Suchergebnisse

This book unveils the myriad streams of ecocentric thoughts that have been flowing through the human mind - in indigenous communities, in the wisdom of philosophers, in the creative expressions of poets and writers - sometimes latent, but sometimes more explicit.

David Herbert Lawrence is famous for telling us to trust the tale, not the artist. When we read the notoriously varied and vital Lawrence, there are many places where he seems to over reach, if not to outright contradict himself. This essay focuses on much of the complexity and ambiguity of Lawrence's thought and its constantly evolving and even self-contradictory nature. Lawrence understands civilization with his utmost creativity and originality – finding the sun and relating it to the sexual vitality of the man – develops over the various travels. And in this essay, I focus on how this creative development is reflected in the travel writings. The more he travels, the more he discovers the subjugation of the self and the subsequent mechanization of it. The creative struggle to overcome this impotence informs Lawrence's travel literature. His four travel books, namely Twilight in Italy (originally published in 1916), Sea and Sardinia (originally published in 1921), Mornings in Mexico (originally published 1927), and Sketches of Etruscan Places and Other Italian Essays (originally published 1932) are reflective of different stages in Lawrence's journey to understand how human beings relate to the world they are integrally part of. Lawrence uses his travel to transcend his own nationality too. Lawrence goes on to assert that he belongs to no country. Surely this relates ironically to his belief in the "spirit of place". The essay deeply focuses on his continued movement from place to place with deep consideration of this complex belief.

The subaltern turn in historiography has changed the way we read history/histories. The omissions and silence(s) that happen at the stage of 'fact creation' provide us with a way of looking into how events become facts. Taking cues from the sociological and historical understanding of silencing, this article examines the process through which Muslim voices have been silenced in the historiography of Jharkhand's statehood movement (the Jharkhand Andolan). While going through the mainstream accounts on this subject, what I encountered was a significant lack of discussion about the Muslim presence in the movement. This lack becomes visible in contrast to the accounts in the vernacular newspapers that recount how Muslims have been an integral part of the statehood struggle. Through personal interviews of Muslim Andolankaris (freedom fighters) conducted during my fieldwork along with the documents collected from their personal archives, I show how the subduing of Muslim voices was enabled by Jharkhand's political parties and carried over to the common narration of the movement's formation and history.

This article explores the reasons behind the continuation of contentious dam projects in Japanese river basins. Though the River Law of the country was reformed in 1997, and subsequent sociopolitical developments raised hopes that river governance would progress toward a more environment-oriented and bottom-up model, basin governance in Japan remains primarily based on a utilitarian vision that sees rivers as waterways. This article reviews the Achilles heel of the 1997 River Law by examining some most contentious river valley projects, and concludes that a myth of vulnerability to flooding, short-sightedness of river engineers, and bureaucratic inertia combine to place basin governance in a time warp: as projects planned during postwar reconstruction and economic growth continue to be top priorities in policymaking circles while concerns over environment remain largely unaddressed.

Cover -- Half Title -- Title -- Copyright -- Dedication -- Contents -- List of Figures -- List of Tables -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- 1 Scope and relevance of environmental studies -- 2 Ecosystems and their structure and functions -- 3 Environmental pollution -- 4 Threats to and conservation of biological diversity -- 5 Renewable and non-renewable resources -- 6 Environmental policies, practices, and legislation -- 7 Global environmental issues -- 8 Human communities and the environment -- Index.

Introduction to environmental studies -- Ecosystems -- Natural resources: renewable and non-renewable resources -- Biodiversity: threats and conservation -- Environmental pollution -- Environmental policies, practices and global issues -- Human communities and the environment -- Field work in environmental studies.

Papers presented at a national seminar