Re-conceptualizing Rivers in South Asia as Histories of the Biological Pulse
| Project/Area Number |
20K12319
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
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| Allocation Type | Multi-year Fund |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Review Section |
Basic Section 80010:Area studies-related
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| Research Institution | Kyoto University |
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Principal Investigator |
デスーザ ローハン 京都大学, アジア・アフリカ地域研究研究科, 教授 (60767903)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
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| Project Status |
Completed (Fiscal Year 2023)
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| Budget Amount *help |
¥4,030,000 (Direct Cost: ¥3,100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥930,000)
Fiscal Year 2023: ¥130,000 (Direct Cost: ¥100,000、Indirect Cost: ¥30,000)
Fiscal Year 2022: ¥2,080,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,600,000、Indirect Cost: ¥480,000)
Fiscal Year 2021: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000)
Fiscal Year 2020: ¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000)
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| Keywords | Rivers / Colonialism / Biological-Pulse / Environmental History / Floods / Anthropocene / River / Fish / Biological pulse / Natural resource / Large Dams / Environmental history / Navigation / Large dams / Biological Pulse |
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| Outline of Research at the Start |
In recent years a considerable scholarship has emerged on the rivers of South Asia. In the span of barely a decade, ten full-fledged monographs have thus far been published on the environmental histories of rivers in South Asia. Despite this overriding interests in the theme, however, the notion of the river itself has remained firmly rooted within the resource framework and little by way of mention has been made of the complexities of fisheries and the biological energies of these river systems. There is, therefore, a needed conceptual corrective that is required.
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
My Kaken C (2020-23) research grant achieved three major research objectives. The first was that I was able to collect a considerable amount of 19 th century documents and reports on fish and fishing in the Eastern provinces of British Indian from archival sources, internet and libraries. In particular, the striking reports of the ichthyologist-naturalist Francis Day (1829-89).
The second objective was to use these primary sources to persuasively make the case for understanding rivers in Eastern British India as a biological-pulse, as opposed to treating rivers only as a physical force or volume in motion. The third objective was that I was able deliver several talks and present papers at international conferences and seminars. Notably, the Global Asia Initiative Workshop that was held on April 2023 at Duke University. Here, a select group
of anthropologists, historians and other inter-disciplinary specialists from various universities met to rethink the idea of the river as a problem of the hydrosphere in the context of climate change. My paper ‘Fins in the Inland Ocean: How Modern Rivers Discovered Their pulse in British India’ has subsequently been accepted for publication in a volume that will be edited by
James Westcoast and Prasenjit Duara. I have submitted my revised and corrected paper (December 2023) and expect the edited collection to be out from Cambridge University Press by the beginning months of 2024.
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Report
(4 results)
Research Products
(36 results)
