A British Military Engineer, the Ganga and the Spectre of Control in Colonial Northern India (1839–1854)

Abstract

Much has been written about environmental and agrarian history in South Asia. These documented histories provide a fascinating overview of structural changes brought about through infrastructural development and modes of colonial governance. However, specific and advanced forms of intervention were introduced in the nineteenth century, which was defined by the accelerated scale of exploitation of the environment. This article offers an account of the Ganga Canal, constructed in mid-nineteenth century colonial India, under British engineer Proby Cautley, by drawing water from the river Ganga. The paper revisits his motivations and challenges and the scope of his plan to make two arguments. First, it argues that the engineering model of Cautley reflects his deeper entanglement with the ideals of colonial modernity, such as controlling the natural world. Second, the colossal scale of hydrological experimentation through the processes of canal construction, in turn, transformed the imagination of the river into an object.