Environmental History of Modern India Land, Population, Technology and Development

About this book

India, over the decades, has experienced multiple changes, including population explosion, urbanisation, technological advancement, commercialisation of agriculture, change in land-use pattern, vast improvement of infrastructure facilities, etc., which have had an impact on the environment. Author Velayutham Saravanan attempts to understand the complexity of the environmental history of contemporary India from the early nineteenth to the early twenty-first centuries.

Environmental History of Modern India begins with an analysis of land-use patterns and population and their impact on the environment. Further, it discusses the exploitation of natural resources for commercial motives by the colonial administration and argues that the colonial commercial policy of over one-and-a-half centuries had impacted the ecology and environment. The book also deliberates whether the postcolonial government policies have changed in favour of environmental protection or have continued with the colonial policy, and attempts to throw light on the issues of how the land for development policies have impacted the environment from the early nineteenth century until recent years. It then looks at the problem of electronic waste and its adverse impact on the environment, ecology and health in a historical manner while engaging with the complexity of the conflict between land and population in relation to the environment.

The book is the most comprehensive presentation on land, population, technology and development that India has witnessed since the early nineteenth century.

Contents

List of Tables and Figure
List of Abbreviations
Preface
Acknowledgements

1. Introduction
2. Land-Use Pattern and the Environment
3. Population and the Environment
4. Colonialism and the Ecology
5. Post-Independent India's Environment
6. Land for Development and the Environment
7. Electronic Waste and the Environment
8. Complexity of Land, Population, the Environment and Development
9. Conclusion

Glossary
Bibliography

Customer Reviews

Biography

Velayutham Saravanan is Professor and Director at the Centre for Jawaharlal Nehru Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia (Central University), India. He is the author of Environmental History and Tribals in Modern India (2018) and Colonialism, Environment and Tribals in South India, 1792-1947 (2017). He is also the editor of the History and Sociology of South Asia journal.