This is the first book which provides an engaging and insightful narrative on the life of a geographer in India. The author introspects on her own experiences and engagements with the discipline and explores the life and works of twenty-four other geographers from India.The volume documents and acknowledges the commitment of geographers to life, teaching, and the subject of geography. Collectively these provide an insight into the growth and expansion of the discipline in the count...

This book is the first of its kind to chart the terrain of contemporary India’s many place names. It explores different ‘place connections’, investigates how places are named and renamed, and looks at the forces that are remaking the future place name map of India.Lucid and accessible, this book explores the bonds between names, places and people through a unique amalgamation of toponomy, history, mythology and political studies within a geographical expression. This volume address...

What makes Darjeeling tea, Pashmina shawl, Monsooned Malabar Arabica coffee and Chanderi saree special? Why is it that some goods derive their uniqueness through their inherent linkage to a place? In a pioneering study, this book explores this intriguing question in the Indian context across 199 registered goods with geographical indications, linked with their place of origin. It argues that the origin of these goods is attributed to a distinctive ecology that brews in a particular place. ...

Crowded, hot, subject to violent swings in climate, with a government unable or unwilling to face the most vital challenges, the rich and poor increasingly living in worlds apart; for most of the world, this picture is of a possible future. For India, it is the very real present.In this lyrical exploration of life, loss, and survival, Meera Subramanian travels in search of the ordinary people and microenterprises determined to revive India's ravaged natural world: an engineer-turne...

The book is a comprehensive and authentic living record of the whole gamut of ancient Indian history. It deals with the cultural, political, geographical and socioeconomic conditions of ancient India.

Renowned author and journalist Sheila McLeod Arnopoulos uses her talent for investigative reporting to take us deep into the poorest villages in India. Yet, far from being passive victims of their circumstances, the women who live there have joined forces and are making astute use of microcredit to break the cycle of poverty.Microcredit was made famous by Bangladeshi economist Muhammad Yunus and consists of very small loans made primarily to women for the production of essential co...

Th e art of vernacular painting in India is not only varied and rich but also intriguing for several reasons. With such observations the book addresses certain issues, like the validity of the historical information on Indian Art that excludes vernacular trends. The information on vernacular art in India has either been ignored such as in ancient literary discourses or inadvertently misconstrued within the theoretical purviews of modern days. If the hierarchy of the Hindu caste system has ...

Environmental history in India has generated a rich literature on forests, wildlife, humananimal conflict, tribal rights and commercial degradation, displacement and development, pastoralism and desertification, famine and disease, sedentarism and mobility, wildness and civility, and the ecology versus equity debate.This reader brings together some of the best and most interesting writing on India’s ecological pasts. It looks at a variety of the country’s regions, landscapes, and arenas as se...

A concise but passionately written book with a descriptive and literary style, about the 'hidden beauties' of some less visited corners especially in North, North-East and Central India. The book is special because it is not written by a professional tour-promoter. It rather represents the personal perspective of the author. Tips for travellers are added bonus!

With all the zany vibrancy of a Bollywood musical, the colorful matchbox labels of LIGHT OF INDIA present a fascinating confluence of popular culture and a sophisticated graphic arts tradition that stretches back for centuries.Populated with pouncing Bengal tigers, regal jungle elephants, and Hindu gods and goddesses, these miniature masterpieces are worlds unto themselves, skillfully illustrated with a naive yet irresistible charm. This delightful art book is sure to fire the imag...

India is killing the Ganges, and the Ganges in turn is killing India. The waterway that has nourished more people than any on earth for three millennia is now so polluted with sewage and toxic waste that it has become a menace to human and animal health. Victor Mallet traces the holy river from source to mouth, and from ancient times to the present day, to find that the battle to rescue what is arguably the world's most important river is far from lost. As one Hindu sage told the author in...

This book presents a unique testimony on the evolution of the Indian peasant's world over more than sixty years. Its originality lies in part in the unique trajectory of its author, Gilbert Étienne, an exceptional man, all at once scientific traveller, thinker of the North/South relationships and economist concerned by sociology and history inputs. In unfolding the story of his passionate relationship with India, the author offers a very personal look which takes into account not only crop...