S. RAVI RAJAN
- Published in print:
- 2006
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199277964
- eISBN:
- 9780191707827
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199277964.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter summarizes the key findings of the entire study and explores some of its wider implications concerning the contested legacy of colonial eco-development. It argues that forestry as a ...
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This chapter summarizes the key findings of the entire study and explores some of its wider implications concerning the contested legacy of colonial eco-development. It argues that forestry as a technology was not merely a product of colonial expediency. On the contrary, it provided a context for colonial politics just as it was shaped and moulded by it. Similarly, colonial foresters were not mere ‘servants of the state’; they were carriers of a culture of technology that had its origins in another setting, even if the imperial context exacerbated the impact of their actions. Moreover, against the backdrop of the debate over whether or not colonial forestry constituted a watershed in the environmental history of the British Empire, it is important to note that scientific forestry, as a regime of resource management, was designed to be a major watershed even in continental Europe, its place of birth.Less
This chapter summarizes the key findings of the entire study and explores some of its wider implications concerning the contested legacy of colonial eco-development. It argues that forestry as a technology was not merely a product of colonial expediency. On the contrary, it provided a context for colonial politics just as it was shaped and moulded by it. Similarly, colonial foresters were not mere ‘servants of the state’; they were carriers of a culture of technology that had its origins in another setting, even if the imperial context exacerbated the impact of their actions. Moreover, against the backdrop of the debate over whether or not colonial forestry constituted a watershed in the environmental history of the British Empire, it is important to note that scientific forestry, as a regime of resource management, was designed to be a major watershed even in continental Europe, its place of birth.
