Environment and Ethnicity in India, 1200-1991

by Sumit Guha

Overview

Drawing on a rich collection of sources, Sumit Guha demonstrates how the ideology of indigenous cultures, developed in recent years out of the notion of a pure and untouched ethnicity, is in fact rooted in nineteenth-century racial and colonial anthropology. Challenging this view, he traces the processes by which the apparently immutable identities of South Asian populations took shape, and how these populations interacted with civilizations beyond their immediate vicinity. His penetrating critique will make a significant contribution to the history of South Asia and to the literature on ethnicity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521640787
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	07/15/1999
Series:	Cambridge Studies in Indian History and Society , #4
Pages:	234
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.02(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

'Rama, Sita and Lukshmana in the forest'; List of maps; List of tables; Acknowledgements; Glossary; List of abbreviations; Introduction; 1. From the archaeology of mind to the archaeology of matter; 2. Subsistence and predation at the margins of cultivation; 3. State formation in the highland forests, 1350–1800; 4. The peoples of the Sahyadri under Marathas and British; 5. The central Indian forest from Mughal suzerainty to British control; 6. The central Indian forest under early British rule; 7. Identity and aspiration: not noble savage but savage noble; 8. The high colonial period and after: new patterns of authority and power; 9. From sanctuaries to safeguards: policies and politics in twentieth-century India; Conclusion; Afterword; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"...a significant contribution to knowledge of a heretofore thinly researched aspect of South Asian history and development." Choice

"...this book is a major contribution to the historiography of South Asia." The Historian

From the Publisher