Drowned and Dammed

Colonial Capitalism and Flood Control in Eastern India
Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-0-19-946913-0
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 290 Seiten, Format (B × H): 137 mm x 213 mm, Gewicht: 249 g

Reihe: Oxford India Paperbacks

The water question in India has several contentious dimensions, be they inter-state river disputes, groundwater extraction by private corporations, farmer agitations for irrigation water, or urban anxieties over meeting water needs. Rohan D'Souza argues that the British project of flood control in the Orissa Delta was principally political in intent, aimed at anchoring their presence in the area. In Drowned and Dammed he comprehensively reconsiders the
debate on the colonial environmental watershed and its hydraulic legacy in India.

Colonial capitalism sought to dominate the Orissa Delta's many rivers by bringing about an unprecedented ecological rupture. Through the rubric of flood control, British rule instituted capitalist private property in land and re- shaped the region's hydrology with physical infrastructures such as embankments, canal networks, and dams. The Orissa delta was thus dramatically transformed from a flood-dependent agrarian regime into a flood-vulnerable landscape.

Autoren/Hrsg.

D'Souza, Rohan

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Regierungspolitik Wirtschafts- und Finanzpolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziologie Allgemein
• Wirtschaftswissenschaften Volkswirtschaftslehre Wirtschaftspolitik, politische Ökonomie
• Geowissenschaften Umweltwissenschaften Angewandte Ökologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Systeme Verwaltungswissenschaft, Öffentliche Verwaltung

Über Autor(innen)

Rohan D'Souza is Associate Professor, Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies, Kyoto University, Japan.