Steamboats on the Indus
The Limits Of Western Technological Superiority In South Asia
Price: 2395.00 INR
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ISBN:
9780198092193
Publication date:
15/09/2014
Hardback
316 pages
288.0x225.0mm
Price: 2395.00 INR
We sell our titles through other companies
Disclaimer :You will be redirected to a third party website.The sole responsibility of supplies, condition of the product, availability of stock, date of delivery, mode of payment will be as promised by the said third party only. Prices and specifications may vary from the OUP India site.
ISBN:
9780198092193
Publication date:
15/09/2014
Hardback
316 pages
288.0x225.0mm
Clive Dewey
Two forms of water-transport competed for supremacy on the Indus and its tributaries in the middle of the nineteenth century: the local country boats and the steamboats imported by the British. Though the steamers were the most advanced technology in South Asia, yet the country boats kept the river trade while the steam flotillas went bankrupt. Steamboats on the Indus shows that the received wisdom—the 'Technology and Imperialism' school—is wrong to assume that Westerm machines destroyed indigenous techniques wherever they came into competition.
Suitable for: Scholars and students of modern Indian history, colonial history, economic history, and maritime history.
Rights: World Rights
Clive Dewey
Description
Two forms of water transport competed for supremacy on the Indus and its tributaries in the middle of the nineteenth century: the local country boats and the steamboats imported by the British. The steamers were the most advanced technology in South Asia. British investors poured capital into them, colonial officials subsidized them and European travellers patronized them. The country boats—blown by the winds, rowed by the oars, dragged by ropes—had hardly changed in a thousand years. Yet these humble country boats not only saw the steamers out but also survived the coming of the railways. They were far better adapted to the shallow, shifting rivers; they were much cheaper to build and operate; and they drew on an extraordinary pool of skills—the skills of the boatmen and boat builders. Steamboats on the Indus shows that the received wisdom—the ‘Tools of Empire’ approach to the history of technology and imperialism—is wrong to assume that Western machines destroyed indigenous techniques wherever they came into competition. Traditional technology could exploit the economic opportunities created by imperialism at lower cost than the most advanced machinery from the West. So the country boats kept the river trade while the steam flotillas went bankrupt.
Clive Dewey
Table of contents
Clive Dewey
Clive Dewey
Description
Two forms of water transport competed for supremacy on the Indus and its tributaries in the middle of the nineteenth century: the local country boats and the steamboats imported by the British. The steamers were the most advanced technology in South Asia. British investors poured capital into them, colonial officials subsidized them and European travellers patronized them. The country boats—blown by the winds, rowed by the oars, dragged by ropes—had hardly changed in a thousand years. Yet these humble country boats not only saw the steamers out but also survived the coming of the railways. They were far better adapted to the shallow, shifting rivers; they were much cheaper to build and operate; and they drew on an extraordinary pool of skills—the skills of the boatmen and boat builders. Steamboats on the Indus shows that the received wisdom—the ‘Tools of Empire’ approach to the history of technology and imperialism—is wrong to assume that Western machines destroyed indigenous techniques wherever they came into competition. Traditional technology could exploit the economic opportunities created by imperialism at lower cost than the most advanced machinery from the West. So the country boats kept the river trade while the steam flotillas went bankrupt.
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