YT YouTube2Text

YouTube2Text → Transcripts → Lecture 13:‘Colonial Hydrology’

Lecture 13:‘Colonial Hydrology’ — Transcript

by NPTEL IIT Kharagpur · 5,559 words · 440 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

Open in transcriber Summarize with AI Download SRT/VTT

Full transcript

0:14Lecture 13; so, lecture 13 is all about Colonial Hydrology.
0:18So, I will explain what colonial hydrology is, I will explain the debate surrounding
0:25colonial hydrology, whether colonial hydrology can be you know considered as an appropriate
0:31scientific term or whether we can also you know counter or critically interrogate this
0:37particular terminology called colonial hydrology; so, all these questions should be there should
0:43be evoked in your mind once you know go through that various slides in this presentation and
0:50as it is a subjective thing.
0:52So, you know this the discussion or the opinion is it can be open.
0:59So, it is not that you I will try to impose a fixed mindset or a fixed opinion on you,
1:06but rather what I will expect from you is that, I will give you some facts and figures
1:11by covering the various works by the several environmental and more specific water historians,
1:17and then you should think and we think that whether colonial hydrology is a proper scientific
1:23appropriate terminology or not.
1:24So, this is what we are going to do in this presentation.
1:27Now, to begin with what is colonial hydrology all about?
1:31What is colonial hydrology, how do we conceptualize and how do we define colonial hydrology?
1:37So, this is the question that we should raise at the very beginning that is, did the British
1:45experience comprise of an altogether distinct paradigm?
1:49Now, this is very important distinct paradigm for hydraulic intervention in South Asia.
1:56So, we know that you know if we go through the history of civilization, we will find
2:01that there was always a relationship between water and society.
2:06So, many a times the society people they had actually a try to use water, abstract water,
2:13extract water and implemented several you know technologies to harness water for peoples
2:22used for the basic use, for some amenities, for industrial purpose, for domestic consumption,
2:25for agriculture purpose and all that.
2:28But now the question is so far as South Asia is concerned, did the British experience that
2:36is from the time when South Asia came under the rule of the British came under the colonial
2:41rule.
2:42So, did the British introduced technologies or did the British introduced interventions
2:49technological interventions that can be considered as very much different or something unique
2:56from the preceding years.
2:58So, this is what is the question all about; that did it comprise of an altogether distinct
3:04a landmark watershed paradigm for hydraulic interventions in South Asia?
3:09So, this is the question that I have raised at the very beginning and this is the question
3:14which we would try to answer by some of the empirical facts that will be provided in this
3:19particular presentation yes.
3:23So, we must talk about Rohan Dsouza and his article published in History Compass journal
3:32in 2006, because Rohan he came up with this term he you know the conceptualized colonial
3:41hydrology in this particular article called Water in British India:the making of colonial
3:47hydrology.
3:48So, he asks us to you know to think or to understand colonial hydrology as a theoretical
3:57attraction, to the entire hydraulic experience of South Asia during the rule of the British.
4:06Yeah.
4:08So, we need to understand the relationship between water and colonialism; so, water and
4:15society during the colonial rule.
4:18So, yes as I mention that I would give you some facts and figures and this facts and
4:25figures, I will be able to provide you from the works of the water historians who had
4:30written extensively on water scenario mainly rural contexts of course, in South Asia and
4:36mainly we will be covering North South glimpses from North South and Eastern India.
4:41So, I will not be able to cover all the works, but I will be able to cover most of the significant
4:48works on North South and East India.
4:50So, why west is not there because I mean west is I mean so far is west is concerned, there
4:56are not much works by environmental historians there are one or two works by scholars like
5:03Peter Molinga and all who had focused on Maharashtra but I mean the barring that we do not have
5:10much works on a Western India, but we have ample works on a southern northern and Eastern
5:15India on which I will be focusing on yeah.
5:20So, to mention about this book and one particular article I have called from Hydrology to hydro
5:27social history of waters in India.
5:29So, this will be another very important assignment for you.
5:33So, I will ask you to please go through chapter 16 of this particular book, from where we
5:43will find details of you know details about the historiography of waters in India.
5:49So, please go through chapter 16 from the recently published book called Routledge Handbook
5:56of the History of Sustainability edited by Jeremy L Caradonna you just need to go through
6:00chapter 16.
6:09So, coming to the context of North India, in 1972 Elizabeth Whitcombe, she wrote a fascinating
6:24a comprehensive a pathbreaking book called Agrarian Conditions in Northern India and
6:34Elizabeth Whitcombe she you know accessed ample sources.
6:38So, I mean different administrative sources including revenue reports including lot of
6:45you know data on finance on land revenue, on I mean on what not.
6:51So, she consulted the rich archival records and evidences so, far as North West frontier
6:58province concerned, during that time it was called, it was not west frontier province
7:03consisting parts of Sindh and UP, and she tried to study the colonial water hydraulic
7:11interventions in these particular districts of UP and Sindh.
7:16And then she found out from these archival sources from these detailed you know reports
7:22administrative reports, revenue reports and all that from this public reports, that the
7:29interventions in the form of intervention rather in the form of the perennial irrigation
7:34system that was introduced in North West frontier province it actually it actually did harm
7:40to the traditional well irrigation system, where the water society metabolism was much
7:47more prominent during the preceding times or the preceding years before the coming of
7:52the British.
7:53So, she showed that how a perennial irrigation actually had an adverse effect on the environment
8:00and the peasantry both.
8:02So, it had both environmental and social repercussions.
8:04So, she used to say is that how these you know lengthy canals, it ultimately laid to
8:09you know saline deserts waterlogged swamps and decreased soil fertility.
8:13So, on the one hand it affected the production, which affected the well being of the peasants.
8:19On the other hand there are as I mention some social aspects also to it because what happened
8:24is that now, with this colonial perennial irrigation system the rich landlords, they
8:32were given lot of ownership so, far as the control of the distribution channels were
8:37concern and.
8:38So, and there were other local officers who were involved in the collection of tax.
8:44So, on the one hand already there was this problem of water logging and soil fertility,
8:50which was affecting the you know production and on the other hand the peasants were also
8:56exploited by these rich landlords and the tax collectors.
9:01So, what happened ultimately was that depressed peasantry laboured in a distorted environment.
9:06So, this is the path breaking argument that a Whitcombe made during the 70s and this can
9:15be considered as one of the major you know volumes as one of the major book or major
9:22contribution so, far as water history in colonial in North India is concerned.
9:28So, then I would like to cite another work shedding light on another aspect which is
9:37the flood control aspect and not only flood control, but more specifically warning systems.
9:42So, warning systems prevalent during the pre colonial period and the warning system prevalent
9:48during the colonial period, but more importantly you know he says that how they used to maintain
9:55what he calls a social technology of communication this is fascinating.
9:59Social technology of communication which was cost effective which was totally based on
10:04you know relationship and kinship and very interesting kind of social communications,
10:12that were prevalent between the upstream and the downstream people.
10:15So, in that way through those informal you know arrangements through those informal networks,
10:21how these people before the coming of the British, they used to maintain a very useful
10:28and effective traditional warning system.
10:30But, unfortunately how when the British came how this system was totally replaced and how
10:35flood become a fiasco in North India especially in the Indus valley and especially Benjamin
10:42Weil focuses on a particular town called Dera Ghazi.
10:46And he talks about flood that occurred in Dera Ghazi and ultimately what happened that
10:51entire town have to be relocated.
10:53So, this was the history.
10:55So, it was flooded in such a I mean in an such a disastrous way that ultimately the
11:00people and ultimately the entire town have to be relocated.
11:03So, he gives examples from the massive floods that are occurred in 1841-1843 and all them.
11:11So, so he makes a comparison and also he talks about the conflict between the local knowledge
11:17based approach and technological mentality of the engineers.
11:23So, the so, we will also see when we will discuss about Eastern India that how flood
11:29was seen as a curse.
11:31So, the in the pre colonial period people used to visualize you know people used to
11:36understand perceive floods not as threat or as a curse, but as a blessing as boon because
11:41floods were very important because floods gave a silt or alluvium alluvial soil as so,
11:50so the alluvial quantity or the alluvium deposits in the soil very important for the soil fertility
11:57or production.
11:58So, they understood that yes once the flood waters would reside recede sorry then the
12:05field would be left with silt that would be very important for the production process.
12:11But, unfortunately the colonizers with lot of technological you know superiority the
12:17technological chauvinism these engineers, they wanted to come up with big embankments
12:22on the Indus river so that flood can be controlled that can be you know totally regulated at
12:30the very beginning.
12:31So, complex engineering works it replaced the traditional warning system and mobility,
12:37undermining alluvial farming systems as well as a precautionary approach to environmental
12:41management.
12:42So, as I was trying to explain that a Benjamin Weils article is very unique in a sense, that
12:46he not only talks about that you know how flood was perceived as a curse during the
12:52colonial period and how the colonial engineers totally concentrated on flood management rather
12:57than you know post flood harvesting of production, agricultural production mechanisms.
13:03But he also talks about that how a very I mean what to say colloquial a very traditional
13:11kind of a cost effective kind of a warning system was totally replace, you know when
13:18this British came and then when they came up with this laudable hydraulic interventionist
13:24mechanisms.
13:27So, for as on the North India is concern there are other writings as well as.
13:35So, I am writing Indu Agnihotris work on the canal colonies of Punjab and David Gilmartins
13:42work on theoretical framework mainly, which you calls imperial science and tries to map
13:48the or trace the effects of imperial science on the hydrological or the hydraulic configurations
13:56of South Asia especially you know India North India again.
14:00So, Indu Agnihotri’s work it shows that how the colonial canal system in Punjab, it
14:07overran the existing inundation canal system.
14:09The same story everywhere we will see the same thing when will be discussing eastern
14:13India and also overflow irrigation in East India.
14:17So, what happened is that the pastoral the local pastoral economy the local pastoralist
14:24way of way of a tilling the soil and their way of you know agricultural production, it
14:31was totally hampered when this perennial colon-, you know, colonial irrigation mechanism it
14:38was implemented and it was transplanted over the traditional inundation canal system, that
14:46was already existing in Punjab.
14:50David Gilmartin comes up with the conceptual or a theoretical frame work which he calls
14:54imperial science imperial science and.
15:01So, technochauvinism of imperial science is a very important argument that he makes and
15:07she he says that you know this interventions were also thickly loaded with the you know
15:15with the kind of technological superiority that this engineers were possessing.
15:21So, the Eurocentric notion of a you know the Eurocentric notion of we are the best and
15:29the Eurocentric notion of our techniques and our technologies I can do anything in the
15:34world.
15:35It can take the rivers, it can manage floods, it can you know I mean it can tap tame do
15:43whatever it wants to do so far as ecological resources are concerned whether it is forest,
15:48whether it is water bodies, whether it is wetland these kind of a chauvinistic attitude
15:53was very much there in the technologies, that the colonizes implemented during the British
15:59rule in colonial India.
16:01So, this is what Gilmartin emphasizes and talks about in his 1994 article on imperial
16:07science.
16:08And what was the result of course, the result was like socially and environmentally I mean
16:15social and environmental disruptions.
16:16So, these interventions that of course, as we have seen in the earlier cases as well.
16:23So, these where socially and environmentally disruptive and there is no doubt about this,
16:29and he also talks about the centralized control that was implemented under the aegis of the
16:36irrigation department.
16:37So, previously the entire water system or water management business to a great extent
16:44it was decentralized.
16:45So, it is mainly owned managed by the communities but supervisor monitor of course, by kings
16:52and rulers and all, but then with the establishment of the irrigation department everything became
16:58centralized and under the aegis and under the control of the irrigation department.
17:03So, maybe I am making some linear comments and arguments here, I will give a question
17:09or I will generate a question in the next part of this presentation.
17:13So, do not think that I am trying to you know you know create the binary between the golden
17:20precolonial age and the disruptive you know colonial age, I am not doing this kind of.
17:26So, this kind of un sophistication I am not trying to talk about or bringing in the lecture,
17:33but I am the just now right now I am a I am just introducing you with the arguments made
17:39by this water historians or environmental historians in their article.
17:44So, we have ample scope and ample time later to think and we think and counter and criticize
17:51their arguments.
17:52So, that that will be an entirely different exercise, but this the presentation the objective
17:59purpose of the presentation is to evoke all these questions in your mind yeah.
18:11So, coming to South India I will not cite much work, but one the recent work by Eswara
18:20Rao very interesting title Taming a liquid gold and dam technology.
18:26So, he has mainly focused on the Godavari Anicut in South India.
18:30So, this is a chapter in Deepak Kumar, Vinita Damodaran and Rohan D’Souza’s edited book
18:35called Environmental Encounters in South Asia.
18:39So, here Rao he sheds light on the history of the construction of the Godavari Anicut
18:45during the 50s and he shows that just during the preceding years that is roughly between
18:531815 and 1840 so, he consulted the archival reports and records to find out that there
19:00was a kind of a colonial anxiety and apprehension, that the production was actually folly.
19:06So, there was the agriculture there were lot of horizon anxieties relating to agricultural
19:12production and so, Montgomery he was asked to you know survey the entire condition, and
19:19come up with some recommendations and solutions.
19:21So, what happened is that Montgomery finally, could publish a report he came up with the
19:26report in 1843-44 which is known as a famous Montgomery report and Arthur cotton he was
19:35trained in civil engineering of course, so, he was brought in to the picture and he was
19:40involved in this entire project of coming up with a Anicut on the Godavari river, and
19:47the main purpose was to facilitate inland navigation and also to increase agricultural
19:55production and all that.
19:56So, what happened is that Arthur cotton we all know Arthur cotton was again to use little
20:01bit of I mean I mean if you follow the of if you follow David Gilmartin’s conceptual
20:05framework then Arthur cotton was no less than an you know imperial scientist and to a great
20:12extent a technochauvinist because Arthur Cotton’s famous argument is that all deltas are delta
20:20all over the world.
20:21So, so, he says that there is there are no specific distinctions you know between a delta
20:28in South Asia or a delta somewhere else.
20:31So, it as all deltas are deltas across you know all over the world so, if all deltas
20:36are deltas all over the world, then we have the mechanism to do whatever we want to do
20:41to the delta for our own benefits and for reaping profits and for not only reaping,
20:48but also maximizing profits by generating lot of revenue and lot of earnings, on the
20:54expenditure or the investments met or concurred.
20:58So, Arthur cotton was involved in a project and finally, we see that there were some improvements.
21:07So, commercial crops like sugarcane, tobacco, coconut is things were raised and it also
21:14gave raise to.
21:15So, as I mentioned that these hydraulic intervention it not only had the environmental repercussion
21:21or also social repercussion.
21:22So, we see the rise of rich capitalist farmers as like these communities like Kammas, Reddys,
21:30Rajulus, Kapus telegas Gavaras.
21:33So, Eswara Rao talks about all of them and so, of course, on one hand there was the rise
21:38of capitalist farmers an on one hand the misery of the poor tenants and the agricultural labourers
21:44it went on increasing.
21:46So, and the ecological effect was that after few years the salinity rose there was water
21:54logging and also crop disease started Jalaga Rogam crop disease, cattle disease, soil was
22:00exhausted and also there was decrease in fish production.
22:05And one important thing I should mention here is that as I see the name of his Eswara Rao’s
22:12chapter book chapter taming liquid gold.
22:14So, Arthur cotton was someone who even you know represented try to represented the river
22:19in terms of money, in terms of capital.
22:22So, if there is a so, he mentions so, if you go through cottons report, you will find that
22:28cotton says that you know the Godavari it generates if I remember it rightly.
22:37So, it generates roughly 420000 cubic yards.
22:44So, 420000 cubic yards of water go to the sea per day which is that is.
22:55So, he converted it and said that the rate is rupees 500.
23:00So, 420000 cubic yards of water going to the sea at the rate of rupees 500 per hour sorry
23:11at the rate of rupees 500 per hour, that is rupees 12000 per day across 240 days which
23:25finally, gives a figure of 2880000 rupees.
23:35So, can you imagine; so, the entire Godavari calculated in terms of money.
23:39So, this is what he did.
23:41So, he represented the entire flow of the Godavari in terms of money and he measured
23:46that.
23:47So, to him Godavari was liquid gold.
23:49So, this was the kind of the mentality the colonizers had so far as our you know rivers
23:59are concern.
24:01So, now coming to eastern India eastern India one major development during the colonial
24:11times was the permanent settlement in the Bengal province that is consisting of Bengal
24:16Bihar and Orissa.
24:17So, I think I had mentioned it earlier as well in some of my slides or lectures that
24:23is previously I mean the basic difference between the pre colonial and colonial rule
24:28was that you know in during the pre colonial period, flood was never perceived as a curse
24:35or you know flood was never perceived there is a negative thing.
24:39So, flood was always perceived as a blessing as a boon, because it was a totally there
24:43in the mind of the people yes that you know floods were extremely important because when
24:50this flood water would recede then the soil would be left with very rich silt or alluvium
24:57deposit.
24:58But unfortunately, you know the colonizers their understanding of floods was absolutely
25:04different or totally different from the pre colonial understanding of flood; because they
25:10fix the revenue in eastern India especially if you see permanent settlements.
25:16So, permanent settlement was something where they try to fix the entire revenue.
25:21So, what happened was that previous taxation system it was not a fixed taxation system,
25:26it totally dependent on the what to say the opportunity and the opportunities available
25:35I mean seasonal opportunities available and the droughts and floods during those times
25:40taxes were not collected, rather during those time loans were provided by the state or by
25:46the rulers and even the local I mean local rulers to the peasants.
25:51But the colonizers were not comfortable in that kind of an arrangement and what they
25:56wanted to do was they wanted to continuously extract revenue from the soil.
26:01So, as they were.
26:02So, as this become continues.
26:04So, from irregular or discontinuous system of taxation to continuous or fixed system
26:10of taxation.
26:11So, it was mandatory for them to you know to regulate floods to control floods because
26:16otherwise during those months, I mean the there would be some kind of cost which were
26:23involved on land.
26:25So, that is why they initially they you know they implemented the idea of constructing
26:34embankments on the rivers to control and regulate flood water.
26:39So, if you see eastern India you will find that big embankments were constructed on all
26:45the rivers of eastern India including Kosi, Gandak, Damodar, Ganges all the rivers.
26:51And what happened is that the overflow irrigation that is the traditional irrigation system
26:57was totally replaced by or totally replaced by the era of embankment or the era of embankment
27:06construction.
27:07And we see very interestingly there is a work by Daniel Klingensmith will talk about it
27:12where Klingensmith had shown that how actually even some of the colonial officials they pointed
27:18out that overflow irrigation was extremely productive for the peasants and for the soil,
27:22which the British unfortunately did not try to understand.
27:26So, Rohan D’Souza mainly focusing on the on Orissa on colonial Orissa, he shows that
27:33how the construction of embankment actually did not do any benefit to the river or the
27:39people for that matter, but rather it totally you know disrupted environmental and social
27:46equations.
27:47So, he shows how the landscape of Orissa it actually transformed from flood dependent
27:53agrarian regime to flood vulnerable landscape.
27:58Yes.
28:00So, now, as I told you in the beginning of the lecture that we will you know little bit
28:08play with this term colonial hydrology, I am not going to impose this term on you, but
28:12rather you are suppose to think that whether the colonial hydrology is an appropriate terminology
28:18or not.
28:19Because till now I have only talked about the negative aspects of a colonial hydraulic
28:25interventions, but there are few works which also which also do not talk about this binary
28:31distinction between pre colonial and colonial water regime, rather they say that few words
28:37argue that you know there is a kind of a continuity between the pre colonial and colonial period
28:43so far as water management concern.
28:44There are other work for example, Ian Stone ironstone had countered Elizabeth Whitcombe.
28:51So, Ian Stone writing during the nineteen writing during the 1985 she he had countered
28:59Elizabeth Whitcombe and he has shown that actually canals in the northwest was a source
29:03of economic dynamism and constant innovation.
29:06So, Whitcombe said that they depressed peasantry they worked in a distorted environment, but
29:11Stone says that you know with the same similar kind of a different kind of archival records
29:16and reports, he says that canals were source of economic dynamism and constant innovation.
29:22So, we need to think about this.
29:24So, this is one then there are works on South India for example, Eswara Rao we have seen
29:29how he was shown that Arthur Cotton, he has actually you know to a great extent criticize
29:33Arthur Cotton and criticize the colonial hydraulic interventions on river Godavari.
29:38But on the other hand, Peter Schmitthenner I do not know the appropriate pronunciation,
29:45but the same another person in the same edited volume of Deepak Kumar, Vinita Damodaran and
29:52Rohan D’Souza where Eswara Rao also had contributed an article he has actually say
29:58that you know maybe the Godavari, so far as Godavari was concerned the project was extremely
30:05disruptive.
30:06But if you consider other project for example, mainly deltas of Cauvery, but also he includes
30:11Godavari and says that these were less environmentally disruptive.
30:15So, they are I mean these are not closed and we cannot come up with closed an arguments,
30:20but rather these are open ended you know perspectives, which we need to think and rethink counter
30:27and encounter and also we need to go through fresh set of sources sometime may be and fresh
30:36sets of frame works to continuously keep on thinking and interpreting that what is the
30:43truth or what is the reality or may be also these kind of an understanding that whether
30:48there are multiple realities or not.
30:50Hardiman also talks about the same thing I mean not same thing, Hardiman says that peasant
30:56indebtedness was already there during the precolonial period predated the colonial regime.
31:02So, it is not that it only started with the colonial period.
31:04So, I mean this kind of understanding or framework of pre colonial equilibrium versus colonial
31:12hydrology actually does not whole ground.
31:15So, again works by David Mosse and works by Isha Shah.
31:19So, Isha Shah has she has done a detailed oral history and you know ethnographic study
31:25in South India and she has mainly Karnataka and she has shown that how.
31:30So, so she has consulted the folk lores and the traditional some other traditional cultural
31:35practices.
31:36So, where she has shown that how you know the water management techniques were very
31:41disruptive so, far as the social equations were concerned.
31:46So, for example, if there was a long prolong drought in the villages of Karnataka, then
31:52there was a ritual practice that the that are tribal women or a dalit women from a very
31:59vulnerable or marginalized section of that village, was supposed to you know drown herself
32:06in a well.
32:07And this was there was a cultural belief and I mean of course, superstition associated
32:13with the whole thing that if her life was sacrifice, then it would ensure rains in that
32:18particular period.
32:19So, these were the kind of systems or practices or rituals that were there even in pre colonial
32:26India.
32:27So, how can we say that the pre-colonial India was a golden period so far as water management
32:32is concerned or was concerned?
32:35So, finally, I will end this presentation again by what to say by narrating my observations,
32:45because I am in a position to tell you what I believe in, then you are free to think you
32:51know in your own way.
32:53So, the idea of this presentation or here I do not want to impose my ideas on you, but
32:59of course, I will share my opinions.
33:01And my observation and then you can you can go through those reference materials you can
33:06go through the articles, you can go through the book chapters and then you can have your
33:11own thinking and thoughts related to whether colonial hydrology is a scientific term or
33:16not.
33:17So, I will say that definitely though I have talked about the different other works by
33:23Isha Shah or Ian Stone or David Mosse and pointed out that these kind of a colonial
33:29versus pre colonial or pre colonial versus colonial actually does not hold ground in
33:34that sense, but again in spite of that I will also argue and to a great extent you know
33:41I very much agree with Rohan D’Souza that the greatest momentum that colonial period
33:49it was I mean it forged in the greatest momentum of hydraulic transition in India and we cannot
33:56really denied this because even if we look into some of the legal procedure, some of
34:00the institutional element, some of the acts that were passed during the colonial time
34:05we will see that how it entirely altered the ecological and social equations, so far as
34:12water management was concerned, for because the British were doing everything to generate
34:17a pecuniary value.
34:18So, the rule of profit was the main colonial logic behind all this intervention and there
34:25is no doubt you know I mean we cannot be really doubtful about this affair.
34:32And it was of course, the era of scientific management and as I was mentioning about the
34:38acts, if we see the canal drainage act of 1873 or if we look into the establishment
34:50of the irrigation department in the second half of the 19th century.
34:56Then you will see that the previously everything was to a great extent owned by the community
35:06but, now the canal drainage act and the irrigation department they employ through the canal drainage
35:15act and through the establishment of irrigation department they employed so called trained
35:21engineers and so called trained technocrats, who were controlling over who were who set
35:27up an absolute control over the flow pattern distribution and allocation of water resource.
35:33So, these things are very important see flow pattern distribution and allocation we had
35:37discussed political ecology, right we had discussed urban political ecology or we will
35:43discuss or elaborate more on it in our next some of our next presentations.
35:47So, there where we will say that it is not only pipes, I mean it is not only water which
35:52flows through pipes, but it is also power equations.
35:55So, here it is absolutely clear that during the colonial period itself the flow pattern;
36:00where these pipes would be laid, who would get access to water who would be able to pay
36:05taxes and there were so, many other you know complexities caste, kingship, gender, so,
36:11many other things.
36:13So, many other social aspects that are very much there in so, far as the access to water
36:21was concerned.
36:22So, it was not only quantity and quality of water, but who were actually controlling the
36:27flow of water, the flow pattern of rivers the distribution of channels and the allocation
36:34to water resources.
36:35So, this is there and then of course, as I had mentioned talked about Gilmartin’s paradigm
36:41of imperial science.
36:42So, there was this cultural dominance of engineering paradigms.
36:45So, where it was asserted time and again that the colonial hydraulic interventions were
36:51more sophisticated they were heavy they were big, they were more effective than the traditional
36:56systems.
36:57And so, community was replaced by metaphor of machines including stop dams, weirs and
37:04what not and an entire era of you know centralized control began.
37:10And of course, we had discussed little bit of the ecological repercussions or the ecological
37:18effects of this weak hydraulic interventions.
37:21So, the embankment regime it is clearly it has been clearly shown if we go through the
37:26works of D’Souza, Dinesh Mishra as so, many other social scientist and scholars as well
37:33it comes out clearly that the embankment regime.
37:36It actually could not regulate flood or control flood rather it aggravated floods in India
37:45more specifically in North India and eastern India.
37:48So, what happened is that.
37:50So, when this embankment regime could not actually regulate flood and could actually
37:55aggravate flood, then this techno chauvinist they actually came up with more fears and
38:02so, called what they considered to be scientific and effective interventions that replace the
38:09embankment regime so, then the perennial irrigation system was introduced.
38:13And finally, these particular I mean these water management mechanisms laid way to what
38:22is known as the era of multipurpose river valley development projects that is the era
38:27of dam construction.
38:30So, technological interventions have to be contextualized within the broader political
38:37economic picture, within the we have to know we have to understand the broader you know
38:43historical processes that are at work political, economic imperatives that are at play that
38:49determine technological choices of a particular period.
38:52So, what I will like to say you is that today we are you know we are we are encountering
38:59severe challenges relating to you know dam construction, relating to the effects of big
39:04dams on people on ecology, but we have to keep in mind that it is it was it was it was
39:10not a sudden or an abrupt or a new phenomena in post independent India, but rather it drew
39:16it’s legacy from the colonial period.
39:19Which started with the embankment regime followed by perennial regime irrigation, canal regime
39:25and that finally, laid way to the multipurpose river valley development projects, which would
39:30be the topic for our next lecture.
39:32Thank you.

About this transcript

This page contains the full transcript of Lecture 13:‘Colonial Hydrology’ by NPTEL IIT Kharagpur, generated from the public captions YouTube serves with the video. The transcript has 5,559 words across 440 segments, with the original timestamps preserved so you can click any line to jump to that moment in the embedded player.

What you can do with it

Use the transcript to take notes, quote the speaker, build a study guide, generate a summary with ChatGPT or Claude via the YouTube Summary tool, or export it as a timed subtitle file with YouTube to SRT. You can also re-open it in the transcriber to choose a caption track available on the video.

Free YouTube transcript tool

YouTube2Text is a free YouTube transcript generator — no signup, no daily limit. Paste any YouTube link and get the full transcript instantly, with timestamps, click-to-jump, caption language selection, AI prompts for ChatGPT, Claude, and Gemini, and exports to TXT, SRT, VTT, or Markdown.