Historicizing Earthquake and Cyclones: Evolution of Geology and Cyclonology in Colonial India

Abstract

The article elucidates the ideologies behind the colonial policy regarding the mitigation of earthquakes and cyclonic hazards in nineteenth- and twentieth-century India. Colonial encounters with the natural world of the Indian subcontinent had generated much discontent and uneasiness between the rulers and the ruled. There is no doubt that the environmental or natural policies of the colonial state were guided by economic interests, but in the cases of natural disasters like earthquakes and cyclones, these were unleashed in a more critical and dramatic way. The present article intends to critically examine the geological and cyclonological developments in colonial India as part of the disaster mitigation process and thereby explore the colonial attitude towards natural disasters. The economy and politics of disasters had evolved in the course of time in accordance with the shifting interests of colonial rulers. The article does not merely intend to deal with the ‘science’ of the disasters but delves into the historical evolution of geological and cyclonological study in colonial India.