Description
Book SynopsisIncorporates the history of regional politics and economics as they affected kuhls during the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial periods; the role of state involvement in kuhl construction and management; and the benefits of exchanges of labor and water among members of networked kuhls.
Trade Review"Though strongly recommended to scholars of common property resources, this book will prove a useful compendium to both specialists and lay readers interested in the documentation of institutional change under the growing pressures of modernity, in particular with a precious commodity like water."
* Electronic Green Journal *
"This book provides a comprehensive account of the persistence and transformation of kuhls— the centuries-old community-managed irrigation systems in the western Himalaya— under conditions of intermittent environmental stresses and ever-increasing pace of socioeconomic change. It accomplishes the task convincingly, with unusual clarity and flair, utilizing an array of variables ranging from endogenous factors to exogenous ones. . . . This book contains a wealth of information related to the ethnographic, historical, and sociocultural aspects of human-environment interactions in an important region of South Asia. For this and its skillful integration of theory and empirical evidence, it will be invaluable to colleagues and advanced students alike."
* American Anthropologist *
Table of ContentsPreface
Introduction
1. An Explanatory Tapestry
2. The Dynamic Landscape of Kuhl Irrigation
3. Statemaking and Irrigation in Kangra
4. Patterns of Change
5. Networks of Interdependence
6. Dynamic Regimes, Enduring Flows
Appendix 1: A Note on Methods
Appendix 2: Two Kuhl Stories Recounted by Shyam Lal Sharma
Appendix 3: Summary Characteristics of Kuhl Regimes of the Neugal Watershed
Notes
Glossary
References
Index
