Ecologies of Empire in South Asia, 1400-1900

by Sumit Guha, K. Sivaramakrishnan (Series Editor)

The perception, valuation, and manipulation of human environments all have their own layered histories. So Sumit Guha argues in this sweeping examination of a pivotal five hundred years when successive empires struggled to harness lands and peoples to their agendas across Asia. Ecologies of Empire in South Asia, 1400–1900 compares the practices of the Mughal and British Empires to demonstrate how their fluctuating capacity for domination was imbricated in the formation of environmental knowledge itself.

The establishment of imperial control transforms local knowledge of the world into the aggregated information that reproduces centralized power over it. That is the political ecology that reshapes entire biomes. Animals and plants are translocated; human communities are displaced or destroyed. Some species proliferate; others disappear. But these state projects are overlaid upon the many local and regional geographies made by sacred cosmologies and local sites, pilgrimage routes and river fords, hot springs and fluctuating aquifers, hunting ranges and nesting grounds, notable trees and striking rocks.

Guha uncovers these ecological histories by scrutinizing little-used archival sources. His historically based political ecology demonstrates how the biomes of a vast subcontinent were changed by struggles to make and to resist empire.

268 pages, Hardcover

Published July 7, 2023

Reviews

[R R · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was dense and at times, I had to rewind and reread in order to make sure I could comprehend.

But it was absolutely excellent.

It really reframed my understanding of empire/colonization under the framework of ecology, and further reinforced the inherent ties of the former to capitalism.

I would recommend this to anyone who wants to gain a broader understanding of colonization past the sociocultural and climactic events (which dominate the discourse in my opinion).

Also, I have to give praise to the author for their mastery of language. I was so pleasantly surprised by certain sentences — which stand out as poetic, dramatic, and impactful. Didn’t expect that from this book but 100% enriched the reading experience.

[Krun · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really great ideas, especially enjoyed how it described changes in statecraft over history as powers have attempted to know and eventually conquer a landscape— as well as the fringes that had long been hidden from imperial gaze. Also the last chapter is amazing. But the book claims to use the case study of Western India to go in depth and instead it employs a constant stream disjointed examples that without context (historical or even scientific) make it a jumpy read and difficult to stay engrossed in.