The Changing Face of Bengal - A Study in Riverine Economy (An Old and Rare Book)

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Radhakamal Mukherjee was a legendary Professor of Economics and. Sociology at the University of Lucknow and was a reputed contemporary thinker. His celebrated book entitled The Changing Face of Bengal: A Study in Riverine Economy, originally published by the Calcutta University (CU) in 1938, was long; out of print. It was quite unfortunate not only because of the fact that the book was _ a significant contribution in human geography, demography, economic history and irrigation studies of Bengal, but it happened to be an oft-cited work. While steps have been taken seventy years after its original publication by the CU to reprint the volume in 2008, it will be perfectly in order to "review" the significance of the work in the contexts of the intellectual debate in which it was written and the debate that followed it and continued even after Independence. We are specifically concerned here about one of the main contentions of Mukherjee on "the Changing Face" of West Bengal. It came in the wake of a vigorous debate in the early twentieth century that sought for an explanation of the decline of agriculture and public health in Western Bengal, including Burdwan, which had taken place in about 80 years before the original publication of Mukherjee's book.

The Changing Face of Bengal is the product of Readership Lectures delivered by Radhakamal Mukherjee at the University of Calcutta in 1937. Designed in a grand scheme as "preface" to Riverine Economics, the book goes on to describe the gift of the Ganges in the region in making the old and the new delta in the last three centuries, with agricultural and demographic contrasts. The book also dwells on the agricultural decadence and public health in the early twentieth century. Based on a detailed study of historical geography, especially in the changes of river courses and formation of ports in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, followed by a coverage of more recent trends in the River and the Delta in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the book builds up a case for the "Silt as the Track of Civilization", incidentally the title of its last chapter.

Thoroughly researched, the volume is appended by 23 rare Maps, Diagrams and Statistical Tables. To begin with, it will be perfectly in order to focus on the main contention of Mukherjee. His discussion on the causes of-the river changes and development in undivided Bengal are particularly remarkable. In this deltaic region, the pre-mature decline of the old rivers or sudden rise and violence of the new ones are natural features of the landscape intersected by many rivers, spill channels and sub- channels. As the riverbeds rise higher. the river loses connection with the headwater and languishes with some of its Spilt channels. From about the seventeenth century, the Bhagirathi declined along with some Nadia rivers, while the Brahmaputra came into prominence definitely by the middle of the eighteenth century, bringing unprecedented expansion of agriculture in North Bengal. The Jamuna played a bridging role between the Ganga and the Brahmaputra, and after the inundation of 1787 the Tista finally linked up with the latter. The Padma had already been formed by the united mass of waters on the junction of the Kosi with the Ganga, and she met Brahmaputra near Goal undo in Dhaka. Her mighty waters finally combined with the Meghna, virtually changing the ecological map of Bengal. Thus, Radhakamal Mukherjee writes, during "the last three decades of the eighteenth century not less than six new rivers appeared on the scene, remolding Bengal's economic history, viz., the Tista, the Jamuna, the Jelangi, the Mathabhanga, the Kirtinasa and the Naya Bhangini. This revolution in Bengal's river system was due to the cumulative effects of the changes in the up-river areas, the catastrophic inundations of 1769-70 and 1786-88 and the earthquake of 1762. Both geography and history were remade in Bengal as the: eighteenth century drew to a close."

Book's Contents and Sample Pages