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An Environmental History of India

India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh contain one-fifth of humanity, are

home to many biodiversity hot spots, and are among the nations most
subject to climatic stresses. By surveying their environmental history, we
can gain major insights into the causes and implications of the Indian
subcontinent’s current conditions. This accessible new survey begins
roughly 100 million years ago, when continental drift moved India from
the South Pole and across the Indian Ocean, forming the Himalayan
Mountains and creating monsoons. Coverage continues into the twenty-
first century, taking readers beyond independence from colonial
rule. The new nations of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have
produced rising populations and have stretched natural resources,
even as they have become increasingly engaged with climate change.
To understand the region’s current and future pressing issues, Michael
H. Fisher argues that we must engage with the long and complex
history of interactions among its people, land, climate, flora, and
fauna.

Michael H. Fisher is Danforth Professor of History, Emeritus, at

Oberlin College in Ohio. He is the author of numerous books, including
Migration: A World History (2013) and A Short History of the Mughal
Empire (2015).
New Approaches to Asian History

This dynamic new series publishes books on the milestones in Asian

history, those that have come to define particular periods or to mark
turning points in the political, cultural, and social evolution of the
region. The books in this series are intended as introductions for
students to be used in the classroom. They are written by scholars
whose credentials are well established in their particular fields and who
have, in many cases, taught the subject across a number of years.

Books in the series

1 Judith M. Brown, Global South Asians: Introducing the Modern

Diaspora
2 Diana Lary, China’s Republic
3 Peter A. Lorge, The Asian Military Revolution: From Gunpowder to
the Bomb
4 Ian Talbot and Gurharpal Singh, The Partition of India
5 Stephen F. Dale, The Muslim Empires of the Ottomans, Safavids, and
Mughals
6 Diana Lary, The Chinese People at War: Human Suffering and Social
Transformation, 1937–1945
7 Sunil S. Amrith, Migration and Diaspora in Modern Asia
8 Thomas David DuBois, Religion and the Making of Modern East
Asia
9 Susan L. Mann, Gender and Sexuality in Modern Chinese History
10 Tirthankar Roy, India in the World Economy: From Antiquity to the
Present
11 Robin R. Wang, Yinyang: The Way of Heaven and Earth in Chinese
Thought and Culture
12 Li Feng, Early China: A Social and Cultural History
13 Diana Lary, China’s Civil War: A Social History, 1945–1949
14 Kiri Paramore, Japanese Confucianism: A Cultural History
15 Robert Peckham, Epidemics in Modern Asia
16 Craig Benjamin, Empires of Ancient Eurasia: The First Silk Roads
Era, 100 BCE – 250 CE
17 John W. Chaffee, The Muslim Merchants of Premodern China:
The History of a Maritime Asian Trade Diaspora, 750–1400
18 Michael H. Fisher, An Environmental History of India: From Earliest
Times to the Twenty-First Century
An Environmental History
of India
From Earliest Times to the Twenty-First Century

Michael H. Fisher
Oberlin College
University Printing House, Cambridge CB2 8BS, United Kingdom
One Liberty Plaza, 20th Floor, New York, NY 10006, USA
477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, VIC 3207, Australia
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It furthers the University’s mission by disseminating knowledge in the pursuit of
education, learning, and research at the highest international levels of excellence.

www.cambridge.org
Information on this title: www.cambridge.org/9781107111622
DOI: 10.1017/9781316276044
© Michael H. Fisher 2018
This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without the written
permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 2018
Printed in the United Kingdom by TJ International Ltd. Padstow, Cornwall
A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fisher, Michael Herbert, 1950– author.
Title: An environmental history of India : from earliest times to the twenty-first
century / Michael H. Fisher.
Description: Cambridge, United Kingdom ; New York, NY : Cambridge
University Press, 2018. | Series: New approaches to Asian history ; 18 |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2018021693| ISBN 9781107111622 (Hardback) | ISBN
9781107529106 (Paperback)
Subjects: LCSH: India – Environmental conditions. | Human ecology – India –
History. | Nature – Effect of human beings on – India – History.
Classification: LCC GE160.I4 F59 2018 | DDC 304.20954–dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018021693
ISBN 978-1-107-11162-2 Hardback
ISBN 978-1-107-52910-6 Paperback
Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of
URLs for external or third-party internet websites referred to in this publication
and does not guarantee that any content on such websites is, or will remain,
accurate or appropriate.
 Contents

List of Figures page vii

List of Maps viii
Preface and Acknowledgments ix

1 Introduction 1
2 Locating and Shaping India’s Physical Environment and
Living Populations 11
3 Indus and Vedic Relationships with Indian Environments
(c. 3500 BCE – c. 600 BCE) 32
4 The Environment and Forest-Dweller, Late Vedic, Hindu,
Jain, Buddhist, and Dravidian Cultures, Societies, and States
(c. 600 BCE – c. 800 CE) 49
5 Insiders, Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Immigrants, and the
Environment (c. 700 – c. 1600) 77
6 The Mughal Empire (1526–1707) 93
7 Mughal Imperial Fragmentation, Regional State Rise,
Popular Environmental Movements, and Early British
Colonial Policies and Institutions (c. 1700–1857) 115
8 The British Raj, “Mahatma” Gandhi, and Other Anti-
Colonial Movements (1857–1947) 135
9 West and East Pakistan and India following Independence
(1947–71) 163
10 India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh from Stockholm to Rio
(1971–92) 195

v
vi Contents

11 India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh into the Twenty-First

Century 222
12 National, Subcontinental, and Global Issues in South Asia 248

Bibliographical Essay 257

References 264
Index 283
 Figures

2.1 The Himalayas, Alps, and Rocky Mountains page 15

3.1a and 3.1b Clay impressions from Indus seals 38
3.2 Vedic sacrificial site plan 46
4.1 Vedic model of the cosmos 52
4.2 Water desiltation system (Sringaverapura, c. first
century BCE) 53
5.1 Underground water channeling, qanat, karez, or
surangam 84
6.1 Emperor Jahangir hunting, by Muhammad Nasir
al-Munshi, 1600–04 (Allahabad period). Courtesy
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (M.83.137),
www.LACMA.org 104
7.1 Image of the government opium warehouse, Patna,
Bihar, from The Graphic, 656 (June 24, 1882), p. 640.
Photograph: DEA / Biblioteca Abrosiana / Getty Images 130
7.2 The manufacture of opium in India, from Bourne and
Shepherd (1899), The Queen’s Empire: A Pictorial and
Descriptive Record, vol. 2 (Cassell) 131
8.1 Growth of railway track under the British Raj 142
11.1 Population in South Asia, overall and by nation 223
12.1 Graveyard of ships, Chittagong, Bangladesh.
Photograph: Rez Click / Moment / Getty Images 252
12.2 Ship-breaking yards of Bangladesh through the foggy and
toxic atmosphere. Photograph: SUC / E+ / Getty Images 253

vii
 Maps

2.1 Geography of the Indian subcontinent 12

2.2 Major watersheds and macroregions 13
3.1 The Indus civilization 34
4.1 India at the time of Ashoka Maurya (r. 268–231 BCE) 61
4.2 Inset of Magadha and Mauryan heartland 62
5.1 India c. 700 to c. 1200 79
6.1 India at the time of the Mughal Empire (sixteenth to
seventeenth centuries) 94
7.1 India in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries 117
8.1 India at the time of the British Raj (1858–1947) 140
8.2 Railway lines by 1930 144
8.3 Major canals by 1930 148
9.1 South Asia at Partition (1947) 164
9.2 East Pakistan 170
9.3 West Pakistan 172
9.4 Population equivalences, Indian provinces, Pakistan, and
Bangladesh, 2018 178
9.5 Punjab 183
9.6 Major dams, barrages, and major link canals in the Indus
Basin, 2018 185
10.1 South Asia in the late twentieth century 197
11.1 China–Pakistan Economic Corridor: New highways and
energy plants 238
12.1 South Asia in the twenty-first century 249

viii
 Preface and Acknowledgments

The subcontinent of India has historically played a vital role in the world
and will increasingly do so in the future. Its population of 1.6 billion
people, one-fifth of humanity, totals more than Africa or than Europe
and North America combined. It contains major fauna and flora biodi-
versity “hot spots,” but also regions among the world’s most polluted
and vulnerable to climate change. We gain major insights about the
causes and implications of the Indian subcontinent’s current conditions
by surveying its extended environmental history, especially the complex
interactions among its people, other living beings, and the material
world.
Environmental history cannot be studied in isolation, encompassing as
it does history of the earth and everything on it. Thus, thoughtful choices
must be made about the limits of any study. This book defines its focus as
the Indian subcontinent (i.e. South Asia currently covered by the rela-
tively young nations of India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh) – already a vast
topic. This choice necessarily leaves out adjacent Afghanistan, Bhutan,
Burma/Myanmar, Nepal, and Sri Lanka, and beyond them China, Iran,
Tibet, and the rest of Eurasia – although arguments could be made for
including any or all these, and they are each worthy of their own books.
Simultaneously, this book considers the Indian subcontinent’s environ-
mental history within larger arenas as appropriate, including at the global
and solar system scales.
Further, this book selects a long chronological scope (but does not go as
far back as cosmic creation or even the origin of our earth). We begin
when the core of the Indian subcontinent was at the South Pole, when
monsoons and the Himalayan Mountains did not yet exist, and when
Homo sapiens had not yet evolved. Tracing illustrative environmental
changes, including the rise of major world religions, kingdoms and
empires, and major ecological shifts, the book concludes in the second
decade of the twenty-first century. This subcontinental scope and
extended timescale make visible long-term patterns of change and con-
tinuity that present-centered or nationally limited accounts cannot.
ix
x Preface and Acknowledgments

Intended for general readers, this book builds on the growing body of
sophisticated and insightful works of scholarship about key aspects of
India’s environmental history. Specialists will recognize how much their
research has contributed to key arguments and evidence in this book. For
the sake of clarity, however, references to these are largely concentrated in
the Bibliographical Essay.
This book arose from decades of teaching “Environmental Histories of
South Asia” with undergraduates at Oberlin College. Generations of
students and distinguished guest faculty, including Ramachandra Guha,
taught me how vital the study of South Asia’s environmental history is for
all our lives. Over the years, I have also learned much from my interac-
tions with pathbreaking scholars in this field, including Paul Greenough,
Sumit Guha, Mahesh Rangarajan, K. Sivaramakrishnan, John Richards,
Thomas Trautmann, and Richard Tucker. I also thank Vinita
Damodaran. I am grateful to Dawn Wade for her excellent copyediting
and to Sunantha Ramamoorthy for her splendid project management.
My Cambridge University Press editor, Lucy Rhymer, encouraged and
guided me from the inception of this project through to publication.
1 Introduction

The relatively young but rapidly expanding field of formal environmental

history informs us ever more about vital patterns of interactions among
humans, other living beings, and the material world. Climate change,
species extinction, unequally distributed and overstrained essential
resources (including clean air, energy, food, land, and water), and other
of today’s pressing issues can only be understood and mitigated by under-
standing the many centuries of dynamic changes that caused them.
The Indian subcontinent1 has a distinctively complex environmental
history that makes it particularly vulnerable to current environmental
stresses.
This book offers an introductory survey of the constantly changing
interactions that define India’s environmental history, one especially
rich in primary sources and secondary scholarship. Starting with the
geological and climatic origins of the subcontinent itself and ending at
the present, this book’s vast chronological scale means it must be
thoughtfully selective. Further, each of India’s many diverse regions has
its own distinctive environmental history, so this study’s massive geo-
graphic scope means its examples must be illustrative. Yet, these broad
historical patterns collectively define a distinctive part of the world.
Throughout this long history, we particularly focus on how various cul-
tures (including religions) and states altered, perceived, and adapted to
the nonhuman world and tried to control it through their available tech-
nologies and ideologies.
Environmental history raises questions for us all to consider. For
instance, many people today might identify groundwater in an aquifer
as “natural.” But what about that same water, unchanged chemically,
pumped out and commercially packaged in plastic bottles with a printed
label asserting it is “natural”? After being consumed and voided as liquid
waste into a river, for instance the Ganges? Many in India today identify

1
As the context indicates, this book uses “India” for the South Asian subcontinent until
1947 and, post-1947, “India” for the Republic of India alone.

1
2 An Environmental History of India

the Ganges from a Hindu religious perspective as eternally pure, while

many “natural scientists” (including devout Hindu ones) using
a chemical and biological perspective would label it as unnaturally pol-
luted. Nor are rivers “naturally” stable, for example, they meander over
time, frequently shifting their channels and beds even without (or despite)
human intervention. Such different perspectives hold significant implica-
tions for implementation of government programs (e.g. the Indian gov-
ernment’s massive, ongoing Ganges Action Plan to clean up that river).
Thus, with reservations, this book uses the term “natural” in contrast to
“anthropogenic” (meaning human formed or transformed) and shows
how diverse people at different times applied their distinctive cultural
values to the living and nonliving environment.
Other examples of conflicting perspectives arise, for instance, from
recent big dams and reservoir projects (like the controversial Sardar
Sarovar Dam on India’s Narmada River and the Diamer-Bhasha and
Dasu Dams on Pakistan’s Indus). Their supporters present these projects
as triumphs of human engineering, harnessing nature to channel vital
irrigation water to arid lands, prevent devastating floods, and produce
pollution-free hydroelectric power essential for national development and
poverty reduction. Simultaneously, critics condemn these same dam
projects as causing the unjust displacement of local human populations,
submergence of rare flora and fauna habitats, drowning of sacred sites,
distortion of siltation and fish migration patterns, land degradation from
salinization and waterlogging with waterborne disease proliferation, and,
overall, long-term irreversible ecological damage.
Indeed, humans have always made efforts to value, understand, and
interact with the environment. Over millennia, competing communities
and states have developed technologies and bodies of knowledge
(“sciences”) for transforming “useful” or “dangerous” animals, plants,
and other parts of the world around them. Each society conceives of and
values specific species and geographical features in its own ways. Over
time, these models for India’s environment have often been articulated
through religions and enforced by rulers (two of this book’s continuing
themes).
People in India have long devoted much thought to the environment
around them, both what we might consider the sacred and also the
material worlds. Indeed, people recorded their observations of India’s
environment in its earliest surviving sacred texts: the Sanskrit-language
Vedas (Chapter 3). Later Indian authors, often patronized by rulers or
religious leaders or communities, studied and described selected aspects
of the environment (preserved in Sanskrit Shastras and popular-language
Hindu, Jain, Buddhist, and Dravidian texts; see Chapter 4). New
 Introduction 3

immigrants and cultures (including Islam and Christianity) added to

people’s perspectives and knowledge about India’s environment, and
new genres of writing about it often produced thoughtful and detailed
descriptions and analyses of the climate, specific species, and human
interactions with these (Chapters 5–7). During the British colonial per-
iod, European and Indian officials (often using European-style scientific
training) began to compile ever more extensive records and to formulate
policies of regulation about what they considered key aspects of India’s
material environment, including weather and disease patterns, reductions
in valued hardwood species, and pollution of air and water supplies
(Chapters 7–8). The level of recordkeeping and regulations about the
environment increased even further in the independent nations of India,
Pakistan, and Bangladesh (Chapters 9–12). But the formal discipline(s)
of environmental history largely emerged during the late twentieth cen-
tury as various scholars created and advanced models and methodologies.
Humanities- or social science–oriented environmental historians use
sources, methodologies, and approaches featured in their specific disci-
pline. Some individuals, approaches, or schools of thought tend to con-
centrate on cultural or intellectual issues, while others concentrate on
material, technological, or economic ones; still others focus on political
policies, laws, or judicial interpretations of these. Often scholars
specialize in analytic methods, examining the source material of
a particular type about a specific topic (e.g. forests, water, cities, railways,
agriculture, or one animal species), in a particular language, and from
a particular region and period. Historians of religion and literary scholars,
for instance, often use specific bodies of written or oral sources that reveal
how those communities valued the living and nonliving world around
them. Some commentators argue that today’s movements or public poli-
cies that incorporate reverence for sacred rivers or sacred groves, or
understand their own religion as inherently environmentalist, will prove
more effective than mere secular ones. Sociologists often work on con-
temporary resource allocation at the level of social classes or cities, while
anthropologists focus at the village or family level (e.g. how women of
particular communities engage with resource collection). Political scien-
tists tend to focus on the recent formation and application of state policies
about the environment through contentious interaction among various
competing interests either within society or internationally (e.g. where
human or national development seems to clash with conservation of
endangered wild animals and habitats or forest-dwelling communities).
Many environmental historians studying the postindependence period
have accepted national boundaries, considering only India, Pakistan
(often omitting East Pakistan), or Bangladesh (often omitting its period
4 An Environmental History of India

as East Pakistan). Nonetheless, many environmental forces and ecosys-

tems cross those political borders, even though these new nations have
significant similarities and differences in their environmental histories.
A heuristic model to describe patterns in environmental history
about the Indian subcontinent is through three “waves.”2 Like ocean
waves, there is much overlap and recycling of material, but each has its
own energy and alignment. The first wave of formal environmental
historians (broadly defined, starting in the 1970s) noticed and cele-
brated local movements that resisted exploitation of natural resources
by government-backed commercial interests. For instance, a range of
commentators have lauded the Chipko (“tree-hugger”) movement in
the Republic of India’s western Himalayan foothills (see Chapter 10).
However, these writers have attributed the prime motivation for
Chipko using a range of analytic ideologies, including (among others)
Marxism, feminism, or Gandhianism (e.g. Ramachandra Guha 1995;
Shiva and Bandyopadhyay 1986; Weber 1989). Often such studies of
contemporary popular environmental movements seek to inspire and
mobilize urban elites into political and conservation engagement.
A second wave developed as scholars (within South Asia and interna-
tionally, using an array of methodologies and emphases) added historical
depth to the study of the subcontinent’s environment and diverse people’s
knowledge and interactions with it. Some scholars analyzed the historical
development of ecological awareness, scientific and technological means
of assessing and controlling natural resources and their degradation, and
governmental policy formation (e.g. Gadgil and Guha 1992, 1995;
Ramachandra Guha 2000b; Sumit Guha 1999). Much of this kind of
environmental history writing concentrates on the British Raj period
(1858–1947) since the volume of written records and the level of exploi-
tation of India’s resources by the government and for-profit companies
both dramatically increased (e.g. Grove 1995; Richards et al. 1985;
Saravanan 2016; Tucker 2012). Some writers have contrasted this colo-
nial period with a precolonial era of alleged balance between humans and
nature, when even Indian rulers (like Buddhist Emperor Ashoka, third
century BCE; Chapter 4) famously revered and protected fauna and flora.
Some historians writing about earlier periods have also identified the
same pattern of local resistance against the state and other outside exploi-
ters (like the Hindu devotional Bishnoi community who have historically
defended trees with their lives; Chapter 7) as in today’s community-based
environmental movements. However, critics such as Greenough have

2
Agrawal and Sivaramakrishnan (2000:8–12) write of three “generations,” but the disci-
pline is so young that many of the first “generation” are still active.
 Introduction 5

characterized this image of an earlier golden age as using the “Standard

Ecological Narrative” or the “declensionist” model of constant ecological
decline due to outsiders or the capitalist world system that exhausted
natural resources (Greenough 2001). Further, while providing deeper
historical contexts, this approach (and policies based on its assumptions,
like Joint Resource Management, Chapter 10) has been critiqued for
simplifying complexities into binary oppositions (e.g. animal versus
human, colonial versus pre- or postcolonial, colonizer versus colonized,
culture versus nature, female versus male, indigenous versus state-
imposed, traditional versus modern).
Third-wave environmental historians challenge and deconstruct all
such categories, often analyzing the discourse of powerful people who
created them to control non-elites culturally. Some scholars reveal inter-
nal divisions, for instance power inequalities based on gender, class, or
caste within communities of “villagers” or “tribals,” or else ideological
conflicts among “colonizers” or other elites (e.g. Agrawal 2005; Arnold
2016; Gilmartin 2015; Sivaramakrishnan 1999). Approaches considering
comprehensive ecological webs or interspecies relations question
human–animal binaries, for instance, showing how forest-dwellers incor-
porate special fauna or flora as ancestors or members of their commu-
nities (e.g. Govindrajan 2018). Yet other scholars show how people move
among social and economic categories, like settled farmers moving into
forests to escape famines or state-control and taxation, or forest-dwellers
migrating to cities (permanently or just during one life-stage); activists
argue that, to move forward environmentally, cross-cutting alliances and
appreciation of multiple and shifting identities must be formed (e.g.
Baviskar 1995). Such dynamic complexity, however, should not deter
informed policy-formation or commitment to action concerning urgent
environmental issues.
Simultaneously, “hard” or “natural” science–oriented historians have
used different academic disciplines to study the origins and development
of the physical world and its biota, either prior or subsequent to effects by
Homo sapiens. For instance, geologists study earth processes in various
eras, while biologists analyze how particular species of humans, fauna,
and flora have spread, migrated, adapted, declined, or even become
extinct. Some environmental scientists analyze the effects of chemical or
biological pollution on the earth, atmosphere, water, or living things.
Others concentrate on creating policies or projects to protect endangered
species from extinction, especially by preserving (or recreating) their
natural habitats. For scientists, there are “natural laws” about how the
chemicals that comprise water, air, land, biota, and combustion, for
instance, always act. Some historians, however, have shown how the
6 An Environmental History of India

civil engineers and scientists have acted as the products of their time,
class, culture, and gender rather than as practitioners and discoverers of
universal principles or truths. This book incorporates the fruits of diverse
methodologies and disciplines to provide an overview of the subconti-
nent’s environmental history, from the earliest times into the twenty-first
century.

The Shape of This Book

This volume is organized chronologically, with each successive chap-
ter addressing a more concentrated period in India’s environmental
history. The chapters highlight broad patterns, particularly featuring
religions and governments since they have the coercive ideological
power and larger-scale organizational authority to affect most exten-
sively the relationships among various people and diverse parts of the
material world. However, states were not hegemonic and were often
multilayered, with much internal diversity. To be effective, public
policy must reflect the consensus of people with power and those
without; to be equitable, it should reflect the values and needs of the
people most affected.
Readers wishing to delve deeper into the issues in each chapter should
consult the Bibliographical Essay. Additionally, the List of References
indicates the most important primary and secondary source material
available. The illustrative maps and graphics are necessarily monochro-
matic, two-dimensional, and static, but the actual environment is poly-
chromatic, three-dimensional, multileveled, and dynamic (on various
timescales).
The second chapter outlines the context and early history of India’s
physical environment from continental drift (roughly 100 million years
ago) to the arrival of the earliest people (defined as Homo sapiens) some-
time between 75,000 and 35,000 years ago. Over these many centuries,
the distinctive geology, topography, and climate of India all gradually
developed from the terrestrial, atmospheric, and solar forces acting on
them. Indeed, the earth is not a closed ecosystem, since it is affected by
solar radiation, the sun’s and moon’s gravities, and the impact of aster-
oids, among other cosmic forces. Over time, species of plants and animals
immigrated into the Indian subcontinent and adapted, as did bands of
humans. Keeping in mind that one must avoid suggesting anachronistic
biological continuities, this chapter also considers the culture and lives of
forest-dwelling communities until the present.
Chapter 3 concentrates the two most prominent early cultures and
societies in India for which there is surviving evidence. One centered on
 Introduction 7

settled agriculturalists and built cities along the Indus River (2700–1900
BCE). The other, originally nomadic herders who immigrated (starting
c. 1700 BCE), mixed with the other cultures already present, and settled
mainly as agriculturalists (from c. 600 BCE). As the environment shifted,
each of these groups interacted with each other and the flora, fauna,
atmosphere, land, and waters around them in distinctive ways.
During this process and subsequently, each politically separate region
developed its own distinct natural and sociocultural ecology, which has
largely persisted until today (Chapter 4). Local, regional, and forest-
based cultures and communities continued to develop. Further, by
about the third century BCE, several related but distinct religions had
emerged, including Jainism, Buddhism, and Hinduism; each developed
a model of and for the universe and the human and natural environments
around them. Simultaneously, communities, cultures, and states
emerged and interacted in North India, the Deccan, and the peninsular
south, using developing technologies that enabled a series of states and
even fragile transregional empires. Most prominently, the Mauryan
Empire (c. 320–187 BCE) drew upon the especially extensive natural
resources of its home region and the mobilizing principles of Jainism and
then Buddhism to expand its resource control over much of India.
However, this first Indian empire’s technology of rule could not reach
deep enough into conquered regions or Hindu society to resist regional
reassertions.
India never existed in isolation. Increasingly from the eighth century
CE, overland and overseas immigrants mixed with local societies and
cultures (Chapter 5). These Christians, Jews, and Muslims brought their
own attitudes toward the nonhuman world and their own technologies for
controlling it. Yet, as these immigrants settled, they adopted and adapted
many Indian social and environmental practices. Some Central Asian
Muslims established sultanates, the most prominent based in Delhi,
which tried to extend their power over the subcontinent, its people, and
its other resources. Meanwhile, other regional states, most prominently
Vijayanagara in the Deccan, built their own economic and political
systems.
The Mughal Empire (1526–1858) proved to be the largest and most
powerful state to that point in Indian history (Chapter 6). Particularly
under the innovative and dynamic Emperor Akbar (r. 1556–1605), the
imperial administration developed unprecedented means of measuring,
assessing, and using India’s resources. Following Akbar, three succes-
sive emperors elaborated on his foundation, not always effectively.
Portuguese armed merchants had already reached India in 1498, and
8 An Environmental History of India

they began to link it with the burgeoning Eurocentric world system,

including by importing plant and animal species from the Americas.
Over the eighteenth century, as the Mughal imperial system fragmen-
ted, diverse competing regional rulers sought control over India’s
resources (Chapter 7). These rulers used various models for their rela-
tionships with human and natural resources under their power.
Ultimately most successful of these rivals was the English East India
Company (established 1600), which gradually intensified globalization
through more rapid and extensive movement of people, flora, fauna,
minerals, and technologies to try to master the Indian environment.
Especially from the late eighteenth century onward, some Indian and
European scientists began systematically recording and correlating
detailed evidence about rainfall, temperature, deforestation, and diseases,
and then used a variety of approaches, methodologies, and sources to
advance diverse arguments into what would later be called environmental
studies.
More than any previous state to that point, the British Raj (1858–1947)
imposed its authority over all of India, using sciences and ideas that
exploited, divided, but also unified the subcontinent (Chapter 8). Key
markers of colonialism include rapid, state-sponsored expansion of land
under cultivation, water control, timber harvesting with consequent defor-
estation, and extermination of particular species of wildlife (deemed either
vermin or trophy game). By building railways and canals, and through
“scientific forestry,” the British Raj altered diverse aspects of the environ-
ment to unprecedented extents. Many contemporary supporters of the
British Raj lauded it for harnessing or conquering nature and advancing
India into modernity. Concurrently, however, a variety of South Asians
developed alternative political, social, and environmental models, the most
prominent of these being Mahatma Gandhi.
Chapters 9–11 address the subcontinent’s environmental history over
the past seventy years, concentrating especially on the relationships
between the newly independent states of India, Pakistan, and (from
1971) Bangladesh and the material world they governed. From relatively
impoverished British colonies, these newly independent nations have
used their human and natural resources to make themselves major parti-
cipants in the world economy, with India especially as a rising global
economic powerhouse. Most environmental histories of Pakistan largely
delete not only regions that became part of the Republic of India but also
its own eastern wing, for instance, with statistics only counting Western
Pakistan as if it were the whole country. Environmental histories of
Bangladesh usually pass quickly over the “Pakistan period” and begin
with their Liberation War. Most environmental historians of India stop
 Introduction 9

considering those regions that became Pakistan. However, by presenting

these three national environmental histories in parallel, comparisons and
contrasts (and the reasons for each) become evident.
The late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries saw vastly increasing
human impacts on the land, water, and air, which many scholars identify
as causing the start of the Anthropocene. The governments of India,
Pakistan, and Bangladesh have each attempted to establish laws, regula-
tions, and policies to control their citizens’ use of national resources
(young Bangladesh, for instance, already has more than 200 laws and
bylaws that attempt to regulate aspects of the environment). These gov-
ernments, plus corporations and individuals, have deeply redirected the
subcontinent’s surface-water and groundwater flows through massive
and small dams, extensive perennial canals, and vast numbers of power-
driven tube-wells. They seek to generate hydropower, supply major
industries, provide people’s drinking water and waste disposal, and sup-
port agriculture’s new high-yielding crops. In addition to extensively
expanded irrigation, much farming has been transformed by mechaniza-
tion and hybrid (and, more recently, genetically modified) crops, enabled
by access to financial credits and extensive use of subsidized water,
chemical fertilizers, and pesticides. Today, anthropogenic floods,
droughts, and salinization cause increasing economic and environmental
costs, while relatively little freshwater remains unused and unpolluted, so
water scarcity is getting worse. Rising air contamination, continuing
deforestation, and accelerating species extinctions remain problems
across South Asia. Simultaneously, popular movements, civil-society
organizations, and central and provincial legislatures, administrations,
and judiciaries in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh have made extensive
efforts to conserve natural resources and yet also use them for much-
needed poverty alleviation and economic development.
The three governments have assiduously participated in the growing
numbers of international treaties, conventions, and protocols relating to
the environment. Rich nations, international NGOs, and other organiza-
tions (like the United Nations) have given advice and financial aid and
exerted diplomatic pressure to shape the policies and programs of these
three governments. Yet, implementation of these international, national,
and provincial laws and policies remains difficult. Violent and nonviolent
social and economic tensions are interconnected and arise from unequal
access to ecosystem resources and participation in democratic processes
in all three nations (although to different levels at different times). As the
global, national, regional, and local range of environmental options
expand in some key ways and contract in others, South Asia will remain
a vital arena. An emerging twenty-first-century goal for many (but not all)
10 An Environmental History of India

governments and organizations is sustainable and equitable human devel-

opment that will conserve the natural world as much as possible.
The conclusion (Chapter 12) briefly considers three current
environmental issues for the nations of South Asia, individually and
collectively. To focus on the distinctive and the similar conditions within
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, this chapter first looks at urban condi-
tions and challenges. Next, the ship-breaking or ship-recycling industry
in each of these nations provides an example of their competing roles
within the global environmental system. To encapsulate the distinctive
international approach of each government and nation, this chapter com-
pares and contrasts their respective promised Nationally Determined
Contributions to the mitigation of global climate change and its effects
within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change.
2 Locating and Shaping India’s Physical
Environment and Living Populations

The changing geomorphology of the Indian subcontinent, whose distinc-

tive features have substantially resulted from plate tectonics, has created
many of its major current physical features (see Map 2.1). Currently, the
subcontinent extends 4,000 km (2,500 mi) from north to south, almost
30 degrees of latitude (8°4’ to 37°6’ north) – parallel in the north with
Portugal, Ohio in the United States, and Japan, and in the south with
Nigeria, Venezuela, and Malaysia. Over geological time, as the subconti-
nent migrated across the globe into the northern hemisphere and
smashed into Asia, the Himalayan and other major mountain ranges
were thrust upward. These and complex atmospheric forces created the
dominant monsoon winds and predominant rainfall patterns plus the
course of most rivers.
These geological and climatic factors have produced South Asia’s
four current major macroregions, each subdivided into and surrounded
by many smaller ecological niches (see Map 2.2). Each macroregion has
always had a distinct but shifting combination of rock and soil types,
quantity of water from seasonal rainfall and river flows, and, eventually,
specific (but not fixed) distribution of flora, fauna, and human
populations.
One macroregion consists of the level plain extending across the north
of the subcontinent, centered on the Ganges and Brahmaputra river
systems. The magnitude of rainfall in the east (today’s Bangladesh and
India’s Bengal and seven northeast provinces) declines moving west up
the Ganges. A second macroregion is the vast Indus River basin, running
from the Himalayan Mountains southward to the Indian Ocean, watering
an otherwise dry plain. The Indus watershed covers about 1 million km2
(386,000 mi2), today including almost all of Pakistan and northwestern
India plus Afghanistan up to Kabul and touching on Tibet and China.
Third is a central, upland Deccan semiarid plateau rising from the south-
east to the northeast, from an elevation of roughly 300 to 1,000 m (990 to
3,300 ft) above sea level, all within today’s India. Finally, the peninsular
southeastern plain is wet and fertile (also within today’s India). Much like

11
12 An Environmental History of India

Map 2.1 Geography of the Indian subcontinent

comparably sized Western Europe, most of South Asia’s long history has
seen many different ecological and human cultural identities in each
macroregion.
Within each macroregion are many distinctive regions, most the size of
a large nation in today’s Europe. Each has had its own independent, yet
interrelating, cultural, economic, and cultural history. For instance, the
proportion of prevailing crops (e.g. dry wheat or wet rice) has historically
shaped each regional culture, including its cuisine.
This chapter begins with the long timeframe perspective using geology to
lay out the changing physical and atmospheric environment that gradually
produced these distinctive macroregions. Various species gradually
immigrated and populated each region, including tigers (Panthera tigris),
leopards (Panthera pardus), Indian rhinoceroses (Rhinoceros unicornis),
Asian elephants (Elephas maximus), and humans. Much current scientific
 Locating and Shaping India’s Physical Environment 13

Map 2.2 Major watersheds and macroregions

work in genetic diffusion, paleobotany, and archaeology provides excit-

ing new evidence about early animal, plant, and human migration
patterns. This chapter concludes with a survey of human forest-
dwellers and their changing and complex relationships to their environ-
ment, each other, and the other human communities that eventually
developed around them.

The Land
While the Indian subcontinent today sits in the northern hemisphere as
a tropical, southern part of Eurasia, this has not always been the case.
About 150 million years ago, what we now call South Asia was located
near the earth’s South Pole, attached to Antarctica, Africa, and
Australia – all part of a vast supercontinent which geologists named
14 An Environmental History of India

“Gondwana” (after the central Indian Gond forest-dwelling commu-

nity). Hence, the subcontinent’s continually changing environment and
diverse ecosystems were then far different from today’s.
Plate tectonics (“continental drift”) has incessantly been reshaping the
surface of the earth, resulting from geological forces far beyond human
agency but with profound effects on all living things. The huge tectonic
plates that would become the earth’s current continents are composed of
a crust of solidified stone, some 100 km (62 mi) thick, floating on hot
molten rock. Impelled by uprising magma, one massive plate gradually
broke away from Gondwana, rotated slowly counterclockwise, split off
Africa, and shed Madagascar and then the Seychelles islands, becoming
the Indian subcontinent.
Over tens of million years, this Indian plate migrated more than
10,000 km (6,250 mi) northward across what is today the Indian
Ocean, to just north of the Equator. The plate moved at speeds varying
from about 7–20 cm/year (2.8–7.9 in/year): slowly in human time but
rapidly in geological time. Sporadically, magma burst through the plate’s
surface, producing massive volcanoes, which added a thick layer of basalt
(creating the current distinctive “Deccan traps” rock) and wiped out
various Gondwana species, including some dinosaurs.
Between 40 and 65 million years ago, the northern edge of the Indian
plate crashed into the larger Eurasian plate, forcing itself down and under
(subduction), twisting and deforming in the process. One major conse-
quence has been the creation of India’s defining mountain ranges.
Periodic earthquakes, often of great magnitude, have resulted from the
continued grinding of the Indian and Eurasian tectonic plates and the vast
weight of the mountains thereby produced. The nations of India and
Pakistan have both suffered severely devastating earthquakes already
this century.
Most prominently, the Himalayas (Sanskrit: “Abode of Snow”) are the
vast series of roughly parallel, connected mountain ranges in a 2,400 km
(1,500 mi) arc along the subcontinent’s north. These are the southern
edge of Eurasia, which continues to rise as the Indian tectonic plate still
slides beneath it. Today, the Himalayas are the youngest and highest
mountain range in the world, dwarfing Europe’s Alps and North
America’s Rocky Mountains (see Figure 2.1). The Himalayas contain
nine of the world’s ten tallest peaks, including, at 8,850 m (29,200 ft), the
mountain variously called Sagarmatha (Sanskrit: “Head of the Sky”),
Chomolungma (Tibetan: “Divine Mother of Mountains”), and Mt.
Everest (English: named in 1865 after British colonial Surveyor-
General Sir George Everest [1790–1866]).
 Locating and Shaping India’s Physical Environment 15

Himalayan Mountains

Everest
8,850 m
Karakoram

Hindu Kush

Alps max.
4,600 m
4,400 m
Rocky Mts max

west east

Figure 2.1 The Himalayas, Alps, and Rocky Mountains

Indeed, the Himalayas form the southern flank of the Tibet plateau,
“the Roof of the World,” which has ecosystem and later cultural connec-
tions with both India to the south and China to the north. But these
glacier-covered mountains are so difficult to cross that historically there
have been relatively limited direct exchanges between India and China,
even though these two major world cultures evolved on either side of this
same mountain range. From about 9000 BCE onward (early in the
warming Holocene era), however, small bands of nomadic humans may
have brought some plants (possibly including domesticated barley and
rice), animals (including cattle, sheep, and goats), and goods (gold, salt,
and wool) through summer-thawed passes into India. Most rivers in the
Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra systems arise from melting Himalayan
glaciers; their volume is maximum in the hot summer months, which
overlaps with the southwest monsoon (thus intensifying flooding).
The future flow of these perennial rivers is threatened as many of these
glaciers shrink due to global warming.
The eastern end of the arc of South Asia’s impact zone with Eurasia
created a rugged knot of hills and mountain ranges (today dividing
Myanmar/Burma from India and Bangladesh). Because of the angle of
tectonic impact, these mountains are not as high or steep as the
Himalayas. Hence, over time, plants, animals, and people have moved
more extensively through them. Many communities living in northeast-
ern India speak a Tibeto-Burman-family language, suggesting just one
aspect of the mixing of cultures there. Further, the Brahmaputra River,
flowing off the northern and eastern sides of the Tibetan plateau, has cut
through these mountains, contributing to the wide alluvial Bengal delta.
16 An Environmental History of India

There, the Brahmaputra (called the Jamuna River in Bengal) joins the
Ganges (called the Padma River in Bengal) and the Meghna (flowing
from the mountains of the northeast), all issuing into the Bay of Bengal.
This combined system has the third-largest water volume in the world
(after the Amazon and the Congo).
On the northwest end of the mountainous arc of tectonic impact are
another complex of very rugged ranges, including the Karakoram and
Hindu Kush in the northwest and the Suleiman to the west (today
respectively separating western China, Afghanistan, the rest of Central
Asia, and Iran from Pakistan and India). Most mountain passes in the
Hindu Kush are obstructed by snow and ice all winter, but are traversable
(yet still dangerous) during summer. Indeed, the name Hindu Kush, may
derive from “Death for Hindus,” since so many Indian merchants and
other travelers died there. Only in 1979 did the first paved road, the
1,300 km (800 mi)-long Karakoram Highway, link Pakistan and China.
It took nearly twenty years and the lives of over 1,000 Pakistani and
Chinese workers to carve through the high glacial passes, reaching an
elevation of 4,700 m (15,400 ft). However, the 2010 earthquake blocked
this lone highway with rubble and an unstable high-elevation lake. Only in
2015 were these barriers bypassed and the highway reopened (except in
winter) as part of the Chinese-funded “China-Pakistan Economic
Corridor” project (see Map 11.1).
Over the centuries, many rivers have carved passes through the
Suleiman and other western ranges to join the Indus. The Khyber Pass
(from Kabul into Pakistan) has historically been the most traveled, but
others include the Bolan Pass (in today’s Balochistan province of
Pakistan). These passes are narrow and twisting, but many people and
animals have long traversed them between India and Central Asia, to
China and Europe beyond.
The subduction of the Indian plate’s leading edge produced a broad
subsidence plain, what is now the upper Indus system in the west and the
Ganges system in the center and east. This plain did not stabilize geolo-
gically until the Late Quaternary (lasting from 1 to 0.5 million years ago).
Massive volumes of soil and minerals (eroded from the Himalayas by
glacial runoff and seasonal rains) have accumulated on top of older rock
formations. Sediment now lies up to 3,000 m (9,900 ft) thick on the Indus
floodplain and up to 6,700 m (22,110 ft) deep on the Ganges plain.
Today, the rivers of Bengal alone carry about a quarter of the world’s
total river sediment load. Parts of this eroded Himalayan rock contain
arsenic, which would later dissolve and enter the drinking and irrigation
water through today’s tube-wells in Bangladesh and eastern India.
 Locating and Shaping India’s Physical Environment 17

The Indian plate also tilted as it collided with Eurasia: the western edge
rising, the eastern one sinking. Hence, most major Indian rivers run west
to east. Further, a long mountain range called the Western Ghats (Hindi:
“steep stairs”) runs along the western coast, separating the narrow coastal
plain from India’s interior Deccan plateau. The lower Eastern Ghats are
less imposing, but they mark off the eastern and southeastern coastal
plains. Between the Western and Eastern Ghats is the semiarid central
Deccan upland which contains some of the planet’s oldest continental
crust rocks, vestiges of Gondwana, in places overlaid by basalt. Soils
produced from these two rock types differ markedly in chemical and
water-retention properties, often with sharp visual and agricultural
boundaries between them.
In addition to being twisted and tilted, the Indian plate also crumpled
from the continued tectonic impact, thus creating smaller internal moun-
tain ranges, most running roughly west to east. The Vindhya and Satpura
ranges in the Deccan’s north are split by the Narmada River (one of
India’s relatively few major east-to-west flowing rivers). The Nilgiris
and other low ranges cross India’s southern tip. However, internal
dynamics also created some mountain ranges curving northward, like
the Aravallis, which separate the Indus and Ganges watersheds. Over
thousands of centuries, most Deccan mountains have eroded into rugged,
rocky hills, cut by riverine valleys running eastward off the plateau to the
coast.
These geomorphic processes eventually redirected the prevailing
atmospheric wind patterns and therefore climate. By about 8 million
years ago, the Himalayas had attained roughly their present heights and
begun to dam the southward flow of frigid winter air from Central Asia.
However, while glaciers ebbed and flowed onto the high Himalayas
during various periods, they did not expand south into the adjacent
Indus and Gangetic plains. Especially between 1.7 million years ago
and 1.5 million years ago, then again around 800,000 to 700,000 years
ago, the Himalayan region experienced revivals of tectonic uplift,
producing increased glaciation there. Subsequently, there have been four
glaciation–interglacial cycles in the last 500,000 years, with most recent
global glacial maximum period peaking c. 24000 BCE. Global glaciations
also affected India by freezing much of the earth’s water, creating periods
of aridity as well as lowering the sea level up to 130 m (430 ft), thus
extending its coastlines considerably. Further, the volume of glacial-melt
runoff has varied greatly over geological time as India’s climate has
periodically warmed and cooled. More runoff has meant more rocks
and sediment on the Indus, Ganges, and Brahmaputra floodplains.
Each geomorphic change has thus altered India’s environment
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 TRANSFERABLE CAPITAL.
During the summer of 1884 the Society was experimenting with a
new form of barm, produced by a patent process. The results of the
experiments, however, were not satisfactory. The new barm was
found to be no improvement on the old, while the recipe would cost
£5, and thereafter there was to be a royalty of a halfpenny per sack of
flour used, which was to continue for a year, so the committee
decided that no advantage would accrue to the Society by adopting
the new system. About the same time the committee were in
correspondence with Mr E. V. Neale on the question of the best
method to be adopted for making the loan capital of the Society
secure. They considered the information they received from Mr
Neale so valuable that they decided to print it and send a copy to
each member society.
Notwithstanding the difficulties with which they were meeting,
consequent on their shortage of oven accommodation, the committee
were ever zealous in their endeavours to get new trade from societies
which were not members and to increase the trade of those which
were. During the summer months they caused a number of letters to
be sent to societies, requesting that deputations should be received,
and by this means they were able to secure increased trade from
some of the societies which were not as loyal as they might have
been. Arising out of the correspondence with Mr Neale, it was agreed
at the September quarterly meeting in 1884 to appoint a special
committee to go into the whole question of the capital of the Society,
with special reference to that held on loan, and with power to consult
a Scottish legal authority on the subject, the committee to report to
the December quarterly meeting. The special committee consulted
the Lord Advocate on the subject, with the result that, at a special
meeting which was held in March of the following year, the whole
share capital of the Society was made transferable, while the interest
on loans was reduced from 5 per cent. to 4½ per cent.
 STILL FURTHER EXTENSIONS.
It was becoming increasingly evident that the St James Street
bakery had reached the limit of its usefulness to the Society.
Although biscuit baking and the baking of pastry and smalls had
been transferred to the Scotland Street premises, it was becoming
impossible for St James Street to meet the demand for bread, and
therefore another small bakery situated in Hill Street was rented for
a time. This was only a temporary arrangement, however, and could
not be expected to continue. The Bakery was now turning over
considerably more than 300 sacks of flour per week, and the trade
was increasing at such a rapid rate that it was practically impossible
to keep pace with it in the premises as they then were. The need for a
new bakery was clamant, and much consideration was given to the
question ere a decision was arrived at. That decision, when come to,
proved to be the most momentous in the history of the Federation,
and may well form the subject of another chapter.
1. DANIEL H. GERRARD. J.P.,
President.

2. JAMES BAIN,
Secretary.
 AUDITORS

1. WM. H. JACK, F.S.A.A

2. JOHN M. BIGGAR.

During practically the whole of the period which is embraced in

this chapter, two gentlemen, still well known, active in the movement
and highly respected—Messrs Allan Gray and Robert Macintosh—
acted as auditors for the Federation, and during their period of office
made several suggestions affecting the financial stability of the
Federation, which, when put into operation, helped materially to
make it the strong concern financially that it is to-day. In particular,
they were the means of getting the depreciation placed on a sounder
basis than it had been for some time. Investigations which took place
more than once had the result of showing the committee that the rate
of depreciation was not enough, as the book value of fixed and live
stock and machinery was greater than the valuation showed that it
should be. Ultimately, this was put right, and the finances of the
Society were established on a firm footing.
 CHAPTER VIII.
M‘NEIL STREET.

INCREASING TRADE—THE DIRECTORS’ DILEMMA—M‘NEIL

STREET GROUND PURCHASED—THE NEW BAKERY:
BUILDING DIFFICULTIES—THE OPENING CEREMONY—
AN UP-TO-DATE BAKERY—PROPAGANDA WORK—
RECOGNISING LOYAL SERVICE—A STABLE INSPECTOR—
FINANCE—AN INVESTMENT—THE PURCHASE OF FLOUR
—A SOCIAL MEETING AND ITS OBJECT—A RIGHT OF WAY
CASE—THE NEW BAKERY COMPLETED—A NEW
VENTURE—THE CHAIRMAN RETIRES—ALL-ROUND
INCREASES.

At the end of the preceding chapter we saw that the trade of the
Society had become so large that it was forcing the question of a new
bakery on the attention of the directors. With the purpose in view of
securing the necessary capital, the sub-committee advertised the St
James Street premises for sale, but the only offer they received was
one to lease the premises. As this was of no use for their purpose at
the moment nothing further was done. Circumstances, and the policy
of the committee, were responsible for the still more rapid increase
of trade. In the beginning of 1885 the price of flour went up with a
rush, but as the Federation was in the happy position of having
bought a large quantity of flour just before the rise they were able to
continue selling their bread at the old price while the other bakers
had to raise it, with the result that the trade continued to increase
very rapidly. One of the results of this rapid increase in trade was
that the Society was once again placed in the position of being
compelled to refuse orders because of its inability to execute them.
For this reason Blantyre and Burnbank societies, which had made
proposals to join the Federation, had to be refused for the time
being.
The directors were literally at their wits end. They could not sell
their premises. Unless they got new premises they could not hope to
provide for the trade which came pouring in in ever-increasing
volume, and they did not know what was the best thing to do. To
begin with they got a firm of architects, Messrs Bruce & Hay, to
prepare a sketch plan for a new bakery on the St James Street site
which would contain twenty-four ovens, together with ample
accommodation for storing flour, and stables, a breadroom, and a
van yard. When the architects came to prepare their plans, however,
they found that the space available was not large enough to give all
the accommodation desired. The plans, when submitted, showed a
bakery with twenty-three ovens, stable accommodation for nineteen
horses, van shed, offices, breadroom, and store, and the cost was
estimated at £6,200.
The committee decided that before they would proceed further
they would consider carefully the progress which had been made by
the Society in the ten years which had elapsed since 1875, and this
study of the work which had been done showed that the ratio of
increase in trade had grown larger in the two years immediately
preceding 1885, while the trade which was being done at the moment
warranted them in believing that this rate of progress would be
maintained. This being so, the conclusion at which they arrived was
that, even if they did build at St James Street, only a few years would
elapse before the accommodation would be too small. They decided,
therefore, to bring their difficulties before the quarterly meeting and
leave the decision with them.
 PURCHASE OF M‘NEIL STREET GROUND.
Three schemes were laid before the quarterly meeting, including
the rebuilding of the St James Street premises, which, however, the
directors deprecated. The proposals were discussed at length by the
meeting, but no decision was arrived at, the question being remitted
back to the committee for further consideration and inquiry. The
questions which were remitted for consideration were: The cost of
land in or near Glasgow, and the cost of erecting thereon a bakery
large enough to meet the wants of all the members; or, alternatively,
the cost of land in or near Paisley, and the cost of erecting a branch
bakery there large enough to meet the demands for bread from the
societies in the West.
There was evidently a desire to reopen the question of a branch in
Paisley, which had been closed since the end of 1876, but the
delegates to the special meeting which was held on 11th July to hear
the report of the committee on the question of whether a new central
bakery should be built or whether they should content themselves
with a branch in or near Paisley, decided by an overwhelming
majority in favour of a central bakery in Glasgow, and remitted to the
committee the selection of a site.
The sub-committee went about their business of securing a site
expeditiously, with the result that at the meeting which was held on
22nd August they were able to inform the committee of two sites, one
in Fauld’s Park, Govan, the price of which was 12/6 per yard; and the
other at M‘Neil Street, costing 15/6 per square yard. It was also
intimated that the latter site had some buildings on it which might be
of use to the Society. The members of the committee visited both
sites, and after having inspected them came to the conclusion that
the M‘Neil Street one was best suited to their purpose, and
empowered the sub-committee to offer £4,000 for it, with power to
go to £4,500 if necessary. At the meeting of committee which was
held on 19th September it was intimated that the “Nursery Mills,”
M‘Neil Street, had been bought for £4,500, that a deposit of £500
had been made, and that the keys had been given up to the Society.
The property had been insured for £1,000. The engine and boiler in
the building were inspected, and Messrs Bruce & Hay were
instructed to prepare plans of a bakery containing twenty-four ovens,
a travelling oven for biscuits, and three or four ovens for pastry, as
well as van sheds, stabling, etc. On 13th October the committee
empowered the officials to pay the full cost of the site and take
possession of the title deeds. It was also decided to dispose of the
boilers contained in the property, and at a later date, of the engines;
the total sum received being £207, 10s.
When the plans for the new bakery were submitted to the
committee decided disapproval was expressed, on the ground that
the site was not being utilised to the best advantage, that the existing
buildings were not being used, although they were worth from
£1,200 to £1,300, and that provision was made in the plan for a
courtyard out of all proportion to the requirements of the Society. It
was decided to ask the architect to prepare other plans, and
instructions were given that the buildings at present on the site were
not to be interfered with, and that another architect was also to be
asked to prepare plans, with the same instructions. At the same time
it was agreed to sell the St James Street property for £4,500 if a sale
could be effected, and if not that it be rented, the rent to be £300 per
annum. For the next week or two the committee met weekly. On
plans being submitted for the second time those of Messrs Bruce &
Hay were adopted, with some alterations suggested by the
committee, and a building committee was appointed to supervise the
work of erecting the bakery. Some little difficulty was experienced,
however, in getting the plans through the Dean of Guild Court.
Objection was taken at the Court to the fact that the stable gangway
was not fireproof, and the plans were sent back for alteration.
Presumably all was in order at their next presentation, for nothing
further appears in the minutes on the subject. An inspector of works
was appointed for the job, contracts were fixed up, and the work
commenced. The financing of the building scheme was also
considered by the committee, and they agreed to appeal to the
societies for the necessary money, at the same time recommending,
as an inducement to the societies to subscribe, that the interest on
the loan capital be increased from 4½ per cent. to 5 per cent. This
recommendation was agreed to by the delegates to the quarterly
meeting, and the committee were also empowered to reopen the
private loan fund if they considered such a course advisable. One
result of the decision of the quarterly meeting was that at the
committee meeting held a fortnight later it was reported that already
£2,080 had been received as loans from three societies—
Thornliebank, Glasgow Eastern, and Kinning Park—while 150
additional shares had been allocated. At the same meeting the
Secretary intimated an offer from Kilbarchan Court, A.O.F., offering
£400 on loan. This kind offer the committee had to decline, however,
on the ground that the loan fund was as yet only open to Co-
operative societies.
 BUILDING DIFFICULTIES.
The building work was proceeding satisfactorily, but the same
could not be said of the joiner work. The Dean of Guild Court had
been pushing the Society to get the work of barricading the building
and laying down a pavement done The joiner had erected the
barricade and made the footpath in M‘Neil Street, but refused to do
this in Govan Street, stating that he would “go to Court first.” The
Society had written to him, informing him that if he did not do the
work, for which he had contracted, the Society would have it done
and deduct the cost from his account. There was also delay in
pushing on the joiner work in connection with the building itself,
which was delaying the remainder of the work of building.
The duties of the committee at this time were arduous and
engrossing. They had set out with the intention of erecting a bakery
which would be second to none in the city, and with this object in
view they were not too bigoted to change their minds when any
suggestion was brought to their notice which was likely to be an
improvement on the course they had decided on. One such alteration
was in connection with the new engine for driving their machinery.
The fact that the engine which they had decided on was too powerful
for the work for which it was needed had been brought to their
notice, and they at once made inquiries and consulted with the
maker. After he had given the matter his attention this also was his
opinion, and he therefore offered them a less powerful engine at a
reduction in price of £65, and they decided to have it put down. Then
“with the object of securing the latest improvements in bakery
machinery, a deputation, consisting of the managers, foreman baker,
and two members of the committee, were appointed to visit the
exhibition of bakery machinery at Edinburgh, see the machines at
work, and report.” As one of the results of this visit machinery to the
value of £500 was purchased.
The committee continued to complain of the slow progress which
was being made with the new building, and the architects were
appealed to to endeavour to get the contractors to speed up by
putting more men on the job, but with little success. The lessees of
the St James Street premises had been promised entry by
Whitsunday 1887, but as time passed the committee began to get
anxious about their ability to fulfil this part of their contract. The
engines and machinery, also, were ready to put in, but this could not
be done because the other contractors were behind with their
sections. So bad did the position become that ultimately the
committee were forced to put the matter into the hands of their
agent. However, this difficulty also was overcome without further
friction. The lessees of St James Street bakery now began to press for
entry, and the committee were compelled to ask for their
forbearance, as they were afraid that the new bakery would not be
ready for occupancy at the time stated.
It was agreed that a social meeting be held on the occasion of the
opening of the new premises, and that the premises be open to the
general public for inspection during the whole of the opening day. A
band was engaged to play selections in the courtyard for three hours
in the afternoon, and the building was decorated with flags. Finally,
such progress was made with the equipment of the premises that the
committee were in a position to fix 21st May as the opening day, and
preparations for the great event went forward rapidly.
 THE OPENING CEREMONY.
The opening ceremony is said to have been one of the most
imposing Co-operative functions ever held in Scotland. The buildings
were gay with flags and bannerettes, while a military band
discoursed sweet music in the courtyard. The premises were thrown
open to the public, and it is estimated that more than 30,000 people
passed through the building between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. More than
500 delegates were present at the luncheon, when Mr Alexander
Fraser, president of the Society, presided. Stirring speeches were
delivered, and the premises were declared open amid a scene of great
enthusiasm.
In the evening a monster social meeting took place in the
Wellington Palace, at which there were present upwards of 1,000
people. Speeches were delivered by Mr William Maxwell, chairman
of the S.C.W.S., and Mr Henry Murphy, Lanark. It was generally
admitted that the demonstration had proved the greatest
advertisement which Co-operation in Scotland had ever received,
and that the virtues of the movement had been brought to the notice
of thousands of people who had never before given it a thought. The
result was that a great impetus was given to the movement in
Glasgow, and the great development of Co-operation in the city
which has made Glasgow a stronghold of the movement began about
that time. No doubt further stimulus has been given from time to
time—the Congress of 1890, the opening of the S.C.W.S. central
premises in Morrison Street, the Seaside Homes bazaar, the various
Co-operative festivals all had an influence—but to the Baking Society
much of the original impulse is due, just as to it also—through the
refusal of the directors to increase the price of bread unnecessarily in
the early months of the war—the latest impulse must be credited.
 AN UP-TO-DATE BAKERY.
The bakery was planned on what were then the most modern lines.
It contained twenty-eight ovens. Twenty-four of these were Scotch
bread ovens, while three were specially built for the production of
pastry, scones, etc., and one was a revolving oven for the production
of pan loaves. In the original plan there was a proposal for a
travelling biscuit oven, and space for this had been left in the bakery.
The flour loft was on the top floor of the building, and everything was
arranged for convenience and rapidity of output. The facilities
provided for an output of some 700 sacks per week, and when the
new premises were planned it was thought that there would be ample
accommodation to meet the requirements of the Society for a
number of years, but so great had been the development of the
Society’s business while the bakery was in course of erection, and so
rapid was the increase when the new premises were opened, that
soon the question of extensions was again to the front.
 PROPAGANDA WORK.
In tracing in a connected form the work of the committee in
deciding on and carrying through the work of erecting the new
bakery, however, we have been compelled to leave other important
work unnoted. Just at the time when the discussion of the proposals
for a new bakery was taking place intimation was received from
Kilbarchan Society of that society’s intention to begin baking on their
own account. The letter from the society was read to the meeting
which was called to consider the erection of a new bakery, but had no
effect on the decision, and shortly afterwards the Kilbarchan people
changed their minds about baking for themselves and decided to
remain members of the Federation. It was otherwise with some of
the societies further west. Greenock East-End Society withdrew in
September, Greenock Central and Paisley Equitable soon afterwards,
while Partick Society was in a bad way, and a deputation from the
board was sent to the committee of that society in order to try and
make some arrangement about regular payments. This they were
able to do, as the Partick committee agreed to pay for the bread they
received at the end of every week, at the same time making payments
toward the reduction of the balance which they owed the Federation.
But if societies were withdrawing as they became strong enough to
start bakeries of their own, other societies were coming in to take
their places, while the societies in Glasgow were growing stronger
and stronger. Gilbertfield and Cambuslang societies joined up early
in 1885; Cessnock Society, an offshoot from Kinning Park, became a
member a month or two later. South-Eastern Society and Parkhead,
two societies which had been members in the early days but had
withdrawn, were again admitted to membership; Renfrew Society
again became purchasers; Newton Mearns and Maryhill societies
became members; Westmuir Economical Society became a
purchaser and, later, a member. Newton Society also joined the
Federation, and Blairdardie returned to the fold after an absence of
several years. Then came Hallside, and by the end of April 1888,
Shettleston, making the thirty-sixth member of the Federation. All
this increase in the membership was not spontaneous, however; it
was the reward of much propaganda work, the writing of many
letters and the paying of many visits by the members of the
committee. They were building, and, later, they had built a huge
bakery. It was their intention that it should be working to its full
capacity at the earliest possible moment, and so they went about
their propaganda in a systematic manner, dividing up the area into
districts, which were placed in charge of certain members of the
committee, to be worked up at every opportunity.
 RECOGNISING LOYAL SERVICE.
During the whole of the time which it took to build the new bakery
the Society was working at a disadvantage. Notwithstanding the
leasing, first of Scotland Street bakery and then of that in Hill Street,
it was impossible to keep pace with the demand for bread. The result
was that the committee decided to sound the foreman baker on the
question of whether the men would be willing to begin work an hour
earlier in the mornings. The men when approached agreed readily,
and thus the difficulty was met to some extent. In recognition of this
willingness on the part of the men to meet them, the board decided
spontaneously to advance the men’s wages by 1/ per week. One
cannot help but contrast this willingness of the men to help the
Society in a difficulty with incidents which have occurred at later
dates, when the bakers could not be induced on any terms to work
extra hours in order that difficulties might be overcome. The first
attitude rather than the second one is that which makes for the
avoidance of friction and the creation of a fraternal spirit between
the directors of a Co-operative concern and their fellow-members
who carry on the work of the Society. It is, unfortunately, a fact
which is to be deprecated that employees are disposed to treat Co-
operative societies worse instead of better than they treat other
employers, and the process of reasoning which leads to such results
is somewhat difficult to follow.
 A STABLE INSPECTOR.
Away back in the second year of the Federation’s existence Mr
Ballantyne had been appointed stable inspector to the Society. The
appointment had been made by the committee, but evidently the
committee of the period with which we are dealing were unable to
find any record of the fact, and seem to have taken exception to his
work, which, according to one minute, “was independent of the
board, and how or when he had been appointed could not be
discovered.” The difficulty was not a great one, however. It was
remitted to the sub-committee for investigation and, doubtless, a
consultation with Mr Ballantyne, the gentleman in question, would
put them on the track of the necessary information. Mr Ballantyne,
during practically the whole period of the Society’s existence, had
exercised supervision over the horses which were the property of the
Society. He made a regular examination, and recommended the
committee to dispose of horses which he considered unfitted for the
work of the Society. The committee were evidently satisfied with the
report which was made to them, for at the next meeting they
endorsed and confirmed Mr Ballantyne’s appointment and agreed to
pay 20/ a quarter for a monthly report from him on the condition of
horses, vans, and all matters connected with the stable department—
the appointment to be an annual one.
 FINANCE.
The question of the proper depreciation of the property, fixed and
live stock of the Society, to which attention had been called by the
auditors on many occasions, had not yet been placed on a
satisfactory basis. The committee brought in several amendments of
rules for the purpose of putting the matter right, but these were not
accepted by the delegates; nor was a counter proposal, that a sum of
£200 be taken from the reserve fund and applied to reducing the
value of the horses and plant. This latter proposal received a majority
of the votes at the quarterly meeting, but as a majority of three-
fourths of those voting was necessary before any money could be
withdrawn from the reserve fund, and the majority was not large
enough, both proposals dropped, and the old, unsatisfactory position
continued. At a later date the question was again brought up by Mr
Macintosh, who, in response to a request by the committee, outlined
a scheme for putting this important branch of the Society’s financial
arrangements on a sound footing. The practice had been to allocate a
certain percentage of the profits each quarter to depreciation
account; Mr Macintosh urged that for this method they should
substitute that of allocating a fixed percentage of the initial cost, and
that this should be regarded as a charge on the trade of the Society
and should be allocated before the profits were ascertained and
irrespective of whether there were any profits. The committee were
in favour of the proposed alteration, but considered the time
inopportune to have it made as so large a proportion of the property
was unproductive at that time. They therefore decided to delay the
matter for twelve months. It was not until the end of 1888 that
depreciation was put on a satisfactory basis.
 AN INVESTMENT.
It was during this period that the Scottish Co-operative Farming
Association came into being. The Bakery board were supporters of
the proposal from the first. In discussing the subject the committee
took into consideration the fact that they were spending nearly £200
a quarter for feeding-stuffs and buttermilk for baking purposes, and
they thought that if such an association was in existence a large
proportion of these articles could be got from the farm. They agreed,
therefore, to recommend to the delegates at the quarterly meeting
that a special general meeting be held to consider the advisability of
becoming members of the Farming Association. When this meeting
was held it was agreed that £50 be invested in the funds of the
association. Unfortunately, however, the speculation did not turn out
a success, as, after struggling on for several years, the association had
to succumb to adverse circumstances.
For some considerable time there was a certain amount of
looseness in conducting the stable, and the result was that finally the
committee felt compelled to make a change there by dispensing with
the services of the foreman. There was trouble at Hill Street also for a
time, but eventually this was overcome. For some considerable time,
however, both before and after the opening of the new bakery, the
complaints about the quality of the bread, which for some years had
been almost negligible, revived, and sometimes the committee at the
monthly meetings had letters from as many as a dozen societies. The
causes of complaint were various, but seemed persistent for a time.
Once before the S.C.W.S. had thought that they had reason to
complain of the share of the U.C.B.S. trade in flour which was being
put past them, and after two or three years had passed the same
subject came up again through a deputation from the Wholesale
Society waiting on the Baking Society’s Board. The whole subject was
gone into minutely, and the Wholesale deputation were told plainly
that while the U.C.B.S. directors had every desire to trade with the
Wholesale Society they could not do so while such a discrepancy
existed between the prices which the Wholesale Society charged for
flours and those at which similar flours could be purchased
elsewhere. The result of this first meeting was that a second meeting
was arranged between representatives of the two societies, when the
whole subject was investigated. Both committees, it is stated,
“received from each other much valuable information which would
be advantageous to both societies.”
Reference has already been made to the propagandist work carried
on by the directors at this time. Amongst other work of a
propagandist nature, they held, in the autumn of 1887, a social
meeting, to which the employees of the various societies dealing with
them were invited. The object of the social gathering was twofold. In
the first place, they wished to give the employees a good time; but
they had also an ulterior object in view, and so they took advantage
of the opportunity given by the social meeting to bring to the notice
of the employees the good which accrued to Co-operators generally
by making the Co-operative movement self-contained and self-
supplying, as far as that was possible. It is not possible to say
whether this first attempt to secure the co-operation of the
employees in pushing the wares of the Society met with much visible
success, but it was one of those efforts from which something might
be gained but by which nothing could be lost. Since that day the Co-
operative employee has been a frequent visitor at social gatherings
convened by the U.C.B.S.
In the course of the propaganda campaign carried out by the
directors, some peculiar proposals were made to them. By the
committee of one society the deputation were informed that the
private bakers from whom bread was being bought not only supplied
the shops, but delivered bread at the members’ houses as well. In
addition, they carried goods from the shops to the members and, in
general, acted as delivery vans for the society. Nor was this all. In
addition to delivering the bread to the members’ houses, they went
the length of absolving the society from responsibility for loss
through non-payment by the members of their bread accounts. The
Baking Society could not hope to compete against such practices, and
the directors said so. In other instances the societies were prepared
to assume responsibility for payment of the bread supplied to
members if only the Baking Society’s van would deliver it, and the
committee were willing to entertain this proposal, but the quarterly