Environment and Ethnicity in India, 1200-1991

Download or read book Environment and Ethnicity in India, 1200-1991 written by Sumit Guha and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2006-11-02 with total page 236 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a rich collection of sources, Sumit Guha demonstrates how the ideology of indigenous cultures, developed in recent years out of the notion of a pure and untouched ethnicity, is in fact rooted in nineteenth-century racial and colonial anthropology. Challenging this view, he traces the processes by which the apparently immutable identities of South Asian populations took shape, and how these populations interacted with civilizations beyond their immediate vicinity. His penetrating critique will make a significant contribution to the history of South Asia and to the literature on ethnicity.