Review of Iftekhar Iqbal, The Bengal Delta

Indian Economic & Social History Review, 2013

This is an unusual book in terms of the range of its discrete and varied chapters. Its strongest continuing themes are ecology and the Sundarbans. Despite an occasional lack of context and connection, each section is of interest, and some are original and thought-provoking. We start with the ecology of the Gangetic delta, and the ways Indian rural populations have been discussed by others. Dynamism is a consistent theme, in particular the importance of shifting, alluvial land-forms. Other key issues include features of colonial agrarian policy and the importance of its initially slight but increasing knowledge and reach, and, secondly, the possibly-related emergence of rich peasants, particularly the prehistory of their alleged prominence after the 1930s depression. Later, worsening communal feeling around the same time is briefly discussed (pp. 187-8). The argument hinges partly on 'anomalies' produced by variations in effective state knowledge and capacity. Iqbal thinks this idea gives insufficient weight to Indian agency. But one might see that as central; and, more important, anomalies imply rules and trends. As I have previously claimed (1), indeterminate zones of authority and a panoply of exceptions existed, over different peoples, practices and areas, despite British claims to absolute sovereignty; and yet the trend was towards standardization. This is relevant to Iqbal's second chapter, on state policy towards wasteland and alluvial lands, and the favourable revenue or rental terms used to encouraged land reclamation, both for 'actual cultivators' and for superior landholders (hawaladars). Such arrangements were very common, from the earliest expansions of cultivation in the eastern delta; but here is an important addition to our understanding of land-management. However, the Sundarbans are presented rather as the norm. Examples, on policy, include a preference on diara (alluvial) lands for temporary settlements and for khas (state) management through contractors; a general desire (p. 25) to bring as much land as possible under direct government control; and an emphasis on maximizing land revenue. This book links such policies to a political-ideological rejection of the permanent settlement, and a lack of attention to existing rights. My understanding is that, though much of this is true, its broader contexts need more nuance. First, diara lands, often rich and cultivable, were managed according to prevailing conditions, including existing rights. This book notes the lack of powerful intermediary groups in the eastern delta; arrangements were different where such groups dominated the countryside. Secondly, it is true that diara, created and taken away by the

Journal of Historical Geography, 2013

This paper looks at fluvial landscape of northern and eastern India -variously called diaras or churs -to understand the process of colonial legal interventions, and how such interventions shaped the meanings of land and rights in this landscape. By doing so, it addresses two core conceptual questions of this volume: first, how do codified laws and regulations converse with legal practices, and how together they shape the parameters of rights and subjecthood; second, what role does space and spatial practices play in the relationship between law and subjecthood.

This essay offers an ecological perspective in the study of colonial East Bengal (Bangladesh, broadly). An ecological understanding of historical development in Bangladesh is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, the field of environmental history has grown enormously over the past few decades in Europe and North America, and more recently in India. But there has not been significant contribution to this emerging field in Bangladesh or about Bangladesh. Secondly, an environmental perspective on Bangladesh is important not merely for asserting environmentalism in the context of its not being flourished, but also because Bangladesh ecological regime itself provides a general framework for studying its history. Thirdly, current debates in Bangladesh about environmental degradation and conservation as well as 'sustainable development' dwells on broad range of issues without adequate appreciation of many contemporary problems in its historical context. An environmental-historical perspective may substantially inform many of today's efforts towards attaining sustainability and well-being. This essay, however, is not a policy-formulation, neither is it an attempt to provide a broader framework for understanding the intricate historical events for a longer period. It provides an outline of how ecology informed agrarian society and production relations in the colonial period in the hope that more wide-ranging research would be taken up by the historians of the region.

2012

The primacy of geography and an ideology about the control of territory is inseparably linked with colonialism. 'Constructs' have facilitated this cause in various ways. The construct of wasteland has been one such machination whereby the colonial state appropriated the usufruct community space of the indigenous people and created the 'space' for the individual European planters and cultivators from outside the state, in the name of adding value by transforming these areas from the 'state of nature' to the 'state of civilization'. This paper deals with the 'roots' of the colonial construct of wasteland and its post-colonial ramifications. What is the socio-cultural rationale in ascribing land as 'wasteland'? Does jurisprudential logic play a role in erecting such a construct? Which philosophical thoughts influenced the notion of wasteland? Was it a manifestation of the foundational binary between the state of nature visà-vis state of culture embedded in the colonial project? Above all, what is the status of these lands and what is the plight of the people who are associated with this colonial construct? * Associate Professor of Economics, Institute of Development Studies Kolkata (IDSK) 1 2 colonial construct which has wide ranging post-colonial ramifications too. Contemporary North East India provides a scope for understanding this phenomenon.

In: ASIEN - The German Journal on Contemporary Asia 130 (2014): 5-7.

Indian Economic and Social History Review, 1999