In the monsoon regions of South Asia, the rainy season sustains life but brings with it the threat of floods, followed by a long stretch when little gainful work is possible and the threat of famine looms too. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, a series of interventions by the Indian government and other actors mitigated these conditions, thus enabling agricultural growth, encouraging urbanization and bringing about a permanent decrease in death rates. But these actions—largely efforts to ensure wider access to water—came at a cost to environmental sustainability. In Monsoon Economy, Tirthankar Roy explores the interaction between the environment and the economy in the emergence of modern India. Roy argues that the tropical monsoon climate makes economic and population growth contingent on water security. But in a water-scarce world, the means used to increase water security not only created environmental stresses but also made political conflict more likely. Highlighting the importance of water as a public good, the author critically analyses issues such as water quality in cities, the shift from impounding river water in dams and reservoirs to exploring groundwater, and the seasonality of a monsoon economy. He also draws economic lessons from India for a world facing environmental degradation.

How interventions to mitigate climate-caused poverty and inequality in India came at a cost to environmental sustainability. In the monsoon regions of South Asia, the rainy season sustains life but brings with it the threat of floods, followed by a long stretch of the year when little gainful work is possible and the threat of famine looms. Beginning in the late nineteenth century, a series of interventions by Indian governments and other actors mitigated these conditions, enabling agricultural growth, encouraging urbanization, and bringing about a permanent decrease in death rates. But these actions—largely efforts to ensure wider access to water—came at a cost to environmental sustainability. In Monsoon Economies, Tirthankar Roy explores the interaction between the environment and the economy in the emergence of modern India. Roy argues that the tropical monsoon climate makes economic and population growth contingent on water security. But in a water-scarce world, the means used to increase water security not only created environmental stresses but also made political conflict more likely. Roy investigates famine relief, the framing of a seasonal “water famine,” and the concept of public trust in water; the political movements that challenged socially sanctioned forms of deprivation; water as a public good; water quality in cities; the shift from impounding river water in dams and reservoirs to exploring groundwater; the seasonality of a monsoon economy; and economic lessons from India for a world facing environmental degradation.

This is a timely, interdisciplinary scientific overview of the atmosphere, the ocean and the land surface as it interacts with physical, chemical and biological processes. The high level of detail sets it apart from other studies of monsoon meteorology. The text includes analysis of paleoclimate records, human influences on the monsoon climate and the economic impacts of the monsoon on economies and to human health.

For much of the twentieth century, Europe dominated global attention. Two world wars were won and lost on its battle fields, and the great ideological struggles of the Cold War were played out in its cities. The Atlantic Ocean was the locus of international power. This is no longer the case, as bestselling author Robert D. Kaplan deftly proves in Monsoon. He shows how the rise of India, Pakistan, China, Indonesia, Burma and Oman, among others, represents a crucial shift in the global balance of power. It is in 'Monsoon Asia' that the fight for democracy, energy independence and religious freedom will be lost or won. It is here that European interests are being replaced by Chinese and Indian influences, and where the often tense dialogue is taking place between Islam and the West. It is towards this region that global powers need to shift their focus if they are to remain dominant in the new century.

This book is about investing in what could well be the greatest opportunity in the 21st century. There is no comparable book that looks at the opportunity that is India from a wealth-creating perspective nor examines the depth of opportunity from a western perspective. This book offers no ponderous policy prescriptions nor pontificates in any way. It describes the opportunities and charts a course through them. It is for those people interested in a great new market but who may not know anything beyond what the newspapers say and lack an understanding of a very lucrative proposition. This book aims to take a gigantic leap in terms of a foreign investor's understanding of where India stands financially and what its market represents in terms of an opportunity for them.

The Asian monsoon and associated river systems supply the water that sustains a large portion of humanity, and has enabled Asia to become home to some of the oldest and most productive farming systems on Earth. This book uses climate data and environmental models to provide a detailed review of variations in the Asian monsoon since the mid-Holocene, and its impacts on farming systems and human settlement. Future changes to the monsoon due to anthropogenically-driven global warming are also discussed. Faced with greater rainfall and more cyclones in South Asia, as well as drying in North China and regional rising sea levels, understanding how humans have developed resilient strategies in the past to climate variations is critical. Containing important implications for the large populations and booming economies in the Indo-Pacific region, this book is an important resource for researchers and graduate students studying the climate, environmental history, agronomy and archaeology of Asia.

India's remarkable economic growth in recent years has made it one of the fastest growing economies in the world. This Oxford Handbook reflects India's growing economic importance on the world stage, and features research on core topics by leading scholars to understand the Indian economic miracle and the obstacles India faces in transforming itself into a modern 21st-century economy.

Between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries, a distinct form of Islamic thought and practice developed among Muslim trading communities of the Indian Ocean. Sebastian R. Prange argues that this 'Monsoon Islam' was shaped by merchants not sultans, forged by commercial imperatives rather than in battle, and defined by the reality of Muslims living within non-Muslim societies. Focusing on India's Malabar Coast, the much-fabled 'land of pepper', Prange provides a case study of how Monsoon Islam developed in response to concrete economic, socio-religious, and political challenges. Because communities of Muslim merchants across the Indian Ocean were part of shared commercial, scholarly, and political networks, developments on the Malabar Coast illustrate a broader, trans-oceanic history of the evolution of Islam across monsoon Asia. This history is told through four spaces that are examined in their physical manifestations as well as symbolic meanings: the Port, the Mosque, the Palace, and the Sea.