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Colonial Zamindars and Flood Control: Environmental History of North Bihar on the Ground

Researcher: Praveen Singh

The dominant ideology driving colonial interventions in North Bihar was controlling the flood plain. The zamindar became the pivot for implementing these efforts, particularly in the construction of embankments, and various schemes were put in place to force zamindars to pay for construction activities. Along with the railways and roads, the uncontrolled manner in which many zamindari embankments were built further deteriorated the flood situation. By the middle of the nineteenth century, however, the dangers of obstructing the free flow of rivers were evident and by the 1930s, there was a general consensus among irrigation engineers that embankments were bad policy and should be removed wherever possible, but there were too many vested interests to allow this. The official solution was to build dams, then being touted not only as a flood control measure, but also as an avenue for employing World War II veterans.

Although developments since 1947 have led to these dam projects being shelved, embankment construction returned on a major scale. Indeed, the structures of colonialism, ideas it propagated and social forces unleashed by it in rural areas, continue to influence flood policy. This study advocates that environmental histories need to be explored on the ground: a social, economic, and ecological layer immediately below but not outside that of the working of the colonial state.

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