An Encroaching Sea
Nature, Sovereignty and Development at the Edge of British India 1860–1950

An exploration of colonial and princely sovereignty through a study of port development in a fluid political and ecological context.

Devika Shankar (Author)

9781009533683, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 19 December 2024

276 pages
23.5 x 15.9 x 2.2 cm, 0.55 kg

'An Encroaching Sea is a brilliant and original contribution to both environmental history and legal history - and it blends them in new ways. Based on rigorous and extensive archival research in India and beyond, Devika Shankar shows how the British colonial state responded to ecological anxieties and legal challenges from princely states by building a massive port in Cochin harbour. Shankar traces the deep roots of an enduring pattern: states, when faced with unruly ecologies, double down on their faith in infrastructure. This stimulating book deserves the widest possible audience.' Sunil Amrith, Yale University

Ecological and political instability have time and again emerged as catalysts for risky development projects along India's south-west coastline. Devika Shankar probes this complicated relationship between crisis and development through a focus on a port development project executed in Cochin in the first quarter of the twentieth century amidst significant political and ecological uncertainty. While ecological concerns were triggered by increasing coastal erosion, a political crisis was precipitated by a neighbouring princely state's unprecedented attempt to extend its sovereignty over the British port. This integrative environmental, legal, and political history brings together the history of British India and the princely states to show how these anxieties ultimately paved the way for an ambitious port development project in the final years of colonial rule. In the process it deepens our understanding of environmental transformations and development in modern South Asia and the uneven nature of colonial sovereignty.

Introduction
1. A coast of curiosities
2. Shifting sands and fluid frontiers
3. A slippery sovereignty
4. The making of a natural harbour
5. A perilous port
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Asian history [HBJF]