Institutional and community adaptation from the archives: A study of drought in western India, 1790–1860 George C.D. Adamson Department of Geography, King’s College London, Strand, London WC2R 2LS, United Kingdom article info Article history: Received 10 January 2014 Received in revised form 26 May 2014 Keywords: Social vulnerability Adaptation Climate change Drought India Colonial abstract The analysis of the socioeconomic effects of, and societal adaptation to, extreme climatic events in the past is an important tool in preparing for future adaptation. However, the history of social responses to climate is relatively understudied, and analyses that do exist take a broadly historical perspective, detached from current vulnerability, adaptation or resilience theory. This analysis attempts to address this empirical scarcity through an examination of drought responses in early-nineteenth century western India, particularly at the government level. The analysis reveals a sociopolitical system that was highly robust in the face of climate stress, despite high levels of vulnerability at the individual level, with hege- monic structures maintained by a system of grain dealer/moneylenders. The period witnessed a move towards market-driven drought response, which apparently reduced adaptive capacity in the short term by allowing speculation in the grain market. This is likely to have been buffered in the medium term by increases in cultivation, greater market openness and the almost universal acceptance of market-driven drought policy by government actors, resulting in a swift response. However, the apparent success of adaptation measures during the first half of the nineteenth century may have masked vulnerabilities to more extreme climatic events, contributing to the catastrophic Indian famines of the late nineteenth century. This bears similarities to the ‘catastrophe hypothesis’, the significance of which is discussed. The study argues for a greater focus on social responses to extreme climatic events in the past in order to address contemporary challenges. Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The study of social responses to climate variability in the past provides one method with which to understand the responses of social-ecological systems to climatic stress. A historical approach can have several benefits over analyses of more recent events. Historical studies permit analysis of the long-term effects of adaptation decisions upon social structures (cf. Cannon, 1994; Kates, 2000) and the influence of adaptive decisions on overall climatic vulnerability (Bowden et al., 1981; Pelling, 2003). A long- term context can help understand the processes and discourses that facilitate or constrain adaptive responses, both at the commu- nity and societal level (Stehr and von Storch, 1995; Vedwan and Rhoades, 2001; Endfield et al., 2004; Brázdil et al., 2005; Tompkins and Adger, 2004; Endfield, 2007). In the preparation of disaster management plans, historical studies represent place- specific comparators that can allow particularly sensitive regions to be determined, allowing for an estimation of the most vulnerable groups, individuals and geographical regions (Carter et al., 2007; Cœur and Lang, 2008). Analyses of the distant past are particularly pertinent where previously rare events are forecast to become more regular, such as in tropical monsoon regions (Rupa Kumar et al., 2006; Carter et al., 2007; Kripalani et al., 2007; Berger et al., 2008; Turner and Slingo, 2009; Gupta et al., 2011; Field et al., 2012). The study of social vulnerability to climatic variability in the past can permit the derivation of theoretical constructs and univer- salities regarding social vulnerability, which can be applied to con- temporary challenges. Several previous studies have attempted this, using the available empirical data. Bowden et al.’s (1981) ‘catastrophe’ and ‘lessening’ hypotheses address the long-term effects of climatic adaptation on society, derived through analysis of the effects of climate on populations in the Tigris-Euphrates Val- ley, the Sahel and the US Great Plains. The ‘lessening’ hypothesis argues that all societies are able to respond to climatic events with a return period of less than 100 years. This adaptation, however, can mask or even increase vulnerability to major climatic events, i.e. those with a return period of more than 100 years (the ‘catas- trophe hypothesis’). This is similar to the law of unintended conse- quences in complex social-ecological systems outlined by van der Leeuw (2007: 234–235). This states that human interventions http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2014.05.010 0016-7185/Ó 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. E-mail address: george.adamson@kcl.ac.uk Geoforum 55 (2014) 110–119 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Geoforum journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/geoforum