S. Nazrul Islam
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190079024
- eISBN:
- 9780190079055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190079024.003.0002
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
Chapter 2 reviews the origin and spread of the Commercial approach to rivers. It explains the origin of this approach in the first Industrial Revolution, which provided human societies both the ...
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Chapter 2 reviews the origin and spread of the Commercial approach to rivers. It explains the origin of this approach in the first Industrial Revolution, which provided human societies both the commercial motive and the machine power required to undertake large-scale frontal and lateral interventions in rivers. The chapter catalogues various types of frontal intervening structures—including dams, barrages, and weirs—that the Commercial approach deploys to achieve its purpose. The chapter then follows the spread of the frontal version of the Commercial approach across the world, beginning with the developed countries and then the developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The chapter ends by providing a statistical summary of the global picture regarding dams and barrages, which are the main instruments of the Commercial approach to rivers.Less
Chapter 2 reviews the origin and spread of the Commercial approach to rivers. It explains the origin of this approach in the first Industrial Revolution, which provided human societies both the commercial motive and the machine power required to undertake large-scale frontal and lateral interventions in rivers. The chapter catalogues various types of frontal intervening structures—including dams, barrages, and weirs—that the Commercial approach deploys to achieve its purpose. The chapter then follows the spread of the frontal version of the Commercial approach across the world, beginning with the developed countries and then the developing countries in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The chapter ends by providing a statistical summary of the global picture regarding dams and barrages, which are the main instruments of the Commercial approach to rivers.
Arupjyoti Saikia
- Published in print:
- 2019
- Published Online:
- January 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780199468119
- eISBN:
- 9780190990435
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780199468119.003.0012
- Subject:
- History, Indian History
This chapter explains how the nineteenth century saw the emergence of many ideas related to meaningfully transforming the Brahmaputra to serve the government and the country. Experts toyed with ideas ...
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This chapter explains how the nineteenth century saw the emergence of many ideas related to meaningfully transforming the Brahmaputra to serve the government and the country. Experts toyed with ideas on how to tame the river. If other rivers of the world could serve the cause of the governments of the countries through which they flowed, why should the Brahmaputra not be trained in similar ways? It was only a matter of the appropriate calculations and necessary engineering works. What was called for was a plan for the river’s regulation to achieve the desired goals. The river, despite its erratic temperament, was bound to behave according to the rules thus framed. After two centuries of political, economic, intellectual, and bureaucratic negotiation, the river has become part of India’s national imagination. India’s stake in the Brahmaputra is now firmly established.Less
This chapter explains how the nineteenth century saw the emergence of many ideas related to meaningfully transforming the Brahmaputra to serve the government and the country. Experts toyed with ideas on how to tame the river. If other rivers of the world could serve the cause of the governments of the countries through which they flowed, why should the Brahmaputra not be trained in similar ways? It was only a matter of the appropriate calculations and necessary engineering works. What was called for was a plan for the river’s regulation to achieve the desired goals. The river, despite its erratic temperament, was bound to behave according to the rules thus framed. After two centuries of political, economic, intellectual, and bureaucratic negotiation, the river has become part of India’s national imagination. India’s stake in the Brahmaputra is now firmly established.
Christopher Patrick Miller
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- June 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780190456023
- eISBN:
- 9780190456054
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190456023.003.0008
- Subject:
- Religion, Theology
This chapter analyzes the confluence of environmental politics, biopolitics, and the cultural role of yoga in India. It begins with an overview of India’s current economic development challenges and ...
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This chapter analyzes the confluence of environmental politics, biopolitics, and the cultural role of yoga in India. It begins with an overview of India’s current economic development challenges and shows how the country’s current prime minister has subsumed both yoga bodies and water bodies into biopolitical discourse to support a neoliberal economic boom that will contribute to the proliferation of anthropogenic climate change. The chapter then argues that alternative forms of yoga aimed at nurturing intimacy between the human body and the natural world are helping to prevent unnecessary climate-change-producing development activities in India, including the river-linking project and other massive hydroelectric projects that threaten India’s riparian environments.Less
This chapter analyzes the confluence of environmental politics, biopolitics, and the cultural role of yoga in India. It begins with an overview of India’s current economic development challenges and shows how the country’s current prime minister has subsumed both yoga bodies and water bodies into biopolitical discourse to support a neoliberal economic boom that will contribute to the proliferation of anthropogenic climate change. The chapter then argues that alternative forms of yoga aimed at nurturing intimacy between the human body and the natural world are helping to prevent unnecessary climate-change-producing development activities in India, including the river-linking project and other massive hydroelectric projects that threaten India’s riparian environments.
S. Nazrul Islam
- Published in print:
- 2020
- Published Online:
- September 2020
- ISBN:
- 9780190079024
- eISBN:
- 9780190079055
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780190079024.003.0005
- Subject:
- Biology, Ecology
Chapter 5 uses the experience of South Asia to illustrate how the Commercial approach leads to conflicts among co-riparian countries. It notes that river basins were fragmented in South Asia by ...
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Chapter 5 uses the experience of South Asia to illustrate how the Commercial approach leads to conflicts among co-riparian countries. It notes that river basins were fragmented in South Asia by borders that were drawn based on political considerations and not physical geography. While greater cooperation among South Asian countries was necessary to protect the river basins, adoption of the Commercial approach led to more conflicts than cooperation. India, which lies at the center of the region, has borders with most South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan and finds itself in conflict with all of them. The chapter focuses on the most serious and numerous conflicts, which are with Bangladesh, and center on such major water diversionary barrages as the Farakka Barrage and the Gajoldoba Barrage. It notes that India’s proposed River Linking Project is only likely to aggravate these conflicts. The chapter also reviews India’s conflicts with Nepal and Bhutan regarding sharing the costs and benefits of the dams that it has constructed under joint ventures as well as conflicts with Pakistan over sharing the Indus River. Finally, the chapter notes the burgeoning conflicts with China regarding the Brahmaputra River.Less
Chapter 5 uses the experience of South Asia to illustrate how the Commercial approach leads to conflicts among co-riparian countries. It notes that river basins were fragmented in South Asia by borders that were drawn based on political considerations and not physical geography. While greater cooperation among South Asian countries was necessary to protect the river basins, adoption of the Commercial approach led to more conflicts than cooperation. India, which lies at the center of the region, has borders with most South Asian countries, including Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, and Pakistan and finds itself in conflict with all of them. The chapter focuses on the most serious and numerous conflicts, which are with Bangladesh, and center on such major water diversionary barrages as the Farakka Barrage and the Gajoldoba Barrage. It notes that India’s proposed River Linking Project is only likely to aggravate these conflicts. The chapter also reviews India’s conflicts with Nepal and Bhutan regarding sharing the costs and benefits of the dams that it has constructed under joint ventures as well as conflicts with Pakistan over sharing the Indus River. Finally, the chapter notes the burgeoning conflicts with China regarding the Brahmaputra River.