Category: Book Review

Book Review of Water Conflicts and Resistance in South Asia
Book Review · South Asia

Book Review of Water Conflicts and Resistance in South Asia

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Guest Article by Ruchi Shree

BOOK: Venkatesh Dutta (ed.) (2022), Water Conflicts and Resistance: Issues and Challenges in South Asia, Routledge, New Delhi. [Key words: Politics of Water, South Asia, Transboundary disputes, Water conflicts, Resistance, Waterscapes]

The recent arrival of this edited volume on changing nature of water conflicts in South Asia is a significant addition to the increasing literature on politics of water. I can recall two more texts namely Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons have Shaped South Asia’s History (Allen Lane, 2018) by Sunil Amruth and Water Issues in Himalayan South Asia: Internal Challenges, Disputes and Transboundary Tensions (Springer, 2020) an edited volume by Amit Ranjan. In the last two decades, politics of water has emerged as an interdisciplinary area of study and the framework of this book also suggests the same. The contributors range from water experts, govt. professionals to civil society activists and they capture the nuances of water conflicts at local, regional and transboundary scales.

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BOOK REVIEW: Rare book on Rivers and fisherfolks of North India
Book Review · Fish, Fisheries, Fisherfolk · Rivers

BOOK REVIEW: Rare book on Rivers and fisherfolks of North India

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Guest Article by Dr. Ruchi Shree

BOOK: Ramashankar Singh (2022), Nadi-Putra: Uttar Bharat me Nishad aur Nadi, Setu Prakashan, New Delhi.

The arrival of books viz. Dipesh Chakravarty’s The Climate of History in Planetary Age (2021), Amitav Ghosh’s The Great Derangement: Climate Change and the Unthinkable (2016), A Nutmeg’s Curse: Parables for a Planet in Crisis (2021), Sunil Amruth’s The Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers and Monsoons have shaped South Asia’s History (2019) and numerous others has blurred the disciplinary divide between literature, politics and environment. These books have brought attention to the worsening environmental crisis worldwide and how developing countries or the global south is facing its severe brunt. As a consequence, one may notice an upsurge in literature in hindi and other regional languages around environmental issues in India. Last year, Shekhar Pathak’s book Hari Bhari Ummeed (2021) narrated the complexities of Chipko Movement at its 40 years and now this book here for review joins the club of interdisciplinary texts on environmental issues in India.

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Book Review: Narmada Valley’s gripping story!
Book Review · Narmada

Book Review: Narmada Valley’s gripping story!

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Guest blog by Abhilash Khandekar

BOOK: Rediscovering Narmada Valley; Author: Adil Khan; Publishers: Niyogi Books, New Delhi; 2020; Pages-208; Price: Rs 695/-

A life-giving organism can not be controversial, but in India rivers that ought to be naturally free-flowing have been made controversial by policy makers and politicians over the past few decades. Narmada is one of them! Continue reading “Book Review: Narmada Valley’s gripping story!” →

Review Essay on UNRULY WATERS: How Mountain Rivers & Monsoons have Shaped South Asia’s History
Book Review

Review Essay on UNRULY WATERS: How Mountain Rivers & Monsoons have Shaped South Asia’s History

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Guest blog by Dr. Ruchi Shree

Unruly Waters: How Mountain Rivers & Monsoons Have Shaped Asia’s History (by Sunil Amrith (2018), Penguin/ Allen Lane, New Delhi) unfolds the mysteries of monsoon in countless ways. It is written by Sunil Amrith, a historian and professor at Harvard University and the book has much more to offer to numerous other disciplines ranging from geology to ecology and political economy to name a few. Interdisciplinary as well as multidisciplinary orientation of the book makes it an interesting read for even the lay persons.

Although, I must admit that its non-ideological nature may at times lead to difficulty in placing the book in a certain category of left and right. Probably, the author has consciously done so and we will deliberate on this issue little later. Continue reading “Review Essay on UNRULY WATERS: How Mountain Rivers & Monsoons have Shaped South Asia’s History” →

Candid, helpful book on India’s Climate Crisis
Book Review · Climate Change

Candid, helpful book on India’s Climate Crisis

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Book Review: The Climate Solution: India’s Climate-Change Crisis and What We Can Do abut It. By Mridula Ramesh. Hachette India. 2019. Pp 344 + viii.

Rarely you would see a book terming India’s Climate Challenge as CRISIS. “The Climate Solution” by Mridula Ramesh does that then explains why it is being termed as crisis, what is the science behind it. The book then goes on to provide wide range of steps to help tackle the various aspects of the crisis. All in an eminently readable form. This is certainly a better book on this important subject than whatever I have read so far. Continue reading “Candid, helpful book on India’s Climate Crisis” →