The Ecology of Infrastructure: Empire, Environment, and the Railways in Khandesh and Berar, c. 1860-1870

In the second half of the nineteenth century, railways emerged as an imperial infrastructure, transforming local ecologies to advance colonial economic and administrative objectives. Driven by commercial interests during the 1860s and 1870s, the expansion of railways facilitated resource extraction and trade, resulting in deforestation, alterations in hydrology, and disruptions to agrarian systems. In my research, I turn to local contexts in Khandesh and Berar to understand the adaption of railway constructions to social and ecological conditions and the interaction of local communities with infrastructure. By looking at constructions, planning documents, maps and contestations over railway constructions, the research explores implications of infrastructure’s power to re-organize social and ecological life.