Environment and Pollution in Colonial India: Sewerage Technologies along the Sacred Ganges

208 Pages·2016·4.091 MB·English

by  Janine Wilhelm

Environment and Pollution in
Colonial India
India is facing a river pollution crisis today. The origins of this crisis are com-
monly traced back to post-I ndependence economic development and urbanisa-
tion. This book, in contrast, shows that some important early roots of India’s
river pollution problem, and in particular the pollution of the Ganges, lie with
British colonial policies on wastewater disposal during the late nineteenth and
early twentieth centuries.
Analysing the two cornerstones of colonial river pollution history – the intro-
duction of sewerage systems and the introduction of biological sewage treatment
technologies in cities along the Ganges – the author examines different contro-
versies around the proposed and actual discharge of untreated or treated sewage
into the Ganges, which involved officials on different administrative levels as
well as the Indian public. The analysis shows that the colonial state essentially
ignored the problematic aspects of sewage disposal into rivers, which were
clearly evident from European experience. Guided by colonial ideology and
fiscal policy, colonial officials supported the introduction of the cheapest avail-
able sewerage technologies, which were technologies causing extensive pollu-
tion. Thus, policies on sewage disposal into the Ganges and other Indian rivers
took on a definite shape around the turn of the twentieth century and acquired
certain enduring features that were to exert great negative influence on the future
development of river pollution in India.
A well-r esearched study on colonial river pollution history, this book presents
an innovative contribution to South Asian environmental history. It is of interest
to scholars working on colonial, South Asian and environmental history, and the
colonial history of public health, science and technology.
Janine Wilhelm received her doctorate from Humboldt University Berlin in
2015. Her current research focuses on the environmental history of South Asia’s
rivers, the history of modern Yoga and Yoga philosophy.
Routledge Studies in South Asian History
3 Historiography and Writing 10 Gender and Radical Politics in
Postcolonial India India
Naheem Jabbar Magic Moments of Naxalbari
(1967–1975)
4 Nationalism, Education and Mallarika Sinha Roy
Migrant Identities
The England-R eturned 11 Bureaucracy, Community and
Sumita Mukherjee Influence in India
Society and the State,
5 Medicine, Race and Liberalism 1930s–1960s
in British Bengal William Gould
Symptoms of Empire
Ishita Pande 12 A History of State and Religion
in India
6 Radical Politics in Colonial Ian Copland, Ian Mabbett, Asim
Punjab Roy, Kate Brittlebank and Adam
Governance and Sedition Bowles
Shalini Sharma
13 Hindu Mahasabha in Colonial
7 The Great Rebellion of 1857 in North India, 1915–1930
India Constructing Nation and History
Exploring Transgressions, Prabhu Bapu
Contests and Diversities
Biswamoy Pati 14 Cinema, Transnationalism, and
Colonial India
8 The State and Governance in Entertaining the Raj
India Babli Sinha
The Congress Ideal
William F. Kuracina 15 Environment and Pollution in
Colonial India
9 Gandhi’s Spinning Wheel and Sewerage Technologies along the
the Making of India Sacred Ganges
Rebecca Brown Janine Wilhelm
Environment and Pollution in
Colonial India
Sewerage technologies along the sacred
Ganges
Janine Wilhelm
First published 2016
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business
© 2016 Janine Wilhelm
The right of Janine Wilhelm to be identified as author of this work has
been asserted by her in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or
utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now
known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in
any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing
from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or
registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation
without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Names: Wilhelm, Janine, author.Title: Environment and pollution in
Colonial India : sewerage technologies along the sacred Ganges /
Janine Wilhelm.
Description: Abingdon, Oxon : Routledge, 2016. | Series: Routledge
studies in South Asian history ; 15 | Includes bibliographical references
and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2015046131| ISBN 9781138646124 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781315627717 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Water quality management–Ganges River Watershed
(India and Bangladesh) | Sewage disposal in rivers, lakes, etc.–
Environmental aspects–Ganges River Watershed (India and Bangladesh) |
Water quality management–Government policy–India. | Sewerage–India–
Government policy. | Water–Pollution–Ganges River Watershed (India
and Bangladesh)–History–19th century. | Water–Pollution–Ganges River
Watershed (India and Bangladesh)–History–20th century.
Classification: LCC TD304.G36 W55 2016 | DDC 628.30954/1–dc23
LC record available at http://lccn.loc.gov/2015046131
ISBN: 978-1-138-64612-4 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-62771-7 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by Wearset Ltd, Boldon, Tyne and Wear
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
List of abbreviations vii
Introduction 1
1 A Rivers Pollution Prevention Act for India? 30
2 River of disease 54
3 Local self-g overnment and river pollution 78
4 Biological sewage treatment in the United Provinces: trial
and failure 93
5 Biological sewage treatment in Calcutta: the septic tank
controversy 107
Conclusion 152
Bibliography 178
Index 194
Acknowledgements
This book is a revised version of my PhD thesis submitted at the Faculty of
Humanities and Social Sciences at Humboldt University, Berlin. I would like to
express my sincere gratitude towards my supervisor Prof. Dr. Michael Mann,
who provided invaluable guidance and unfailing support throughout the process,
while granting me the greatest creative freedom imaginable. I am also greatly
indebted to my second supervisor Prof. Dr. Harald Fischer- Tiné from the Swiss
Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich, who contributed to this work with
many insightful comments. During my two years of employment at his chair I
enjoyed a most inspiring intellectual environment that proved to be highly con-
ducive to my research.
The German Academic Exchange Service generously supported this project
in 2011 and 2012 by funding two research stays at Jawaharlal Nehru University,
New Delhi, as part of its exchange programme ‘A New Passage to India’. Logis-
tic support was provided by the Graduate Centre Humanities and Social Sciences
at Leipzig University, for which I would like to thank them. I would also like to
thank the staff of all the archives and libraries I consulted for this work, includ-
ing the indescribably kind and helpful staff at the British Library’s Asian and
African Studies reading room, those of the National Archives of India, the Nehru
Memorial Museum and Library, the Uttar Pradesh State Archives, and the Uttar
Pradesh State Archives’ regional archives in Banaras. I am also deeply grateful
to David Arnold, Mahesh Rangarajan, Melitta Waligora, Anna Mohr, Anita
Breuer and Routledge’s anonymous reviewer(s) for their inspiring commentaries
at various stages, and to Dorothea Schaefter and Jillian Morrison from Routledge
for their unstinting support.
Finally, this book could never have materialised without my friends and
family, whose presence and ongoing encouragement helped me get through the
rough phases every project of this kind faces. In particular, I would like to thank
my parents, who have always stood by my side, no matter what. To them I dedi-
cate this book.
Abbreviations
APAC British Library, Asia, Pacific and Africa Collections
ARDPH Annual Report of the Director of Public Health
ARSC Annual Report of the Sanitary Commissioner
BNR Bengal Newspaper Reports
B.S.A. Board of Scientific Advice
CGA Central Ganga Authority
CPCB Central Pollution Control Board
Dpt Department
GAP Ganga Action Plan
GPD Ganga Project Directorate
GoBeng Government of Bengal
GOI Government of India
GoNWP Government of the North-W estern Provinces of Agra and Oudh
GoPun Government of Punjab
GoUP Government of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
I.A.C. Indian Advisory Committee
IMS Indian Medical Service
IOR India Office Records
NAI National Archives of India
NGRBA National Ganga River Basin Authority
NWP North- Western Provinces of Agra and Oudh
NWPNR North- Western Provinces of Agra and Oudh Newspaper
Reports
Prgs Proceedings
Secy Secretary
UP United Provinces of Agra and Oudh
UPSA Uttar Pradesh State Archives
UPSA(V) Uttar Pradesh State Archives: Regional Archives, Varanasi
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Introduction
India is facing an acute river pollution crisis these days. Nearly all of the coun-
try’s major rivers are burdened with immense amounts of municipal sewage,
industrial effluents, solid waste and other harmful substances. Pollution, more-
over, is spreading fast. According to a recent report by the Indian government’s
Central Pollution Control Board, the number of polluted rivers rose from 121 in
2009 to 275 in 2015, while the number of polluted river stretches more than
doubled during the same period, increasing from 150 to 302.1 A primary example
for the extent of this crisis is the Ganges. Banaras, Kanpur and other riparian
cities discharge over 2,600 million litres of sewage into the river daily. Most of
this is raw sewage, since existing sewage treatment plants handle only a fraction
of the total amount and are often inadequately operated. Additionally, tanneries,
oil refineries, paper mills, pharmaceutical and other industries discharge 290
million litres of often highly toxic industrial wastes. Agricultural runoff (con-
taining pesticide and fertiliser residues), solid waste, and waste generated in con-
nection with religious worship count among the many other sources of pollution.2
At the same time, the river’s ability to regenerate itself steadily diminishes, as
water levels keep dropping due to over-e xtraction and the construction of count-
less dams.3 Consequently, the Ganges – officially declared as India’s ‘national
river’ by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in 2008 – has turned into one of most
polluted rivers in the world.
The slow death of India’s rivers is part of the nation’s much more extensive
environmental crisis, a crisis that became clearly palpable after Independence
and has reached alarming dimensions in the wake of economic liberalisation in
1991. Similar to other emerging nations, India suffers from massive deforesta-
tion, soil contamination, polluted and dwindling ground water resources, flood
disasters, recurring bouts of smog and ever increasing amounts of garbage, to
name just a number of problems. In recent decades, considerable political and
public awareness has come to revolve around environmental degradation in
India, both on the national and international levels, and has found expression
through countless political debates, conferences, press reports and publications
on the subject.4 Early government initiatives towards environmental protection
commenced during the 1970s following India’s participation in the United
Nations’ Stockholm Conference in 1972. In the same year, the government