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Urban Development and Environmental History in Modern South Asia PDF

206 Pages·2022·9.593 MB·English
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Urban Development and Environmental History in Modern South Asia This book provides a pioneering study of the historical interaction between the city and the natural environment from the colonial to the contemporary era in South Asia. The book provides a multidisciplinary analysis examining the environmental history of the city and bringing together contributions from environmental experts and practitioners as well as academics. Focusing on case studies stretching from the Maldives and Sri Lanka to the Indian subcontinent, the chapters trace linkages between the contemporary and earlier patterns of urban expansion and their environmental effects and consider lessons that can be drawn with respect to preventing future environmental degradation and mitigating the effects of climate change. An important contribution to the field, this book studies the contemporary environmental issues arising from rapid South Asian urbanization. It will be of interest to researchers in the field of South Asian studies, world history, and environmental history. Ian Talbot is Emeritus Professor in History of Modern South Asia at the University of Southampton, UK. He has published ten monographs and three jointly written volumes. His most recent publications include The History of British Diplomacy in Pakistan (Routledge 2021), Punjab and the Raj (2020), A History of Modern South Asia (2016), and Colonial Lahore: a History of the City and Beyond (co-written with Tahir Kamran, 2016). He has jointly edited numerous volumes and produced an extensive number of periodical articles. Amit Ranjan is Research Fellow at the Institute of South Asian Studies, National University of Singapore. His latest book is Contested Waters: India’s Transboundary River Water Disputes in South Asia (Routledge 2020). He is the author of India-Bangladesh Border Disputes: History and Post-LBA Dynamics (2018) and has edited India in South Asia Challenges and Management (2019), Water Issues in Himalayan South Asia: Internal Challenges, Disputes and Transboundary Tensions (2020), and Partition of India: Postcolonial Legacies (Routledge, 2019). In addition to academic articles, he has also written short pieces for the Wire, the Friday Times, the Citizen, and Prabhat Khabar. Routledge Advances in South Asian Studies Edited by Rani Mullen, College of William and Mary, USA Founding editor: Subrata K. Mitra, Heidelberg University, Germany South Asia, with its burgeoning, ethnically diverse population, soaring economies, and nuclear weapons, is an increasingly important region in the global context. The series, which builds on this complex, dynamic, and volatile area, features innovative and original research on the region as a whole or on the countries. Its scope extends to scholarly works drawing on history, politics, development studies, sociology, and economics of individual countries from the region as well as those that take an interdisciplinary and comparative approach to the area as a whole or to a comparison of two or more countries from this region. In terms of theory and method, rather than basing itself on any one orthodoxy, the series draws broadly on the insights germane to area studies, as well as the toolkit of the social sciences in general, emphasizing comparison, the analysis of the structure and processes, and the application of qualitative and quantitative methods. The series welcomes submissions from established authors in the field as well as from young authors who have recently completed their doctoral dissertations. For more information about this series, please visit www.routledge.com/ Routledge-Advances-in-South-Asian-Studies/book-series/RASAS 9. The History of British Diplomacy in Pakistan Ian Talbot 10. Civil-Military Relations and Global Security Governance Strategy, Hybrid Orders and the Case of Pakistan Cornelia Baciu 11. India’s Grand Strategy and Foreign Policy Strategic Pluralism and Subcultures Bernhard Beitelmair-Berini 12. Urban Development and Environmental History in Modern South Asia Ian Talbot and Amit Ranjan For a full list of titles, please see: www.routledge.com/asianstudies/series/RASAS Urban Development and Environmental History in Modern South Asia Edited by Ian Talbot and Amit Ranjan First published 2023 by Routledge 4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2023 selection and editorial matter, Ian Talbot and Amit Ranjan; individual chapters, the contributors The right of Ian Talbot and Amit Ranjan to be identified as the author[/s] of the editorial material, and of the authors for their individual chapters, has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Talbot, Ian, editor. | Ranjan, Amit (Researcher on South Asia) editor. Title: Urban development and environmental history in modern South Asia / edited by Ian Talbot, Amit Ranjan. Description: 1 Edition. | New York, NY : Routledge, 2023. | Series: Routledge advances in South Asian studies; 43 | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2022022956 (print) | LCCN 2022022957 (ebook) | ISBN 9781032292953 (hardback) | ISBN 9781032292991 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003300946 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Urbanization—South Asia—History. | Cities and towns— Growth. | Human ecology—South Asia—History. | Environmental policy— South Asia—History. Classification: LCC HT147.S6 U73 2023 (print) | LCC HT147.S6 (ebook) | DDC 307.760954—dc23/eng/20220519 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022956 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022957 ISBN: 978-1-032-29295-3 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-032-29299-1 (pbk) ISBN: 978-1-003-30094-6 (ebk) DOI: 10.4324/9781003300946 Typeset in Times New Roman by Apex CoVantage, LLC To Lois and Shanaya Contents List of Figures ix List of Tables x List of Contributors xi Preface xiii Acknowledgements xiv Introduction 1 IAN TALBOT AND AMIT RANJAN PART 1 Urban Pasts, Contemporary Legacies 13 1 Partition, the Environment, and the Early Post- Independence Development of Lahore 15 IAN TALBOT 2 Written in Stone: Political Geologies of Small-Town India 29 THOMAS CROWLEY 3 A Shift From the “Devotional” to the “Natural” in Nineteenth-Century Lahore’s Art Education 46 TAHIR KAMRAN 4 Building With a Conscience? Heritage, Design and Urban Space in Bombay 58 MANJIRI KAMAT viii Contents PART 2 The City and River Management 75 5 The Hooghly River and the Incomplete Mastery of the Natural World in British Colonial India 77 ROBERT IVERMEE 6 Political Economy of Dams in Colonial and Early Postcolonial India 91 AMIT RANJAN 7 Locating the Riparian Commons in Eastern South Asia: A Translocal Perspective 107 IFTEKHAR IQBAL PART 3 Urban Growth in a Fragile Environment 119 8 Evolving Islandscapes in a Changing Climate: Male’ City, Maldives 121 MIZNA MOHAMED AND MOHAMED INAZ 9 Analysing Human–Environment Coexistence: Urban Development and the Colombo Wetland Complex 138 DENNIS MOMBAUER AND VOSITHA WIJENAYAKE 10 Vanishing Rains: Deforestation, Declining Rainfall, and Desiccation in North East India With Special Reference to Cherrapunji, the “Rainiest Spot on the Globe” 153 SAJAL NAG 11 Reconstructing Thimphu: Balancing Tradition and Transition in Bhutan 167 SUSAN M. WALCOTT Index 183 Figures 5.1 James Rennell’s Mapping of the Lower Reaches of the Hooghly 80 5.2 Richard Lloyd’s Detailed Survey of the River Mouth 81 5.3 The Hindostan steamer of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, which plied the route between Southampton and Calcutta, but had major difficulties navigating the Hooghly 85 5.4 The destruction wreaked on ships stationed in the Hooghly by the cyclone of October 1864 87 8.1 Map of Maldives 2007, with inserted location in Indian Ocean 122 8.2 Map of Male’ showing changes in area and shoreline 124 8.3a Photograph of Male’ in 1960 125 8.3b Aerial map of Male’ in 2021 125 8.4 The contemporary Greater Male’ region includes Male’, Villingili, and Hulhumale islands 126 8.5 Population growth rate of Male’ compared with the outer atolls 127 8.6 Elevation contour map of Male’ 129 8.7 Flooding caused by record high rainfall in Male’ 130 8.8 Coastal protection around Male’ 132 10.1 Year-wise rainfall data in Cherrapunji and Mawsynram 158

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