Week 6 Cycles of Colonialism

What are key historical facts on Bengal?

• 15th , 16th and 17th century – it was one of the richest parts of the world

• Bengal flourished because of abundant rainfall, dense network of rivers and very fertile land

• It was abundant with raw materials – huge amounts of muslin, jute, rice, cotton, tobacco, spices – you name it – was exported from this delta to Europe

• Hundreds of varieties of rice – the golden crop – there would be a rice crop 3 times a year

• Abundant in fish – hugely biodiverse

It was on the trading routes of the Indian ocean trade route – interconnections with the world. The Portuguese – the Dutch,  the French, the Chinese –Arakan coast (Myanmar). And then came under the British Empire

What are key historical ecological facts on the Bengal Delta?

• 1.4 billion tons of silt are brought down by these formidable rivers. Largest delta in the world.

History of being endemic to cyclones and floods much before the current era of climate emergency

Dewan (2021) The narrative that foods result in climate refugees ignores the fact that there are three types of floods in Bangladesh: borsha (annual monsoon rains).

In a natural environment without any artifcial infrastructure, the borsha rainwater merges with the silt laden river water to deposit silt on the floodplains. The silt raises the land levels and promotes processes of organic decomposition that make the deltaic lands fertile. These inundated wetlands are the breeding grounds for hundreds of spawning fish species and help irrigate aman dhan (rice planted during monsoon season).

Permanent approach to floods being prevented is highly problematic. As permanent flood-protection embankments (dikes) obstruct the process of monsoon borsha flooding.

How does Mike Davis define the impact of the British East India Company in the 90 years it was in the Bengal?

20xx Between the 90yrs in 1765-1858 that the British East Inida Company took over the Diwani of Bengal, there were 12 Famines and 4 Sever scarcities in Bengal

• The interventions of the East India Company - through revenue and agricultural regimes, increased taxation and colonial profit and fuelled industrialisation.

The new rulers further introduced new regimes of property and pushed the conversion of the jungle into arable land, seeing jungles as harbouring disorder and marauding tribes.

What are key consequences of Colonialism in the Bengal [as well as a common feature of the British Empire?]

• Trade

• Slavery

• Raw materials

• Land taxation

• Peasant immiseration [Marxist term for further impoverishment of peasants]

• Deforestation [By 1876 much of this forest had disappeared]

How has the Bengal Delta been historically misread under British colonial rule in the 1876 Bengal Cyclone?

In the aftermath of the cyclone – no relief was sent. [Same mentality as the Poor Laws - since the Elizabethian period - for those at the top, who didn’t directly see the lived human consequences]

The inadequacy of the government’s disaster relief directly contributed to the terrible cholera epidemic that followed the storm. 

A lack of food, clean water, and shelter had left the people of the cyclone-affected districts highly susceptible to disease.

• Hundreds of thousands died due to British policies after a flood struck the Bay of Bengal in 1876 [with the cyclone]

How has the Bengal Delta been historically misread under British colonial rule in the 1943 Bengal Famine?

Churchill’s policies in 1943, lead to another famine in Bengal. Resulting c3million dead

1943 Bengal Famine [Churchill’s ‘rice denial’ policy] added on this and is argued as a tipping point for independence [during WWII]

• Alongside food scarcity, there was a huge export from India, and a blockade of Bengal specifically [by throwing rice into the water in east Bengal]

Contributed to independence movement, which was largely seen as being due to economic reason

How does Camelia Dewan (2021) in Misreading the Bengal Delta, argue that the colonial history, lingers today in discussions of Climate Change in the Bengal Delta?

Bangladesh is one of the top recipients of development aid earmarked for climate change adaptation.

• Yet there are limitations in ‘adaptation projects’ in addressing local needs/concerns in the face of climate change

The book shows the nuance of seasons, of floods, of salinity and siltation. Connecting the present to history.

Showing ecological knowledge which is lived and understood from the perspective of those who live it.

What are the current Climate Change challenges in the Bengal Delta?

Entire delta—forests, people, and animals—faces an uncertain future due to climate change with a rate of sea level rise higher than the global average in the region

• As one of the most densely populated regions in the world with almost 900 people per square kilometre, the majority of whom are low caste and poor, this will render millions into climate refugees.

Why is there a debate about potential mass climate refugees/economic refugees from the Bengal Delta?

Estimated that by 2050, 1/7 people in the Bengal Delta will be displaced by climate change.

How has Climate Change influenced Development in the Delta?

Recently turned into a laboratory for climate-resilience experiments funded by global agencies. As projects are funded because of ”climate change” even if they don’t have anything to do with it

• Development consultants in Bangladesh - code switch to get the funds – they are the biggest donors for climate change

Bigger embankments lead to protection against sea level rise, and so huge funds being spent on that when this is actually exacerbating the problem and is not a solution

What is the term for limiting climate policies/insitutional focus on climate change sustainability/adaptation frameworks of language?

Dewan (2021) Climate reductive agendas – sea level will rise, salinity will increase, so villagers should convert paddy fields to cultivate shrimp for export.

• Salt-water shrimp farming is entangled in environmental degradation

World Bank promoting - salinity as an adaptation to climate change

• Tiger prawn cultivation led to mangrove grabbing, the cutting down of trees and the converting of paddy into saltwater aquaculture under the guise of poverty reduction when all it did was increase foreign exchange.

Issues is that this approach ignores how salinity is seasonal and reversable - such as with temporary breaches with monsoons. And:

• The burden of salinity is borne by the poor

• Focus on adaptation of the poor, instead of meaningful CC management

What is the consequence of Climate Reductive agendas/policies?

The burden of salinity is borne by the poorest

• Focus on adaptation of the poor, instead of meaningful CC management

• Ignores the history of the management of Stilts and Brackish water delta [pre-British Colonisation]

Demonstrating how today’s climate adaptation policies – policies that all of you will work toward I hope – are “climate reductive”. They do not understand the ecology of a place, are not driven by people’s needs but often are part of the problem not the solution

Why is it important to reflect on history for today’s current-day crises?

There is no such thing as a natural disaster. It is the relationship of a natural hazard interacting with vulnerability that creates a disaster. (Terry Cannon).

These natural ‘disasters’ are human-induced.

What does Kingsbury’s 2019 An Imperial Disaster: The Bengal Cyclone of 1876 highlight?

Difference between local officals on the ground and higher administrative superiors [who lived with greater distance to the disaster] in their presumption that the scale of disaster was being exageratd by local officals.

• 1 local offical requesting 50,000 maunds of rice - being sent 4,000. [Despite both holding british poor laws approach to relief aid]

Though government buildings were intensly damaged, meaning many historical records were lost. Most of the British officials lived in houses on hills, whereas most victims lived in forest clearings - the greater number of trees around you the better, as people living in only partially cleared land had higher survival rates.

How does Kingsbury’s An Imperial Disaster: The Bengal Cyclone of 1876 link to Week 3?

Structural violence in structural inequality as class differences in death rates from the cyclones in the monsoon season.

Based on location of British officals on hill’s, compared to locals in deforested clearings.

As well as deforestation being driven by previous colonising groups [Dewan], and the capitalising British East India Company

How does Kingsbury’s An Imperial Disaster: The Bengal Cyclone of 1876 link to Week 7?

As an example of Malthusian approaches to aid.

Despite local officals getting much less than was requested from superior administrative officials concerned with government spending:

• They all held the approach that relief should be given to the destitute and disabled, whereas abled bodied people had to work for their food.

• And only enough relief would be given to sustain them to bare life, they were expected to get their lives back on track and rebuild - on their own, or through their landlords with subscriptions [which the commonly government was] ##Disaster Capitalism.##

How does Dewan’s 2021 Misreading the Bengal Delta link to Week 7 ideas?

Commodification of nature:

• Historically through British Colonial offical’s surveying and classifying people and land - i.e. deforesting land, for ‘modernisation’

• Presently with Climate Reductive Agenda’s pushing the brunt of Salinity in World Bank devleopment projects, promoting adaptation to increased salinity through moving to ‘tiger prawn farming’. Instead of addressing who this burden of CC lies on, and does not take a social equality approach [Raworth and Hickle]

What is Dewan’s 2021 Misreading the Bengal Delta historical overview of deforestation of the Sundarban mangrove forests?

The deforestation of the Sundarbans predates British colonialism. From the

early Turkic sultanate 1204-1576, to the end of the Mughal period 1576-1765

the Sundarbans was perceived as a part of “reclaiming” and converting “wild jungle” into

arable land for “human civilization.”.

And after the Bengal textile industry and trade posterity began to decline in the East India Company period mid-1700s, Company revenue officials created tax incentives and revenue collection exemptions to accellerate the deforestation of the region, to turn the area into taxable agricultural land.