What happens when a distant colonial power tries to tame an unfamiliar terrain in the world's largest tidal delta? This history of dramatic ecological changes in the Bengal Delta from 1760 to 1920 involves land, water and humans, tracing the stories and struggles that link them together. Pushing beyond narratives of environmental decline, Bhattacharyya argues that 'property-thinking', a governing tool critical in making land and water discrete categories of bureaucratic and legal management, was at the heart of colonial urbanization and the technologies behind the draining of Calcutta. The story of ecological change is narrated alongside emergent practices of land speculation and transformation in colonial law. Bhattacharyya demonstrates how this history continues to shape our built environments with devastating consequences, as shown in the Bay of Bengal's receding coastline.

This exquisitely produced book features a selection of McPhee's works in and around India's former capital. Here we glimpse courtyards, living spaces, temples and altars as both vestiges of the past and integral to contemporary urban existence. McPhee's images sensitively penetrate the surface to show the blurred boundaries between social classes, the blending of public and private life, and resonances between India and other parts of the world.

Indian Renaissance: British Romantic Art and the Prospect of India is the first comprehensive examination of British artists whose first-hand impressions and prospects of the Indian subcontinent became a stimulus for the Romantic Movement in England; it is also a survey of the transformation of the images brought home by these artists into the cultural imperatives of imperial, Victorian Britain. The book proposes a second - Indian - Renaissance for British (and European) art and culture and an undeniable connection between English Romanticism and British Imperialism. Artists treated in-depth include James Forbes, James Wales, Tilly Kettle, William Hodges, Johann Zoffany, Francesco Renaldi, Thomas and William Daniell, Robert Home, Thomas Hickey, Arthur William Devis, R. H. Colebrooke, Alexander Allan, Henry Salt, James Baillie Fraser, Charles Gold, James Moffat, Charles D'Oyly, William Blake, J. M. W. Turner and George Chinnery.

Presents A Selection (Chosen By The Columnist Himself) Of Press Written By The Author Between 1993 And 2001 For The Asian Age Relating To Calcutta, The State Of West Bengal, World Affairs Or Life Or Nature As A Whole. The Result Is A Five Of A Thinking Citizen`S Concerns With The Sensitively Of A Literary Scholars And Urban Analyst Of Standing.