This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India

TLDR

The book introduces a paradigm‑shifting ecological history theory and applies it to pre‑modern India, framing human resource use within broader socio‑historical contexts. The authors investigate the conditions under which humans exercise prudence in resource use, analyzing infrastructures, property systems, ideologies, religions, social idioms, belief structures, conflicts, and the societal impacts of changing resource patterns. Using extensive primary sources, the authors conduct a socio‑ecological analysis of British‑introduced resource‑use modes that persisted post‑1947. They offer an ecological interpretation of the caste system, adding a significant dimension to existing theories of caste. This is a paperback edition of the HB issued in 1992.

Abstract

In the first part of the book, the authors present a general theory of ecological history which attempts a paradigm shift from Weberian and Marxian theories of human society. Here they ask under what conditions humans exercise prudence in their use of natural resources; they examine infrastructures, property systems, political ideologies, religions, social idioms and the belief structures that characterize human interactions with resource bases; they analyse the varieties of social conflict that appear over the exploitation of natural resources; and, finally, they explore the impact of changing patterns of resource use upon human societies. In the second part the authors provide a fresh interpretive history of pre-modern India. They also provide, in this section, an ecological interpretation of the caste system which adds a significant dimension to existing ideas on caste. In the third part the authors draw on a huge wealth of source material to offer a socioecological analysis of the modes of resources use which were introduced by the British, and which continued, with modifications, after Independence in 1947. (This is a paperback edition of the HB issued in 1992.)