2018 Fiscal Year Research-status Report
The Great Hydraulic Transition: colonial engineers and modern rivers in South Asia
| Project/Area Number |
16K01981
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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, 准教授 (60767903)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2016-04-01 – 2020-03-31
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| Keywords | Rivers / Colonialism / Modernity / Volumes / Pulses / Hydraulic Transition / South Asia / Engineering |
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| Outline of Annual Research Achievements |
This project reconsidered the standard narrative on the origins of contemporary river control in South Asia. I have studied nineteenth and early twentieth century British colonial engineering reports, documents, surveys, memoirs, biographies, training manuals and water management debates and have argued that river control was principally pursued as a profound ideological project rather than as a technical arrangement in South Asia. The ‘hydraulic transition’, thus, announced a new and troubled environmental imagination: modern rivers in which the notion of the ‘volume’ has dominated the idea of the river as ‘pulse’.
I have completed several rounds of archival work (Delhi, Kolkata, Mysore and London: 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019) and interviews. The archival work and libraries consultation were with regard to examine documents and evidence related to nineteenth and twentieth century irrigation in colonial India.
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| Current Status of Research Progress |
Current Status of Research Progress
3: Progress in research has been slightly delayed.
Reason
I have been committed to present the final versions of the research output of the Kaken C grant at two major conferences (see below) and will require to use my grant to pay for attending the conferences.
1)‘The Great Hydraulic Transition: Colonial engineering and the making of modern rivers in South Asia’ in the 3rd World Congress of Environmental History Florianopolis, Brazil, 22-27 July 2019.
My paper was selected for the panel titled ‘Rivers and Environmental History around the World’ at the 3rd World Congress of Environmental History Florianopolis, Brazil, 22-27 July 2019.
2)Paper to be jointly presented with Christopher Courtney (University of Durham) & Rohan D’Souza (Kyoto University), “Drained Swamps and Straight Channels Did River Control overwhelm ‘Wetland Cultures’ in China and India ?”, Rivers in the Anthropocene: Global Challenges and Local Responses July 6-7, 2019 Conference Center 1095, Duke Kunshan University, Kunshan, Jiangsu, China
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| Strategy for Future Research Activity |
After presenting my final findings at the two conferences, I will be aiming to publish my papers in two widely respected journals: History and Technology and Technology and Culture.
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| Causes of Carryover |
I have been committed to present the final versions of the research output of the Kaken C grant at two major conferences (see below) and will require to use my grant to pay for attending the conferences.
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Research Products
(15 results)
