Playing with Nature: History and Politics of Environment in North-East India

ISBN-13: 9781138280632 / Angielski / Twarda / 2017 / 364 str.

Sajal Nag

Opis

North East India is called nature’s gift to India. It is mountainous, thickly forested, nourished by massive rainfall, has massive rivers, has a diverse wildlife, inhabited a number of forest dwellers called tribes who cherished environmentalist ethos. The region has been experiencing environmental depletion which was a result of colonial policies, exploitation of its ecological and mineral resources, large scale trans-border immigration and settlement of people, establishment of the plantation industry through deforestation and the dependence of the dairy industry on grazing and other factors. This books depicts the precariousness of the environmental situation and traces the history and politics of such degeneration with a view to raise the consciousness of the people of the region towards their environment and save it from further aggravation.

Spis treści

1. India’s North-east: An Enigmatic Absence in History and Cartography 2. Marsh, Rice and Faith: Aspects of Environmental and Religious Changes in the Early Medieval Surma-Barak Valley 3. Man, Nature and State in Pre-Colonial Kachar 4. Environment and War: Small Wars in North-east India, 1845-1913 5. The Coming of British Forestry in Assam in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Century: Initiatives and Problems 6. The Ecological and Social Watershed: Colonial Intervention and Forest Use in Assam 7. Forests, Fields and Pasture: Environmental and Revenue Debates of Land Usage in Colonial Assam in 1910-1920 8. Colonialism and Deforestation in Naga Hills 9. State Science, Hegemony and Shifting the Cultivator: Contesting the ‘Anti-modernity’ Discourse on Shifting Cultivation in South Asia 10. Land Use/Land Cover Change and its Impact on Climate in the Barak Valley, Assam 11. Rain, Rain, Come Again: History of Rainfall, Deforestation and Water Scarcity in Cherrapunji, the Rainiest Spot in the Globe 12. Challenging Times, Challenged Body: Decolonization, Displacement and Disease among East Pakistani Refugees in South Assam, 1947-1954 13. The Empire as a World of Sport: Aspects of Hunting in Colonial Assam, c. 1850-1900 14. Colonizing the Wild: British Policies towards Wildlife in Assam, 1874-1947 15. Encountering Floods: Colonial State and the Flood of 1916 in the Surma-Barak Valley of Assam 16. Environmental Impact of the Great Earthquakes of 1897 and 1950 on North East India 17. Mythology as a Protest Narrative: A Lepcha Tale

O autorze

Sajal Nag teaches Modern History at Assam Central University. Earlier he was associated with the North-Eastern Hill University and the Centre for Social Studies, Surat.