Nature and the Orient: The Environmental History of South and Southeast Asia

Grove, Richard H., Vinita Damodaran, and Satpal Sangwan, eds. | from Multimedia Library Collection:
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Grove, Richard H., Vinita Damodaran and Satpal Sangwan eds. Nature and the Orient: The Environmental History of South and Southeast Asia. Delhi: Oxford University Press, 1998. This landmark collection is a major contribution to the emergence of environmental history relating to South and Southeast Asia. Ranging in terms of geographical coverage from Peshawar on the North-West Frontier to the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia, it provides diverse accounts of major historical themes relating to the environment of this vast region. The history of forest management, particularly in India during British colonial rule, is a major focus. However, topics relating to the pre-colonial period are also covered, ranging from ancient Greek knowledge of India to the flourishing of the Satingpra civilization on the Malay peninsula, now in Thailand. A wide range of issues relating to science, ideas of nature, and the ecological impacts of colonialism are then dealt with. As such, settlement archaeology, climate change, and the history of fishing, hunting, and shikar all feature, as do indigenous plant knowledge, agriculture and famine, coalmining, and the story of India’s tribal communities.