Ivermee nevertheless sounds a note of caution, one fit for our times-of rapidly increasing sea levels that threaten to engulf the island itself.Ĭalcutta attracted migrants from across India, ranging from prosperous Marwari merchants seeking commercial opportunities to impoverished Bihari labourers attracted by the promise of better pay than at home. This oft-submerged pilgrimage spot of the Hindus at the junction of the Ganges and the sea, is soon to be developed into a port-buttressing the overwhelmed Calcutta and Haldia ports. Ivermee ends this handy account of the Hooghly at the island of Sagar, the direction its global future is supposed to take.

A chapter is dedicated to Calcutta and its attempts at the conquest of nature: through navigating the Hooghly, establishment of zoological and horticultural gardens, digging of canals, setting up railways, excavating sewers, laying buildings: leading to an industrial and migration boom. Through subsequent chapters the author travels through 3000 years of settlements along its banks, locating specific riverbank settlements important to the Dutch, the Portuguese, the French, the Danish and the British, as well as the Nawabs and other rulers of Bengal. The Hooghly's global history, he concludes, may offer lessons for India as it emerges as a world superpower.In Hooghly: The Global History of a River, Robert Ivermee ( Hurst Publishers) traces the different empires, waves of colonialism, migration and industry that enabled the fertile land across the banks of the river contribute to the creation of the second city of the British empire, Calcutta. Traveling up and down the river, Robert Ivermee explores themes of enduring concern, among them the dynamics of modern capitalism and the power of large corporations migration and human trafficking the role of new technologies in revolutionizing social relations and the human impact on the natural world. Focusing in turn on the role of and competition between those who struggled to control the river-the Portuguese, the Mughals, the Dutch, the French and finally the British, who built their imperial capital, Calcutta, on its banks-the author considers how the Hooghly was integrated into global networks of encounter and exchange, and the dramatic consequences that ensued. Hooghly seeks to restore the waterway to the heart of global history. Yet for centuries it was a river of truly global significance, attracting merchants, missionaries, mercenaries, statesmen, laborers and others from Europe, Asia and beyond. The Hooghly, a distributary of the Ganges flowing south to the Bay of Bengal, is now little known outside of India.

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Hooghly by Robert Ivermee