The Changing Face of Bengal

Abstract

THE problems of the Ganges delta are immeasurably more complicated than those of the Nile and Mississippi in that there are two mighty rivers, fed by heavy rains and melting snow, which carry maximal quantities of silt from the greatest of mountains into the head of a deep bay, not on to an open coast. Rivers in gorges, cut through the foothills, have by their silt formed broad alluvial plains. South, the Ganges and Brahmaputra now meet and, to a considerable degree, are at war with each other for right of way, their battles influenced by strong tidal flows. Modern changes in their deltas, which have become conjoined, are illustrated by a dozen maps dating from the sixteenth century, but the lack of a map showing existing conditions and settlements often embarrasses the reader. Even in this late historical period the population has more than doubled, 125 millions to-day, with a concentration which, in parts, equals that of the lower Yangtse. This has always been the richest agricultural area in India, and, as the author shows, the aim of invaders and the centre of a succession of empires. He indicates fluctuations in the sites of these, and ascribes them to the variation of the courses along which the rivers deposited their silt, particularly the gradual eastward movement of the delta. He foretells, in the not distant future, the necessary decay and abandonment of Calcutta, its water courses silted up, and its drainage impossible. It can only be saved by the further development of roads and railways; the embankments that such necessitate, have often been most damaging in hindering natural water movements, and hence producing miasmatic swamps.

The Changing Face of Bengal

A Study in Riverine Economy. By Prof. Radhakamal Mukerjee. (Calcutta University Readership Lectures). Pp. viii + 293 + 23 plates. (Calcutta: The University, 1938.)