This omnibus brings together two books that have resulted from a unique collaboration between an eminent ecologist and a top-ranking sociologist. This Fissured Land presents an interpretative ecological history of the sub-continent. It offers a theory of ecological prudence and profligacy, testing this theory across the wide sweep of South Asian history. The focus is on the use and abuse of forest resources, a sector to which the authors have each devoted years of research. Ecology and Equity is a spirited intervention into the environment development debate. The first part presents an original theoretical framework for understanding the roots of environmental degradation and resource conflict in modern India. After an analysis of the rise of Indian environmentalism, the authors offer an innovative agenda for environmental and social renewal. This agenda, drawing creatively on different political traditions and ideologies, is then applied to several areas of India’s development effort. The authors have written a fresh introduction for this omnibus edition, explaining the purpose of their collaboration, answering their critics, and suggesting possible future paths for the environmental movement. This book is required reading for those interested in South Asian politics; history, and environmental studies.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Madhav Gadgil
For over three decades, Madhav Gadgil has been a crusading scientist with a broad range of interests, from conservation biology and ecological history to human ecology. He is also one of the few scientists in India to have successfully demystified science, making it accessible to non-specialists.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Ramachandra Guha
Ramachandra Guha is a historian and columnist based in Bangalore. He has taught at the universities of Yale, Stanford, and Oslo, and at the Indian Institute of Science. His books include a pioneering environmental history, The Unquiet Woods (University of California Press, 1989), and an award-winning social history of cricket, A Corner of a Foreign Field (Picador, 2002). India after Gandhi (Macmillan/Ecco Press, 2007) was chosen as a book of the year by the Economist, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the San Francisco Chronicle, Time Out and Outlook; and as a book of the decade in the Times of India, the Times of London, and The Hindu. Guha's books and essays have been translated into more than twenty languages. The New York Times has referred to him as "perhaps the best among India's non fiction writers"; Time Magazine has called him "Indian democracy's preeminent chronicler".Ramachandra Guha's awards include the Leopold-Hidy Prize of the American Society of Environmental History, the Daily Telegraph/Cricket Society prize, the Malcolm Adiseshiah Award for excellence in social science research, the Ramnath Goenka Prize for excellence in journalism, and the R. K. Narayan Prize. In 2008 Prospect and Foreign Policy magazines nominated Guha as one of the world's hundred most influential intellectuals. In 2009 he was awarded the Padma Bhushan.
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