City and River in South Asia
Interdisciplinary perspectives
18 €
Presentation
South Asia, home to two of the largest river basins on the planet, is a region with a long urban history. Many holy cities, regarded as the dwelling places of divine forces, developed on river banks that have also favoured the growth of capitals and centres of commerce.
Through the analysis of seven city/river pairs, from the Indus plains in Pakistan (Sehwan Sharif) to the Brahmaputra plain in Assam (Guwahati), from the Ganges and Yamuna valleys (Banaras and Delhi) to the Vaigai valley in South India (Madurai) and the Narmada basin in central India (Amarkantaka and Omkareshwar), this work explores the many visions and emotions that continue to inspire specific practices and developments on the urban river banks.
This collective volume offers a multidisciplinary analysis of this unique heritage, today threatened by explosive population growth and pollution, and of the contradictory contemporary perceptions of the devout and tourists, local populations and national decision-makers, slum inhabitants and middle-class city dwellers.
Editors
Harit Joshi is a senior lecturer in the department of South Asia and the Himalayas at Inalco. His research interests focus on the political and social history of India during the medieval era and early modern period, the historical heritage of Indian cities, and Hindi and Urdu language and literature.
Anne Viguier is a historian, qualified teacher and senior lecturer in the department of South Asia and the Himalayas at Inalco. She studies the urban history of South India, the formation of regional identities in contemporary India and the writing of history in South Asia.
215 pages
16 x 24 cm
Publication: 25/05/2016
ISBN: 9782858312689