Wilhelm - Environment and Pollution in Colonial India: Sewerage Technologies along the Sacred Ganges

India is facing a river pollution crisis today. The origins of this crisis are commonly traced back to post-Independence economic development and urbanisation. This book, in contrast, shows that some important early roots of Indias river pollution problem, and in particular the pollution of the Ganges, lie with British colonial policies on wastewater disposal during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Analysing the two cornerstones of colonial river pollution history the introduction of sewerage systems and the introduction of biological sewage treatment technologies in cities along the Ganges the author examines different controversies around the proposed and actual discharge of untreated or treated sewage into the Ganges, which involved officials on different administrative levels as well as the Indian public. The analysis shows that the colonial state essentially ignored the problematic aspects of sewage disposal into rivers, which were clearly evident from European experience. Guided by colonial ideology and fiscal policy, colonial officials supported the introduction of the cheapest available sewerage technologies, which were technologies causing extensive pollution. Thus, policies on sewage disposal into the Ganges and other Indian rivers took on a definite shape around the turn of the twentieth century and acquired certain enduring features that were to exert great negative influence on the future development of river pollution in India.

A well-researched study on colonial river pollution history, this book presents an innovative contribution to South Asian environmental history. It is of interest to scholars working on colonial, South Asian and environmental history, and the colonial history of public health, science and technology.

Janine Wilhelm received her doctorate from Humboldt University Berlin in 2015. Her current research focuses on the environmental history of South Asias rivers, the history of modern Yoga and Yoga philosophy.

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Environment and Pollution in Colonial India
Sewerage Technologies along the Sacred Ganges
Janine Wilhelm

Environment and Pollution in
Colonial India

Sewerage technologies along the sacred
Ganges

Janine Wilhelm

First published 2016
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2016 Janine Wilhelm

The right of Janine Wilhelm to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

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British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Wilhelm, Janine, author.Title: Environment and pollution in Colonial India : sewerage technologies along the sacred Ganges / Janine Wilhelm.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2016. | Series: Routledge studies in South Asian history ; 15 | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015046131 | ISBN 9781138646124 (hardback) | ISBN 9781315627717 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Water quality managementGanges River Watershed (India and Bangladesh) | Sewage disposal in rivers, lakes, etc.Environmental aspectsGanges River Watershed (India and Bangladesh) | Water quality managementGovernment policyIndia. | SewerageIndiaGovernment policy. | WaterPollutionGanges River Watershed (India and Bangladesh)History19th century. | WaterPollutionGanges River Watershed (India and Bangladesh)History20th century.
Classification: LCC TD304.G36 W55 2016 | DDC 628.30954/1dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015046131

ISBN: 978-1-138-64612-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62771-7 (ebk)

Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear

This book is a revised version of my PhD thesis submitted at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Humboldt University, Berlin. I would like to express my sincere gratitude towards my supervisor Prof. Dr. Michael Mann, who provided invaluable guidance and unfailing support throughout the process, while granting me the greatest creative freedom imaginable. I am also greatly indebted to my second supervisor Prof. Dr. Harald Fischer-Tin from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, who contributed to this work with many insightful comments. During my two years of employment at his chair I enjoyed a most inspiring intellectual environment that proved to be highly conducive to my research.

The German Academic Exchange Service generously supported this project in 2011 and 2012 by funding two research stays at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, as part of its exchange programme A New Passage to India. Logistic support was provided by the Graduate Centre Humanities and Social Sciences at Leipzig University, for which I would like to thank them. I would also like to thank the staff of all the archives and libraries I consulted for this work, including the indescribably kind and helpful staff at the British Librarys Asian and African Studies reading room, those of the National Archives of India, the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, the Uttar Pradesh State Archives, and the Uttar Pradesh State Archives regional archives in Banaras. I am also deeply grateful to David Arnold, Mahesh Rangarajan, Melitta Waligora, Anna Mohr, Anita Breuer and Routledges anonymous reviewer(s) for their inspiring commentaries at various stages, and to Dorothea Schaefter and Jillian Morrison from Routledge for their unstinting support.