Blood and Water: The Indus River Basin in Modern HistoryThe Indus basin was once an arid pastoral watershed, but by the second half of the twentieth century, it had become one of the world's most heavily irrigated and populated river basins. Launched under British colonial rule in the nineteenth century, this irrigation project spurred political, social, and environmental transformations that continued after the 1947 creation of the new states of India and Pakistan. In this first large-scale environmental history of the region, David Gilmartin focuses on the changes that occurred in the basin as a result of the implementation of the world's largest modern integrated irrigation system. This masterful work of scholarship explores how environmental transformation is tied to the creation of communities and nations, focusing on the intersection of politics, statecraft, and the environment. |
Contents
COMMUNITY AND ENVIRONMENT | 1 |
Water Pastoralism and Baloch Identity | 28 |
British Irrigation and the Myth of the Baloch Frontier | 40 |
Empire Irrigation and Tribal Identity | 62 |
THE VILLAGE | 69 |
Commons Aridity Pastoralism | 80 |
Territory and Taxation | 96 |
STATUTE AND CUSTOM IN WATER LAW | 104 |
80 | 166 |
Visions of EnvironmentVisions of Community | 167 |
THE RIVER BASIN AND PARTITION | 182 |
Nationalism Water and the Partition of the Indus Basin | 198 |
THE INDUS WATERS TREATY AND ITS AFTERLIVES | 220 |
Statecraft and Local Community in an Evolving System | 235 |
Notes | 253 |
Bibliography | 321 |
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administration agriculture areas authority Bahawalpur Baloch Bari Doab biradari British officials Canal Act canal colonies central Punjab Chenab colony chher chiefs claims colonial property conceptual construction critical cultivation custom customary law defined Delhi Dera Ghazi Khan Derajat engineering environment environmental Ferozepore flow framework frontier Gazetteer genealogical Ghulam Ghulam Mustafa Khan grazing hills important India individual Indus basin Indus Rivers Indus Waters Treaty inundation canals irrigation Jamal Khan Jhelum Khakwanis Khan District labor Lahore land larger Leghari linked Lyall ment mobilization moral Multan Multan District Muzaffargarh Muzaffargarh District nature operation Pakistan partition pastoral political productive property order proprietary provincial Punjab Archives region relationship Report river basin role Sandeman settlement officer Shahpur shaped Sikh silt statecraft structure suggested Sutlej technical tensions tion Tiwana transformation tribal tribes tubewells village community vision waste wastelands water control water lords water management wrote zamindars