History 249 - The Environment and South Asian Lifeworlds

Cyclones, drought, and earthquakes have claimed many lives in South Asia in recent decades. Millions living along its vast coastline face the imminent danger of being reduced to climate refugees. In such times, how might we understand the longer history of environmental change in South Asia? This course traces shifts in how people in the region have understood the environment -- as a source of sustenance, a resource ripe for domination, and an entity in need of saving. Drawing from histories of agriculture, public works, and forestry, it interrogates how transnational forces such as colonial capitalism and geopolitics have shaped local interactions between humans, nature, and animals.