Colonialism, Development, and the Environment Railways and Deforesta
This study explores the confluence of economy and ecology in British India, showing that Britain initiated economic development strategies in India in order to efficiently extract resources from it. It looks specifically at how state railway construction
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Pallavi V. Das
Colonialism, Development, and the Environment
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Colonialism, Development, and the Environment Ra ilway s a nd Defo restat i o n i n B r itish Ind ia , 1 8 6 0 – 1 8 8 4
P a l l a v i V. D a s
Palgrave
macmillan
COLONIALISM, DEVELOPMENT, AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Copyright © Pallavi V. Das, 2015. Foreword © Ian Kerr, 2015. Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-49456-6 All rights reserved. Chapter 2 was previously published as “Colonialism and the Environment in India: Railways and Deforestation in 19th century Punjab,” in Journal of Asian and African Studies, vol. 46: 1 (2011), 38–53. Reproduced courtesy of Sage Publications. Chapter 3 was previously published as “Railways’ Fuel and its Impact on the Forests of Colonial India: The Case of the Punjab, 1860–1884,” in Modern Asian Studies, vol. 47: 4 (2013), 1283–1309. Reproduced courtesy of Cambridge University Press. Chapter 4 was previously published as “Hugh Cleghorn and Forest Conservancy in India,” in Environment and History, vol. 11:1 (2005), 55–82. Reproduced courtesy of White Horse Press. First published in 2015 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN® in the United States—a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world, this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-349-55645-8 DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-49458-0
ISBN 978-1-137-49458-0 (eBook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Das, Pallavi V. Colonialism, development, and the environment : railways and deforestation in British India, 1860–1884 / Pallavi V. Das. pages cm Summary: “This book focuses on the colonial encounter between Britain and India in the field of economic development, including scientific/technological changes, and the environmental impact of this encounter on India. Through the institutions of the colonial state, Das argues, the metropole (Britain) initiated economic development strategies in the colony (India) in order to efficiently extract resources from it. While colonial encounters have been seen by scholars more or less in economic and political terms, what is largely missing is the fact that the metropole’s economic development strategies had definite ecological consequences for the colony. This book aims to fill that gap with an examination of how the railways led to deforestation in colonial India. The deforestation, in turn, put at risk the entire project of railway expansion. This led to state implementation of forest conservation. Conservation, however, was also an economic-developmental project whose main aim was to maintain timbe
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