This semester, the Centre for Environmental History's Environmental Exchanges seminar series will include four fantastic papers from a diverse group of historians on the theme 'extraction'. All seminars will be held both in person, and online (Zoom links will be provided via Eventbrite closer to the date).

The second Environmental Exchanges seminar of our 'extraction' series in Semester 2 2023 will be the following paper from Dr Devika Shankar:

Freedom of the Fish: Water and Property in Colonial India

In colonial India, the attempt to increase the extraction of marine and riverine resources, especially fish, would give rise to fundamental legal questions especially from the late 19th century onwards. Could water be owned like land? And could fish in open waters be claimed as property? These questions would be discussed and debated in several important legal disputes involving fishing rights that came up for consideration before high courts across British India. Through an analysis of some of the most influential such cases, this talk will show how judges attempted to address these questions and how the judgments passed in these cases ultimately paved the way for the creation of unprecedented private rights over public waters in India.

Devika Shankar is an assistant professor of History at the University of Hong Kong She is a historian of modern South Asia and the Indian Ocean region and her research interests primarily lie in environmental history, legal history and science and technology studies. She is currently completing her book manuscript titled An Encroaching Sea: Nature, Sovereignty and Development in South Asia which focuses on the port of Kochi in south western India and its transformation in the 20th century. She has also published articles on the history of water laws, princely sovereignty and land acquisition in the South Asian context.

When: 30 August 2023,1:00-2:15pm (Canberra time)

Where: Room 4.69, RSSS Building, ANU & Online via Zoom

Zoom links for joining the event remotely will be circulated in the days ahead of the event. Ensure you register early to receive the link.

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