Re-conceptualizing Rivers in South Asia as Histories of the Biological Pulse

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K12319
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Section: 一般
• Review Section: Basic Section 80010:Area studies-related
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: D'Souza Rohan 京都大学, アジア・アフリカ地域研究研究科, 教授 (60767903)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-04-01 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: River / Fish / Natural resource / Biological pulse / Large dams / Navigation / Environmental history

Outline of Final Research Achievements

I would list three major achievements. The first is that I have successfully uncovered hitherto unseen archival sources which deal with the issue of fisheries in the Eastern deltas of colonial British India. I have also collected archival materials from the Madras and the Bengal state archives, which I am working for forthcoming research papers. The Second is that these sources have enabled me to make paper presentations in international conferences, workshops. In particular, the workshop in April 2023 at Duke University, USA. I was able to present compelling arguments based on my primary source material for a claim to understand India’s Eastern rivers as ‘biological pulses’ rather than as resource endowments. The Third is that my paper titled ‘Fins In the inland Ocean and the River as Pulse in Monsoon Asia’has been accepted for publication in a forthcoming book. The paper is entirely based on the research work and resources afforded by this Kaken.

Free Research Field

Environmental History

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

I helped uncover unseen and neglected primary sources on fisheries in Eastern India during the British colonial period. I am also the first to have effectively argued that the study of rivers in South Asia has been overwhelmingly treated as an economic resource rather than a biological pulse.