This volume offers a collection of lucid, theoretically stimulating articles that explore and analyse the institutions and values which are salient in understanding political practices in South Asia. Combining a wide range of theoretical and empirical approaches, and blending the work of experts long established in their respective fields with refreshing and innovative approaches by younger scholars, this collaborative and cross-disciplinary endeavour facilitates a deeper understanding of the subcontinent's diverse and complex political and democratic practices in the 21st century.

Contemporary thinking favours local participation and local stake-holding under a decentralized, democratic framework as the just and efficient solution to contemporary South Asian environmental dilemmas and crises. In a series of case studies and more extensive audits, a group of mainly Nordic and American authors seek to substantiate, qualify or criticize this formula. Covering both urban and rural environments, the hills and the plains, the book provides insights into the actual management and mismanagement of resources in India and Pakistan. Contents Income Distribution and Environmental Degradation; The State and Local Management in Colonial Irrigation; Oral Histories of Environmental Change in Rajasthan; The Van Gujjars and the Rajaji National Park; Implementing International Regimes in India; Forest Contractors as Intermediaries in Pakistan's Forestry; Tragedy of Collective Action among farmers in South India; International production of Pesticides; Voluntary Organisations in Environmental Service Provision; The Use of Metaphor in Himalayan Resource Management.

Contemporary thinking favours local participation and local stake-holding under a decentralized, democratic framework as the just and efficient solution to contemporary South Asian environmental dilemmas and crises. This work aims to substantiate, qualify or criticize this formula. Covering both urban and rural environments, the hills and plains, the work offers insights into the actual management and mismanagement of resources in India and Pakistan.