KNYGA Pallavi V. Das Colonialism, Development, and the Environment

While colonial encounters have been seen by scholars more or less in economic and political terms, what is largely missing is the metropole's economic development strategies that had definite ecological consequences for the colony. Focusing on the colonial encounter between Britain and India, Das looks at the economic development, including scientific and technological changes, and the environmental impact of the colonial encounter on India. Examining the railways and deforestation, Das shows how deforestation jeopardized railway expansion, which led to state implementation of forest conservation in order to maintain timber supplies. Das' book demonstrates how the history of colonialism has both economic (and political) as well as ecological dimensions.