In the Himalayas of the Indian part of Kashmir three communities depend on the ecology of the Dal lake: market gardeners, houseboat owners and fishers.  Floating Economies describes for the first time the complex intermeshing economy, social structure and ecology of the area against the background of history and the present volatile socio-political situation. Using a holistic and multidisciplinary approach, the author deals with the socioeconomic strategies of the communities whose livelihoods are embedded here and analyses the ecological condition of the Dal, and the reasons for its progressive degradation.

Michael J. Casimir is Professor Emeritus at the Institute of Cultural and Social Anthropology, Cologne. His major publications includeGrowing up in a Pastoral Society: Socialisation among Pashtu Nomads in Western Afghanistan (Hundt Druck, 2010) andCulture and the Changing Environment: Uncertainty, Cognition and Risk Management in Cross-Cultural Perspective (ed. Berghahn, 2008).

List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Notes on Text

Introduction

PART I

Chapter 1. The Valley of Kasmir and Dal Lake
Chapter 2. Kashmirs Early History and the Conversion to Islam
Chapter 3. The Social Organization of Contemporary Kashmiri Muslim Society
Chapter 4. The Market Gardeners of the Lake: Early Accounts
Chapter 5. The Market Gardeners Economy Today
Chapter 6. The Productivity of Lacustrine Market Gardening
Chapter 7. The Houseboat Owner Community and the Development of Tourism on Dal Lake
Chapter 8. The Gad Hanz: The Last Fishers on the Dal

PART II

Chapter 9. The Degradation of the Dal: Causes and Impacts
Chapter 10. The Political Ecology of a Degrading Lake: A Paradise Lost?

Appendix A
Appendix B

References
Index