Through a fascinating series of microstudies, Velayutham Saravanan's scholarship insightfully highlights the vital role of the physical environmental in modern South India. Importantly, this fine book particularly concentrates on the multiple issues of water (supply, distribution, and pollution) during the period from the late British Raj to today's independent Republic of India.

Michael Fisher, Robert S. Danforth Professor of History, Oberlin College, USA

Melding agrarian history with urban history and situating industrialization within a broader socio-economic context, this sophisticated and sobering study makes water central to the writing of environmental history. Scholars and policy professionals will benefit immensely from reading this work.

Kalyanakrishnan Sivaramakrishnan, Dinakar Singh Professor of India and South Asia Studies, Yale University, USA

[T]his book is a useful addition to the growing literature on the specificity of the historical trajectory of rivers in South Asia. In addition to previously unexplored archives, there is a wealth of statistical information here that would be useful to a wide readership, including policy makers, economists, and development studies experts.

Technology and Culture

The book discusses the historical understanding of water diversion, pollution and increasing competition among different stakeholders and examines the ecological and environmental consequences, rightly claiming that such an interdisciplinary approach will help to analyse and address the emerging water crisis that looms everywhere in South Asia.

South Asia Research