Concern for the environment is not new; it has always existed. One of the flash points in the inner conflicts within human societies of the past was fuelled by the continues efforts to resolve the legitimate use of the natural world. Nature is one of those spaces where we observe the most intense form of class struggle and power politics -the more privileged control the natural resources. The rapid unfolding of power relations, the rise of new technology to exploit the environment, the growing resource crunch, and a perceived ‘environmental crisis’ have resulted in the development of a new field of study -environmental history, an important gateway to knowledge in general and Environmental Studies in Particular. Situating Environment History, brings together several eminent scholars who share a common interest in the environmental history of South Asia. The work is divided in four sections. In Section I, Understanding Environmental History, Karl Jacoby, Alok Kumar Ghosh, Arun Bandopadhyaya and Archana Prasad contribute to our understanding of environmentalism, its historiography and the role of state legislation and the popular response thereto. In Section II, Communities on the Margin, Viniya Damodaran and Ritajyoti Bandyopadhyay focus on different communities in the periphery lying outside the supposed ‘mainstream’ and their fight for their own perceptions of ‘justice’ and ‘legitimate claims’. In Section III, Colonialism, Post-Colonialism, the State and the management of Nature, Kaushik Roy, Arabinda Samanta, Amal Das, Sahara Ahmed, Jagdish N. Sinha and Sumit Guha look at the evolution of state policy on environmental questions through different periods of Indian history. In Section IV, Beyond India, Rita Pemberton, Lawrence Gundersen and Tridib Chakrabarti study environmental issues in the countries beyond India.
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