Research Catalog

Title

This fissured land : an ecological history of India / Madhav Gadgil, Ramachandra Guha.

Author

Gadgil, Madhav.

Publication

Berkeley : University of California Press, 1993.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Additional Authors

Guha, Ramachandra.

Description

xiv, 274 pages : illustrations; 22 cm

Subjects

• Forests and forestry > India > History
• Human ecology > India > History
• Natural resources > India > History

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [247]-266) and index.

Contents

• Prologue: Prudence and Profligacy -- Pt. 1. A Theory of Ecological History. 1. Habitats in Human History. Modes of Production and Modes of Resource Use. Four Historical Modes. Gathering. Simple Rules of Thumb. Pastoralism. Settled Cultivation. The Industrial Mode. Conflict Between and Within Modes. Intra-Modal Conflict. Recapitulation. Appendix: Note on Population -- Pt. 2. Towards a Cultural Ecology of Pre-Modern India. 2. Forest and Fire. Geological History. Prudent Predators. Neolithic Revolution. River-valley Civilizations. Social Organization. The Age of Empires. Conservation from Above. 3. Caste and Conservation. Resource Crunch. Conservation from Below. An Eclectic Belief System. The Village and the State. Conclusion -- Pt. 3. Ecological Change and Social Conflict in Modern India. 4. Conquest and Control. Colonialism as an Ecological Watershed. The Early Onslaught on Forests. An Early Environment Debate. Forest Policy Upto 1947.
• The Balance Sheet of Colonial Forestry. 5. The Fight for the Forest. Hunter-gatherers : The Decline Towards Extinction. The 'Problem' of Shifting Cultivation. Settled Cultivators and the State. Everyday Forms of Resistance: The Case of Jaunsar Bawar. The Decline of the Artisanal Industry. Conclusion: The Social Idiom of Protest. The Mechanisms of Protest. 6. Biomass for Business. Two Versions of Progress: Gandhi and the Modernizers. Forests and Industrialization: Four Stages. The Balance Sheet of Industrial Forestry. Sequential Exploitation: A Process Whereby a Whole Flock of Geese Laying Golden Eggs is Massacred One by One. The Profligacy of Scientific Forestry. 7. Competing Claims on the Commons. Hunter-gatherers. The Continuing 'Problem' of Shifting Cultivation. The Changing Ecology of Settled Agriculture. Claiming a Share of the Profits. Wild Life Conservation: Animals Versus Humans. 8. Cultures in Conflict.

ISBN

• 0520076214 (alk. paper)
• 0520082966 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

92029904

OCLC

• 26635010
• ocm26635010

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries