The Hooghly River and the Incomplete Mastery of the Natural World in British Colonial India

Abstract

This chapter considers British attempts to understand, control and improve the Hooghly River in Bengal, during the European colonial age. It suggests that such attempts were both a pragmatic response to improve the river’s navigability, as the city of Calcutta grew into a vital node in the British Empire and an important symbolic endeavour, representing to British officials the triumph of man over nature and the advance of civilisation. British approaches to the river are divided into four broad categories, which are considered in turn: (i) study and mapping; (ii) control and improvement; (iii) accommodation and (iv) resignation. Despite repeated efforts, it is concluded, the Hooghly remained beyond complete human control and, as such, exposed the limits of British colonial power in relation to the natural world.