The empire of nature

The empire of nature
Author: John M. MacKenzie
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Total Pages: 351
Release: 2017-03-01
Genre: Nature
ISBN: 1526119587

This study assesses the significance of the hunting cult as a major element of the imperial experience in Africa and Asia. Through a study of the game laws and the beginnings of conservation in the 19th and early-20th centuries, the author demonstrates the racial inequalities which existed between Europeans and indigenous hunters. Africans were denied access to game, and the development of game reserves and national parks accelerated this process. Indigenous hunters in Africa and India were turned into "poachers" and only Europeans were permitted to hunt. In India, the hunting of animals became the chief recreation of military officers and civilian officials, a source of display and symbolic dominance of the environment. Imperial hunting fed the natural history craze of the day, and many hunters collected trophies and specimens for private and public collections as well as contributing to hunting literature. Adopting a radical approach to issues of conservation, this book links the hunting cult in Africa and India to the development of conservation, and consolidates widely-scattered material on the importance of hunting to the economics and nutrition of African societies.

The Inhuman Empire

The Inhuman Empire
Author: Sadhana Naithani
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 186
Release: 2024-05-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 1040023487

This book is a study of selected texts of British writings on Indian wildlife published between 1860 and 1960. Set in the context of British colonial rule in India, this book also reflects on similar situations across the British Empire and other colonial empires. The destruction of wildlife in the making of empires is a subject not yet fully explored in scholarship. This book aims to speak to global concerns regarding the extinction of several species and shows that the crisis has international roots. The Inhuman Empire breaks new grounds as it juxtaposes colonial narratives to folk narratives. These two types of narratives treat nonhuman animals very differently – folk narrative considers them sentient beings, while colonial narratives see them as ‘game’ and do not care for their sentience. Both types of narratives are further evaluated with reference to the contemporary position of natural sciences regarding animal sentience and of anthropologists and philosophers regarding the relationship between nature and culture. Analyzing colonial accounts of hunting, the author looks at the pain and suffering of nonhuman animals and combines statistics alongside narratives of British writers, Indian populace and nonhuman animals in order to show narratives' reflect and impact reality. This book will be of great value to those interested in Animal Studies, Folkloristics, the history of Colonialism and India.

The Spectator

The Spectator
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1266
Release: 1860
Genre: English literature
ISBN:

A weekly review of politics, literature, theology, and art.

Treasures of Indian Wildlife

Treasures of Indian Wildlife
Author: Ashok S. Kothari
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2005
Genre: History
ISBN:

Selections from the Society's Library's books, journals, and gazeteers, and from its Journal.

Wildlife Reserves of India

Wildlife Reserves of India
Author: Sunjoy Monga
Publisher:
Total Pages: 168
Release: 2002
Genre: History
ISBN:

Contains brief essays on forty-four national parks and sanctuaries in India, exploring the wildlife and habitat of the reserves. Special features include a fact file containing additional information on each of the forty-four reserves.

Shooting a Tiger

Shooting a Tiger
Author: Vijaya Ramadas Mandala
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 343
Release: 2018-10-18
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0199096600

The figure of the white hunter sahib proudly standing over the carcass of a tiger with a gun in hand is one of the most powerful and enduring images of the empire. This book examines the colonial politics that allowed British imperialists to indulge in such grand posturing as the rulers and protectors of indigenous populations. This work studies the history of hunting and conservation in colonial India during the high imperial decades of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. At this time, not only did hunting serve as a metaphor for colonial rule signifying the virile sportsmanship of the British hunter, but it also enabled vital everyday governance through the embodiment of the figure of the officer–hunter–administrator. Using archival material and published sources, the author examines hunting and wildlife conservation from various social and ethnic perspectives, and also in different geographical contexts, extending our understanding of the link between shikar and governance.