Water and the Environmental History of Modern India

Water and the Environmental History of Modern India
Author: Velayutham Saravanan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 265
Release: 2020-01-23
Genre: History
ISBN: 1350130834

This important new study investigates the competing demand for water in the Bhavani and Noyyal River basins of south India from the early 19th century to the early 21st century from a historical perspective. In doing so, the book addresses several important questions: * Did policy-makers visualise the future demand while diverting water from distant places or other basins? * Was efficient use ensured when the water was diverted or was it diverted in a manner that resulted in pollution and serious damage to the entire river basin? * Were natural flows taken care of in order to preserve the ecology and environment? * What were the factors that aggravated the competing demand for water and what were the consequences for the future? In the context of the current discourse on the competing demands for water, this book takes the debate forward, expanding the horizon of environmental history in the process. Until now, agriculture, industry and domestic water supply and their consequences for ecology, the environment and livelihoods have been given scant attention. Velayutham Saravanan's comprehensive account of both the colonial and post-colonial periods corrects this shortcoming in the field's literature and gives a holistic understanding of the problem and its full historical roots.

Environmental History of Modern India

Environmental History of Modern India
Author: Velayutham Saravanan
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2022-01-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 935435050X

India, over the decades, has experienced multiple changes, including population explosion, urbanisation, technological advancement, commercialisation of agriculture, change in land-use pattern, vast improvement of infrastructure facilities, etc., which have had an impact on the environment. Author Velayutham Saravanan attempts to understand the complexity of the environmental history of contemporary India from the early nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries. Environmental History of Contemporary India begins with an analysis of land-use patterns and population and their impact on the environment. Further, it discusses the exploitation of natural resources for commercial motives by the colonial administration and argues that the colonial commercial policy of over one-and-a-half centuries had impacted the ecology and environment. The book also deliberates whether the postcolonial government policies have changed in favour of environmental protection or have continued with the colonial policy, and attempts to throw light on the issues of how the land for development policies have impacted the environment from the early nineteenth century until recent years. It then looks at the problem of electronic waste and its adverse impact on the environment, ecology and health in a historical manner while engaging with the complexity of the conflict between land and population in relation to the environment. The book is the most comprehensive presentation on land, population, technology and development that India has witnessed since the early nineteenth century.

Blood and Water

Blood and Water
Author: David Gilmartin
Publisher:
Total Pages: 376
Release: 2020-04-14
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0520355539

"The book is a history of the political and environmental transformation of the Indus basin as a result of the modern construction of the world's largest, integrated irrigation system. Begun under British colonial rule in the 19th century, this transformation continued after the region was divided between two new states, India and Pakistan, in 1947. Massive irrigation works have turned an arid region into one of dense agricultural population, but its political legacies continue to shape the politics and statecraft of the region"--Provided by publisher.

Environmental History and Tribals in Modern India

Environmental History and Tribals in Modern India
Author: Velayutham Saravanan
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2018-03-07
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9811080526

This monograph presents a comprehensive account of environmental history of India and its tribals from the late eighteenth onwards, covering both the colonial and post-colonial periods. The book elaborately discusses the colonial plunder of forest resources up to the introduction of the Forest Act (1878) and focuses on how colonial policy impacted on the Indian environment, opening the floodgates of forest resources plunder, primarily for timber and to establish coffee and tea plantations. The book argues that even after the advent of conservation initiatives, commercial exploitation of forests continued unabated while stringent restrictions were imposed on the tribals, curtailing their access to the jungles. It details how post-colonial governments and populist votebank politics followed the same commercial forest policy till the 1980s without any major reform, exploiting forest resources and also encroaching upon forest lands, pushing the self-sustainable tribal economy to crumble. The book offers a comprehensive account of India’s environmental history during both colonial and post-colonial times, contributing to the current environmental policy debates in Asia.

An Environmental History of India

An Environmental History of India
Author: Michael H. Fisher
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 313
Release: 2018-10-18
Genre: History
ISBN: 1107111625

This longue durée survey of the Indian subcontinent's environmental history reveals the complex interactions among its people and the natural world.

Political Economy of Development and Environment in Modern India

Political Economy of Development and Environment in Modern India
Author: Velayutham Saravanan
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Total Pages: 174
Release: 2023-04-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 100087124X

This book captures the complexities of both development and environment, from the political economy point of view, to offer a broad economic and environmental history of post-independence India. It analyses the various components of constitutional provisions, policies, programmes and ecology protection measures during the post-independence period, that is, 1947–2020. The author also investigates India’s land and forest policies of the 21st century: Fair Compensation of Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act 2013 and the Scheduled Tribes and Other Traditional Forest Dwellers (Recognition of Forest Rights) Act 2006, which pose a great threat to ecology and the environment. The volume argues how, on one hand, the development agenda has undermined the environmental components for the first three decades of independence and, on the other hand, how the popular vote bank politics further has aggravated the issues related to environment in India. This book is an essential interdisciplinary resource for scholars and researchers of history, economic history, environmental studies, environmental history, Indian history and development studies.

Environmental History of Water

Environmental History of Water
Author: Petri S. Juuti
Publisher: IWA Publishing
Total Pages: 642
Release: 2007-02-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1843391104

The World Water Development Report 2003 pointed out the extensive problem that: 'Sadly, the tragedy of the water crisis is not simply a result of lack of water but is, essentially, one of poor water governance.' Cross-sectional and historical intra-national and international comparisons have been recognized as a valuable method of study in different sectors of human life, including technologies and governance. Environmental History of Water fills this gap, with its main focus being on water and sanitation services and their evolution. Altogether 34 authors have written 30 chapters for this multidisciplinary book which divides into four chronological parts, from ancient cultures to the challenges of the 21st century, each with its introduction and conclusions written by the editors. The authors represent such disciplines as history of technology, history of public health, public policy, development studies, sociology, engineering and management sciences. This book emphasizes that the history of water and sanitation services is strongly linked to current water management and policy issues, as well as future implications. Geographically the book consists of local cases from all inhabited continents. The key penetrating themes of the book include especially population growth, health, water consumption, technological choices and governance. There is great need for general, long-term analysis at the global level. Lessons learned from earlier societies help us to understand the present crisis and challenges. This new book, Environmental History of Water, provides this analysis by studying these lessons.

Climate of Conquest

Climate of Conquest
Author: Pratyay Nath
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 455
Release: 2019-06-28
Genre: Literary Criticism
ISBN: 0199098239

What can war tell us about empire? In Climate of Conquest, Pratyay Nath seeks to answer this question by focusing on the Mughals. He goes beyond the traditional way of studying war in terms of battles and technologies. Instead, he unravels the deep connections that the processes of war-making shared with the society, culture, environment, and politics of early modern South Asia. Climate of Conquest closely studies the dynamics of the military campaigns that helped the Mughals conquer North India and project their power beyond it. The author argues that the diverse natural environment of South Asia deeply shaped Mughal military techniques and the course of imperial expansion. He also sheds light on the world of military logistics, labour, animals, and the organization of war; the process of the formation of imperial frontiers; and the empire’s legitimization of war and conquest. What emerges is a fresh interpretation of Mughal empire-building as a highly adaptive, flexible, and accommodative process.

Unruly Waters

Unruly Waters
Author: Sunil Amrith
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 401
Release: 2018-12-11
Genre: History
ISBN: 0465097731

From a MacArthur "Genius," a bold new perspective on the history of Asia, highlighting the long quest to tame its waters Asia's history has been shaped by her waters. In Unruly Waters, historian Sunil Amrith reimagines Asia's history through the stories of its rains, rivers, coasts, and seas -- and of the weather-watchers and engineers, mapmakers and farmers who have sought to control them. Looking out from India, he shows how dreams and fears of water shaped visions of political independence and economic development, provoked efforts to reshape nature through dams and pumps, and unleashed powerful tensions within and between nations. Today, Asian nations are racing to construct hundreds of dams in the Himalayas, with dire environmental impacts; hundreds of millions crowd into coastal cities threatened by cyclones and storm surges. In an age of climate change, Unruly Waters is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand Asia's past and its future.

Crossing the Bay of Bengal

Crossing the Bay of Bengal
Author: Sunil S. Amrith
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 324
Release: 2013-10-07
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674728475

The Indian Ocean was global long before the Atlantic, and today the countries bordering the Bay of Bengal—India, Bangladesh, Burma, Sri Lanka, Thailand, and Malaysia—are home to one in four people on Earth. Crossing the Bay of Bengal places this region at the heart of world history for the first time. Integrating human and environmental history, and mining a wealth of sources, Sunil Amrith gives a revelatory and stirring new account of the Bay and those who have inhabited it. For centuries the Bay of Bengal served as a maritime highway between India and China, and then as a battleground for European empires, all while being shaped by the monsoons and by human migration. Imperial powers in the nineteenth century, abetted by the force of capital and the power of steam, reconfigured the Bay in their quest for coffee, rice, and rubber. Millions of Indian migrants crossed the sea, bound by debt or spurred by drought, and filled with ambition. Booming port cities like Singapore and Penang became the most culturally diverse societies of their time. By the 1930s, however, economic, political, and environmental pressures began to erode the Bay’s centuries-old patterns of interconnection. Today, rising waters leave the Bay of Bengal’s shores especially vulnerable to climate change, at the same time that its location makes it central to struggles over Asia’s future. Amrith’s evocative and compelling narrative of the region’s pasts offers insights critical to understanding and confronting the many challenges facing Asia in the decades ahead.