Books published by publisher OUP India

Discussing diverse aspects of the environmental history of South and Southeast Asia, from a variety of perspectives, it brings together leading experts from the fields of history, history of science, archaeology, geography and environmental studies, and covers a time span from 50,000 BC to thepresent. Spanning a geographical region from Peshawar on the North-West Frontier to the Maluku Islands in eastern Indonesia, this book tells the story of the highly complex relationship between people and their environment. Among a multitude of subjects it reports on the latest findings insettlement archaeology, the history of deforestation, climate change, the history of fishing, hunting and shikar, colonial science and forest management, indigenous plant knowledge, the history of famine, the impact of coalmining and the tragic story of India's tragic story of India's tribalcommunities.

A.E.W. Mason's The Broken Road is the fourth novel in the 'Lesser-known Raj Fiction' series edited by Ralph Crane. A gripping adventure romance of the Frontier first published in 1907, The Broken Road tells of the building of the Road, and, through the relationship between the two maincharacters, Dick Linforth, scion of a family of Empire-builders, and Shere Ali, the Prince of Chiltistan, compellingly explores the sense of duty that drove successive generations of British men to sacrifice their lives to the goals of Empire, and the contentious issue of educating Indian princes inEngland. While undoubtedly reinscribing the image of a confident and secure empire characteristic of much Raj fiction of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the novel also offers unusual insights into the human cost-on both sides of the racial divide-of producing that image, making itof significant interest to readers interested in colonial and postcolonial literatures, as well as general readers.This new, critical edition of The Broken Road, which includes a detailed introduction, a chronology of A.E.W. Mason's life, maps, and extensive explanatory notes, makes available a fascinating work of Raj fiction.