Botanical Surveys as an Agent of Colonial Rule in Northeast India: c. 1826–1947

Protiksha Hatibaruah

Botanical Surveys as an Agent of Colonial Rule in Northeast India: c. 1826–1947

Author(s)	Ms. Protiksha Hatibaruah
Country	India
Abstract	Botanical surveys constituted an important, though insufficiently examined, dimension of British colonial expansion in Northeast India. Beyond their contribution to the classification of regional flora, these investigations generated knowledge that could be mobilised in the commercial exploitation of natural resources, the development of plantation agriculture, and the consolidation of colonial forest administration. This paper examines the relationship between botanical exploration and colonial governance, focusing primarily on Assam and situating the region within wider imperial networks of scientific knowledge and resource extraction. The paper analyses three interconnected processes, the production of botanical knowledge, the commercialisation of nature through tea cultivation, and the transformation of forests into administratively regulated and economically valuable spaces. It argues that botanical surveys contributed to colonial rule not simply by discovering plant species, but by establishing connections between scientific classification, commercial priorities, and state intervention. The development of Assam's tea industry demonstrates how botanical research intersected with imperial trade, racialised scientific assumptions, and the restructuring of labour. The history of colonial forestry further illustrates how knowledge of natural resources became embedded in systems of territorial classification and regulation. The paper also considers the consequences of these processes for indigenous ecological knowledge, customary resource use, and environmental change. It concludes that botanical surveys should be understood as part of a wider colonial knowledge regime whose authority depended on its integration with administrative institutions and commercial interests.
Keywords	Colonial botany; Northeast India; Assam; environmental history; scientific knowledge; tea plantations; colonial forestry; imperialism.
Published In	Volume 8, Issue 6, November-December 2026
Published On	2026-11-07

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Botanical Surveys as an Agent of Colonial Rule in Northeast India: c. 1826–1947

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