Recovering the status quo: tipping points and earthquake aftermaths in colonial India.
Recovering the status quo: tipping points and earthquake aftermaths in colonial India.
复制标题
恢复现状：殖民地印度的临界点和地震后果。
作者：
Haines D
灾害政治学的学者争论自然灾害在多大程度上导致或催化政治变革。本文基于最近关于临界点和社会契约的学术研究，认为20世纪30年代英国殖民地印度历史地震的两个案例研究邀请关注国家和非国家行为者之间的合作与冲突的动态。在一次地震后，这个殖民地国家的官员和它的民族主义对手合作，尽管他们在其他方面相互激烈反对。仅仅一年后，第二次活动结束后，合作破裂。然而，在这两种情况下，官员和民族主义领导人都对印度社会有着广泛的愿景，这促使双方积极寻求恢复社会和经济现状，防止潜在的临界点出现。这些案例研究揭示了高度紧张的社会契约如何以及为什么能够在重大灾难中幸存下来。殖民国家对灾害治理的短暂和反应性方法继续影响独立后的印度。
Scholars of disaster politics debate how far natural hazards cause or catalyse political change. This paper builds on recent scholarship on tipping points and social contracts to argue that two case studies of historical earthquakes in 1930s British‐colonised India invite a focus on the dynamics of cooperation and conflict between state and non‐state actors. Officials of the colonial state and its nationalist rivals cooperated after one earthquake even though they otherwise bitterly opposed each other. Cooperation broke down after the second event, just one year later. Yet, in both cases, officials and nationalist leaders shared a broad vision for Indian society, which pushed both sides actively to seek to recover the social and economic status quo ante, preventing potential tipping points from crystallising. These case studies reveal how and why highly fraught social contracts can survive major disasters. The colonial state's transient and reactive approach to disaster governance continued to impact on post‐independence India.