Podcast Summary

Podcast: New Books Network
Episode: Devika Shankar, "An Encroaching Sea: Nature, Sovereignty and Development at the Edge of British India, 1860-1950" (Cambridge UP, 2024)
Host: Origno (New Books Network)
Guest: Dr. Devika Shankar
Date: September 12, 2025

Overview of the Episode

In this episode, host Origno interviews historian Dr. Devika Shankar about her new book, An Encroaching Sea. The conversation delves into the environmental, political, and legal histories of the Port of Cochin (Kochi) in colonial and post-colonial India, exploring how issues of environmental transformation, state sovereignty, and development ambitions intertwined on India's southwest coast from the mid-19th to mid-20th century. Dr. Shankar reflects on her academic journey, archival discoveries, and methodological shifts, unpacking the broader implications of her findings for environmental and legal histories of South Asia.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Academic Journey and Genesis of the Book

• Shifting Research Interests: Dr. Shankar describes her trajectory from JNU and Princeton, starting with urban history oriented toward Delhi ([03:38]), but curiosity-driven shifts during archival research in Kerala led her to Cochin and environmental history ([03:38–10:16]).
• Archival Serendipity: Initially intent on urban/economic history, she stumbled upon archival materials labeled “Encroachment of the Sea, Cochin and Danger,” which sparked her interest in coastal erosion and the environmental discourse of British India ([03:38–10:16]).

  "This project first began in the archives, really, and it began out of just this accidental sort of discovery of these documents on coastal erosion." — Dr. Devika Shankar ([09:47])

2. Why Cochin? The Port’s Centrality

• Archives and Local Expertise: Guided by archivists, Dr. Shankar investigated the Cochin Harbour Project (1920s–40s), which transformed the port into a major colonial and later post-colonial hub ([10:39]).
• Ecological Anxiety as Opportunity: She observed a unique reversal—where worsening coastal erosion and environmental instability catalyzed, rather than simply resulted from, port development, highlighting development as a response to ecological anxiety ([10:39–15:59]).

  "Here was a sort of situation where it seemed like you had a disintegrating coastline...and that becomes a sort of context or an opportunity for a development project." — Dr. Devika Shankar ([12:28])

• Role of Princely States: Contrary to prior assumptions, the Cochin Harbour Project was not just a colonial state intervention but saw the princely state of Cochin as a central player ([13:30]).

3. The Ecological Turn & Historical Method

• Integration of Ecology with Political and Economic History: Shankar recounts how the dynamic coastline made it impossible to ignore the environment in studying port cities, requiring an ecological lens ([16:22]).

  "The environment is just absolutely impossible to ignore...I think in every field we've become a little more sort of attentive to ecological issues and ecological transformations." — Dr. Devika Shankar ([18:39])

4. Periodization and Structure of the Book

• Why Mid-19th–Mid-20th Century?: The time frame is essential to understanding why scientific and state interest in Kochi’s environment surged, and how colonial intervention only happened under specific pressures ([22:02]).

  "That longer history was important...Once we stop assuming that the colonial state would immediately intervene, you can ask...what are the factors compelling it to move in certain directions?" — Dr. Devika Shankar ([24:32])

5. Colonial/State Anxieties, Intervention, and Profiteering

• From Neglect to Intervention: The slow-moving nature of coastal erosion allowed for state inaction, but as the port itself became threatened in the 1910s, intervention via profit-oriented development became viable ([25:44]).
• Postcolonial Continuities: Once development was locked in, subsequent states maintained the trajectory, owing to sunk costs and technological lock-ins ([30:45]).

  "...the post colonial state also follows a fairly similar sort of logic. And on top of that, once you have a big port and…all your investment keeps getting funneled more and more in that direction." — Dr. Devika Shankar ([30:58])

6. Encroachment: Rethinking Land, Water, and Agency

• Power of the Term "Encroachment": Used in colonial records (“encroachment of the sea”) and in discussions of political sovereignty, the term bridges ecological and legal anxieties ([32:10]).
• Agentive Waters: Both colonial officials and local communities recognized water as an actor with agency, shaping both environmental and political strategies ([36:27]).

  “Colonial officials were constantly talking about water as an agent...I wanted to...emphasize that...” — Dr. Devika Shankar ([36:41])

• Fluidity and Mutual Encroachment: Land and water, like princely and colonial authorities, encroached upon and reshaped each other, suggesting agency and change flow both ways ([32:10–36:09]).

7. Political Geography and Princely State Exceptionality

• Cochin as Coastal Exception: Most princely states were landlocked; Cochin, encircling a British port, was geopolitically unique and used this position to make novel legal and territorial claims ([41:08]).
• Leveraging International Law: By the 1910s, Cochin’s assertions (e.g., over water rights) used new international legal tools, enabled by both geography and the contemporary context of growing British reliance on princely states ([41:08–47:14]).

8. Sovereignty, Federation, and Commercial Politics

• Sovereign Tactics: In negotiations over the harbor, Cochin used both international law and its financial leverage to assert itself against colonial authorities, aiming for a strong position in the future federation of Indian states ([47:56]).

  "What is a state like Cochin trying to do?...the Cochin port development project, I argue, becomes really central to the Cochin State's political ambitions during that time." — Dr. Devika Shankar ([51:35])

9. Memory, Myth-Making, and Erasure Post-Independence

• Postcolonial Narratives: Contemporary memory centers the port on colonial engineers like Bristow, marginalizing the Cochin State's central role ([53:49]).

  "[Bristow] has become the sort of figure associated with the port development project...everything else, as with all these sorts of narratives, everything else then sort of falls to the wayside." — Dr. Devika Shankar ([54:04])

• Critical Comparison: Parallel port projects (e.g., Tuticorin) that failed are contrasted with Cochin, where princely state participation was decisive ([56:58]).

10. Photographs and Fieldwork: Chasing the Mud Banks

• Phenomenology of the Mud Bank: Shankar discusses her multi-year efforts to observe the “mud bank” (chadhara), a local hydrological phenomenon central to both colonial navigation and local fishing practices ([60:17]).

  "So I was hoping that I would see it and I wanted to see it for myself...you suddenly reach this bit of the sea, the beach, where it's just completely calm. It looks like some sort of placid lake..." — Dr. Devika Shankar ([63:25])

• Contemporary Activism: Recent coastal erosion, exacerbated by new infrastructure like the Adani port, has led to community agitation and coastal protection works, highlighting ongoing environmental politics ([65:06]).

11. Future Projects

• Research Ideas: Dr. Shankar is exploring failed or abandoned infrastructure projects in the Park Strait and Gulf of Mannar, and considering a commodity history of salt as a coastal/environmental commodity in India ([66:41]).

  "I've become interested in abandoned projects...looking at why these waters have...attracted these very grand sort of technological...visions and why many...haven't really materialized." — Dr. Devika Shankar ([67:06])

Notable Quotes and Moments

• On serendipity in research ([03:38]):

  "This project first began in the archives...just this accidental sort of discovery..." — Dr. Devika Shankar

• On the environmental turn ([18:39]):

  "The environment is just absolutely impossible to ignore...I think in every field we've become a little more sort of attentive to ecological issues and ecological transformations."

• On encroachment as multidimensional ([33:07]):

  "Encroachment is an important term...in terms of the anxiety surrounding water. But...also an important term as far as princely states are concerned...it sort of gave me a way of thinking about how this word...allows us to think about, but also then problematize this idea that one side was encroaching on the other."

• On Cochin State's disappearance from memory ([54:04]):

  "[Bristow] has become the sort of figure associated with the port development project...everything else...falls to the wayside."

• On witnessing the mud bank ([63:25]):

  "You suddenly reach this bit of the sea, the beach, where it's just completely calm. It looks like some sort of placid lake..."

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [03:38–10:16] – Dr. Shankar’s academic journey; discovery of Cochin coastal archives
• [10:39–15:59] – Why Cochin? Archival finds, ecological anxiety, and development decisions
• [16:22–20:04] – The “ecological turn” and its necessity in environmental and political histories
• [22:02–25:18] – Time period and structure of the book; contextualizing intervention
• [25:44–31:24] – Logics of state intervention, disaster, and development
• [32:10–36:09] – The term “encroachment,” agency of water, and blending environmental and political anxieties
• [41:08–47:14] – Cochin’s exceptional geography, political strategies, and use of international law
• [47:56–52:57] – Sovereignty, fiscal negotiations, and the politics of federation
• [53:49–60:08] – Contemporary memory, public mythmaking, and neglect of Cochin State’s agency
• [60:17–65:06] – Mud bank phenomenon, photographs, modern coastal issues, and political activism
• [66:41–69:05] – Future projects: abandoned projects and the history of salt

Summary Conclusion

This episode is a deep dive into the layered history of a region where environment, state, and development are inextricably linked. Dr. Shankar's research moves beyond old binaries—colonial vs. princely, nature vs. technology—to show how anxiety, fluidity, and agentive geographies shape politics, economies, and memories. The book and conversation illuminate how environmental history, when taken seriously, reframes broader questions of sovereignty and development in South Asia and beyond.