Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Weathering AC-UiS (Weathering Colonial Calcutta: Climates, Cultures and Everyday Experiences of the Weather, 1800-1945)
Reporting period: 2023-04-01 to 2025-03-31
Weathering Colonial Calcutta examined the colonial history of Calcutta through the lens of seasons and the weather. It explored how heat, humidity, monsoon rains, tropical storms, and cold winters shaped the changing matrix within which Bengali and British relations and experiences of Calcutta existed. It reveals how the weather and seasons not just defined scientific and social viewpoints, modes of cultural activity, the clothes people wore, the foods they ate, the architecture and layouts of urban and domestic spaces, but were also defined by how and what people felt when they sweat in the heat and humidity, were drenched in the rain, or caught in a storm. Through vivid accounts drawn from a variety of archival sources, including letters, domestic guidebooks, diaries, newspapers, artworks, theatre and satire, the project revealed the sensory and affective lives of different social groups — from British officials to Bengali housewives, from civil servants to domestic servants — and the ways their experiences of Calcutta’s seasons and weather produced and reflected deeper social and cultural ideas and power structures.
The project makes two key analytical interventions. First, it historicises and advances the sociological and anthropological concept of “weathering”. Scholars of climate change and extreme weather events use “weathering” to underscore lived experiences and counter the linear and inhuman narratives of climate change confined within scientific graphs and mathematical models. They argue that living with the effects of climate change is inseparable from the social, cultural and political climates that human bodies exist within. This project extends “weathering” to examine how experiences of seasons and weather in colonial Calcutta were profoundly personal, yet shaped by societies, political dynamics and cultural norms.
Second, the book develops methodological approaches to study weather as both a physical and natural entity, and a social phenomenon in historical contexts. It does more than simply following the appearance of weather in texts, but foregrounds instead the sensory and affective ways in which people experienced and interpreted the weather. This methodology addresses a key challenge in climate history, especially in the context of South Asia: how to fully understand the internal workings of peoples’ everyday lives, and how varied experiences of seasons and weather were integrated into broader discussions of colonialism, nationalisms, domesticity, class and social identities, the literary arena, the place of women and servants in the household, and urban planning. The project reveals how seemingly mundane yet critical aspects of weathering — from knowledge of seasons, clothing, nutrition, and the design, layout and use of public and domestic spaces — were, in often delicate ways, embedded in the creation and maintenance of racial, class and social thinking and practices.
The project's public website is www.weatheringcultures.com.
The project makes two key analytical interventions. First, it historicises and advances the sociological and anthropological concept of “weathering”. Scholars of climate change and extreme weather events use “weathering” to underscore lived experiences and counter the linear and inhuman narratives of climate change confined within scientific graphs and mathematical models. They argue that living with the effects of climate change is inseparable from the social, cultural and political climates that human bodies exist within. This project extends “weathering” to examine how experiences of seasons and weather in colonial Calcutta were profoundly personal, yet shaped by societies, political dynamics and cultural norms.
Second, the book develops methodological approaches to study weather as both a physical and natural entity, and a social phenomenon in historical contexts. It does more than simply following the appearance of weather in texts, but foregrounds instead the sensory and affective ways in which people experienced and interpreted the weather. This methodology addresses a key challenge in climate history, especially in the context of South Asia: how to fully understand the internal workings of peoples’ everyday lives, and how varied experiences of seasons and weather were integrated into broader discussions of colonialism, nationalisms, domesticity, class and social identities, the literary arena, the place of women and servants in the household, and urban planning. The project reveals how seemingly mundane yet critical aspects of weathering — from knowledge of seasons, clothing, nutrition, and the design, layout and use of public and domestic spaces — were, in often delicate ways, embedded in the creation and maintenance of racial, class and social thinking and practices.
The project's public website is www.weatheringcultures.com.
The project had two objectives:
1. To think about how historical writing can be mobilised to enrich public engagement with climate change.
2. The project sought to introduce reflections on how historical disciplines like history of technology, colonial and postcolonial studies, and environmental humanities can rethink their approaches to respond to current environmental crises.
Four Work Packages addressed the two objectives. All Work Packages are now complete.
Work Package 1 (Archival Research & Book Proposal): The archival research was meant for internal use, and all the material collected on archival trips to the UK and through online repositories have been incorporated into the other outputs.
The book proposal and sample chapter is currently under review with an academic publisher.
Work Package 2 (Everyday Experiences of the Weather): complete month 24, had an academic article and a research workshop as its main outputs. The article has been submitted for editorial assessment and peer review. The workshop was held in December 2024 and brought together academics from different parts of the world working in varied disciplines, and in varied stages of their career to examine the sociological and anthropological concept of “weathering” through diverse research fields, methodologies, and styles of historical inquiry. Currently, there are plans of publishing the findings of the workshop as an edited volume.
Work Package 3 (Scientific and Literary Explorations of the Weather): complete month 21, had an academic article and two Work in Progress seminars as its main outputs. The article is under peer review. The main findings of the research project, an article, and the book proposal were discussed in a research seminar and two work in progress seminars, respectively. The feedback received were incorporated into the outputs that have now been submitted for editorial review, and will be used in outputs planned in the future.
Work Package 4 (Dissemination and Impacts): complete month 23, had a website and a short piece for a wider audience as its main outputs. The website www.weatheringcultures.com is now online and has details of the project and workshop.
Two articles are currently in the pipeline:
An article for the online journal Aeon is under editorial review
An article for The Construction Historian will be submitted to the editors in June, to be published in the summer edition.
In addition to the publications mentioned in the Work Packages, a book chapter is also under preparation for The Routledge Handbook of Modern Infrastructural History.
1. To think about how historical writing can be mobilised to enrich public engagement with climate change.
2. The project sought to introduce reflections on how historical disciplines like history of technology, colonial and postcolonial studies, and environmental humanities can rethink their approaches to respond to current environmental crises.
Four Work Packages addressed the two objectives. All Work Packages are now complete.
Work Package 1 (Archival Research & Book Proposal): The archival research was meant for internal use, and all the material collected on archival trips to the UK and through online repositories have been incorporated into the other outputs.
The book proposal and sample chapter is currently under review with an academic publisher.
Work Package 2 (Everyday Experiences of the Weather): complete month 24, had an academic article and a research workshop as its main outputs. The article has been submitted for editorial assessment and peer review. The workshop was held in December 2024 and brought together academics from different parts of the world working in varied disciplines, and in varied stages of their career to examine the sociological and anthropological concept of “weathering” through diverse research fields, methodologies, and styles of historical inquiry. Currently, there are plans of publishing the findings of the workshop as an edited volume.
Work Package 3 (Scientific and Literary Explorations of the Weather): complete month 21, had an academic article and two Work in Progress seminars as its main outputs. The article is under peer review. The main findings of the research project, an article, and the book proposal were discussed in a research seminar and two work in progress seminars, respectively. The feedback received were incorporated into the outputs that have now been submitted for editorial review, and will be used in outputs planned in the future.
Work Package 4 (Dissemination and Impacts): complete month 23, had a website and a short piece for a wider audience as its main outputs. The website www.weatheringcultures.com is now online and has details of the project and workshop.
Two articles are currently in the pipeline:
An article for the online journal Aeon is under editorial review
An article for The Construction Historian will be submitted to the editors in June, to be published in the summer edition.
In addition to the publications mentioned in the Work Packages, a book chapter is also under preparation for The Routledge Handbook of Modern Infrastructural History.
The academic outputs of Weathering Colonial Calcutta were aimed at two key audiences — academics and the general public — interested in the symbiotic relationships between spaces, infrastructures, people, politics, cultures, climate, weather and weathering. The outputs, therefore, took several forms including peer reviewed articles, invitations to panel discussions, a book project, and articles in online publications.Each element of the project offers a unique perspective on these relationships and interactions through extending the sociological and anthropological concept of “weathering”. The outputs of the project propose a strong role for cultural, environmental and infrastructural histories in informing ongoing debates on expert knowledge, urban and cultural changes, and the processes of navigating the vagaries of climate, weather and changing natural environments. Impact was generally wider than expected, with significant interest from academic and professional institutions, and members of the public.