Uprooting Geographic Thoughts in India: Toward Ecology and Culture in 21st Century
Author: Rana P. B. Singh, with Oskar Spate, David Sopher, and A.B. Mukerji
Date Of Publication: Jun 2009
Isbn13: 978-1-4438-0580-3
Isbn: 1-4438-0580-7
Under the cultural turn and transformation the new intellectual discourses started in the 21st century to search the roots, have cross-cultural comparison and to see how the old traditions be used in the contemporary worldviews. This book is the first attempt dealing with roots of Indian geographical thoughts since its beginning in 1920. It emphasises identity of India and Indianness and consciousness among dweller geographers in India, development and status of geography and its recent trends, Gaia theory and Indian context in search of cosmic integrity, ecospirituality and global message towards interrelatedness, Hindu pilgrimages and its contemporary importance, Mahatma Gandhi and his contribution to sustainable environmental development for global peace and humanism, and new vision to see meeting grounds of the East and the West on the line of reconstruction and reconciliation in the globalising world. These essays are selective and thematic, therefore overall view of comprehensiveness is lacking. But this book is not the end; obviously it is a beginning as already other volumes in sequence and continuity are in progress. At the end, the lead essays, representative of the three eras, by Spate (1956), Sopher (1973), and Mukerji (1992) are reprinted with a view to assessing the relevance of their challenging message even today.

Rana P.B. Singh is Professor of Cultural Geography and Heritage Studies at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi (India), and has published extensively on geographical thought, sacred geography, pilgrimage studies and heritage planning in India. His publications include 33 books and anthologies and over 175 research papers. On these themes he gave lectures in almost all parts of the world. His recent publications include Environmental Ethics (1993), The Spirit and Power of Place (1994), Cultural Landscapes and the Lifeworld (2004), and Uprooting Geographical Thought in India: Toward Ecology and Culture in 21st Century (2009).

This book presents a compassionate and rational critique of the 'Roots of Indian Geography', and opens new ground for the younger generation and those interested in the understanding of the stories of the evolution and practices of geography in India, narrating both the sides, 'insider' and 'outsider'. … This is possibly the first attempt in the history of Indian geographical thought to explain and expose ancient thought linked to the present, and presenting a balanced critique of the achievements and weaknesses of each historical phase.

—Prof. David Simon (from the foreword), Royal Holloway, University of London

This is a national geography with a difference. Much more than a history of geography in India or a description of the work of Indian geographers, it is an insightful account and interpretation of the Indian geographical imagination as this is informed by the Hindu tradition. Singh's innovative work will be of great interest to cultural geographers, ecologists, and other scholars concerned with our human use of the earth.

—Prof. William Norton, Dept. of Environment and Geography, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada

On the line of growing critiques to post-colonialism and post-traditionalism, this book is a pioneering attempt in interdisciplinary manner appraising the 'Roots of Indian Geography'. If geography is a way that interlinks ‘locality’ to ‘universality’, this book will serve as milestone for the contemporary generation of social sciences that embedded with issues of ethics and moral turn in philosophy and practice, i.e. crossing the borders.

—Prof. Fukunaga Masaaki, Director, Centre of South Asian Studies, Gifu’s Women University, Japan

There come times in the evolution of all institutions when critical assessments of past and present achievements need to be made, with a careful and caring eye on future developments. Imbued with a long and honourable institutional identity, the study of geography in India is fortunate to have in this volume just such an assessment at a crucial time in the history not just of the interdiscipline of Geography in India, nor even of the wider academic matrix within which so much valuable geographical work has been accomplished in India, but of the intellectual traditions of India as a whole. In matters academic as in so many other realms of human endeavour, the twenty-first century is India’s time on the global stage, and we can expect to see still more of India’s scholars and Indian scholarship, geographers and geography among them, stage front and centre. This volume helps to explain how and why.

— Prof. Jamie S. Scott, Institute of Advanced Study for Humanity, University of Newcastle, Australia

It was unfortunate that in spite of rich and long philosophical and textual traditions of thought, in Indian geography there was no attempt to produce a book-length study in search of its roots and comparison with the contemporary Western thoughts. This book has successfully filled in this gap by rationally linking ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ viewpoints and also projecting the vision of ‘moral turn’ in geography. This book is a wonderful blending of philosophy and history where geography serves as bridge.

— Prof. Gerhard Gustafsson, Department of Geography and Tourism, Karlstad University, Sweden

Working together with the author since over last fifteen years, I realised the comprehensiveness and interrelatedness of geography in Indian classical thoughts that have now taken as a way for ‘new vision’ in the era of New Age. This book is a welcome addition in ‘global understanding’ through the great message of Indian geography for peace and harmonious relationship between mankind and nature.

— Prof. John McKim Malville, Emeritus Professor of Planetary Sciences, University of Colorado at Boulder, U.S.A.

On the line of the IGU’s current focus on ‘Bridging Diversity in a Globalizing World’, this research monograph could indeed serve as a beacon for other Asian countries to follow and present a cross-cultural perspective, which is one of the most important aims of the International Geographical Union and its permanent archive at the Home of Geography in Rome. I hope that the message of this book will encourage the young geographers in making their path for creating better world.

— Prof. Giuliano Bellezza, Vice-President: IGU, & Director Home of Geography, Rome, Italy

For many years, it seemed that the Cultural Turn in Geography led into just a single culture, a Western hegemony of ideas, discourses and sentiments. Professor Rana P.B. Singh, however, provides an alternative ― the authentic voice of Indian tradition and philosophy. He brings to Geography, all Geography not just its Cultural wing, perspectives from ancient yet living traditions, which truly have heard most of these ‘exciting new ideas from the West’ long, long before. …. These days it is recognised that our species greatest challenge is to change our human attitudes and lifestyles to a condition where we become fit for long term life on Earth. It could be that Professor Singh, Geographer, scholar and pilgrim can help show the way.

— Prof. Martin J. Haigh, Oxford Brooke University, UK

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