Description
This book provides a pioneering study of the historical interaction between the city and the natural environment from the colonial to the contemporary era in South Asia.
The book provides a multidisciplinary analysis examining the environmental history of the city and bringing together contributions from environmental experts and practitioners as well as academics. Focusing on case studies stretching from the Maldives and Sri Lanka to the Indian subcontinent, the chapters trace linkages between the contemporary and earlier patterns of urban expansion and their environmental effects and consider lessons that can be drawn with respect to preventing future environmental degradation and mitigating the effects of climate change.
An important contribution to the field, this book studies the contemporary environmental issues arising from rapid South Asian urbanization. It will be of interest to researchers in the field of South Asian studies, world history, and environmental history.
Table of Contents
Preface; Acknowledgements; Introduction, Ian Talbot and Amit Ranjan Part 1: Urban Pasts and Contemporary Legacies 1. Partition, the Environment and the Early Post-Independence Development of Lahore, Ian Talbot; 2. Written in Stone: Political Geologies of Small-town India, Thomas Crowley; 3. A Shift from the ‘Devotional’ to the 'Natural’ in 19th Century Lahore’s Art Education, Tahir Kamran; 4. Building with a Conscience? Heritage, Design and Urban Space in Bombay, Manjiri Kamat Part 2: The City and River Management 5. The Hooghly River and the Incomplete Mastery of the Natural World in British Colonial India, Robert Ivermee; 6. Political Economy of Large Dams in Colonial and Early Post-Colonial India, Amit Ranjan; 7. Rivers in Postcolonial North-eastern South Asia: Contradictions of the Commons, Iftekhar Iqbal Part 3: Urban Growth in a Fragile Environment 8. Evolving islandscapes in a changing climate: Male’ City, Maldives, Mizna Mohamed and Mohamed Inaz; 9. Analysing Human-Environment Coexistence: Urban Development and the Colombo Wetland Complex, Dennis Mombauer and Vositha Wijenayake; 10. Vanishing Rains: Deforestation, Declining Rainfall, and Desiccation in North East India with Special Reference to Cherrapunji, the ‘Rainiest Spot on the Globe’, Sajal Nag; 11. Reconstructing Thimphu: Balancing tradition and transition in Bhutan, Susan Walcott; Index
