Purifying the River: Pollution and Purity of Water in Colonial Calcutta

Abstract

This article explores the river as a site of urban modernity in India. At the heart of this article is the colonial project of purifying the water of the river Hooghly for the domestic supply of Calcutta. The British built the first water purification system for the city around the middle of the nineteenth century at Pulta. Around this theme, the article explores the various discourses and practices of pollution, purity and purification taking place at the time. The debates were not just about whether the river was polluted or suitable for the supply of water to the city but also about whether piped water itself was pure. At one level, the science of purity confronted Hindu ritualistic ideas of purity. At another level, the very idea of purity itself was on trial. One of the main sites of examination for this article is, thus, the various notions of purity at play in Calcutta at this time, within both western science and Hindu scriptural deliberations. These were accentuated by the fact that in Calcutta and several other colonial cities, water was conceptualized through multiple semantic and spatial tropes. The article situates the project of purification at the heart of this entangled reality and discourse of purity of water.