Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons Have Shaped South Asia's History

Traditionally, history was a litany of great men and their works, which was then countered by postcolonial and subaltern studies of social formation. Economic and social histories abound but not so much the environmental view of history, despite the successes of the likes of Jared Diamond.This book is a bit of a mixed bag - a history of meteorology, mainly, but also a broad brush account of power structures, social pressures, and efforts by the state to control both nature and the populace. It starts with the British Raj in India and the efforts of sundry administrators and scientists to understand the monsoon, hoping thereby to forecast it better to prepare against famines. Indian agriculture was more or less a function of the annual rains, and when these failed, the devastation was considerable. With the disintegration of the Mughal empire into petty principalities, local infrastructure to store water began to fray, thus exacerbating the suffering. Inflexible caste rules also prevented sharing of any available water, with the lower castes facing the worst tribulations.Historically, the establishment of water works was a manifestation of the power of kingship: both its benevolence and its ability to coerce subjects into large-scale manual labour. Amrith doesn't say if the canals and wells of pre-British India were effective in reducing famine. At the least, these were not perhaps as intrusive into the landscape as later mega-projects, notably dams and barrages. But with the British came a desire for a technocratic solution to water disparity. To achieve this in the face of rural opposition to the destruction of land and forest, the British enforced the doctrine of eminent domain and forcibly confiscated property for resource extraction and reservoirs. This grandiose view of human control over the environment was inherited by the independent Indian state, resulting in hundreds of dams being built, with equally coercive relocation and impoverishment of the people affected.In hindsight, the slow-motion disaster that ensued is obvious: destruction of arable land, deforestation, denudation, pollution of ground water, siltation, worse floods, species extinction. Instead of retreating from plans for over-ambitious water programmes, the post-colonial states doubled down - even more dams are planned for the upper reaches of the Himalayan rivers, and there is constant talk of canal-works to connect the great rivers of the subcontinent.Amrith's book mainly talks about India, but there are interesting comparisons to China and Southeast Asia. The Chinese are the supremos of dam building in the world now, and with their control of Tibet, in the scary position of affecting all lower riparian states that depend on the waters of the Brahmaputra or the Mekong. Amrith also talks about the human effect on the monsoon - previously seen as a planetary system of weather, it is now clearly impacted by anthropogenic climate change.A troubling book.

Given the numerous civilisations that have flourished in South Asia - from the Indus Valley Civilisation through the conquests of Alexander the Great onwards - I had expected this book to cover much of the history of humankind. In fact, it only covers the last 200 years or so - mainly from the time of the British Raj onwards.The supply of water to this part of the world is entirely dominated by two things: the Indian Ocean monsoon and the rivers flowing from the Himalayas. They create a unique and fragile water system, and one which, in relation to the size of the population, produces only a fraction of the freshwater that the rest of the world has access to. Over the last 100 years dams and groundwater pumps have allowed South Asian nations to better irrigate their land, but these come at increasing ecological costs. Groundwater levels have fallen alarmingly, and dams built upstream deprive those further downstream of the water - meaning that control over the Himalayan sources of Asia's major rivers is becoming ever more important. One senses that year by year, the likelihood of famine, war and environmental disaster in this part of the world is getting ever more likely.

I have read this as part of the VINE programme and that means i've received an early version of the book and the quality of print is not as good as the final product. This means that my reading experience was slightly off from the start where we have a photo of the Himalayas and the following introduction is written on the basis of what you are supposed to see in that photo - and which i couldn't see. That was a shame, but otherwise the writing is mostly interesting and engaging throughout the book and I have of course not deducted anything for the fact that I'm reading a lower quality proof-reader version of the book. The one star I have deducted is for there not being even more illustrations, photos and maps of the area we are reading about. It would greatly improve the reading experience not having to google some of these areas for a better idea ofwhat it looks like and it would add that last bit to make it a perfect book on the topic. For now it is just a very good one.

I'm about halfway through this book and it's likely a reasonable point to make a review. The focus of this book is very much on the Indian subcontinent, especially as much of the 'groundwork' is set in the period of British colonial control of that region - I understand it will include more information and critique of other south asian places later in the book, but it clearly is written with a view "outwards" from India. The history is fascinating, and the author's demonstrations of how the control of the monsoon flood cycles has been a preoccupation of all powers that settled in India is enchanting. As a briton, it is a much-needed history lesson for me (we aren't keen on exploring the British empire during our regular schooling, as we're happier to tell ourselves stories about much older tyrannies that we can feel less connected to, or moments of national pride, such as the more recent wars in Europe). I could only wish that more visual references (maps, diagrams) could be employed in the book, as, for someone less familiar with the geography of South Asia, it can become quite hard to keep up with the places referenced, particularly as these often follow the routes of rivers, rather than by state borders.A compelling history of meteorology, empire, technological innovation, social change and natural phenomena.

Amrith is a standout and influential author on environmental history. Unruly Waters is no less complex and sweeping than previous texts. This is a heavy read, complex, engaging, and not for the layman or the casual reader, generally. If you have any interest in the cultural, economic, or geopgrahical evolution in Asia then you will find this text fascinating.