Dear Colleagues,

 

I would like to draw your attention to a recent publication that concerns our field but has been published somewhat outside the general Indological radar:

 

Michael J. Casimir, Floating Economies. The Cultural Ecology of the Dal Lake in Kashmir, India. New York / Oxford: Berghahn 2021. 362 pp., 110 ill., 6 col. ill., bibliog., index.

 

ISBN 978-1-80073-029-8 $130.00/£97.00 Hb Published (March 2021).

eISBN 978-1-80073-030-4 eBook

 

In the Himalayas of the Indian part of Kashmir three communities depend on the ecology of the Dal lake: market gardeners, houseboat owners and fishers.  Floating Economies describes for the first time the complex intermeshing economy, social structure and ecology of the area against the background of history and the present volatile socio-political situation. Using a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, the author deals with the socioeconomic strategies of the communities whose livelihoods are embedded here and analyses the ecological condition of the Dal, and the reasons for its progressive degradation.

https://www.berghahnbooks.com/title/CasimirFloating/loc