Ruling the Unruly Winds: 1864 Cyclone and Meteorological Modelling in the Indian Ocean

Abstract

The European voyagers took a lot of interest in studying trade winds and monsoons. But they were still very uncertain about the frequently occurring cyclones in the tropics. The expansion of the British colonial empire in the Indian Ocean during the late nineteenth century paralleled a significant enhancement of meteorological observation systems. While merchant and naval ships routinely documented weather data in logs, the formal development of meteorology as a professional discipline emerged in the latter half of the century. One of the most devastating cyclones of the time was the cyclone of 1864. It took many lives, damaged many government buildings and wrecked many of the British ships sailing through the Bay of Bengal. The intensity and destruction caused by it accelerated meteorological science in the Indian Ocean. This article examines the following—why it was the 1864 cyclone that drew so much attention of the British to develop meteorological models for cyclone prediction?; did the institutionalisation of meteorological science in colonial India function less as a resource for local coastal communities and more as a technology of power, advancing the political legitimacy and authority of the British state?; and whether scientific models existed in a pre-formed state or were they actively shaped by colonial processes?