Alan Johnson is Professor of English at Idaho State University, USA. He is the author of Out of Bounds: Anglo-Indian Literature and the Geography of Displacement (2011) and articles on topics ranging from environmental literature in India to Hindi film.

• Preface: The Plan of the BookThe Argument and Its ScopeA Note on Translation1. Introduction: Epic Forests, Sacred Groves and Vernacular Jungles: Forests in Context2. Colonial Modernity, National Romance, and the Global Trade in Wood3. Forest, Village, Nation4. Home Forest, Outlaw Forest: Indigeneity, Forestry, and National Hegemony5. The Forest and the City: Aspiration, Cosmopolitanism, and PollutionConclusion: Language Politics, Religious Ideologies, and the Fate of ForestsBibliographyIndex

We are currently witnessing a renaissance of arboreal literary criticism and cultural studies throughout the world. Alan Johnson’s India’s Forests, Real and Imagined: Writing the Modern Nation richly explores the meaning of trees and forests in Indian literary works from the past century and a half, revealing the many dimensions of “arboreal India” but focusing chiefly on the use of forest imagery in critiquing colonialism and conceptualizing Indian nationalism. This is a clear, accessible, and authoritative introduction to Indian literature and to the significance of forests in many of India’s diverse subcultures.

Alan Johnson is Professor of English at Idaho State University, USA. He is the author of Out of Bounds: Anglo-Indian Literature and the Geography of Displacement (2011) and articles on topics ranging from environmental literature in India to Hindi film.

• Preface: The Plan of the BookThe Argument and Its ScopeA Note on Translation1. Introduction: Epic Forests, Sacred Groves and Vernacular Jungles: Forests in Context2. Colonial Modernity, National Romance, and the Global Trade in Wood3. Forest, Village, Nation4. Home Forest, Outlaw Forest: Indigeneity, Forestry, and National Hegemony5. The Forest and the City: Aspiration, Cosmopolitanism, and PollutionConclusion: Language Politics, Religious Ideologies, and the Fate of ForestsBibliographyIndex

We are currently witnessing a renaissance of arboreal literary criticism and cultural studies throughout the world. Alan Johnson’s India’s Forests, Real and Imagined: Writing the Modern Nation richly explores the meaning of trees and forests in Indian literary works from the past century and a half, revealing the many dimensions of “arboreal India” but focusing chiefly on the use of forest imagery in critiquing colonialism and conceptualizing Indian nationalism. This is a clear, accessible, and authoritative introduction to Indian literature and to the significance of forests in many of India’s diverse subcultures.

Alan Johnson is Professor of English at Idaho State University, USA. He is the author of Out of Bounds: Anglo-Indian Literature and the Geography of Displacement (2011) and articles on topics ranging from environmental literature in India to Hindi film.

• Preface: The Plan of the BookThe Argument and Its ScopeA Note on Translation1. Introduction: Epic Forests, Sacred Groves and Vernacular Jungles: Forests in Context2. Colonial Modernity, National Romance, and the Global Trade in Wood3. Forest, Village, Nation4. Home Forest, Outlaw Forest: Indigeneity, Forestry, and National Hegemony5. The Forest and the City: Aspiration, Cosmopolitanism, and PollutionConclusion: Language Politics, Religious Ideologies, and the Fate of ForestsBibliographyIndex

We are currently witnessing a renaissance of arboreal literary criticism and cultural studies throughout the world. Alan Johnson’s India’s Forests, Real and Imagined: Writing the Modern Nation richly explores the meaning of trees and forests in Indian literary works from the past century and a half, revealing the many dimensions of “arboreal India” but focusing chiefly on the use of forest imagery in critiquing colonialism and conceptualizing Indian nationalism. This is a clear, accessible, and authoritative introduction to Indian literature and to the significance of forests in many of India’s diverse subcultures.