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
| 1 | |
2 IRRIGATION AND THE BALOCH FRONTIER | 27 |
THE VILLAGE AND THE COLONIAL PROPERTY ORDER | 69 |
4 STATUTE AND CUSTOM IN WATER LAW | 104 |
5 SCIENCE THE STATE AND THE ENVIRONMENT | 144 |
6 THE RIVER BASIN AND PARTITION | 182 |
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administration agriculture areas Bahawalpur Baloch Bari Doab biradari British officials Bugti Canal Act canal colonies central Punjab century Chenab colony chher claims colonial property Comm construction critical cultivation custom customary law defined Delhi Dera Ghazi Khan Derajat engineers environment environmental Ferozepore Ferozepore District forms framework frontier Gazetteer genealogical grazing hills important India individual Indus basin Indus Rivers Indus Waters Treaty inundation canals irrigation Jamal Khan Khakwanis Khan District labor Lahore land larger Leghari linked Lyall ment mobilization moral Multan Multan District Muzaffargarh District nature operation Pakistan partition pastoral Persian wheels plains political productive proprietary provincial Punjab Archives Punjab BOR Punjab Revenue region relationship Report river basin role Sandeman settlement officer Shahpur shaped Sikh state’s structure suggested Sutlej technical tensions tion tirni Tiwana transformation tribal tribes tubewells tumandar village community waste wastelands water control water lords water management zamindars