Blood and Water: The Indus River Basin in Modern History

by David Gilmartin

The Indus basin was once an arid pastoral watershed, but by the second half of the twentieth century, it had become one of the world’s most heavily irrigated and populated river basins. Launched under British colonial rule in the nineteenth century, this irrigation project spurred political, social, and environmental transformations that continued after the 1947 creation of the new states of India and Pakistan. In this first large-scale environmental history of the region, David Gilmartin focuses on the changes that occurred in the basin as a result of the implementation of the world’s largest modern integrated irrigation system. This masterful work of scholarship explores how environmental transformation is tied to the creation of communities and nations, focusing on the intersection of politics, statecraft, and the environment.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

376 pages, Paperback

First published May 29, 2015

About the author

David Gilmartin studies modern South Asian history. He received his BA from the University of Michigan and his Ph.D. in History from the University of California--Berkeley. He has conducted research in India and Pakistan.

Gilmartin's research interest focus on the intersections between the history of British imperialism in South Asia and the development of modern politics and forms of rule. His first book (Empire and Islam: Punjab and the Making of Pakistan) focused on the relationship between British imperial rule and the creation of Pakistan at the time of India's independence from Britain in 1947. More recent research projects have focused on the connections between irrigation-based environmental transformations (in the Indus basin) and modern politics, and on the legal history of India's electoral institutions as they have evolved from its colonial past.