The Quest for Economic Botany: William Roxburgh and the Company Rule in India

Abstract

Economic botany, defined as the study of the use of plants by humans, emerged as a branch of knowledge about the mid-eighteenth century with the effort of Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus. Thereafter, botanical research shifted from ‘search for nature’ to the ‘economic utilization and control of plants.’ During the British East India Company rule in India, William Roxburgh (1751-1815), the founding father of Indian Botany and the Superintendent of Calcutta Botanic Garden, developed economic botany by using gardens as laboratory to introduce lucrative crops like hemp, sugarcane, pepper and others. Subsequently, medicinal plants were also explored and documented. However, the historiography is silent regarding the Roxburgh’s quest and pursuit of economic botany. In this context, the present paper deals with Roxburgh effort in developing economic botany for imperial exigency.