Investing in
Your Future
Publications by Tarun Chhabra
The Toda Landscape
The Toda people of the Nilgiris District in south India are one of the oldest indigenous groups in South Asia; they are also reportedly among the most studied and written-about in the region. While the field was dominated by Western scholars in the beginning, Indian researchers and writers began contributing to Toda studies from the early twentieth century.
The Toda Landscape: Explorations in Cultural Ecology represents a major breakthrough in Toda studies. From his interactions with the Todas from 1990 onwards, the author, Tarun Chhabra, has collected and analysed ethnographic data that had eluded even the greatest of Western ethnographers. Through his first-hand narrative accounts of important Toda rituals, ceremonies and routines, all accompanied by visual documentation in the form of photographs and maps, he provides new data that will significantly aid the preservation of Toda traditional culture.