The technology of sanitation in colonial Delhi

Modern Asian Studies

Volumn 35, Issue 1, 2001, Pages 113-155

  Prashad, Vijay ^a  

^a TRINITY COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

COLONIALISM; HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY; NINETEENTH CENTURY; SANITATION; URBAN PLANNING; WATER TREATMENT;

ARTICLE; ECONOMICS; EDUCATION; EMPLOYMENT; ETHNOLOGY; HEALTH; HEALTH CARE POLICY; HISTORY; INDIA; LEGAL ASPECT; POLICY; POLITICAL SYSTEM; PSYCHOLOGICAL ASPECT; PUBLIC HEALTH; SANITATION; SEWAGE; SOCIAL CHANGE; SOCIAL CLASS; SOCIAL WELFARE; TECHNOLOGY; WASTE MANAGEMENT;

COLONIALISM; EMPLOYMENT; HEALTH CARE REFORM; HISTORY, 19TH CENTURY; HISTORY, 20TH CENTURY; INDIA; PUBLIC HEALTH; SANITARY ENGINEERING; SANITATION; SEWAGE; SOCIAL CHANGE; SOCIAL CLASS; SOCIAL WELFARE; TECHNOLOGY; URBAN HEALTH; URBAN RENEWAL; WASTE MANAGEMENT;

INDIA;

EID: 0035073294     PISSN: 0026749X     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0026749X01003626     Document Type: Article

References (119)

1. Comments and suggestions from Gyan Pandey, Bernard Cohn, Prabhu Mohapatra, Dilip Simeon, Archana Prasad, and Brinda Karat made this paper palatable. Research for it was funded by the MacArthur Foundation and by the American Institute of Indian Studies.
2. Karl Kautsky, The Agrarian Question (London: Swan, 1988), p. 54.
3. Emily Eden, Up the County. Letters from India (London: Virago, 1984), p. 98.
4. Veena Oldenburg, The Making of Colonial Lucknow (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1989), Preface.
5. Delhi State Archives [DSA}, Chief Commissioner (Education), B Progs, no. 183, 1914.
6. Bipan Chandra, The Rise and Growth of Economic Nationalism (New Delhi: People's Publishing House, 1969), p. 627.
7. Elizabeth Whitcombe, 'Irrigation', The Cambridge Economic History of India. Ed. Dharma Kumar and Irfan Habib (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1982), II, p. 692. I appreciate Clive Dewey's attempt to demonstrate the multiplier effects of the military in the development of Rawalpindi, but as he himself acknowledges, the military 'sucked' surplus from other regions in order to create those effects. A cost-benefit analysis of the social costs and social benefits would show that the army does indeed waste surplus in the long run. 'Some Consequences of Military Expenditure in British India. The Case of the Upper Sind Sagar Doab, 1849-1947, Arrested Development in India (Delhi: Manohar, 1988).
8. Elizabeth Whitcombe, 'Irrigation', The Cambridge Economic History of India. Ed. Dharma Kumar and Irfan Habib (New Delhi: Orient Longman, 1982), II, p. 692. I appreciate Clive Dewey's attempt to demonstrate the multiplier effects of the military in the development of Rawalpindi, but as he himself acknowledges, the military 'sucked' surplus from other regions in order to create those effects. A cost-benefit analysis of the social costs and social benefits would show that the army does indeed waste surplus in the long run. 'Some Consequences of Military Expenditure in British India. The Case of the Upper Sind Sagar Doab, 1849-1947, Arrested Development in India (Delhi: Manohar, 1988).
9. Sudipta Kaviraj, 'Concept of Man in Political Theory', Social Scientist 8 (1979), p. 42.
10. K. William Kapp, Social Costs of Business Enterprise (Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1963).
11. Kapp, Social Costs p. 76.
12. National Archives of India [NAI], Education (Sanitary), A Progs, Sept. 1912, nos 1-18.
13. Vijay Prashad, 'Native Dirt/Imperial Ordure: The Cholera of 1832 and the morbid resolutions of modernity', Journal of Historical Sociology, vol. 7, no. 3 (Sept. 1994), p. 251.
14. Urdu Akhbaar, 16 April 1871.
15. Urdu Akhbaar, 8 July 1871.
16. Delhi Municipal Commission Proceedings [DMC Progs], 19 Sept. 1887.
17. Narayani Gupta, Delhi Between the Empires (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1981), p. 19 and passim.
18. W. H. Greathed, Report on the Drainage of the City of Delhi and on the Means of Improving It (Agra, 1852), p. 10.
19. Clem G. Parsons, Delhi Administrative Dictionary (Lahore, 1906), p. 50; Shri Ram, Municipal Problems in Delhi (Delhi, 1932), p. 7.
20. Clem G. Parsons, Delhi Administrative Dictionary (Lahore, 1906), p. 50; Shri Ram, Municipal Problems in Delhi (Delhi, 1932), p. 7.
21. Stephen Blake, Shahjahanabad (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991), pp. 64-5.
22. Gupta, Delhi, pp. 18-20.
23. NAI, Home (Sanitary), A Progs, 7 Nov. 1868, nos 5-6.
24. Notes on the Administration of Delhi Province (Calcutta, 1926).
25. Mayo Memorial Gazette, 19 Feb. 1874 and Anjuman-i-Panjab, 24 March 1883.
26. Mayo Memorial Gazette, 19 Feb. 1874 and Anjuman-i-Panjab, 24 March 1883.
27. Parsons, Delhi Administrative Dictionary, p. 51.
28. Rahbar-i-Hind, 19 April 1894; Akmal-ul-Akhbaar, 20 April, 1894; Akhbaar-i-'Am, 19 May 1894.
29. Rahbar-i-Hind, 19 April 1894; Akmal-ul-Akhbaar, 20 April, 1894; Akhbaar-i-'Am, 19 May 1894.
30. Rahbar-i-Hind, 19 April 1894; Akmal-ul-Akhbaar, 20 April, 1894; Akhbaar-i-'Am, 19 May 1894.
31. Amiya Bagchi, Private Investment in India (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1972), pp. 35 and 89.
32. NAI, Education (Sanitary), A Progs, Sept. 1912, nos 1-8.
33. Sidney Webb, Grants in Aid. A Criticism and a Proposal (London: Longmans, Green 1920), p. 2. In a note from 1928, Nehru wrote: 'our municipalities are continually being criticised for their inefficiency in many respects, and the criticisms are often justified. We are told that they do not spend money on important services. On the other hand, most of them are in a financially unsound condition and either live on bounties from Government or have no substantial surplus left after paying heavy interest charges on loans. No one dare mention an increase in the rates'. All-India Congress Committee files, no. G-43 (116), 1928, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library.
34. Gupta, Delhi p. 168.
35. New Imperial Capital Delhi. Project Estimate for Works (Delhi, 1913), I, pp. 38-40.
36. G. B. Williams, Sewage Disposal, p. 215; C. C. James, Oriental Drainage. A Guide to the Collection, Removal, and Disposal of Sewage in Eastern Cities (Bombay, 1902).
37. G. B. Williams, Sewage Disposal, p. 215; C. C. James, Oriental Drainage. A Guide to the Collection, Removal, and Disposal of Sewage in Eastern Cities (Bombay, 1902).
38. See Prashad, 'Native Dirt'.
39. DSA, CC (Education), B Progs, no. 219, 1915.
40. Urdu Akhbaar, 16 Dec. 1871.
41. Gupta, Delhi, p. 162.
42. The best summary of these ideas is in the Miliband-Poulantzas debate, but see the critical notes in Aijaz Ahmad, Lineages of the Present (New Delhi: Tulika, 1996), pp. 3-4 and 38-9.
43. NAI, Education (Sanitary), A Progs, March 1915, nos 31-44.
44. NAI, Rev. & Agri. (Rev.), A. Progs, Dec. 1885, nos 10-14; NAI, Rev. & Agri. (Land Revenue), A Progs, July 1906, nos 61-2; NAI, Rev. & Agri. (Land Revenue), A Progs, Aug. 1912, no. 10; DSA, CC (Education), B Progs, no. 6 (7), 1927; Annual Sanitary Report, Delhi Province, 1926, vol. II, p. 33.
45. Urdu Akhbaar, 1 Aug. 1874.
46. Parsons, Delhi, p. 178; NAI Home (Municipalities), A Progs, Jan. 1891, nos 10-19.
47. DMC Progs, 10 July 1894; DMC Progs, 12 Oct. 1896.
48. DMC Progs, 19 Sept. 1887; DMC Progs, 5 March 1887 (Special).
49. NAI, Education (Sanitary), A Progs, Sept. 1912, nos 9-19.
50. Parsons, Delhi, p. 154.
51. This was suggested by the Sanitary Commissioner of the Punjab, Major W. W. Clemsha in his book, Sewage Disposal in the Tropics (Calcutta, 1910).
52. NAI, Education (Sanitary), A Progs, Sept. 1912, nos 1-18.
53. NAI, Education (Sanitary), A Progs, Sept. 1912.
54. Ibid.
55. Ibid.
56. DSA, CC (Education), B Progs, no. 4 (8), 1931.
57. DSA, CC (Education), B Progs, no. 4 (136), 1928.
58. DSA, CC (Education), B Progs, no. 6 (26), 1930.
59. DSA, CC (Education), B Progs, no. 4 (6), 1933; DMC Progs 6 July 1933.
60. NAI, Education, Health and Lands (Health), 24-20/34, 1934; A. P. Hume, Report on the Relief of Congestion in Delhi (Simla: GOI, 1936), I, p. 47.
61. DSA, CC (Education), B Progs, no. 6 (23), 1935.
62. NAI, Education, Health and Lands (Health), 24-19/35, 1935.
63. DSA, CC (Education), B Progs, no. 6 (23), 1935.
64. DSA, CC (Education), B Progs, no. 6 (26), 1936. When the deal was being negotiated, the DMC offered the NWR and Government 61.38 acres of land in the WEA (the only vacant land in the extension in 1936) for the 12.88 acres! Hume, Report, I, p. 48.
65. NAI, Education, Health and Lands (Health), 23-37/A/37-H, 1937.
66. Ibid.
67. Hindustan Times, 31 Aug. 1935.
68. NAI, Education, Health and Lands (Health), 23-37/A/37-H, 1937; DMC Resolution no. 35, 25 Nov. 1937; DMC Resolution no. 3, 7 Feb. 1940; DSA, CC (Local Self-Government), File no. 995, 1938.
69. This is also the view of Sudipta Kaviraj, 'On the construction of colonial power: structure, discourse and hegemony', Contesting Colonial Hegemony, Ed. Dagmar Engels and Shula Marks (London: British Academic Press, 1994) and of Ahmad, Lineages of the Present, pp. 1-43.
70. This is also the view of Sudipta Kaviraj, 'On the construction of colonial power: structure, discourse and hegemony', Contesting Colonial Hegemony, Ed. Dagmar Engels and Shula Marks (London: British Academic Press, 1994) and of Ahmad, Lineages of the Present, pp. 1-43.
71. Antonio Negri, 'Communist State Theory', Labour of Dionysus. A Critique of the State Form (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota, 1994), p. 152.
72. Tom Nairn, 'The Twilight of the British State', New Left Review, # 101-2, Feb-April 1977.
73. Ibid.
74. Ranajit Guha, Dominance Without Hegemony: History and Power in Colonial India (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1997).
75. Marx to Nikolai Danielson, 10 April 1879, Selected Correspondence (Moscow: Progress, 1975), p. 300.
76. Suhash Chakravarty, The Raj Syndrome (New Delhi: Penguin, 1991), p. 83.
77. Settlement Report Karnal 1872-80, para. 420.
78. C. A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars (Cambridge: CUP, 1983), ch. II.
79. Narayani Gupta, 'Delhi and its Hinterland. The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries', R. Frykenburg (ed.), Delhi Through the Ages (Delhi: OUP, 1986), p. 251.
80. Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, This Fissured Land. An Ecological History of India (Delhi: OUP, 1992), ch 4.
81. Williams, Sewage Disposal, p. 6; G. R. Redgraves, Sewage Utilisation (London: W. Clowes, 1876).
82. Williams, Sewage Disposal, p. 6; G. R. Redgraves, Sewage Utilisation (London: W. Clowes, 1876).
83. Christopher Hamlin, 'What Becomes of Pollution? Adversary Science and the Controversy on the Self-Purification of Rivers in Britain, 1850-1900'. (Madison: University of Wisconsin, Ph. D. 1982), p. 36; Benjamin Ward Richardson, The Health of Nations. A Review of the works of Edwin Chadwick (London: Longmans. Green, 1887).
84. Christopher Hamlin, 'What Becomes of Pollution? Adversary Science and the Controversy on the Self-Purification of Rivers in Britain, 1850-1900'. (Madison: University of Wisconsin, Ph. D. 1982), p. 36; Benjamin Ward Richardson, The Health of Nations. A Review of the works of Edwin Chadwick (London: Longmans. Green, 1887).
85. Settlement Report Delhi, 1882, p. 43.
86. J. D. Bernal, Science in History (Cambridge: MIT, 1971), II, p. 655.
87. Williams, Sewage Disposal, p. 101; Clemesha, Sewage Disposal.
88. Williams, Sewage Disposal, p. 101; Clemesha, Sewage Disposal.
89. Parsons, Delhi, p. 173; DMC Progs, 11 May 1896.
90. Indian Famine Commission, Evidence of Witnesses from the Punjab (Calcutta: IFC, 1898), vol. VI, p. 35.
91. Parsons, Delhi, p. 173.
92. Parsons, Delhi, p. 172; Sanitary Commissioner's Report, 1908.
93. Parsons, Delhi, p. 172; Sanitary Commissioner's Report, 1908.
94. DMC Progs, 4 Jan. 1892.
95. Parsons, Delhi, p. 131.
96. Ibid., pp. 179-80.
97. Annual Report DMC (1913-14) (Delhi, 1914), p. 3.
98. Gupta, Delhi, pp. 70 and 83.
99. New Imperial Capital Delhi, Project Estimate of Works (Delhi, 1913), I p. 38.
100. Rs, 12,716 (1914), Rs 15,198 (1915), Rs 17,277 (1916): marginal increases in terms of the secular price rise, but a steady rise nonetheless. Annual Report DMC (1916-17) (Delhi, 1917), II.
101. DMC Progs, Sanitation Sub-Comm. Meeting, 16 Aug. 1929.
102. DSA, CC (Education), B. Progs, no. 6 (18).
103. J. J. Mieldazis, 'Organic Manure from Street Refuse and Nightsoil at Mysore City', Indian Medical Gazette (Feb. 1934).
104. Report on the Delhi Sewage Disposal Enquiry Committee (New Delhi, 1936), p. 8.
105. DSA. CC (Education), B Progs, no. 183, 1914; G. B. Williams, Lectures on Practical Sanitary Engineering (London, 1919). The debate between K. N. Raj and Ashok Rudra in April 1956 in The Economic Weekly highlights the problems of breaking out of an economic regime of intermediate technology.
106. DSA. CC (Education), B Progs, no. 183, 1914; G. B. Williams, Lectures on Practical Sanitary Engineering (London, 1919). The debate between K. N. Raj and Ashok Rudra in April 1956 in The Economic Weekly highlights the problems of breaking out of an economic regime of intermediate technology.
107. DSA, CC (Education), B Progs, no. 4 (28), 1926.
108. DSA, CC (R&A), B Progs, no. 100, 1932.
109. Report on the Delhi Sewage Enquiry Committee, p. 13; NAI, Education, Health and Land (Health), 24-16/36-H, 1936.
110. Report on the Delhi Sewage Enquiry Committee, p. 9.
111. Ibid., p. 13.
112. NAI, Home (Public), 31/23/40, 1940.
113. In 1903, the DMC wanted to use Mauza Sadhora Kalan for a sanitary landfill, but the Military told the DMC to 'arrange to deposit their filth in a location not so inimical to military interest', since the site proposed was near a rifle range and barracks. NAI, Rev. & Agri. (Land Rev.), B Progs, April 1904, no. 31.
114. Parsons, Delhi, p. 130; DMC Progs, 10 July 1894.
115. DSA, DC file no. 58, 1929.
116. DSA, CC (Local Self-Government), no. 1 (42), 1939; NAI, Home (Public), 31/ 24/39, 1939.
117. New Imperial Capital. Project Estimate for Works (Delhi, 1913), III; Report on the Administration of Delhi Province for the Year 1913-14 (Delhi, 1914), p. 54.
118. New Imperial Capital. Project Estimate for Works (Delhi, 1913), III; Report on the Administration of Delhi Province for the Year 1913-14 (Delhi, 1914), p. 54.
119. Hindustan Times, 16 Aug. 1929.