HY5OCT01 – INTRODUCING ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

This course will introduce students to the dynamic field of environmental history, presenting essential concepts, concerns and methodology in the context of global / Indian environmental history.

Module 1

Basics What is Environmental history? - Political, material and cultural dimensions of environmental history- Interdisciplinary approaches – Ecology and environment- cultural ecologyenvironmentalism- deep ecology- planetary consciousness- UN and environment- Stockholm Declaration- Earth Summits- Climate change and protocols

MODULE 2

Roots of Environmental Crisis Mode of resource use- hunting gathering- nomadic pastoral- settled agriculture- industrialecological impact

MODULE 3

The Context of Colonial India Pre colonial scenario- European attitude towards environment- the European gaze- Imperial Agendas and exploitation of natural resources-deforestation-ship building-Railways-opening of plantations- world war and forests-reservation of forests and enactments-plant imperialismbotanical gardens - hunting in colonial India

MODULE 4

- Environmental Movements in India Chipko Movement-Narmada Bachao Andolan-Silent Valley in Kerala- Plachimada issue-sand mining and river protection groups-voices from the margins-Women and environment.

Essential Readings:

Donald Worster, ed. The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives of Modern Environmental History, New York, 1988

Al Gore, Earth in the Balance, London, 1992

Sverker Sorlin and Paul Warde, The Problem of Environmental History: A Re-reading of the field, Environmental History. Vol 12, No. 1, Jan .2007.

Erach Bharucha, Textbook of Environmental Studies, Universities Press India Pvt Ltd, 2005.

Lester R.Brown, Eco-Economy, Orient Blackswan Pvt Ltd Samir Dasgupta, Understanding the Global Environment, Pearson Longman, New Delhi, 2009.

S.N.Chary, Environmental Studies, Macmillan India Ltd, 2008. Agrawal et.al, A Textbook of Environment, Macmillan India Ltd, 2002.

Kiran B.Chhokar, Understanding Environment, Sage Publications, 2004.

S.P.Misra, et.al, Essential Environmental Studies, Ane Books, New Delhi, 2008.

V.K.Ahluwalia, et.al, Environmental Science, Ane Books, New Delhi, 2006.

Donald Worster, ed., The Ends of the Earth: Perspectives of Modern. Environmental History,New York, 1988.

Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism: the biological expansion of Europe, 900-1900, New York, 1986.

Dennis Pirages, The Ecological Perspective and the Social Sciences, International Studies Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Sept. 1983), pp. 243- 255 http://www.jstpr.org/stable/2600681

John Bellamy Foster, Ecology Against Capitalism Lester J. Bilsky (ed), Historical Ecology, New York, 1980.

J.F. Richards and R. Tucker, (ed) World Deforestation in the Twentieth century,Durham, 1988.

Patricia Jagentowicz Mills, Feminism and Ecology: on the Domination of Nature, Hypatia, vol. 6, No. 1, Ecological Feminism (Spring, 1991) pp 162-178. http:www.jstor.org/stable/3810039.

Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India, OUP, New Delhi, 1992.

Ramachandra Guha, Natures Spokesman: M.Krishnan & Indian Wildlife, Penguin Books, New Delhi, 2007.