The Flawed "Tools of Empire": Clive Dewey, Steamboats on the Indus.

Abstract

The Flawed "Tools of Empire"Clive Dewey, Steamboats on the Indus Michael Adas (bio) Despite the deceptively modest range of historical processes and geographical coverage suggested by its title, Clive Dewey's Steamboats on the Indus: The Limits of Western Technological Superiority in South Asia (New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. Pp. 360. $130) is a book of importance not only for social scientists and engineers interested in the history of science and technology, but for scholars and practitioners engaged in the study of South Asia, Western colonialism, and cross-cultural transfers. From the first paragraphs it is clear this is a work that is the product of decades, perhaps a career, of meticulous and thoroughgoing research, primarily in often difficult-to-access (and make sense of) archival and primary sources in India, Pakistan, and Great Britain. At times the detail can be overwhelming, but Dewey writes well and laces his narrative with insightful observations and broader arguments that build to cogent critiques and correctives to prevalent interpretations regarding the impact of innovative technologies. He specifically focuses on dominant assumptions about the ways in which the advantages of industrialization made possible the rise of the West and its colonization of much of the rest of the world. The prodigious effort that went into Dewey's magnum opus and the well-grounded, provocative arguments that his labors yield very likely account for the skills and expense that went into making what is a visually splendid book. The text is complemented by ample illustrations—from technical drawings to Anglo-Indian watercolors—that enable the reader to visualize the complex relationships between machines and boats and the often-insurmountable difficulties of navigating the many branches of the Indus River system. [End Page 578] Although Dewey includes consideration of bridges, ferries, and related subjects, his main focus is on the mid-nineteenth-century introduction of coal-fueled steamboats by the British and the effects of that process on the diverse array of sail-driven "country" boats, built and operated by local Indian craftsmen and crews. Since that competition is central to the broader arguments that are previewed in his subtitle stressing "The Limits of Western Superiority in South Asia," I will focus my review on the ways in which his core comparisons challenge widely held assumptions about how technology is transferred across cultures and the impact of industrial techniques and modes of transportation and communication on "traditional" societies. Dewey begins with an engaging discussion of the formidable challenges posed by those who sought to open the Indus River system to navigation of any kind. Rather than a single main channel, the Indus is a web of several major tributaries and smaller streams. In its lower reaches where centuries of silt accumulation have formed a vast alluvial plain, its many outlets are shallow and thus prone to shifting the course of their flow to the sea frequently. The gorges and rapids in the upper spans of the river pose very different problems for navigators, and treacherous curves and daunting shifts in depth according to the rhythms of the monsoon seasons impede travel over the whole length of the Indus system. As Dewey argues in the core chapters of the study that follows, though heralded as marvels of industrial engineering in the early and mid-nineteenth century, steamships were perhaps the least suitable vessels for travel or transport on the Indus River. They were hampered by a multitude of problems, from the bulk and weight of their steam engines that caused them to run aground in the ubiquitous shallows and impeded travel upstream in the rainy season when water levels were highest, to their shallow-drafts which caused them to careen through the channels, often colliding with the riverbanks. The daunting obstacles to penetration from the sea that the Indus posed for naval forces were in part responsible for the delayed British interest in bringing the Sind and the Punjab into their Indian Empire, which had been expanding in the subcontinent since the middle of the eighteenth century. Early-nineteenth-century conflicts with the local kingdoms, particularly those controlled by the Sikhs, and growing threats from Afghan peoples in the interior, compelled ever-greater British involvement...