Kathleen Morrison
Yale Agrarian Studies workshop Feb 27, 2009 Kathleen Morrison A brief biography of the paper: This paper is not part of a book project but is a draft of a stand-alone article. The paper emerged from intersections between my interest in contemporary environmental and political issues and two longer-term larger projects dealing with: (1) rural landscape history and place- making in southern India (Daroji Valley: Landscape History, Place, and the Making of a Dryland Reservoir System, 2009); and (2) the historical construction of marginalized socioeconomic strategies (hunters, pastoralists, dry farmers, landless laborers) and identities in South Asia over the last 600 years (Oceans of Dharma, in prep.). Apologies for stray references and incomplete sections – this began as a talk, was revised into a written paper, and is still in the process of being cut down from a much longer text and beaten into publishable form. Dharmic Projects, Imperial Reservoirs, or New Temples of India? An Historical Perspective on Dams in India Kathleen D. Morrison University of Chicago DRAFT Dharmic Projects, Imperial Reservoirs, or New Temples of India? An Historical Perspective on Dams in India Modern irrigation schemes in tropical areas are, almost without exception, social, ecological, and economic disasters. They necessarily lead to the flooding of vast areas of forest and agricultural land, the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people and the spreading of waterborne diseases like malaria and schistosomiasis. In addition, they are badly run, poorly maintained and the irrigated land is soon salinised or waterlogged, while the reservoirs where the water is stored, rapidly silt up.
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