The proposed research will probe the scientific and technological aspects of the introduction of Hevea rubber in colonial southern India, particularly in Travancore princely state (encompassing parts of present-day Kerala and Tamil Nadu states), from the late nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries. It would investigate the botanical efforts to transfer the crop, the science concerning its growth, its diseases, and remedies, the role of local and external research and the kinds of scientific organisations and advice available. The research will also analyse the various efforts to make rubber plantations increasingly technology-oriented through the development and deployment of multiple technologies and tools, the responses to them, and their long-lasting ecological consequences. In explicating all these, the work will have a particular focus on the production, flows and exchange of local and external knowledge. Also, the specific roles played by the main players - colonial and princely states, scientists, planters and adventurers - would be examined critically.

The work would draw from, as well as contribute to the connected histories framework (proposed by Sanjay Subrahmanyam and others), by unravelling the multiple nodes and modalities of connections across the globe, and the resulting flows - with special sensitivity in this case, to the asymmetries of the colonial condition. The idea of ‘contact zones’ (as formulated by Kapil Raj and others), would also be relevant in this regard - incorporating the elements of ‘co-creation’ and ‘go-betweens’ (as proposed by Simon Schaffer and others). Most importantly, this research will deploy and test the freshly-minted ‘cropscape’ framework (proposed by Francesca Bray et al.), using the case of rubber in the Indian context. This framework will be particularly useful as it looks at the totality of factors around a crop - including the less-focused aspects/agents - both living (including non-humans - like pests), and non-living (such as tools, artefacts, and soil), - promising a richer picture of connectedness, exchange and multiple agencies.