Nature’s Course

Rangarajan & K. Sivaramakrishnan

Permanent Black.

Price: Rs 1,850

Pages: 1096

Questions relating to the use and abuse of nature lie at the heart of Indian politics. Even a cursory glance at the day’s newspapers highlights the myriad contestations over access to land and other natural resources that animate our society,economy and polity. This is as true of foreign policy as it is of domestic politics. The negotiation on climate change is the single-most important diplomatic activity being undertaken by New Delhi. Similarly,India’s global footprint is largely driven by its need to secure access to key natural resources critical to ensuring its rise as a major power.

But public discussions on these issues are usually devoid of serious engagement with India’s environmental history. Part of the problem is that much of this writing is tucked away in specialist journals,which are not accessible to the general reader. This two-volume India’s Environmental History admirably solves the problem. Edited by two of our foremost experts on the subject,Mahesh Rangarajan and K. Sivaramakrishnan,they bring together the best and most important writings (33 essays in all) covering the entire sweep of Indian history.

The editors’ introductions sketch out the contours of this complex historical terrain. This complexity stems as much from the vast and varied ecological profile of India as from the sheer length of the period over which historical change has occurred. Rangarajan and Sivaramakrishnan argue that the popular view of India’s pre-colonial past — promoted by Vandana Shiva among others — as an unchanging environmental idyll comprising of prudent resource users is misleading. Whilst they acknowledge the accelerating pace of ecological change in recent centuries and decades,they argue that human impact on ecology in pre-colonial times was “extensive and far-reaching”. Of course,not all changes were wrought by human actions. “At a time of deep contemporary anxieties about climate change,” they observe,“it is crucial to recall that patterns of wet and dry,cold and hot periods have alternated in the past. This is not to imply that human-induced changes may not be making a huge difference today but it is to set these against the backdrop of changing environments in the past.”

The first volume,covering the ancient period to the onset of colonialism,underlines these arguments and opens fascinating windows into India’s past. In a classic essay,Thomas Trautmann examines the importance of the elephant for the Mauryas. He argues that the Mauryan state’s monopoly on elephants (its war machine) was critical to its ascendency. He goes on to suggest that the supply of elephants for warfare was a perennial need and constraint in Indian history. Simon Digby’s essay on the supply of war horses for the Delhi Sultanate makes a similar point. Jos Gommans presents a more ambitious argument about the importance of the frontier between pastoral nomadism and sedentary agriculture up until the nineteenth century. Other facets of the interaction between political regimes and the natural world are dealt with in Daud Ali’s essay on gardens in early Indian court life and Divyabhanusinh’s highly readable chapter on the Mughals’ fascination with the cheetah. Sumit Guha’s essay on local communities’ use of the “commons” cautions us against valorising “local knowledge”. Guha reminds us that these communities have “previously encountered many of the problems we face today and were frequently unable to provide optimal solutions to them.”

In introducing the second volume,the editors argue for a more sophisticated view of the impact of colonial and postcolonial regimes. Their arguments are largely supported by the essays. Consider two initiatives. The canal irrigation system constructed by the British in western Punjab was acclaimed as a success in the early years. But,as Indu Agnihotri’s essay shows,its longer-term ecological and social impact has been negative. Two of the most important problems confronting Pakistan today — the acute water crisis and the dominance of landed and military elites — are direct consequences of this initiative. By contrast,the Raj’s efforts in dealing with the famine in Mizo Hills caused by rats (attracted by the periodic flowering of bamboo) led to a favourable view of the British regime amongst the local populace. When Independent India failed to take proactive steps to prevent a similar famine in the late 1950s,the government was compared unfavourably with the Raj. The accumulated grievance led to the onset of the Mizo insurgency.

Other essays in this volume are full of such insights. It is surprising,though,that the section on the contemporary period does not include either of Rangarajan’s essays on Nehru and Indira Gandhi’s environmental outlook and policies. But what the editors have put together for us is rich and rewarding enough.