An Animal History of Colonial Burma

The colonisation of Burma did not only affect humans, it had huge ramifications for the country's animal population. This aspect of colonial rule has been neglected by historians. Despite this, the centrality of animals to British rule in Burma was apparent in a host of different areas. Elephant labour was essential for imperial commercial interests, particularly to the lucrative timber trade. Elephants were also used extensively by the state for military transportation as well as for urban and railway construction. Dogs, rats and mosquitoes were vectors of diseases that posed risks to the health of both the ruling British population as well as to their colonised subjects. Snakes too were viewed by the British as a potent danger to life. As a result, colonial officials sought out ways of managing, and often destroying, these dangerous animals. Other animals were killed principally for sport, since big game hunting was central to imperial identity and Burma was a popular site for shooting. In contrast, the deaths of some animals were a cause for concern. The plight of the Irrawaddy dolphins and the sea-turtles that frequented the Burma delta was a marker of ecological deterioration resulting from the expansion of rice cultivation in the late-nineteenth century. Animals were also important in anti-colonial politics. Burmese nationalists used animals symbolically in their campaigns, and the ethical treatment of animals became a battleground upon which British imperialists and Burmese Buddhist nationalists each attempted to claim moral superiority. Burma makes a particularly important case study for the colonial history of human-animal relationships because of three distinctive features: the prominence of animals in anti-colonial politics; the scale of environmental change in the delta; and its role as a site for imperial studies of particular animal species, especially elephants, snakes and mosquitoes.

The wider implications of this project are significant. It is of increasing importance to learn more about the ecological impact of human societies, and research into the effect of colonisation on the animal populations of Burma will produce vital data on a crucial historical period marked by rapid modernisation. In addition, as Burma moves into a phase of more intensive global interaction and economic development, reflecting on the colonial period will aid our understanding of the current challenges of managing the effects of this transformation on Burma's wildlife. Through archival research, I will uncover both British and Burmese writings about animals. Reading across different genres (scientific texts, newspaper stories, bureaucratic government reports, novels, amongst others) the project will reassess the much contested impact of colonisation on Burma, examining how human-animal relations were re-figured in the colonial encounter. It will be one of the first research projects to bring the growing field of animal history into the history of Southeast Asia, and through this transform medical, cultural, environmental and socio-economic histories of the region.

The fellowship will develop my skills in leading and managing a pioneering research project into a new area of historical research. The published outputs resulting from the fellowship will enhance my status as a research leader in the field of Burmese history and imperial history. As a fellow I will forge new interdisciplinary connections between Southeast Asian history, animal studies and the environmental humanities. The fellowship will also enable me to make collaborative links with the Bristol Museum, and to develop a creative and interactive website to engage with the general public.

Beneficiaries of this research will include the wider public and the Bristol Museum.

A major outcome of my research will be an on-line exhibition, entitled 'Buddhas and Bird-skins: Bringing Burma to Bristol in the Age of Empire', which I expect to launch at the end of the fellowship in Autumn 2015. I am currently in discussions with collections officers working with the natural history and the ethnographic collections at the Bristol Museum, both of which contain many artefacts that were acquired from Burma in the late-nineteenth century and the early-twentieth century. The exhibition will be hosted on a website supported by the University of Bristol, and it will display approximately 40 artefacts. These will be Burmese cultural artefacts depicting animals and animal remains, such as hunting trophies and specimens for the study of natural history, collected from British Burma (1824-1948). Images of the objects will be framed by short historical essays explaining the meanings attached to them by both the Burmese and the British, as well as providing the story of how the item was created and came to be in Bristol.

The Museum will benefit from this exhibition by being able to share artefacts currently unavailable to the public, without putting pressure on already scarce exhibition space. There will be further benefits to the Museum, as in the process of researching and curating the exhibition, I will be able to contribute to researching the provenance of the artefacts, as well as being able to aid the digital cataloguing of the Museum's collections.

The wider public will get the opportunity to access collections usually closed off to them. The exhibition will target museum-goers, particularly those interested in public history, in Asia, in wildlife and in the British Empire. The selected objects will be situated for this audience through brief, engaging essays.

The exhibition will complement some of the broader objectives behind the monograph, intended for publication with Reaktion Books. The working title is 'Colonising the Animal: British Imperialism and the Reshaping of Burma's Wildlife, c.1800-1940'. The monograph will make the argument that Burma's animal populations were profoundly affected by colonial rule in terms of both their ecology and their cultural meanings. As a result, many of the country's current ecological challenges, such as those facing its diminishing wild elephant population (the largest in Asia), have roots in the colonial period. It will also make the case for the value of understanding colonisation through the history of human-animal relationships. Both the book and the exhibition will help to popularise, as well as contribute to, debates about the impact of human societies on wildlife. The book and the exhibition will also raise public awareness of the historical role played by animals in imperial history. In addition, both outputs will draw attention to the historical ties between Britain and Burma, an issue particularly pertinent at a time of political re-engagement with the country.

The exhibition will be advertised through: the University's press office; faculty, departmental and personal social media outlets; society organisations interested in Burmese history (for example the Britain Burma Society); the city of Bristol's annual 'Festival of Ideas', and the history department's 'Past Matters' festival of history; the British Animal Studies Network; and through the Bristol Museum. The exhibition will coincide with the University's biannual 'Inside Arts' festival, and will be advertised as part of that programme of events. It will also be linked into the history department's already existing ties with Bristol's communities through the 'Know Your Bristol' project. I will monitor the on-line traffic to the exhibition and website statistics, and devise a feedback questionnaire for visitors to the website to enable me to assess its impact.