• DR. SARASWATI KUMARI

History as a social science developed new orientations different from its earlier concerns as a part of studying the various changes that the Indian subcontinent witnessed. There was the growing recognition that the past had to be explained understood reinterpreted on the basis of what historians were now referring to as historical method. Involving a critical enquiry, Several new techniques and areas of study are being involved while looking beyond the things of history. There was a paradigm shift in the historical writings of India with special reference to the environmental history, connexions between geographical regions, the environment and history are now beginning to be made. Environmental changes have begun to be studied, the changes which are being taken place due to the socio -political and ecological changes from the colonial India to present day. In this paper I’ve tried to provide a glimpse of a few of the changes that underlie the study and interpretation of railways, colonialism and environment in context to Indian history. Also to look back towards the past as an historical process rather than in an isolated fragments is definitely a response to our curiosity about the past in knowing the present and to attempt to understand and explain it. The past is not static, we believe that because we have created it, we can also give it shape. When we speak to the past with the sources, we have we are definitely pointing out the happenings of the time being but they have the experiences of their own with a change of nature into their future so before we have reached out to them and the things which are being invoked to the past, we need to ask the past what are we invoking and why?

-Railways, Colonialism, Environment, Forest, Agriculture

"Railways, Colonialism and Environment in India: An Historical Introspection", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 2, page no.g62-g69, February-2025, Available :http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2502609.pdf

"Railways, Colonialism and Environment in India: An Historical Introspection", International Journal of Emerging Technologies and Innovative Research (www.jetir.org | UGC and issn Approved), ISSN:2349-5162, Vol.12, Issue 2, page no. ppg62-g69, February-2025, Available at : http://www.jetir.org/papers/JETIR2502609.pdf