Empire and Ecology in the Bengal Delta: The Making Of Calcutta (Studies In Environment And History )
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- Synopsis
-
What happens when a distant colonial power tries to tame an unfamiliar terrain in the world's largest tidal delta?
This history of dramatic ecological changes in the Bengal Delta from 1760 to 1920 involves land, water and humans, tracing the stories and struggles that link them together. Pushing beyond narratives of environmental decline, Bhattacharyya argues that 'property-thinking', a governing tool critical in making land and water discrete categories of bureaucratic and legal management, was at the heart of colonial urbanization and the technologies behind the draining of Calcutta. The story of ecological change is narrated alongside emergent practices of land speculation and transformation in colonial law. Bhattacharyya demonstrates how this history continues to shape our built environments with devastating consequences, as shown in the Bay of Bengal's receding coastline.
The first environmental history of land markets in South Asia.
Explores how the law responded to the ecological changes of the Bengal delta and how those laws continue to shape our contemporary relationship to the land and the water.
Shows landscapes as essentially fluid and changeable, destabilizing the fixities of cartography.
- Copyright:
- 2018
Book Details
- Book Quality:
- Publisher Quality
- ISBN-13:
- 9781108681728
- Related ISBNs:
- 9781108425742, 9781108425742
- Publisher:
- Cambridge University Press
- Date of Addition:
- 06/16/18
- Copyrighted By:
- Debjani Bhattacharyya
- Adult content:
- No
- Language:
- English
- Has Image Descriptions:
- No
- Categories:
- History, Outdoors and Nature, Politics and Government
- Submitted By:
- Bookshare Staff
- Usage Restrictions:
- This is a copyrighted book.