Although it may be possible to distinguish the various streams that comprise Social Geography, these fluid currents flow together to create a vast body of inter-and-intra-disciplinary study. This book attempts to capture the holistic essence of this field as well as highlight its rich thematic and areal diversity. Organized society and its institutions and characteristics over space go back to prehistoric times. It is no surprise then, that the field of social geography presents a full panoply of subjects of study.

Since its establishment as a recognized sub-field of geography in the twentieth century, Social Geography has continuously evolved to reflect the changing socioeconomic and political climate. Thus, the birth of radical geographies of feminism, the increased volume of alternate voices of transnationalism, postcolonialism and emerging geographies, the embracing of postmodernist methodologies and tools of interpretivism, the adoption of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) and remote sensing techniques to tackle social themes of study and so on. Such rapid changes necessitate the need for revisiting the state of the field every so often, while maintaining a connection with its traditional roots and themes.

Therein lies the significance of this book. The current work presents a number of contributions that provide an overview of the works that laid the foundation for Social Geography, or themselves address some of the traditional themes in Social Geography, such as art and culture, urbanism and crime, and social institutions of caste, class, and religion.

The world has seen, and is still seeing the rapid development and spread of urban areas. Cities and towns have sprouted up every where around the globe. Villages are transforming into towns and towns into cities, attracting more and more people, and adding to urban expansion. Population increase and industrialization are the key factor behind such a phenomenal change in spatial structure.

India, the second most populated country in the world, has experienced large-scale development in and around its urban areas. The city of Kolkata (formerly Calcutta until 2001) in eastern India, the focus herein, has being aggressively multiplying in size over the last three decades. However, the rea population explosion took place between 1940 and 1950, during the Indian independence phase, although growth as such is still continuing (Chakraborty, 1990).

Closely associated with the morphology of any city are its past and present populations that have adhered to certain social and economic customs and followed distinctive occupations (Dutt et al., 1989, 151) Kolkata was the first major city developed by the British East India Company in the early 1700s. The East India Company built their first fortified construction, Fort William, to protect them from the other colonia aspirants. It was around this same fortified structure that the city of Kolkata grew and nurtured itself. It was a garrison town first, then the Company's town, next a provincial city, and later the headquarters of the British India government (National Atlas and Thematic Mapping Organisation (NATMO), 1996).

Population data from the decennial census of the United States (US) can provide a reasonable picture of the changing distribution of people of various Hispanic origins in the country during the last 150 years. Beyond simply enumerating population distributions, some census data, like home ownership and language spoken at home, do provide a sense of the degree to which Hispanics have settled permanently in particular regions and the extent to which they have maintained important cultural traditions such as language use. Thus, census data can provide an index to the permanence of Hispanic populations and to their degree of assimilation in the US. However, these data cannot illuminate the degree to which Hispanics have established institutions to maintain and to recreate Hispanic culture in the alien cultural context of the US. To gauge the extent to which Hispanics, or for that matter other immigrant groups, attempt to maintain and recreate their culture in the new cultural milieu, one must examine the extent to which they establish institutions to do so. Typically, social institutions like churches, schools and ethnic clubs fulfil this function, while ethnic-based businesses and the mass media like newspapers, radio and television often play a supplemental role in preserving and strengthening ethnic identity.

More than 50 years ago, in his book, Spanish-Speaking Groups in the United States, John Burma (1954, p. 38) predicted that the Spanish-language press in the US would disappear within 15 years.

Geographical factors provide the stage for cultural groups to work out their destinies and establish distinctive occupancy patterns. The evolution of cultural regions, emergence of cultural cores, and the direction and speed of cultural diffusion are greatly controlled by the prevailing geographical conditions of a region. Thus, the historical experiences of the people living in different geographical regions have been strikingly different. Such a situation is more marked in countries like India where the large areal extent, vast physical diversity and unique geographical location have made it a known case of unity in diversity in terms of the cultural pattern.

The physical framework of the Indian subcontinent determined the initial migration routes as well as the choice of the settlement area (river valleys or interfluvial tracts) by the incoming cultural streams originating from different parts of Asia. The scarcity of food and the presence of natural barriers, such as rivers, hill ranges, or desert expanses curbed their freedom of movement. Over the wide open valleys and the undulating plains on the plateau, they could also perceive social barriers erected along the contact lines between different ethnic groups and enforced by social customs. It may be assumed that the primeval culture domains were ethnically homogeneous and socially defined as their violation invited conflict, followed by internecine wars. Initially, there was a remote possibility of cultural overlap. Subbarao (1958, pp. 8–35) used detailed archaeological data to demonstrate the preservation of mutual exclusiveness in the remote hill tracts.

Our healthcare and family welfare programmes are supposed to be demand driven under the new paradigm given in the post ICPD (International Conference on Population and Development, held in Cairo, 1994) era (United Nations Population Fund, 2004). But supply side issues are also considered equally important in terms of availability and quality of services. The network of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Sub-Centres (SCs) is the mode for providing healthcare services to the rural masses. The emphasis on family planning and immunization is obvious in view of the enormity of the population problem affecting the economic development and conditions of the poor in the country. The PHCs and SCs are also responsible for the prevention and eradication of major communicable and deficiency diseases such as malaria, filaria, tuberculosis, leprosy, blindness, and diarrhoea.

In rural areas, government health centres and government programmes play a key role in the provision of prenatal, natal, and postnatal services, including family planning services, immunization and treatment of common diseases. The implementation of the programme depends to a large extent on the availability and performance of doctors and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs), Multi-Purpose Health Workers (MPHWs), trained birth attendants and village health guides. These grassroot level functionaries are the backbone of the health and family welfare programmes in the rural areas.

In the family welfare programmes, the Maternal and Child Health (MCH) care provisions are unbalanced, focussing on immunization and the provision of iron and folic acid rather than on sustained care of women and children, or on the detection and referral of high-risk cases.

Scholars of economic development contend that socioeconomic conditions in economically–depressed urban areas can be improved if those urban areas utilize economic development projects as a means to attract private investment in the form of new businesses. An increase in the number of businesses, representing new economic development projects in the urban areas, would increase job opportunities and enhance the quality of life of the residents. From the perspective of government officials, the enterprise zone programme can be a means by which private investment capital could be attracted into local areas which, in turn, would revitalize the local economy. In order to understand the intricacies of the enterprise zone concept, there is a need to refer to the British and Dutch experiences of two decades following the Second World War. Hong Kong's economic experience in recent times has also influenced the United Kingdom (UK) and the United States (US) as they attempt to address blighted conditions.

In order to address rapid loss of jobs in central cities, the enterprise zone concept was developed as a way to aid or reduce economic depression in many communities. The zone concept is recognized as a means to create jobs and to ease pressure on local governments to provide social services with a diminishing tax base. In light of these economic difficulties, state and local governments have attempted to try to reverse the slide of their respective economies caused by a combination of declining tax revenues and rising demands for services (Spindler and Forrester, 1993, p. 28).

Located in southwest Florida, Collier County is one of the largest and wealthiest counties in the state. Larger than the state of Delaware, Collier County was created in 1923 and was named after Barron Gift Collier, a businessman born in Memphis who promoted the region's development and the completion of the Tamiami Trail in 1928 using his personal fortune from streetcar advertising. The County includes important environmental preserves such as the Everglades National Park, Big Cypress Wildlife Preserve and Ten Thousand Islands as well as urban settlements such as Naples, Marco Island, Everglades City and Immokalee (Fig. 14.1). The population of Collier County has increased from 6,500 in 1950 to over 325,000 in 2008. Development has been concentrated along the Atlantic Gulf Coast from Marco Island to Naples and northward to Vanderbilt Beach near Pelican Bay.

A centre for vegetable farming and cattle raising, Immokalee is an unincorporated community in the northeast portion of Collier County. A significant seasonal influx of migrant workers to Immokalee serves the vegetable farms and orange groves in the surrounding areas. The Immokalee region has the lowest per capita income in Collier County and over 80 per cent of its population is Hispanic. Immokalee was near the early route of soldiers from the Seminole War who pursued the Seminole tribe into the Big Cypress Forest Reserve. Settlers began occupying Immokalee in the 1870s. the vicinity of Immokalee is the planned town of Ave Maria which was established in 2006.

No one is a born criminal; even if someone has the questionable ‘crime-related gene’, it is primarily one's environment and experiences that induce criminal conduct. Cruel and loveless upbringing, social and economic deprivation, a physically dilapidated and gang-infested neighborhood, hostile atmosphere in the house, crimeridden historic traditions and suffocating population densities are some environmental conditions that contribute to the initiation and continuation of criminal activities (Dutt, Noble and Singh, 1979). Geographers first started to unravel the geography of crime in the 1970s. There were others who contributed to the study of spatial aspects of crime (Pyle et al., 1974). In India, both criminologists and sociologists have researched different aspects of crime (Rao, 1981), but spatially-oriented crime studies started to appear only in the 1970s. Nayar (1975) provided a nationwide spatial analysis of crime. Indian crime studies with this spatial component followed from the 1970s through the earlier part of the twenty-first century. These studies may be grouped into three levels – city (micro), regional (meso) and national (macro). They have been reviewed here followed by an analysis of the relationship between crime and politics.

Review of City Scale Studies

The city has often been thought to be a good breeding ground for crime; possibly due to the contributing factors of anomie, congestion, heterogeneity, cultural and traditional breakdowns resulting from the processes of urbanization and industrialization; but also possibly because crime in rural areas is largely underreported.

Rural India, consisting of 72 per cent of the Indian population, is different from the urban segment of the country. The Indian village plays a very significant role in the progress of the whole nation; it is a source of art, culture, literature, religion, human values, philosophy, economic wealth and agricultural produce. It is also a storehouse of abundant human resources, though the majority of these resources are underdeveloped, undeveloped, unused, underused and overused, as well as inefficient and poor in quality. Rural India is also characterized by the presence of high birth, death, and infant mortality rates, low life expectancy, malnutrition, hunger, illiteracy, ignorance, unemployment, poverty, poor sanitation and housing conditions, water scarcity and many such stubborn problems of human resource development.

Human resource development is a continuous process of promoting quality of life for all people of an area. According to Gupta (1998), human resource development is the complete physical and mental growth of individuals. Rao (1999) emphasizes the importance of human resource development and states that it involves getting the right kind of people, creating a culture that nurtures and retains talent, providing avenues for competence development at all levels, ensuring utilization of talent and aiding in the renewal of various productive human processes. Nadler (1994) defined human resource development as a planned continuous effort by management to improve employee capacity levels and organizational performance through training, education and development programmes.

Mythology and Historical Geography

Gaya, a city in Bihar, is a famous pilgrimage centre. The literal meaning of ‘Gaya’, ‘let's go to another place’, refers to contact with the other realm; it symbolises a destination linking this world of humanity and the world of divinity (ancestral world). According to one of the most authoritative Sanskrit texts on pilgrimage and sacred places, the Tristhalisetu (TS), which means and dates back ‘Bridge to the Three Holy Cities’ circa sixteenth century, of the three pillars of the ‘bridge to the realm of the soul’, Gaya is the eastern most. The others are Varanasi and Prayaga (Allahabad), both along River Ganga in the West. The name ‘Gaya’ was referred to in the earlier Vedic text, the Rig Veda, RV (10.63,10.64), as the name of a sage and writer, while later in the Atharva Veda, AV (1.14.4), Gaya was mentioned as a mystic and sorcerer. The first clear indication of Gaya as a holy place is when it is metaphorically eulogised in the RV (1.22.17)–‘Vishnu crossed this and placed his first foot in three ways: the whole of it is encompassed in his steps’. The treatise Nirukta, NrT (12.19), circa eighth century BCE, explains this passage in two ways. The first, according to Shakapuni, refers to the three steps of Vishnu, viz. the earth, the firmament and the heavens. The second, according to Aurnavabha, refers to the three sacred places called Samarohana, Vishnupad and Gayashirsh.

With a few notable exceptions, cultural geographers have neglected the study of one of the most comprehensive spheres of human activity – vernacular or folk art, which embodies a complete record of man's life, work and experience. For both its materials and techniques, folk art depends on the character of a place as it expresses the physical and cultural environment as well as the distinctive mental perceptions of the people. As manifestation of human experience and aspirations, folk art is woven from the values and general patterns of life and culture of the people and as such, forms an aesthetic canvas that portrays the interactive elements of regional character.

The geography of art attempts to study various art forms as: (a) an expression of a region's physical, socioeconomic and cultural setting, and the people's distinctive values that orient, articulate or explain the culture, and (b) a record of a regional culture, an unerring clue to the life, experience and aspirations of a people. It is not concerned with dates, titles, names and biographies or with the sensuous value of works of art as individual independent objects. Rather it addresses itself to the physical and social conditions of origin and operation of a work of art, to the background of regional economic and cultural factors and forces that condition the forms of art and affect its motifs and themes, and also to its meaning in a given cultural region with all its aspirations, experiences and fulfillments.

Regional inequality is an important area of academic inquiry and government policy. Scholars, however, disagree over the trend of regional inequality and the forces underlying it. Neoclassical doctrines suggest that regional differentials will eventually be equalized under efficient markets and factor mobility conditions, while divergence perspectives, especially dependency and structural schools, contend that spatial disparities are inevitable and self-reinforcing (Borts and Stein, 1964; Soja, 1980). Empirical evidence in developed and developing countries is mixed. This is especially so in transitional economies where the pace, scope and consequences of reforms are uneven.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) has had a far-reaching impact on host economies, such as capital formation, employment, technology, trade, economic growth and core-periphery relations (Taylor and Thrift, 1982; Dicken, 1998). On the one hand, FDI is regarded as a dynamic force in economic development providing capital, creating jobs, spreading new technology, promoting trade and improving economic well-being. On the other hand, FDI is considered to be responsible for economic dependence, cultural imperialism and the intensification of core-periphery relationships in developing countries. The recent rapid globalization of economic activities and changing roles of government institutions further compound the patterns and processes of regional inequality. Globalization is increasingly recognized in the development literature as a factor that further marginalizes the periphery and generates new forms of poverty and inequality (Hirst and Thompson, 1996; Sassen, 1991). However, there is a lack of theoretically-informed empirical work on the impact of FDI on regional inequality in developing transitional economies.

Colleagues and friends of Dr Allen G. Noble have long been amazed by how much he could write while being deeply involved in several different activities at the same time. A prolific writer in diverse fields, a leading scholar in settlement landscapes, cultural geography and South Asia, a superb department head, a highly respected leader in campus affairs and an active member in several professional organizations, Allen's multiple talents are truly remarkable. During the time when he was at the helm, the Department of Geography at the University of Akron grew into a leading centre for the study of Asian geography, especially Asian urbanization. His prolific writings, insistence on research, exemplary work ethic and superb administrative skills also gave rise to a very healthy academic environment for faculty to pursue their own research interests.

Apart from the fact that he has been widely recognized as one of the leading scholars in settlement landscapes in North America, Noble has also made major contributions to such diverse areas of scholarship as the geography of South Asia, especially India, urban planning, sustainable development, noise pollution, tourism, and urban development in India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, China, Poland, Italy, Israel, Saudi Arabia and many towns in the Arab world. I am yet to meet another scholar who has published so much in so many different areas of study. Contributors to this volume have discussed many of his achievements.

Diverse cultures of India give rise to regional variations in both material cultures (settlement patterns, temple designs, house types, bullock carts, plow construction and way of dressing) and non-material cultures (language, criminal behavior, religion, dance forms, castes, music, god forms and perception of Indian heritage). These characteristics are so vividly pronounced regionally that one sometimes wonders if the country really possesses any harmony. There is, nonetheless, an inherent unity that has been created amidst the rich cultural heritage nurtured over 5000 years (Dutt and Noble 1982). The following aspects of culture in relation to religion and language have been examined to identify spatial implications in the country.

There exists a deep nexus between religion and culture. Since the impact of religion on culture varies spatially in accordance with its area of dominance, the phenomenon of religion as a geographic aspect is of great importance to the cultural and political geography of India. Indians take their religion seriously. For an average Indian his or her belief in religion is very deep. When the British Raj was divided into India (a secular state) and Pakistan (an Islamic nation) in 1947, there was a deep Hindu-Muslim divide, which often erupted into riots. As time passed most of the Hindus who wanted to migrate from West and East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to India completed their migration journey and, similar was the case with the Muslims who wanted to migrate from India to Pakistan.

It has been more than thirty years since I first met Allen Noble. I was a first-year graduate student who had just entered the MA program in geography at the University of Akron. Allen was Head of the Department. One of my earliest memories of those graduate school days was a day-long field trip around Akron and its environs, an annual event which Allen always led for new students. It began early in the morning and went well into the evening. By day's end the group was completely exhausted save one. Allen ended the day as fresh, enthusiastic, and energetic as he began it.

Throughout my graduate days at Akron I saw that same enthusiasm and energy exhibited over and over again. I saw it in the classes I took from Allen, in the mentoring he provided as my thesis advisor, and in his informal interactions with faculty, staff, and students. Ultimately, I too entered academe and over the years have worked with Allen on various projects. And, yes, he always approached our collaborations with the same enthusiasm that I experienced in my early graduate school days.

Those who know Allen are quick to realize that this enthusiasm springs from his passion for all things geographical. It is a passion that spans Geography's spectrum – physical, cultural, social, regional, urban, etc. He brings a distinct intellectual curiosity to virtually every sub-field of the discipline. It is fitting, then, that this particular volume has been assembled in his honour.