The macro-region of South Asia – including Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka – today supports one of the world’s greatest concentrations of cities, but as James Heitzman argues in the first comprehensive treatment of urban South Asia, this has been the case for at least 5,000 years.
With a strong emphasis on the production of space and periodic excursions into literature, art and architecture, religion and public culture, this interdisciplinary study is a valuable text for students and scholars interested in comparative history, urban studies, and the social sciences.
1. The Ancient Heritage 2. The Sacred City and the Fort 3. Emporiums, Empire, and the Early Colonial Presence 4. Space, Economy and Public Culture in the Colonial City 5. Language of Space in the Contemporary City
Biography
James Heitzman is the author of Gifts of Power: Lordship in an Early Indian State and Network City: Planning the Information Society in Bangalore. He currently divides his time between Davis, California and Bangalore, India, where he is co-founder of Nagara, a trust devoted to urban affairs.
"What makes this text more than an all-too-familiar economic history of urbanization is Heitzman's keenness to demonstrate his arguments not only by marshaling the relevant statistics, but also by testing his hypotheses against the art and architecture, literary and religious texts, and common cultural artifacts to which these cities gave birth. His account--perceptive, interdisciplinary, and, above all, comprehensive--provides an incredibly rich and engaging chronicle of growth of South Asian cities. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above." - CHOICE, May 2009 Vol. 46 No. 09
