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Political geography of Central India, present-day Madhya Pradesh. ... Read more

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This book provides a comprehensive and up to date account of micro organisms, their morphology, classification, physiology and genetics. ... Read more

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Over 70 percent of the earth's surface is covered by water and inhabited by some of the oldest life forms on earth - fishes. In Fishes of India, B. F. Chhapgar gives us an insight into the fascinating world of fishes.

Easy to read and fully illustrated, this book describes the form, habits, and habitat of over a hundred varieties of fishes commonly found in India. The kinds of fishes described include catfish, seahorses, perches, flatfish, and anglerfish, among others, as well as sharks and rays, and the tiny mudskippers. The book also includes a note on the uses of fish, a glossary, and an extended list of the common, scientific, and vernacular names of fishes.

Part of the "WWF-OUP Nature Guides" series, Fishes of India has been especially designed for our younger readers, but will appeal equally to older readers including parents and teachers, as well as nature lovers. ... Read more

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This is a reproduction of a book published before 1923.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process.We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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This is an EXACT reproduction of a book published before 1923. This IS NOT an OCR'd book with strange characters, introduced typographical errors, and jumbled words.This book may have occasional imperfections such as missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. that were either part of the original artifact, or were introduced by the scanning process. We believe this work is culturally important, and despite the imperfections, have elected to bring it back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide. We appreciate your understanding of the imperfections in the preservation process, and hope you enjoy this valuable book. ... Read more

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Diaspora philanthropy is not a new phenomenon. But in an era of accelerated globalization, the relationship between diaspora philanthropy and the economic and social development of many countries is increasingly relevant. Modern diasporas are diverse and continually shifting; more people are moving more rapidly, more easily, and over greater distances than ever before. This is certainly true of recent migrants from China and India to the United States. In Silicon Valley, Asian Americans are estimated to constitute over 30 percent of the highly paid scientific and engineering workforce and represent one-third of the region's millionaires. As their wealth has grown, so too has their charitable giving—both to their old as well as to their new countries of residence.

This volume aims to advance understanding of diaspora philanthropy in the Chinese American and Indian American communities, especially the implications for development of the world's two most populous countries.

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One of a series that provides the depth of information required for extended study of different countries, this book isolates themes to compare and contrast aspects of countries at different stages of economic development. Emphasis is placed on human geography, with some coverage of physical geography, with links to the geography curriculum at KS 3 and 4. ... Read more

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India, named after the river Indus, is heir to one of the world's oldest and richest civilizations and the origin of many ideas, philosophies and movements that have shaped the destiny of humankind. This handy paperback covers the whole scope of India's past and present history. Maps and line drawings. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (5)

Just what I needed.
I read a lot of books by Indian authors. I wanted an easy to manage overview of the country's history. This fit the bill perfectly. It is an enjoyable read and, with the index, is a reference book as well.

Check out the "Look Inside" feature at the top of the page to see the details of the book. The author provides maps and illustrations that add to the text. Plus the Chronology of Major Events and Historical Gazetteer were welcome additions.

I highly recommend this.

Easy to read and sufficiant information about Indian history!
This book was very easy to read and likeable! I read it almost in one go and that is unusual because I don't like to read history books.
It was a good preparation for my first trip to India. Helped me to better understand the people and culture. Well done!

Just the Ticket
Having suffered through Keay's History of India, this volume was a pleasant surprise. Tammita-Delgoda writes clearly and compellingly. The book is well organized and at the end one has a firm grasp of the major periods of Indian history although the narrative is by necessity terribly compressed. I would recommend it to any travelling to India for as the London Evening Standard writes the book "...provides a useful grounding" for those interested in the country. The only disappointment is that the illustrations and maps are not up to the quality of the writing

A succinct and compelling history of India
After reading V.S. Naipaul's "An Area of Darkness" about his first journey to India, I felt that I needed a more balanced view of the country. This book was just what was called for.

"A Traveller's History of India" was written by a historian from Sri Lanka with an English education. He knows how to give a good overview of the various cultural influences that met and merged in India. His narrative is chronological. It is the best way to illustrate the growth, glory, decline and disappearance of vast empires. It also serves well to refute the Naipaulian idea that there is something particularly evil about the Muslim influence in India. The Islamic believers who invaded India in the 7th century AD shared many things with the Aryan invaders 1500 BC or the Christian invaders in the 18th century AD: they all came, conquered, prospered and some of their influence continues until today. The Aryans brought the caste system and Sanskrit literature; the Muslims built the Taj Mahal, and gave birth to the Urdu language; the Christians built railroads, left a working legal system and administration, and English as a common language that was understood in the whole subcontinent.

In one aspect, however, the Islamic invaders were more ruthless than the others. No other invading culture erased a religion as barbarously as Islam uprooted Buddhism in India: "The conquest of Bihar [in 1202 AD] saw the systematic destruction of all the remaining Buddhist monasteries and the wanton slaughter of all the monks. [...] The ruthless fanaticism of the new conquerors led to the complete disappearance of Buddhism from the land of its birth."

On the other hand, the Muslims exported the decimal system and the symbol zero from India to Europe, both of which later played a crucial role in the development of Western science.

Sinharaja Tammita-Delgoda strikes a fair balance between the failures and the successes of the cultures that came to play a role in India. And he has a fine sense of irony when it comes to the impact of the English on India. He notes that the Indian nationalist movement which began in the mid 19th century had its origins in a common identity and a new sense of purpose instilled by the new political and social ideas carried with the English language; and he observes that the discoveries of many British scholars who made it their life's work to unearth the story of India's ancient past gave Indians an important sense of their own identity and a feeling of pride in their past.

I have thoroughly enjoyed reading this history of India. My greatest delight - and inspiration to do further research and reading - were succinct portraits like the one of Babur (1483-1530 AD), who was not only the founder of the Muslim Mughal empire but also "one of its most fascinating and attractive personalities. A poet and a man of letters, he was also an adventurer of iron nerves and powerful determination. A keen diarist, he recorded his experiences in his memoirs, the Tuzuk-i-Baburi, which are an important source for the history of the period. These memoirs speak of a tremendous zest for life, a man of boundless energy and optimism, a dedicated drunkard and a wholehearted sportsman and polo player. They also reveal an artistic nature of great sensitivity and refinement. Wherever he went Babur laid out Persian gardens, and his memoirs are full of references to the beauties of nature. Cold-blooded and ruthless at times, he was also capable of great generosity and chivalry, and his memories are laced with that rare quality - an endearing sense of humour."

Worth it if you're going to India
Lots of historical information.Easy to read.A must for your trip to India. ... Read more

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In the mid-1990s, the state government of Maharashtra introduced an innovative strategy of slum redevelopment in its capital city, Mumbai (Bombay). Based on demolishing existing slums and rebuilding on the same sites at a higher density, it is very distinct from the two prevalent conventional strategies with respect to slums in developing countries - slum clearance and slum upgrading. So why did the slum redevelopment strategy originate in Mumbai, and how did it do so? What were the key issues in the implementation of such a project? This critical volume responds to these questions by closely examining one particular redevelopment project over a period of 12 years: the Markandeya Co-operative Housing Society (MCHS). It analyses the problems faced and the solutions innovated; identifies non-traditional issues often overlooked in housing improvement strategies; reveals the complexities involved in housing production for low-income groups; and combines in-depth empirical research with historical, institutional, spatial and financial perspectives to improve our understanding of complex urban development processes. ... Read more

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Under the cultural turn and transformation, the new intellectual discourses started in the 21st century to search the roots, have cross-cultural comparison and to see how the old traditions be used in the contemporary worldviews. This book is the first attempt dealing with roots of Indian geographical thoughts since its beginning in 1920. It emphasises identity of India and Indianness and consciousness among dweller geographers in India, development and status of geography and its recent trends, Gaia theory and Indian context in search of cosmic integrity, ecospirituality and global message towards interrelatedness, Hindu pilgrimages and its contemporary importance, Mahatma Gandhi and his contribution to sustainable environmental development for global peace and humanism, and new vision to see meeting grounds of the East and the West on the line of reconstruction and reconciliation in the globalising world. These essays are selective and thematic, therefore overall view of comprehensiveness is lacking. But this book is not the end; obviously it is a beginning as already other volumes in sequence and continuity are in progress. At the end, the lead essays, representative of the three eras, by Spate (1956), Sopher (1973), and Mukerji (1992) are reprinted with a view to assessing the relevance of their challenging message even today. ... Read more

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This study, based on field work in India, brings out the multiplicityof debates, policies and practices that Joint Forest Management embodies. ... Read more

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This book, the first in a series on the North East, focuses on development-induced displacement of population in the region in the post-colonial period. Despite state-sponsored development initiatives, the North East still remains highly underdeveloped and politically disturbed. Various development projects initiated by the state led to massive displacement of population within the region, which has virtually gone unnoticed. The author has made use of extensive empirical data to document this massive displacement. Recently, the Government of India had decided to construct 145 mega dams to tap the hydroelectric potential of the region in order to convert the North- East into India s power house. Fearing negative effects like massive displacement of population, environmental degradation and the erosion of the rich biodiversity of the region, people at the grassroots level have built up resistance movements against such mega projects. This is a significant shift in the politics of the region, which had been ethnocentric so far. Emergence of popular resistance outside the conventional party system, based on new political cleavages is strengthening the democratic consciousness of the people living in these areas, which marks a significant shift in the politics of the region. ... Read more

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Contributed articles. ... Read more

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Attempt to formulate an integrated regional development plan for Manipur, India. ... Read more