| Himalayan Histories Contributor(s): Singh, Chetan (Author) |
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ISBN: 1438475225 ISBN-13: 9781438475226 Publisher: State University of New York Press OUR PRICE: $35.10 Product Type: Paperback - Other Formats Published: January 2020 |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - History | Asia - India & South Asia |
| Physical Information: 0.7" H x 6" W x 8.9" (0.92 lbs) 316 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Himalayan Histories, by one of India's most reputed historians of the Himalaya, is essential for a more complete understanding of Indian history. Because Indian historians have mainly studied riverine belts and life in the plains, sophisticated mountain histories are relatively rare. In this book, Chetan Singh identifies essential aspects of the material, mental, and spiritual world of western Himalayan peasant society. Human enterprise and mountainous terrain long existed in a precarious balance, occasionally disrupted by natural adversity, in this large and difficult region. Small peasant communities lived in scattered environmental niches and tenaciously extracted from their harsh surroundings a rudimentary but sustainable livelihood. These communities were integral constituents of larger political economies that asserted themselves through institutions of hegemonic control, the state being one such institution. This laboriously created life-world was enlivened by myth, folklore, legend, and religious tradition. When colonial rule was established in the region during the nineteenth century, it transformed the peasants' relationship with their natural surroundings. While old political allegiances were weakened, resilient customary hierarchies retained their influence through religio-cultural practices. |