library science , psychiatry
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.