Our increasingly calamity-prone world needs to study Disaster History

While 1 whitethorn find past repeating itself, it would beryllium fruitful to look astatine circumstantial areas and indeed, larn from the past. In this case, it would beryllium instructive to wage superior attraction to patterns and lessons from past concerning disasters.

Origins of Disaster History

Right done history, the lived acquisition of peculiar regions, empires, and countries person been shaped by calamities (and consequent recoveries and rebuilding) of assorted kinds. However, not overmuch attraction has been fixed to systematic studies and knowing of disasters from a humanities perspective. A acceptable of studies connected the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755, oregon the 1920 sociological survey connected a dynamite detonation successful Halifax, Canada, are exceptional examples. These pioneering studies explicated varied facets of the respective disasters ranging from the events, spiritual significance, societal psychology, and societal organisation — each of which tin amply lend to aboriginal preparedness.

Overcoming specified exceptionality, the tract of Disaster Studies began to get greater traction among societal scientists, peculiarly aft World War II amidst Cold War tensions. Since the opening of this century, American scholars person taken up Disaster History arsenic a superior discipline. In the discourse of Hurricane Katrina (2005), for instance, scholars discussed the heavy responsibility lines that the catastrophe exposed — including elements of contention and class. Since then, galore acquisition institutions successful the US person initiated courses connected Disaster History. The caller Greater Los Angeles wildfire evoked a larger involvement successful Disaster History successful the US, wherever galore studies connected humanities wildfires pointed towards the autochthonal people’s signifier of “light firing” which allowed the intentional burning of wood to renew it during the acold season. The accepted ecological cognition and scenery absorption gave mode to centralised firefighting conscionable aft the Great Fire of 1910. Thus, the subject besides gives opportunities to introspect past policies and refresh our mitigation strategies.

Disaster successful the property of anthropocene

Today, the classification of disasters goes beyond the binaries of “natural” and “man-made”. A earthy occurrence becomes a catastrophe erstwhile it affects quality interests. But, successful the agelong term, humans person impacted and transformed their carnal satellite successful myriad ways. The geological impacts of these actions person led to the existent epoch being labelled arsenic the “Anthropocene”. Some scholars similar Jason Moore person gone further to pin the blasted specifically connected capitalism and to word the epoch arsenic the “Capitalocene”.

With respect to modern India, 1 important fountainhead of disasters was colonialism and its parasitic modes of accumulation of wealth. While governmental and economical histories item the exploitative and “drain-of-wealth” aspects of colonialism, it is important present to item colonialism arsenic a seedbed of semipermanent ecological woes. The deeper humanities concatenation of causality with respect to floods and landslides successful Kerala oregon Karnataka, points to the rapacious promotion of plantation crops and procuring of timber for railways and ship-building astatine the outgo of the evergreen forests of the Western Ghats. Colonialism besides corroded agrarian India successful varied ways — spawning municipality slums successful today’s cities similar Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata — which go the worst affected successful times of floods. Post-independent regimes, too, person not been excessively antithetic successful presumption of extraction from earthy sources. Ecological hotspots astir the Himalayas and the Western Ghats were taxable to further predatory onslaughts successful the sanction of improvement and promotion of tourism.

Patterns from Disaster History

When we look astatine the past of earthquakes, India has ever been a hotspot — with inter-plate (where Indian and Eurasian plates collide) and intraplate (within the Indian plate) tectonic events. The triggering of the 2001 Bhuj earthquake (intraplate) that killed much than 13,000 radical is attributed to coulomb accent transportation — going backmost to the 1819 Rann of Kutch earthquake. Apart from the geological and different earthy elements, overmuch of the destructive aspects of earthquakes, landslides, and wood fires are attributable to patent quality interventions similar deforestation, monocropping, unscientific infrastructural projects, and unhindered encroachments.

The Great Flood of 1924, which devastated large regions of present-day Kerala, intelligibly shows the similarities successful patterns that are not restricted to the causes alone. The modern reports compared 1924 with the mega-flood that afflicted the portion successful 1824. The 2018 Kerala flood, which instantly brought backmost memories of the 1924 deluge, was so akin to the second successful presumption of causes (unusual rainfall and

unscientific dam management), grade (same localities were affected successful some floods), and effect from the authorities and civilian society. Archival records besides shed airy connected caste inequalities (for example, antithetic nutrient timings successful alleviation camps successful 1924 Travancore respecting caste hierarchy) and economical disparities that created uneven and unfair catastrophe mitigation for important portions of the population.

Disaster History successful Curriculum

As the satellite enters a signifier of much predominant and destructive disasters, it is important to inscribe salient aspects of past disasters successful fashionable representation arsenic 1 mode of fostering societal resilience. Including Disaster History successful the schoolhouse and assemblage curricula volition not lone assistance coming generations person a much nuanced and technological knowing of past disasters but volition besides acquaint them with the champion mitigation practices and lessons from the worst failures. For instance, the remainder of the state tin beryllium apprised of the lessons from Odisha (the “disaster capital” of the country), which developed a palmy community-based catastrophe hazard simplification strategy successful the aboriginal 21st century. Such grooming besides volition unfastened students’ eyes to persistent societal inequalities which get exposed successful peculiarly damaging ways during a disaster.

“Water, Water, everywhere! The villagers each fled successful hunt of land…The three-room precocious level successful the temple operation is crammed with sixty-seven children, 3 100 and fifty-six older people, dogs, cats, goats, fowls, and different home creatures surviving unneurotic successful peaceful coexistence”. One would beryllium tempted to conjecture that these lines are from a quality point astir the caller flood-like concern successful Kerala. But it is alternatively an uncanny portrayal of the conditions of the Great Flood of 1924 by Jnanpith-winning writer Thakazhi Sivasankara Pillai successful his abbreviated communicative In the Flood.

There is simply a sizeable satellite of archival, literate and different forms of worldly that await humanities understanding, reconstruction and dissemination. Forgetting the trauma is an indispensable constituent of betterment and rebuilding, but that should not itself pb to forgetting the lessons.

Sudhindranath is Senior Research Fellow, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, and Lourdusamy is Associate Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT Madras, and coauthor of Moving Crops and the Scales of History (2023, Yale University Press)