What makes Darjeeling tea, Pashmina shawl, Monsooned Malabar Arabica coffee and Chanderi saree special? Why is it that some goods derive their uniqueness through their inherent linkage to a place? In a pioneering study, this book explores this intriguing question in the Indian context across 199 registered goods with geographical indications, linked with their place of origin. It argues that the origin of these goods is attributed to a distinctive ecology that brews in a particular place. The attributes of their origin further endorse their unique geographical indications through legal channels. Drawing from a variety of disciplines including geography, history, sociology, handicrafts, paintings, and textiles, the author also examines the Geographical Indications Act of 1999, and shows how it has created a scope to identify, register and protect those goods, be they natural, agricultural, or manufactured. The work presents a new perspective on the indigenous diversities and offers an original understanding of the geography and history of India. Lucid and accessible, with several illustrative maps, this book will be useful to scholars and researchers in the social sciences, environmental studies, development studies, law, trade and history.

A sweeping, interdisciplinary history of the world's third-largest river, a potent symbol across South Asia and the Hindu diaspora Originating in the Himalayas and flowing into the Bay of Bengal, the Ganges is India's most important and sacred river. In this unprecedented work, historian Sudipta Sen tells the story of the Ganges, from the communities that arose on its banks to the merchants that navigated its waters, and the way it came to occupy center stage in the history and culture of the subcontinent. Sen begins his chronicle in prehistoric India, tracing the river's first settlers, its myths of origin in the Hindu tradition, and its significance during the ascendancy of popular Buddhism. In the following centuries, Indian empires, Central Asian regimes, European merchants, the British Empire, and the Indian nation-state all shaped the identity and ecology of the river. Weaving together geography, environmental politics, and religious history, Sen offers in this lavishly illustrated volume a remarkable portrait of one of the world's largest and most densely populated river basins.