000			01756nam a2200193Ia 4500
999			_c69174 _d69174
005			20220519154242.0
008			200204s9999 xx 000 0 und d
020			_a9780195640755
082			_a333.70954 NAT
100			_aArnold, David (ed.)
245		0	_aNature, culture, imperialism
260			_aDelhi
260			_bOxford University Press
260			_c1995
300			_a376 p.
520			_aEnvironmental history, the study of changing human relations with the natural world, is a fast developing field of historical enquiry. In both ecological and cultural terms, South Asia is characterized by an unparalleled diversity. It thus offers unique possibilities for the environmental historian. Ecological degradation, and the social conflicts that have come in its wake, have further underlined the need for historical research in this field. This volume brings together a set of pioneer ing essays in the environmental history of South Asia. The contributors come from Australia, Britain, France, India and the United States: they include some of the best known historians of the subcontinent. Forests and water, the two natural resources perhaps most critical to the economic life of agrarian communities, loom large in many of the essays. Other contributions deal with pastoralists and fisherfolk, two important social groups neglected by historians; and with urban pollution, an environmental problem of enormous magnitude that has rather longer roots than is sometimes imag ined. Some essays document the radical reshaping of resource use patterns under colonial rule; others focus on the environ ment as a contested space, the site of conflict and confrontation.
650			_aEnvironment-South Asia-history-1600-1922
942			_cB _2ddc