{"title":"Dammed Waterways and a Colonial Legacy: Statutory Law-Making in the Conservancy of Indian Fisheries, 1867-1897","authors":"Sashi Sivramkrishna, Amalendu Jyotishi","doi":"10.3197/ge.2023.160305","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Through an exploration of events that unfolded from the earliest calls for conservancy of Indian fisheries under the British colonial government in 1867 to the passing of a statutory law in 1897, we argue that colonial law-making was a non-linear and complex evolutionary, rather than transformational process. The basis and blueprint for a statutory law in India can be traced to similar concerns in the over-exploitation of riverine fish in Britain as well as to the implementation of Indian forest laws at about the same time. Moreover, the process had to deal with personalities and their claims for recognition while the colonial government sought legitimacy to exert control over resources by appointing highly competent and commended individuals. Concerns over food security as well as the possibility of resistance of the local population could have impelled the need for caution in implementing statutory laws, which may have ultimately resulted in a delay of three decades before the Indian Fisheries Act was finally passed in 1897.","PeriodicalId":42763,"journal":{"name":"Global Environment","volume":"56 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.3000,"publicationDate":"2023-10-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Global Environment","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.3197/ge.2023.160305","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q4","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Through an exploration of events that unfolded from the earliest calls for conservancy of Indian fisheries under the British colonial government in 1867 to the passing of a statutory law in 1897, we argue that colonial law-making was a non-linear and complex evolutionary, rather than transformational process. The basis and blueprint for a statutory law in India can be traced to similar concerns in the over-exploitation of riverine fish in Britain as well as to the implementation of Indian forest laws at about the same time. Moreover, the process had to deal with personalities and their claims for recognition while the colonial government sought legitimacy to exert control over resources by appointing highly competent and commended individuals. Concerns over food security as well as the possibility of resistance of the local population could have impelled the need for caution in implementing statutory laws, which may have ultimately resulted in a delay of three decades before the Indian Fisheries Act was finally passed in 1897.
期刊介绍:
The half-yearly journal Global Environment: A Journal of History and Natural and Social Sciences acts as a forum and echo chamber for ongoing studies on the environment and world history, with special focus on modern and contemporary topics. Our intent is to gather and stimulate scholarship that, despite a diversity of approaches and themes, shares an environmental perspective on world history in its various facets, including economic development, social relations, production government, and international relations. One of the journal’s main commitments is to bring together different areas of expertise in both the natural and the social sciences to facilitate a common language and a common perspective in the study of history. This commitment is fulfilled by way of peer-reviewed research articles and also by interviews and other special features. Global Environment strives to transcend the western-centric and ‘developist’ bias that has dominated international environmental historiography so far and to favour the emergence of spatially and culturally diversified points of view. It seeks to replace the notion of ‘hierarchy’ with those of ‘relationship’ and ‘exchange’ – between continents, states, regions, cities, central zones and peripheral areas – in studying the construction or destruction of environments and ecosystems.