Uncertainty and environmental change: Kutch and Sundarbans as environmental histories of climate change

This chapter uses the notion of uncertainty as a point of enquiry to explore ways of rethinking environmental histories of South Asia. It documents and traces how weather and long-term climate trends were comprehended by state actors and a range of groups and communities in British India, as they shaped responses and interventions within dynamic environments. This chapter focuses on two case studies: the princely province of Kutch in British India and the Sundarbans, a dynamic deltaic environment that sprawls across the coastal edges of the erstwhile colonial province of Bengal. The Kutch and the Sundarbans, we suggest, were considered by the colonial authorities to be marginal environments that were defined by extreme events and climatic uncertainties. In contrast to this colonial understanding, the inhabitants in these highly dynamic environments possessed a range of adaptation strategies relating to mobility, the distribution of risks and diverse livelihood opportunities. In particular, we focus on how the urgency of tackling climatic uncertainty proved crucial in the framing of both official and popular responses to the recurring challenges of famine in Kutch and floods and cyclones in the Sundarbans.