Routledge Readings on Northeastern India: Colonial Encounters, Customary Practices, Gender, Livelihoods presents some of the finest essays on a region that stretches across the Northeastern Himalaya, eight Indian States and many tribal and non-tribal peoples. With a lucid new Introduction, it covers a vast range of issues and offers a compelling guide to understanding the northeastern India, from colonial and missionary encounter to contemporary security and developmental issues in South Asia. The book covers several critical themes and unravels the complexities fraught by the unique biogeography and socio-political history of the region. The fifteen chapters in the volume, divided into three sections, examine gender, community: customary law and practices, land, agriculture, livelihoods, work, health, and education. This multi-disciplinary volume interweaves geography and history, culture and politics; the contested construction of identities, communities and nationalities; the political interplay of ethnicities and resource appropriation in a modernizing, globalizing economy; conflicts and violence in highly-militarized spaces. It includes engaged and insightful perspectives from major authors who have contributed to the academic and/or policy discourse of the subject. Routledge Readings on Northeastern India brings together a cluster of key readings to capture important research directions, policy suggestions, current trends, and aspects of history and future trajectories in the humanities and social sciences. It will serve as essential reading for students, scholars, policymakers, practitioners and the general reader interested in a nuanced understanding of India’s northeastern region, and especially those in South Asian studies, Northeast India studies, area studies, history, politics and international relations, labour studies, conflict and peace studies, gender studies, sociology and social anthropology. It will also appeal to those interested in public administration, development studies, environmental studies, law and human rights, regional literature, cultural studies, population studies, geography, and economics.

Routledge Readings on Security and Governance in Northeastern India: Resource Conflicts, Militarisation and Development Challenges presents some of the finest essays on a region that stretches across the Northeastern Himalaya, eight Indian States and many tribal and non-tribal peoples. With a lucid Introduction, this and its companion volume, Routledge Readings on Colonial to Contemporary Northeastern India offer a compelling look into the society, polity, contemporary security and developmental issues in northeast India. It covers several critical themes and unravels complexities fraught by the unique biogeography and socio-political history of the region. The fifteen chapters in this multidisciplinary volume, divided into three sections, examine land laws, conflict and resource management and local governance. It discusses the political interplay of ethnicities and resource appropriation in a modernizing, globalizing economy as well as instances of conflicts and violence in highly militarized spaces in the region. It offers an engaged and insightful look into the rural and urban human development contexts in the region from authors who have contributed significantly to the academic and/or policy discourse on the subject. This book will serve as essential reading for students, scholars, policymakers, practitioners of South Asian studies, Northeast India studies, history, development studies, labour studies, sociology, public administration, environmental studies, law and human rights, regional literature, cultural studies, geography, and economics.

India's northeastern region, forged by a unique geological history and peopled by several waves of migration, is extraordinarily complex. Farming systems in the hills and the riverine plains are embedded in a heterogeneous environment, comprising forests, wetlands and fields, shaped over centuries by nature and people. Today, the environment and economy are undergoing rapid transformation, affecting peoples' lives, livelihoods and methods of food production. The essays in this volume bring a multi-disciplinary perspective to critical aspects of the process of agricultural change, examine the gender dimensions of agriculture, and explore initiatives for sustainable livelihood and ecological conservation. Part I analyses the impact of policies and people's own aspirations on the closely-intertwined ecology and economy of the region. Part II discusses the gender dynamics of farming, forestry and biodiversity in a socio-cultural context where women are primarily responsible for food production. Part III highlights some alternative farming interventions and community-based efforts for environmental conservation, sustainable resource management and improved livelihoods. This book will be useful to scholars and students of agriculture, economics, development, environment and gender studies, and to those involved in policy analysis, natural resource management and community organisation, as also general readers interested in India's northeastern region.

India s northeastern region, forged by a unique geological history and peopled by several waves of migration, is extraordinarily complex. Farming systems in the hills and the riverine plains are embedded in a heterogeneous environment, comprising forests, wetlands and fields, shaped over centuries by nature and people. Today, the environment and economy are undergoing rapid transformation, affecting peoples lives, livelihoods and methods of food production.

The essays in this volume bring a multi-disciplinary perspective to critical aspects of the process of agricultural change, examine the gender dimensions of agriculture, and explore initiatives for sustainable livelihood and ecological conservation. Part I analyses the impact of policies and people s own aspirations on the closely-intertwined ecology and economy of the region. Part II discusses the gender dynamics of farming, forestry and biodiversity in a socio-cultural context where women are primarily responsible for food production. Part III highlights some alternative farming interventions and community-based efforts for environmental conservation, sustainable resource management and improved livelihoods.

This book will be useful to scholars and students of agriculture, economics, development, environment and gender studies, and to those involved in policy analysis, natural resource management and community organisation, as also general readers interested in India s northeastern region.

Even in a realm that would seem to be as far removed from issues of gender as natural resource management, gender bias is pernicious and persistent, especially in India. "Genderscapes" looks at the reasons for this bias from a number of angles, including the socialization of attitudes, the shaping of community ideologies, and the construction of disciplines and research methodologies.
Sumi Krishna puts forward the novel concept of "genderscapes" to reflect the totality of women's life worlds, and she builds her use of the concept on a group of rich case studies, including the caring practices of forest-dwellers, women's knowledge of biodiversity, and their widespread responsibility for farming and food production. Women's economic needs cannot be separated from their sociopolitical interests, Krishna shows--and only by looking at them as a whole can we solve the problem of discrimination.