STUDIES IN SOCIAL ECOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY

Studies in Social Ecology and Environmental History

General Editors: MArnIAv GADGIL and RAMACHANDRA Gui
Nature, Culture,. Imperia ism
Essays on the Environmental Histo?y
ofSouth Asia

George Maeofl University

University Libraries

edited by
DAVID ARNOLD
and
RAMACHANDRA GUHA

DELHI
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
BOMBAY CALCUTTA MADRAS
1995
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Oxford University Press, Walton Street, Oxford OX2 6DP

Oxford New York Acknowledgements

Athens Auckland Bangkok Bombay
Calcutta Cape Town Dar es Salaam Delhi
F/arence Hong Kong Istanbul Karachi
he essays that appear in this volume were first presented

T
Kual.a Lumpur Madras Madrid Melbourne
Mexico City Nairobi Paris Singapore at a conference entitled ‘South Asia’s Changing Environ
Tazpei Tokyo Toronto
and associates in ment’, held at the Bellagio Conference Center, Lake
Berlin Ibadin Como, Italy, between 16 and 20 March 1992. The editors, who
were the organizers of that conference, are grateful to the Ford
Foundation in New Delhi for providing the financial support
which made that conference possible, and to the Rockefeller Foun
dation for making available their splendid facilities at Bellagio.
We could not have wanted a more hospitable environment for
© Oxford University Press 1995 our deliberations. We would also like to thank the other particip
ants in the conference, Rita Brara, Richard Grove, Christopher V.
ISBN 0 19 563428 4 Hill, Mahesh Rangarajan, Ravi Rajan, R. Sudarshan and Francis
Zimmermann, for their very valuable contributions to the
proceedings; equally, we thank our two discussants, Michael Adas
and Madhav Gadgil, for stimulating comments and criticisms.

DAVID ARNOLD
RAMACHANDRA GuHA

Typeset by Rasirixi, New Delhi 110070

Printed in India at Rekha Printers Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi 110020
and published by Neil O’Brien, Oxford University Press
YMCA Library Bui Wing; Jai Singh Road, New Delhi 110001
 Contents

Notes on Contributors

Introduction: Themes and Issues in the

Environmental History of South Asia 1
DAVID ARNOLD sD RAMACHANDRA GUHA

I Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society in

Mughal India 21
CHETAN SINGH

II Pastoralists in a Colonial World 49

NEELADRI BHATTACHARYA

HI ‘Whose Trees? Forest Practices and Local

Communities in Andhra, 1600—1922 86
ATLURI MURALI

TV British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation

in Colonial South India: A Case Study of
South Canara District 1800—1920 123
JACQUES POUCHEPADASS.

V Maps as Markers of Ecological Change: A Case

Study of the Nilgiri Hills of Southern India , 152
R PRABHAKAR AND MADHAV GADGIL

‘VT Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris 185

DAVID HARDIMAN
[
viii Nature, Culture, Imperialism
I
VII Models of the Hydraulic Environment:
Colonial Irrigation, State Power and
Community in the Indus Basin 210
DAVID GILMARTIN

VIII The Environmental Costs of Irrigation in

Notes on Contributors
British India: Waterlogging, Salinity and Malaria 237
EUZABETH WHITCOMBE
MICHAEL R. ANDERSON is Lecturer in Law at the School of Oriental
Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries: and African Studies, London. He has published articles on Indian
IX
legal history, the Bhopal litigation and international environmen
Some Issues of Control, Access and
260 tal law. He is currently working on the history of labour legislation
Conservation in Colonial India
PETER REEVES
in India.
DAVID ARNOLD is Professor of South Asian History at the School
X The Conquest of Smoke: Legislation and of Oriental and African Studies, London. His published work
Pollution in Colonial Calcutta 293 includes Police Power and Colonial Rule: Madras, 1859-4947
M.R. ANDERSON (1986), Famine: Social Crisis and Historical Change (1988), and
Colonizing the Body: State Medicine and Epidemic Disease in
XI The Resurgence of Community Forest Nineteenth-Century India (1993).
Management in the Jungle Mahals of West Bengal 336
NEELADRI BHATTACHARYA is at the Centre for Historical Studies,
MARK POFFENBERGER
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. His work has been
mainly on the agrarian history of Punjab. He is an editor of Studies
Index 370
in History and Tracts for the Times.
MADHAV GADGIL currently holds the Astra Professorship in
Biological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
His interests range widely over population biology, conservation
biology, human ecology and ecological history. With
Ramachandra Guha he is the author of This Fissured Land: An
Ecological History ofIndia (1992).
DAVID GIUvIARTIN is Associate Professor of History at North
Carolina State University, Raleigh. He is the author of Empire and
Islam: Punjab and the Making ofPakistan (1988), and is currently
working on a history of Indus Basin irrigation from the eighteenth
to the twentieth centuries.
x Nature, Culture, Imperialism Notes on Contributors xi
is a Professorial Fellow at the Nehru CHETAN SINGH is Assistant Professor in the Department of History,
RAMACHANDRA GuHA
Memorial Museum and Library, New Delhi. His books include Himachal Pradesh University, and is also a Fellow at the Indian
The Unquiet Woods (1989), Wickets in the East (1992), and, with Institute of Advanced Studies, Shimla. Since publishing Region
Madhav Gadgil, Ecology and Equity (to be published in 1995). and Empire: Panjab in the Seventeenth Century (1991), he has been
working on environment, society and economy in the Himachal
DAVrn HARDIMAN, the author of Peasant Nationalists of Gujarat:
Himalaya, 1800—1950.
Kheda District, 1917—34 (1981) and The Coming of the Devi:
Adivasi Assertion in Western India (1987), is currently working on ELIZABETH WHITCOMBE is currently a Senior Lecturer in the
moneylenders in Western India. He was a Simon Fellow at the Department of Physiology, University College, London. Her
University of Manchester in 1992—93. major publications include Agrarian Conditions in Northern India:
ATwRI Muiii is Reader in History at the Central University The United Provinces under British Rule, 18Q—19OO (1972);
1
Hyderabad. He has published on the nationalist movement in ‘Whatever Happened to the Zamindars?’ in Peasants in History:
Andhra Pradesh and is currently conducting research on environ Essays in Honour ofDaniel Thorner(1980), and ‘Irrigation’ in the
mental change in South India. Cambridge History ofIndia, vol. ii (1983).
MARK POFFENBERGER has conducted research on both South and
South East Asia. He edited Keepers ofthe Forest: LandManagement
Alternatives in SoutheastAsia (1990). He is currently at the School
of Natural Resources, University of California, Berkeley.
JACQUES POUCHEPADASS is Directeur de recherche (History) at the
National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), Paris, and was
Director of the French Institute, Pondicherry. His publications
include Planteurs etpaysans dans l’Inde coloniale (1986) and Paysans
de Ia paaine du Gange: Croissance agricole et societe dans le district
de Champaran (Bihar), 1860—1950(1989).
R. PRABAKI-IAR trained in engineering at the Indian Institute of
Technology, Madras, before completing a Ph.D at the Centre for
Ecological Sciences, Bangalore, on resource use patterns and
ecological change in the Nilgiri area of southern India. In 1993—4
he was a Macarthur Fellow in population and development at
Harvard University.
PETER REEVES, Professor of South Asian History and Director of
the South Asia Research Unit, School of Social Science, Curtin
University, Australia, is currently studying the history of artisanal
fisheries in colonial India, c 1793—1947 In 1991 he published
Landlords and Governments in Ut-tar Pradesh.
 Introduction:
Themes and Issues in the
Environmental History of South Asia

DAVID ARNOLD AND RAMACHANDRA GUHA

f, globally speaking, environmental history maybe said to have

I come of age in recent years, in South Asia it remains by and

large in its adolescence. It has produced its prophets and
pioneers; it has had moments ofprecociousness, though these have
been born more out of urgent contemporary concerns than from
any depth of historical understanding. Environmental history in
this region has yet to develop a firm intellectual base, a solid
scholarly foundation. One response to this predicament might be
to say that South Asia has a lot of catching up to do before it can
begin to compare with the meticulous research and scholarly
sophistication which has characterized the writing of environmen
tal history elsewhere—for instance in France and the United
States. But a different response, closer to the spirit of the present
volume, would be to argue that South Asia is beginning to develop
its own distinctive contribution to environmental history without
being intent merely upon emulation. Before trying to identify the
distinctive features of such a history, it may be as well to ask what
we mean by environmental history in the first place.
Although the terms ‘ecological history’ and ‘environmental
history’ are often used synonymously, some distinction might
usefully be made between them. The term oecologie, as coined by
 2 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Introduction 3
the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel in 1866, embraced ‘the sci history per Sc, there is the study of human engagement over time
ence of the relations of living organisms to the external world, with the physical environment, of the environment as context,
their habitat, customs, energies, parasites, etc.’ ‘With its distant agent and influence in human history. Here, nature figures un
echoes of the domestic household, ecology implied a family of bashe&y as human habitat, but in a dual capacity. On the one
living organisms, each in close proximity to the other, sharing the hand are ranged those elements of nature—climate, topography,
same physical space, with conflicting appetites or complementary animal and insect life, vegetation and soils—which directly or
1 In practice ecology has tended to focus more narrowly
needs. indirectly shape human activity and productivity. In affecting
upon the study of ‘nature’, ‘the non-human world, the world we land-use and subsistence, they help to promote or prohibit specific
have not in any primary sense created’,
2 and to see man as an forms of social structure, economic organization and belief sys
irrelevant or extraneous factor in shaping the natural environment. tems. They also extend the margins of historical analysis and bring
From a late-twentieth-century perspective, with images of deser centrestage a ‘cast of non-human characters’ normally ignored, at
tification and deforestation ever-present before us, and with talk least until recently, in historical scholarship.
4 But the relationship
of greenhouse gasses and global warming ringing in our ears, such is a reciprocal one, for man more than any other living organism
a stark distinction between man and nature might appear dan also alters the landscape, fells trees, erodes soils, dams streams, kills
gerously narrow-minded and increasingly artificial. But the value off unwelcome plants and predatory animals, installing favoured
of the stress upon ecology within the environmental/ecological- species in their stead. The awareness of man’s dependence upon
history continuum has been to direct attention away from an nature has a long ancestry; but a sense of man as the maker and
excessively anthropocentric understanding of the world, towards unmaker of nature has only more recently dawned upon us, and
patterns of environmental order and change that have been largely with it an awesome sense of our own capacity for mischief and
autonomous of man and which draw more heavily upon the mayhem.
natural (rather than the social) sciences for their intelligibility. In addition, and still within the broad bounds of environmen
With the sciences themselves coming increasingly to be scrutin tal history, there is a history of the environment as cultural space
ized as cultural and historical constructions, there is besides the and ideological artifact, as expressed through the invocation and
possibility of an ecological history which charts the chronological representation of nature in art and religion, in myth, in ethics and
course of the ecological sciences, of the historical observation and the law. It has recently become fashionable in the West to explore
shifting scientific interpretation of natural phenomena.
3 environmental themes in the ‘ideology and iconography and
Moving more firmly within the parameters of environmental J.M.W. Turner, the novels of James Fenimore Cooper, or the
poems of Walt Whitman.
5 But the history of the environment, in
1
Cited in Donald Worster, Nature’s Economy: A History ofEcological Ideas
(1977; republished Cambridge, 1985), p. 192. William Cronon, Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology
Donald Worster, ‘Doing Environmental History’, in Donald Worster (ed.),
2 ofNew England (New York, 1983), p. vii.
The Endc ofthe Earth: Perspectives on Modern EnvironmentalHistory (Cambridge, 5 E.g., Denis Cosgrove and Stephen Daniels (eds.),
The Iconography of
1988), p. 292. Landscape: Essays on the Symbolic Representation, Design and Use ofPast Environ
3 Worster’s Nature’s Economy is an excellent example of this genre,
as, for ments (Cambridge, 1988); Hans Huth, Nature and theAmerican: Three Centuries
an earlier period, is Clarence J. Glacken, Traces on the Rhodian Shore: Nature ofChangingAttitudes (1957; new edn, Lincoln, Nebraska, 1990). Studies of the
and Culture in Western Thoughtfrom Ancient Times to the End ofthe Eighteenth representation of nature in South Asia have been slow to appear but there are,
Century (Berkeley, 1967). for example, some suggestive examples in Ray Desmond, Wonders ofCreation:
 4 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Introduction 5
both its material and perceptual sense, is also a history of popular In the first category fall such important works as William
perceptions and experience, of folk traditions and religious beliefs Cronon’s study of the conflict between colonists and Amerindians
which have been more familiar to anthropologists than historians.
6 in New England, and Donald Worster’s exploration of the Dist
This kind of environmental history clearly leads us further away Bowl and the ethos of capitalist exploitation that underlay it.
8 In
from the ecological sciences and closer to anthropology, art, litera the second category are Roderick Nash’s wide-ranging history of
ture and religion. But one of the undoubted attractions of en wilderness thinking in American culture, as well as the numerous
vironmental history is its ability to draw upon the insights and biographies of early environmentalists such as John Muir and Aldo
techniques of several disciplines, and then to combine them in 9 Proof of the vitality of the field as a whole is the
Leopold.
novel and often provocative ways of its own. American Society for Environmental History, an organization
whose biennial conference features up to two hundred research
papers. There are also two scholarly journals—Forest and Conser
In other parts ofthe world, especially within France and the United vation History and Environmental History Review.
States, environmental history has been for some time a well estab By contrast, environmental history in South Asia is at present
lished sub-field within history. In both countries there has accumu far from commanding such a high degree of interest among his
lated a substantial body of work that might be classified under torians. Not only does it have no journal of its own, but there
‘environmental history’, a corpus to which major historians have have been no more than a handful of articles in the main South
contributed and which has had a strong impact on the discipline Asia periodicals and no more than a token discussion of environ
as a whole. In the United States environmental history emerged as mental issues in the main historical texts.
a distinct field only in the 1 970s, in the wake of the modern While the term ‘environmental history’ does not appear to be
environmental movement.
7 While varying widely in their spatial in wide circulation in France, work by the leading French his
focus, time-frame and mode of analysis, the vast majority of books torians, particularly those belonging to the Annales school, does
and articles on American environmental history duster around two answer to that description: this important body of work has also
overarching themes: (i) a documentation and analysis of the eco been a major influence on the growth of environmental history
cultural consequences of the two master processes of American elsewhere. In France an ecological approach to history was fostered
history, namely European colonization and the development of not by a contemporary environmental movement but by (i) a close
capitalism; and (ii) a celebration of those individuals and organiza and longstanding relationship between history and geography in
tions that have, however unsuccessfully, challenged the environ French intellectual life; and (ii) an appreciation ofthe fundamental
mental destruction unleashed by colonialism and capitalism. importance of environmental factors to an understanding ofagrar
ian society. What is striking here is the contribution of leading
NaturalHistory Drawings in the British Library (London, 1986).
6 As in the work of Victor Turner, in books
French historians to the making of the field. Among the works of
such as The Forest ofSymbols
(Cornell, 1967) and The Ritual Process (London, 1967); see also Elisabeth Croll
and David Parkin (eds.), Bush Base, Forest Farm: Culture, Environment, and 8 Cronon, Changes in the Land; Worster, Dust Bowk The Southern Plains in
Development (London, 1992). the 193 Os (New York, 1979).
7 For an excellent review, see Richard White,
‘American Environmental 9 Nash, Wilderness and the American Mind (3rd edn, New Haven, 1982);
History: The Development of a New Field’, Pacific Historical Review, 54:4, Michael Cohen, The Pathless Way. A Study ofJohn Muir (Madison, 1984); Curt
1985, pp. 297—335. Meine, Ald.o Leopold: A Lf (Madison, 1988).
 6 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
Introduction 7
the first generation Annalists there is, first, Lucien Febvre’s lucid
and still valuable overview of the match between different natural the longue durée clearly have their attractions for the historian (not
environments and different forms of resource use; and second, least the environmental historian) of South Asia. The antiquity of
Marc Bloch’s great work on French agriculture, a model of ecologi the region as a lived environment certainly gave rise to a complex
cal analysis in its study of the integration of arable with woodland process of interaction between people and nature, or, more exactly,
and pasture)° between specific sets ofhuman inhabitants and a range of different
Among the post-War generation of scholars, both Fernand and changing environmental conditions. Indeed, one of the urgent
Braudel and Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie have in their own writings tasks of environmental history in South Asia is to open up the
emphasized—some would say too strongly—the impress of the time-frame for the discussion of environmental change to take
physical environment on economic life and social organization. long-term developments into account, rather than merely to con
The environment appears in such studies largely as a constraining centrate upon the developments of the past century or so.’ 2 South
force on agrarian societies, as a series of determining principles Asia has, for instance, a long and developed history of irrigation
and Maithusian checks, rather than as a subject abstracted and and urban settlement, but as yet we know relatively little about
considered in isolation. The key organizing concept of much work how these modified the surrounding environment or gave rise to
in the Annales tradition has been the longue durée, popularized by adverse environmental effects. As major consumers of fuel, fodder,
Braudel through his work on the Mediterranean. For Braudel the building materials and foodstuffs, cities in South Asia must over
sea, itself unchanging, provides a permanently fixed and supremely time have produced substantial modifications to the environment
powerful environmental context for the evolution of human eco over a wide area (a development touched on in Chetan Singh’s
nomies and cultures. The notion of the longue durée has also discussion of Mughal India in this volume). Extensive irrigation
informed studies on French agrarian history, wherein the relative works and the urban concentration of people must also have
fixity of the natural landscape is invoked in understanding the considerably modified the environment for disease, particularly
persistence of the mores of mediev / through water-borne diseases, the spread of mosquitoes and other
al life well into modern times. 11
. .
.

The absence in France of an agricultural and industrial revolution insect vectors, and by the sustaining of ‘crowd diseases’ that might
of the kind that transformed eighteenth- and nineteenth-century have failed to find an ecological niche among the more scattered
Britain has also contributed to the sense of long-term continuity or nomadic populations. While these more distant connections
in French historical scholarship. remain to be adequately examined, Elizabeth Whitcombe’s essay
The approaches adopted by the Annalists and the concept of in this volume provides some important evidence for the ecological
links between irrigation, disease and other environmental hazards.,
10 Lucien Febvre, A Geographical Introduction to History (Londo in more recent times.
n, 1950); When dealing with South Asia we need to remind ourselves
Marc Bloch, French Rural History: Its Essential Characteristics (Londo
n, 1952).
See, principally, Fernand Braudel, The Mediterranean and the Medite that we are grappling with a region virtually continental in scale
r
ranean World in the Age of Philip 11(1949; republished in Englis
h, London, and in its degree of internal diversity. An immense and varied
1972); also ‘History and the Social Sciences: The longue duré/,
in Fernand
Braudel, On History (London, 1980),
pp. 25—54; Emmanuel Le Roy Ladurie, 12 For an initial attemp
t at this, see Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha,
The Peasants ofLanguedoc (1966; republished in English, Urbana, 1974);
Times This Fissured Land: An Ecological History ofIndia (Delhi and Berkeley, 1992);
of Feast, Times ofFamine: A History of Climate Since the Year 1000 (Londo
n, and for Indian prehistory, see D.D. Kosambi’s work, especially Myth andReality:
1972).
Studies in the Formation ofIndian Culture (Bombay, 1962), chapter 4.
 8 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
Introduction 9
landscape, South Asia can be mapped out topographically by its
mountain ranges and major rivers systems, by its once vast forests, or the state-managed forests of a Presidency (a major part of it
its deserts, its deltas, and its offshore islands. But the region is also features in Atluri Murali’s account, herein, of forest policy and its
defined historically and culturally by its urban centres, and by the effects in Andhra); or even an empire-wide system of economic
crisscrossing routes of pilgrimage and trade. It is divisible into a extraction and exchange, and environmental ideas and policies.
host of ecological zones and a score or more of linguistic and It is perhaps then, the sheer ecological and cultural diversity
cultural regions.’
3 This diversity and complexity pose particular of the Indian subcontinent which most radically and problemati
problems for the historian. ‘What is the appropriate spatial context cally distinguishes its environmental history from the French or
for historical analysis? At times, in order to be sensitive to the p.rnerican experience. While India, like France, is a predominantly
nature of the local ecosystem and to human land-use, it is necessary agrarian civilization, the far greater species-diversity of tropical
to concentrate on a very small area, perhaps as small as a village environments here has facilitatedn tincd_ much greater
and its immediate environs, or a locality characterized by a par range ofiiychood patterns For instance it has long bii recog
ticular combination of ecological features and sub-zones (like the nized that the multiplicity of endogamous groups constituting the
Nilgiri hills in Prabhakar and Gadgil’s essay). But there is also a caste system are sharply differentiated according to occupation and
danger, as Chetan Singh’s account reminds us, of too readily ritual status, but it is only now emerging that they might be further
separating off one perceived region from another and not allowing distinguished, in many cases, by highly specific relationships with
for the exchange of resources and the movement of people and the natural environment. Field data from western and suthern
commodities across those boundaries. Are we to take for our India exemplifies a system where endogamous groups (or jatis)
analysis the tiny domain of the earthbound villager, the more witliin a village often had exclusive access to a particular species,
mobile perspective of the pastoralist, or the worldview of the urban resource or territory, with these individual ‘niches’ usually having
courtier and scribe? All these have their place, but they lead us a limited overlap. In some cases this system was elaborated to the
towards different kinds of ecological understandings of the past. extent of two jatis of basket-weavers having exclusive control over
The more we move into the colonial age (and beyond), the more different plant species for use as raw material—a situation made
pressing the problem of finding the appropriate level of analysis possible only by the extraordinarily high biological diversity of
becomes. The arena for environmental action becomes as large as their surroundings. While the South Asian landscape is dominated
the Indus river basin (as in David Gilmartin’s discussion, in this by settled villages, the numerous and widely dispersed commun
volume, of irrigation and ‘environmental modelling’ in Punjab); ities of hunter-gatherers, swidden cultivators, nomadic pastoralists
and fisherfolk have all contributed to a cultural and ecological
13
How to define the regions of South Asia and how they influence culture, diversity that is surely 14unparalleled.
society and politics, has long been a matter for scholarly debate: see, in particular, A vital role in sustaining this diversity has been played by the
Bernard S. Cohn, ‘Regions Subjective and Objective: Their Relation to the large extent of forest and pasture in the subcontinent. A South
Study of Modern Indian History and Society’, in his An Anthropologist Among Asianist would be struck by the neglect, in a recent round-table
the Historians and Other Essays (Delhi, 1987), pp. 100—35; Francis Zimmer ofAmerican environmental historians, of these common property
mann, The Jungle and the Aroma of Meats: An Ecological Theme in Hindu
resources that provide the larger ecological context for settled
Medicine (1982; republished in English, Berkeley, 1987); David Ludden, ‘Eco
logical Zones and the Cultural Economy of Irrigation in Southern Tamilnadu’,
5 That neglect was perhaps explicable in terms of the
agriculture.’
South Asia, 1:1, 1978, pp. 1—13. ‘ Gadgil and Guha, Fissured Land.
15 Journal ofAmerican History, 76:4, 1990, pp. 1087—1147.
 10 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Introduction 11
symposium’s unstated focus on North American industrialized
that were not always free from conflict. At the same time, for most
agriculture, where such links might not be so important or ap
settled peasants too, livestock rearing was a valuable appendage
parent. But in the tropics these resources continue to provide
crucial inputs into the dominant complex of agriculture and an to cultivation. Much pasture land was under community control,
but during the colonial period and after, state intervention and
imal husbandry, while also enabling other forms of resource use
the pressures of both population and the market have contributed
such as hunting, gathering, swidden cultivation and artisanal pro
greatly to the decline and degradation of areas previously held in
duction. Given their enormous importance to economic and cul
common.
tural life, changes in the physical status of forests and pasture, as Several of the essays in this volume address themselves directly
well as changes in the social institutions governing their use, must
form a major area of research for environmental history in South to the themes of forest and pasturage, and the ecological, social
and political changes that have come to affect these. Others are
Asia. In particular, the forests of South Asia have (as the articles
concerned with water, the other natural resource that looms large
by Chetan Singh, Atluri Murali and Jacques Pouchepadass in this
over the environmental history of the subcontinent. We noted
volume indicate) a wide variety of historical meanings and usages.
earlier that Braudel’s magisterial work highlighted the importance
They served as homes and sources of livelihood for their in
of the sea as a factor in human history. Following in his footsteps,
habitants, as well as of fuel, building materials, famine foods and
and influenced too by Braudel’s disciple Immanuel Wallerstein,
medicines for neighbouring peoples. They provided a home for
some historians of Asia-have emphasized the ‘maritime factor’ in
bandits and rebels, and equally an obstacle to invasion and the 7 But more rewarding still
Indian and Indian Ocean history.’
expansionist ambitions of the state. They accommodated wild great river systems of the Indian land mass
would be work on the
animals and nurtured disease enronments that were often fatally
that have exercised such a definitive influence on the natural
inhospitable to outsiders. They defined, in more than one cultural environment, as well as on the economic, social and religious life
system, the ‘primitive’ from the civilized. Moreover, in the colonial
of the region. Indeed, one might argue that for South Asia, as for
order of things, they provided a primary source of raw materials
many other parts of eastern and western Asia, rivers have been far
and a site for state regulation on a scale massive enough to make
more important than the adjacent seas and have run like a central
the cherished Victorian notion of laissez-faire an ecological myth
silver thread through their history, while maritime trade and
and an economic fantasy.’
6 contacts have been of only secondary, if not marginal, significance,
Especially in the drier parts of the subcontinent, grasslands
at least until the opening of the European age.’
8
played a critical role in sustaining rural livelihoods. As much as 6
per cent of India’s population has been estimated to be nomadic 17 Most notably K.N. Chaudhuri, in Trade and Civilisation in the Indian
or semi-nomadic, and a substantial proportion of this is or has Ocean: An Economic Histo7yfrom the Rise ofIslam to 1750 (Cambridge, 1985).
been dependent on pastoralism. Pastoral nomads often operated, But for an earlier and rather different emphasis on the maritime dimension, see
as Neeladri Bhattacharya shows in his essay, over long distances, K.M. Pannikar, Asia and Western Dominance (London, 1969).
being enmeshed in a web of mutual obligations with village society 18 See, for instance, Lyman P. Van Slyke, Yangtze: Nature, History and the

River (Reading, Mass., 1988), which interestingly acknowledges a debt to

16 In addition to the papers
Braudel’s work without seeing any contrast between Europe and China; and,
in this volume, see also, on forests as lived and for modern South Asia, A.A. Michel, The Indus Rivers (1967). The great rivers
changing environments, Gadgil and Guha, Fissured Land especially chapters 5
of India, though celebrated in ritual and myth, plus countless picture-books
to 8.
and travelogues, have not received similar scholarly treatment.
 12 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
Introduction 13
Under the broad rubric of ‘Water in Indian History’ a range
of exciting research possibilities present themselves. One might colonial states have powerfully influenced environmental change
thus study the small-scale but often highly sophisticated and ef by formulating legislation pertaining to, and assuming ‘control
fective systems of water use developed by local communities, a over, resources which were earlier under more informal and de
theme developed here in David Hardiman’s essay on small dams centralized systems of management; by developing and impl’e
in the Sahyadris; the larger and more centralized systems of irriga menting technologies that have dramatically altered the physical
tion elaborated by both pre-modern and modern states, a subject environment, as in irrigation works and dam construction; and
on which David Ludden has written an important study for south by creating a transport and communications network (most ob
India and on which Elizabeth Whitcombe writes here for northern viously in India’s extensive railway system) that, in aiding the
9 or the changing ecology of subsistence fishing and fishing
India;’ process of commodificatiott, has greatly increased the spatial scale
rights in inland waters, a hitherto neglected topic taken up by of resource flows. This focus upon the agency of the state, so
crucial to discussion of the environmental history 0 f South Asia,
Peter Reeves in his contribution to this volume.
Although their importance has been insufficiently recognized also points to an area of enquiry relatively neglected by environ
in previous work, both forests and water have played a part in the mental historians 2 elsewhere.
’
shaping of South Asian history which seems inconceivable in the But these are not the only considerations for an environmental
context of Western cultures and ecosystems. While governmental history 0f South Asia. External contiguity is important as well.
intervention was not unknown in the pre-colonial period, in the Migration and trade, conquest and religion have for thousands
last two centuries these resources have increasingly come under of years exposed South Asia to a host of external environment
state control. In their different ways, virtually all the essays in this influences. As K.N. Chaudhuri has shown, the Indian Ocean was
book underline the significance of the state as a leading, often the an important medium of interaction and exchange long before
principal, actor in the environmental history of South Asia. David f the Portuguese -at the end 0
the arrival 0 f the fifteenth century,
Gilmartin’s discussion of canal irrigation and Peter Reeves’ ac and the process of trans-oceanic exchange as it affected India might
count of inland fisheries bring out this point most strongly, but as readily apply to plants and pathogens as to more historically
it is evident in the discussion of forest regulation and legisla familiar items of maritime trade and cultural 22 baggage. Clearly,
tion an enviro nmenta l history of South Asia cannot meaningfully be
as well, and even in the history of urban smoke pollution in
colonial Calcutta, which is the subject of Michael Anderson’s an insular history.
essay. In many environmental arenas—forests, fisheries, irrigation, Debate: The Making of the 1878 ForestAct’, Indian Economicand Social History
urban pollution, epidemic disease—the period 1 870—i 900 was a Review, 27:1, 1990, pp. 6 5—84; and for disease control, David Arnold, ‘Touch
remarkably interventionist time, an age of high imperialism and ing the Body: Perspectives on the Indian Plague’, in Ranajit Guha (ed.), Sub
supreme confidence in the capacity of science and technology to altern Studies V (Delhi, 1987), pp. 55—90. For the more general point about
rule nature and utilize it to the full. the West’s presumption of mastery over nature, see Michael Adas, Machines as
° Both colonial and post-
2
the Measure ofMen: Science, Technology and Ideologies of Western Dominance
19 David Ludden, Peasant History in South India (Princeton, 1985); the (Ithaca, 1989).
theme was earlier taken up by Nirmal Sengupta for Bihar in ‘The Indigenous 21 But perhaps with important parallels elsewhere in the colonial world, as
Irrigation Organization of South Bihar’, Indian &onomic and Social History in Australia, South East Asia and sub-Saharan Africa: on the latter, see David
Review, 17:2, l98
,pp. 157—89.
0 Anderson and Richard Grove (eds.), Conservation in Africa: People, Parks, Prior
20 For forest
legislation, see Ramachandra Guha, ‘An Early Environmental ities (Cambridge, 1987).
22 Chaudhuri, Trade and Civilisation; A.M. Watson, Agriculturalinnovation
 14 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Introduction 15
And yet, despite the appeal of the Braudelian longue durée to
but rather their ‘portmanteau biota’—the complex of diseases,
the recovery of India’s environmental history, this must also be a
plants and animals which accompanied them and which devas
history of fracture and radical disjuncture. Although the ecological
tated indigenous cultures and their supportive ecosystems. This
rupture may not have been as extreme as that experienced by the ecological invasion, rather than the feats of famed conquistadores,
Americas in the wake of Columbus’s landfall in 1492 (graphically then paved the way for the creation of prosperous colonial settle
described by Alfred W. Crosby in The Columbian Exchange) ,23 the ments founded on European-style agriculture and stock-raising in
effects of European intervention were still very marked starting zones which Crosby describes as 24‘neo-Europes’. Historians have
with the Portuguese arrival. While some recent writers on South begun to take Crosby to task for his biological determinism, for
Asia have tended to play down the impact of the British on India it may be wondered whether, even in his ‘neo-Europes’, the es
while stressing deep-seated economic, political and cultural con tablishment of European power was so closely tied to its biological
tinuities, the contributors to this volume, including Jacques heritage and epidemiological good fortune. A more serious objec
Pouchepadass, Neeladri Bhattacharya, David Hardiman and Peter tion from the viewpoint of South Asia is Crosby’s implied argu
Reeves, demonstrate how European colonialism in India entaile4 ment that European colonialism had correspondingly little
a rapid and significant modification of the natural environment, ecological impact in the Old World, where the tropical environ
which in turn had profound consequences for life in the cities and ment was inhospitable to large-scale white settlement and where
in the countryside. The pace of ecological change has accelerated the populations had greater resistance to diseases, such as smallpox
still furtherin recent decades, under the auspices of state-directed and measles, which had killed Amerindians in their millions. But
economic development in the independent countries o South in fact even in regions like South Asia, and perhaps Africa too,
Asia. This has sucked in even those regions which were once where Europeans did not achieve an automatic, biologically as
relatively isolated—a process of change discussed here in some sured domination over the indigenous population, they did suc
detail by Mark Poffenberger. ceed—as the essays in this volume clearly show—in fundamentally
For the five centuries since Columbus, the concept of the reshaping the socio-ecological fabric of the colony and the colon
longue durée has little meaning for American history either, where, ized. Having achieved political control through their superior
analogous with South Asia, European colonization was a prime military and technological resources, European colonial regimes
agent of environmental and social change. Crosby, one of the were well situated to manipulate a seemingly unfavourable en
leading American scholars in the field, has even suggested that the 25 While they escaped
vironment to their own advantage and profit.
ecological impact of colonialism has in fact been quite different genocide, the colonized of South Asia were, nevertheless, exposed
in the experience of the New World and the Old. In his book, to the major ecological consequences of this intervention—name
Ecological Imperialism, he argues that the main reason for the
ly, growing environmental degradation and restrictions on access
Europeans’ success in conquering and colonizing the New World to natural resources previously more freely available for their use.
was not, as has been commonly supposed, their superior weaponry, As the essays in this volume also make explicit, the environ
in the Early Islamic World: The Dffui.sion of Crops and Farming Techniques, ment in South Asia needs to be understood, too, as a contested
700—1100 (Cambridge, 1983); David Arnold, ‘The Indian Ocean as a Disease
Zone, 1500—1950’, South Asia, 14:2, 1991, pp. 1—21. 24 Alfred W. Crosby, Ecological Imperialism, 900—1900: The Biological Ex
23 Alfred W. Crosby, The Columbian
Exchange: The Biological and Cultural pansionofEurope, 900—1900 (Cambridge, 1986).
Consequences of 1492 (Westport, 1972). 25 Por a preliminary critique, see Arnold, ‘Indian Ocean’.
 16 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Introduction 17

space, a site of conflict and confrontation—but also a place of technology, medicine and the law, as colonizing projects in their
flight and evasion—between competing economic activities and attempts to bring forests and fisheries, highways and watercourses
between the social groups dependent upon them. The concern —and, of course, the people themselves—within expanding sys
here is not simply with man’s place in nature, but with the kinds tems of comprehension and control.
of men and women who contended for a share in or mastery over
natural resources of various kinds. While it is perhaps all too easy
to construct the pre-colonial period in South Asia as some kind Thus far we have pointed to the ecological distinctiveness of South
of golden age, free from environmental strife,
26 the likelihood is Asia and to the specificity of its historical experience. There are
that this is an age-old phenomenon, albeit one that was intensified two other important, though not always acknowledged, influences
and given fresh impetus by the kinds of changes these essays at work on the environmental historian—the nature of develop
describe. This kind of history thus needs to draw not only upon ments and debates in contemporary South Asia, and a deeper
the history of the state as a leading environmental actor, but also substratum of cultural experience unique to the subcontinent.
to explore the course of popular struggles and the ways in which Indeed, the emergence of environmental history as a special field
these have been rooted in, and conditioned by, environmental in South Asia must be linked directly to ongoing processes of
27
issues. ecological degradation and to the growth of a vigorous environ
Moreover, the environment is and has long been a contested mental movement in the region.
28 In the 1 970s a series of country
site at an ideological as well as material level. It is impossible not wide protests by peasants and tribals prompted a thoroughgoing
to be struck by the multiplicity of ideas, images and meanings critique of forest policy in modern In&a.-The forestry debate in
the environment conjures up in modern South Asia—the sacred turn led historians to look more closely at the role of forests and
and the scientific, the romantic and the pathogenic, the militaris forest products in local economIes, and to investigate the origins
tic, the commercial and the exotic. These may be conflicting and outcome of state forestry scierrce and legislation. More recent
understandings when played out at a certain level of abstraction, ly, the politics of water use has replaced the forest question as the
but they also directly inform the ways in which the environment most contentious issue on the South Asian environmental agenda,
was historically regulated and contested. We can see suggested encouraging historians and anthropologists to move into what was
in these essays the rich potentialities of investigating science and previously poorly charted terrain. As we have suggested, forests
and water have always been central to the making of South Asian
26 The ‘golden age’ syndrome seems particularly entrenched in Vandana history; yet it has been the visible deterioration of these resources
Shiva, StayingAlive: Women, Ecology and Development (London, 1989). in the present, and the emergence of bitter social conflicts over
27 Sumit Sarkar, ‘Primitive Rebellion
and Modern Nationalism: A Note on their control and use, that, more than anything else, have brought
Forest Satyagraha in the Non-Co-operation and Civil Disobedience Move them within the orbit of environmental history.
ments’, in KN. Panikar (ed.), NationalandLeji Movements in India (New Delhi, Like other kinds of historians, environmental historians often
1980); David Arnold, ‘Rebellious Hilimen: The Gudem-Rampa Risings, 1839— take their clues from the present. How they then approach the
1924’, in Ranajit Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies I(Delhi, 1982), pp. 88—142;
D.E.U. Baker, “A Serious Time”: Forest Satyagraha in Madhya Pradesh, 1930’,
28 See, in this connection, Anil Agarwal, et al. (eds.), The State ofIndia’s
Indian Economic and Social History Review, 21:1, 1984, pp. 7 1—90; David
Hardiman, ‘Power in the Forest: The Dangs, 1820—1940’, in David Arnold and Environment, 1982: A Citizens’ Report (New Delhi, 1982), and The State of
David Hardiman (eds.), Subaltern Studies Wil (Delhi, 1994). India c Environment, 1984—85: The Second Citizens ‘Report (New Delhi, 1985).
 18 Nature, Culture, Inperialism Introduction 19
problem at hand is also keenly influenced by the cultural milieu
in which they work. For example, popular opposition to large environmental movement are more often individuals, such as John
dams in the United States has, in markedly nostalgic vein, em Muir, who have tended to downplay human concerns in their
phasized the loss of wilderness areas through the construction of defence of the unspoilt wilderness.
32 Those currents have had a
strong impact on the writing of environmental history in the
dams. In turn, environmental historians of the American West
have indicted river valley projects for their destruction of free- West—and, without all becoming Gandhians, environmental his
flowing rivers and virgin forests. torians of South Asia have had to take some account of the ideas
29 By contrast, resistance to large
dams in contemporary South Asia is more strongly human- of Gandhi and his modern disciples.
This raises an important final issue, namely that it is important
centred, stressing the displacement of communities from their
traditional habitats as well as lopsided resource flows between not to assume that environmental ideas current in the West are
country and city. necessarily of universal applicability. It is possible to see the roots
° Environmentalists have also put forward de
3
centralized, environmentally benign technical alternatives (in the of modern environmentalism in Britain, for instance, in a specific
‘small is beautiful’ mould) to centralized and destructive patterns historical and cultural tradition—a tradition of naturalism and
of water control. These ideological trends, so different from those rural romanticism, of Gilbert ‘White and John Constable, of
Wordsworth and Ruskin, and the impact of the industrial revolu
prevailing in Western environmentalism, will inevitably influence
future histories of dam projects in South Asia. tion on urban, middle-class sensibilities. Such ideas and concepts
were not readily replicated abroad—or had only a limited impact.
In India, where there is no greater source of moral authority,
Gandhi, despite his student days in London and his extensive
Gandhi has emerged as the patron saint of the environmental
reading of English works, was hardly indebted for his environ
movement. In providing an environmental gloss on Gandhi’s
mentalist views to Wordsworthian romanticism; and indeed, for
ideas, leading activists have invoked his ethic of self-restraint, his
all his attachment to the Ruskin of Unto This Last, he seems not
attacks on consumerism, and his celebration of village society as
to have been affected at all by the Ruskin who revelled in nature
providing building-blocks for the construction of an environmen
and rhapsodized over misty mountains and gushing streams:
tally and socially harmonious alternative to modern industrial
Gandhi’s ashram at Sevagram could not have been further, in an
31 By comparison, the cultural icons of the Western
development.
intellectual as in a scenic sense, from Ruskin’s lakeside home at
29 See, for example,
Tim Palmer, Endangered Rivers and the Conservation Brantwood. Rather, Gandhi’s environmentalism had its roots in
Movement (Berkeley, 1982); Donald Worster, Rivers ofEmpire: Water, Aridity a deep antipathy to urban civilization and a belief in self-sufficien
and the Growth ofthe American West (New York, 1985). cy, in self- abnegation and denial rather than wasteful consump
30 See, for example,
Nirmal Sengupta, ‘Irrigation: Traditional versus Mod tion. Gandhi was not going back to nature but to the village and
ern’, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. Xx, nos 45—47, November 1985, to the peasantry as the heart and soul of India, to rural asceticism
pp. 1919—38; E. Ganguli—Thukral (ed.), Big Dams, Displaced People (New and harmony as against urban bustle and industrial strife.
Delhi, 1992).
31 Anil Agarwal
In all these respects the environmental history of South Asia
and Vandana Shiva, in different ways, show the impact of
Gandhi’s ideas. See also the history of the Chipko movement in Ramachandra is a field which, the richness and theoretical sophistication of work
Guha, The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the on other regions notwithstanding, must develop its own voice,
Himalaya (Delhi and Berkeley, 1989); and Ramachandra Guha, ‘Ideological
Trends in Indian Environmentalism’, Economic and Political Weekly, vol. XXIII, 32 Stephen Fox, The American Conservation Movement: John Muir and His
no. 49, 3 December 1988, pp. 2578—81. Legacy (Madison, 1985).
20 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
vocabulary, and research strategies. Even more so perhaps than
social history or women’s history, environmental history needs to
respond directly—in both theory and practice—to the ecological
Chapter One
and cultural distinctiveness of the South Asian experience. It is -

the distinctive nature of that experience which the following essays

set out to examine and address. Forests, Pastorahsts and
Agrarian Society in Mughal India*

CHETAN SINGH

T
he rural landscape of Mughal India is frequently depicted
as a vast expanse of cultivated land peppered with in
numerable villages. Its highly differentiated, peasant-
centred village community has been graphically described by
numerous scholars, along with the hierarchy of ubiquitous revenue
officials upon whose diligence the Mughal political edifice ui
timately rested. This picture of Mughal rural society, which has
emerged through a laborious examination of court chronicles and
official revenue records, is coloured by the prejudices ofits original
creators. What is implicitly articulated in this picture is a self-
image of the very society that generated these chronicles and
revenue records in the first place. Thus, subtly reasserted in many
modern works, has appeared the world-view of the Mughal cour
tier and the petty revenue official.
For the Mughals, a civilized society was one primarily engaged
in agriculture, alongside other more sophisticated commercial
activity. It was nurtured by, and conversely lent support to, a
state that regarded the protection of the peasant as an essential
*
J am grateful to the participants at the conference on ‘South Asia’s Changing
Environment’ held at Bellagio in March 1992. Their comments on an earlier
version of this paper have helped me immensely. The long discussions I have
had with Professor A.R. Khan, my colleague in the History Department at the
University of Himachal Pradesh, have been equally useful.
22 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 23

obligation and the extension of agriculture as a cardinal objective. that environmental factors crucially affected the nature of socio
This perception was part of the socio-political thinking amongst economic developments in the empire, and a proper appreciation
dominant elements within the Mughal empire. There was a sound of these factors would enable a better understanding of the evolu
underlying assumption here, namely that the prosperity of the tion of state and society in large parts of pre-colonial South Asia.
3
Mughal ruling class hinged upon its success in expanding and This neglected issue is addressed here: ‘What was the environment
strengthening the empire’s agrarian foundations.’ of Mughal India, and how did medieval society respond to it?
In reality, however, it was not entirely upon settled villages
and revenue-yielding land that the stability of Mughal society I
depended. What seems to have escaped notice so far is the fact
that there was much that lay beyond the agrarian economy of the To begin with, it can be suggested that the extent of forested or
Mughal heartland. If the Mughal ‘system’ in its process of expan uncultivated terror 4 Accounts of Mughal
able.
sion gradually created the social and economic context within forays agaliEiostile local chieftains refer, all too frequently, to
which it functioned, it was in turn fundamentally affected by the the thick jungles and inhospitable uncultivated countryside that
‘others’ whom it sought at least to dominate, if not to integrate. the imperialists had to contend with during the course of their
Over the long term, Mughal society and polity underwent several 5 In the region of Chanderi, for instance, Bábur’s
expeditions.
changes. In the making of these no small part was likely to have
been played by people and areas which were neither fully within 3 François Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, 1656—1668 (Delhi, 1989),
the ‘system’ nor typically ‘Mughal’.
2 p. 453. About the impact of environment Bernier observed, ‘it is often said in
The Mughal ruling class did not enjoy an unchallenged mono the language of Aristotle that Egypt is the workmanship of the Nile, so may it
poly over geographical space and natural resources even within be observed that Bengale is the production of the Ganges.’
Shireen Moosvi, The Economy ofthe Mughal Empire, c. 1595: A Statistical
the political confines of the empire. Ecological diversity ensured
‘

Study (Delhi, 1987), pp. 65—6; Shireen Moosvi, ‘Ecology, Population Distribu
that these were shared with a host of other social organizations tion and Settlement in Mughai India’, Man and Environment; 141, 1989,
and utilized in different ways by each of them. It can be argued pp. 109—16. During Akbar’s reign the gross cultivated area was unlikely to have
1 See Abul Fazi, Am-i-Akbari (New Delhi, 1978), II, pp. 4 1—2, 46—50, 58—9, been more than 55 per cent of the gross cultivation in 1909—10 of large parts
for the dutie of the faujdar and amalguzar. Abul Fazi writes that the amalguzar of north India. When compared to the geographical extent of the Mughal subas
‘should be a friend of the agriculturist He should consider himself the
. . .
of this region, this would have been even less. Even Bernjer’s comment can be
representative of the lord paramount . He should strive to bring waste lands
. .
interpreted in this manner, for he informs us that ‘of the vast tracts of country
into cultivation and take heed that what is in cultivation fall not waste.’ See also constituting the empire of Hindustan many are little more than sand or barren
Irfan Habib, Agrarian System of Mughal India, 1556—1707 (Bombay, 1963), mountains, badly cultivated, and thinly peopled and even a good portion of the
good land remains untilled for want of labourers. Bernier, Travels, p. 205.
pp. 249, 251—6.
. . ‘

2 For arguments regarding the role of tribes within the Mughal empire, see For a description of dense forests in the terai north of Gorakhpur, see Jean
BaptisteTavernier, Travels inlndia(lstedn. 1676; NewDeihi, 1972), II, p. 205.
C.A. Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars: North Indian Society in the Age of
See also Habib, Agrarian System, pp. 1—24; Irfan Habib, An Atks ofthe Mughal
British Expansion, 1770—1870 (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 28—30, and his Imperial
Empire (Delhi, 1982).
Meridian: The British Empire and the World, 1780—1830 (Harlow, 1989),
5 There are also several earlier accounts which show quite clearly that large
Tribes and the “Agrarian
pp. 35—46; Chetan Singh, ‘Conformity and Conflict: forested areas were a common feature in north India. During his campaign in
System” of Mughal India’, Indian Economic and Social History Review (hereafter
319—40. the Siwaliks against hill rajas, Timur had to cur his way through thick forests:
IESHR), 25:3, 1988, pp.
24 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
Forests, Pastoralists anti Agrarian Society 25
artillery was preceded by ‘active overseers and a mass of spadesmen
to level the road and cut the jungles down. During the time
‘
information pertaining to military campaigns does not necessarily
of Akbar, the campaign against Raja Madhukar found the Mu indicate the forested nature of large tracts of territory. While this
ghals advancing towards Orchha in a similar fashion. We are told might be partly true, there were nevertheless many fortresses which
this about the surrounding territories: ‘the country was forest, and were located in, or near, well-populated towns of reasonable im
the marching of the army was difficult, they cut down the ttees portance where the approaches were well forested. A case in point
7 Even during subsequent reigns
one day and marched the next.’ was Kangra. We are told by DeLaet, an early-seventeenth-century
the military campaigns in this region were conducted in this traveller, that the only approach to Kangra was ‘through a forest
manner. 8 50 cos broad’, and that while advancing on the fort the Mughals
In many parts of Bihar, too, a similar problem was encoun had to cut down the forest as they advanced at a rate of ‘about a
tered by the Mughal armies. Shahbaz Khan, who was assigned the cos a day’, and ‘finally reached the fortress in the eighth month’.
°
1
task of suppressing the rebellion of Gajpati, a zamindar ofJagdish The fortresses of Jasrota and Mau were similarly located in ‘im
pur in Bihar, had to spend ‘nearly two months engaged in cutting penetrable jungles’.” This seems to indicate that many qasbas,
down the trees’ around the fort before he could capture it. 9 It towns and some adjoining agricultural tracts were still in the
could be argued that these forts were, for strategic reasons, nature of clearings in the midst of undisturbed forests. Interest
deliberately built in thickly wooded and isolated areas and that ingly, in a letter to the Shah of Iran, Akbar recounted amongst
his major achievements his advance into Kashmir, during which
thousands of men were employed in ‘removing rocks, and in
cutting down forests and making roads’.’
2
he even ordered that while preparing for battle the soldiers should carry hatchets
‘While their writ ran unchallenged over large agricultural ex
tb ‘clear away the jungle’: Mulfuzat-i-Timuri or Tuzuk-i-Timuri (the autobiog
raphy of Timur) in H.M. Elliot and J. Dowson, The History of India as To/ti panses, the Mughals found it difficult to cope in places where
by its own Historians (rpt. Delhi, 1964), III, pp. 463, 469. See Ziauddin Barani, forest, desert or topography sheltered strong political entities from
Tarikh-i-Firoz Shahi in Elliot and Dowson,. History ofIna’ia, III, pp. 103-6, for their pervasive and expanding influen ijorary observers
a description of the thick jungles encountered during campaigns by Balban.
Regarding a campaign in Katehar, it is noted that ‘Woodcutters were sent out
to cut roads through the jungle, and the army passing along these brought the
10 Joannes DeLaet, The Empire ofthe Great Mogol (Bombay, 1928), p. 195.
A much earlier reference to the ‘town (shahr) of Nagarkot which is a large and
Hindus to submission’: Abdul Qadir Badaoni, Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh (rpt.
important town of Hindustan says that ‘the road thither lay through jungles’:
Delhi, 1973), p. 378.
6 Zahiruddin Muhammad Babur, Baburnama (rpt. New Delhi, 1970), Malfiszat-i-Timuri, in Elliot and Dowson, History ofIndia, III, p. 465.
“Shaikh Illahadad Faizi Sirhindi, Akbarnama, in Elliot and Dowson, History
p. 572.
7 Abul Fazi, Akbarnama (rpt. Delhi, 1972), III, pp. 324—5. ofIndia, VI, pp. 127—8.
12 Akbarnama, III,
8 Abdul Hamid Lahori, Badchahnama, in Elliot and Dowson, History of p. 1010. See also DeLaet, Empire, pp. 183—4, regarding
a Mughal campaign in Rajasthan during Jahangir’s reign: ‘the royal army then
India, VII, p. 48, for the campaign against Jajhar Singh Bundela at Chauragarh
advanced to Siavend.. a very strong place, which the Kings of Delhi had never
(near Jabalpur) in 1634. .

dared to attack on account of the impenetrable wilderness and forests by which

9 Akbarnama, III,
p. 261; Muntakhab-ut-Tawarik II, p. 182. For the area it is surrounded. Abdul Chan gave orders that these forests should be gradually
around Gaya, see Akbarnama, III, pp. 472—3. See also Nuruddin Muhammad
cut down ahead of the advancing army On reaching the fortress, ‘The
Jahangir, Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri (rpt. Delhi, 1968), I, pp. 315—1 6, for the campaign . . . ‘

moat was filled up with logs of trees, and so huge a mound was raised against
against Durjan Sal of ‘Khokhara’ in Bihar.
the walls that at last, the garrison
. . fell.’
.
26 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 27

repeatedly refer to areas that were no easily amenable to Mughal withal to directly govern and simultaneously obtain economic
3 Manucci, who lived and travelled in India for a long
control.’ benefit from these areas of apparently low 6 productivity.’ John
time, makes a very interesting observation. He writes: Fryer observed during the reign of Aurangzeb that the Mughal
armies were ‘unfit for such barren and uneasy Places. “ More-
7 ..

There are also in this empire other lords who call themselves zamindars such territory could not easily be
Such men do not maintain cavalry: the greater number live in the over, the monetary worth of
midst of jungles, and these usually pay no revenue, unless it be taken converted into the agricultural revenue statistics to which Mughal
by force of arms. At this day, taking the whole Mughal empire, these revenue officials were more accustomed.
rajasreat and petty and the zamindars, exceed five thousand in num Therefore, the continued existence of autonomous chieftain
ber.’ cies within the Mughal empire was to a great extent the result
of the eo raphy and physical environment. If on the one hand
‘While periodic military expeditions ostensibly brought manysuch the vulnlif1 ercutivatedstretches to Mughal military
areas under imperial paramountcy, the Mughals were still inclined might facilitated close supervision by revenue officiLsJt was the
to allow them a large degree of economic and political autonomy.’
5
existence of ‘jungles’ and ‘ravines’ within the territory of many
This relative freedom enjoyed by the chieftains was not merely of the chieftains, on the other, that probably discouraged direct
the outcome of a proclaimed policy of magnanimity. The Mughal Mughal interference. ‘While the finances of several of these chief-
state, in fact, did not have the military and administrative where- ships drew heaviljr upon peasant-centred agricultural activity,
18
13 Apart from the more powerful rulers who ruled over different parts of
the proportionally large uncultivated areas within their boun
India. Babur noted that ‘there were also, in the hills and jungles, many rais and
daries must also have necessitated the search for economic alter
rajas’: Baburnamiz, p. 481. Mahomed Kasim Ferishta, History of the Rise of natives. A wider mix of productive activities utilizing the resources
Mahomedan Power in India till the YearAD 1612 (rpt. New Delhi, 1981), IV, of forests and grassland may thus have become essential. The
p. 313, emphasizes Babur’s words: ‘India abounds with forests and extensive
wilderness, full of all sorts of trees; so much so, that these wastes seem to offer 16 Though the Mughal army was successful against Durjan Sal in Bihar,
inducement, both to rajas and subjects, to revolt from the government.’ DeLaet, Jahangir says that ‘in consequence of the difficult roads and thickness of the
Empire, p. 242, says that ‘the empire contains many provinces which are rendered jungles they contented themselves with taking two or three diamonds and left
difficult of access on account of their mountainous character and the dense him in his former condition’: Tuzuk-i-Jahangir4 I, p. 315. DeLaet, in Empire,
forests with which they are covered. Large armies cannot operate in such districts, p. 243, sees the Mughals’ inability to control these areas as a serious political
which are held by Radias [rajasi . . If opposed by the Mogols with a greater problem: ‘The Mogol Emperor has hitherto proved unable to find a cure for
force than they can cope with, they merely retreat into their mountains and these dangerous diseases of the body politic.’
await a better opportunity of success.’ Cf. Bernier, Travels, p. 205: ‘The empire 17 John Fryer, A New Account of East India and Persia being Nine Years’

of the Great Mogol comprehends several nations, over which he is not absolute Travels, 1672—1681 (1698; reprinted Liechtenstein, 1967), II, p. 59. This
master.’ comment was made with reference to the Mughal campaign in the Deccan
14 Niccolao Manucci, Storia Do Mogor(rpt. Calcutta, 1965), II, p. 417. Cf. against Shivaji.
ibid., II, p. 414: ‘The roads are not direct, owing to the forests and mountains 18 Most of the larger and powerful chiefships maintained a formal state

and the interposition of territories belonging to the different rajas and zamindars organization in which an important part was played by the land-revenue ad
who allow no travellers to pass through, out of the fear they have of the Mogul.’ ministration. Two relevant regional studies are G.D. Sharma, Rajput Polity: A
15 For a detailed description of the political relationship between the chiefs Study ofPolitics and Administration ofthe State ofMarwar, 1638—1749 (Delhi,
and the Mughal empire under Akbar, see A.R. Khan, Chieftains in the Mughal 1977), and Dilbagh Singh, The State, Landlord and Peasants: Rajasthan in the
Empire during the Reign ofAkbar (Simla, 1977). Eighteenth Century (Delhi, 1990).
28 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 29
relatively greater freedom that peasants probably enjoyed in such implies the harnessing of grazing land.
’ Despite their inability to
2
an environment may sometimes have been incentive enough for exercise direct economic control over these areas of mixed (agrar
many of them to migrate from the more rigidly administered ian, pastoral, forest) economies, the Mughals were thus able to
imperial territories to those controlled by autonomous rajas. 19 extract from them, over irregular periods, a small portion of their
Each chieftaincy, influenced as it was by its own peculiar en wealth in the form of peshkash. This was perhaps the best available
vironmental situation, must have developed a suitable balance of compromise that the Mughal state could strike, through the chief
a variety of economic activities from which it derived its revenues. taincies, with diverse socio-economic systems that were largely
Examples of this sort were the principalities located in Rajasthan different from its own.
and Gujarat. According to Ferishta, in the territories of these Like the Mughal empire, however, most of the autonomous
chiefs ‘little\ other grain but bajry and jowar are cultivated. The chiefships which interacted with it were reasonably developed state
revenue is for the most part derived frorn horses and camels’.
20 formations. This enabled the Mughals to establish an acceptable
Any South Asian state attempting to expand to subcontinental political relationship, the principles of which were in fact formu
dimensions would, therefore, have been confronted with a rich lated as early as the reign of Akbar.
22 Amongst these were also to
diversity of both physical and socio-economic environments. Fur be found tribal chieftaincies that had accepted Mughal suzerainty,
thermore, if it endeavoured to go beyond merely establishing an or even been incorporated into its military structure. Yet in many
overarching political suzerainty and sought to squeeze out surplus parts of Mughal India there existed several tribes which could not
directly from local-level economies, such a state would have had be made to conform consistently even to a loosely defined political
to evolve a multiplicity of revenue-extracting methods, each suited
to a particular socio-economic system. ‘While it had the ability to Baburnama, p. . Cf. ZainKhan, Tabaqat-i-Baburi(rpt. Delhi, 1982), p. 110;
3
l
4
penetrate down to lower social levels in many agricultural areas, Ain-i-Akbari, II, p. 183 for hoiley, wax and wooden-ware from the mountains
the Mughal revenue machinery relied considerably on interme north ofAwadh; DeLaet, Empire, p. 59, refers to valuable herbs from the territory
diaries for its efficient functioning. In regions that were strikingly of Raja Basu (Nurpur in Kangra). Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, I, p. 218: the peshkash of
dissimilar from those where the Mughal revenue officials operated, the Raja of Kumaon included gunth ponies, hawks, falcons, ‘navels of musk’,
the autonomy of such intermediaries must have been even greater. swords (khanda) daggers (katar) etc. According to Bernier, Travels, pp. 419—20,
,

some areas in Kashmir paid the annual tribute in leather and wool; Tavernier,
This meant that the Mughals were able to obtain a share of the
in Travels, II, p. 206, says the Raja of Nepal sent an elephant in tribute annually.
wealth generated in divergent and peripheral economies only in
See Habib, Atlas of the Mughal Empire, p. 41, for elephants taken in tribute
an indirect manner. Very often, a substantial part of the peshkash from the Morung chiefs. Manucci, Storia, Ii, pp. 415—1 6, says—with regard to
(tribute) that many of the autonomous chiefs sent to the emperor the smaller rajas who had strongholds located north of the Ganges—that they
consisted either of forest produce or pastoral products which sent the ‘rarities produced in their country. Some send gavioens (sparrow-hawks),
falcons and other birds ofprey, pretty birds, honey and wax. With the last article
19 Francisco Pelsaert, Remonstrantie published as Jahangir’s India (Delhi,
they produce a waxed cloth for the lining of tents and other uses in the royal
1972), p. 47; Bernier, Travels, p. 226; Habib, Agrarian System, pp. 336—7. household. They also make candles for the harem..
20 Ferishta, Mahomedan Power, IV,
p. 318; Ain-i-Akbar II, p 256. 22 Khan, Chieftains in the Mughiil Empire,
pp. 206—24.
21 An earlier reference to how this non-monetary system of tribute extraction 23 Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars,
p. 80: ‘in this period the state was
worked is obtained from an account of Kabul by Babur for 1519. He fixed the only one of the political formations., The land-revenue based state and settled
.

tribute of the Khirichli and Samu-khail Afghans at ‘4,000 sheep’. A punitive agriculture did not occupy the whole of the social and geographical space of the
raid on the Waziri Afghans compelled them to proffer a tribute of ‘300 sheep’: area, and there were large tracts where they were both on the dfensive,’
30 Nature, Culture, Imperiali,cm Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 31
23 It was these more fiercely autarchic tribes which
relatioiiship. The Gonds, in particular, are repeatedly mentioned in the
probably lay even further from the Mughal ‘system’—as it has A.kbarnama on account of their considerable population and the
come to be understood by scholars. Many such tribes were, from 27 Apart from discovering that the Gonds
large area they controlled.
time to time, to be found in conflict with Mughal authority and lived ‘in the wilds’, we also learn that ‘the people of India despise
had established a reputation as ‘thieves and plunderers’ of the them and regard them as outside the pale of their realm and reli
24 The topography of the areas they occupied
‘king’s territories’. 28 Quite dearly, therefore, these peripheral societies were con
gion’.
suggests that they relied considerably, though not exclusively, on sidered by the Mughals as external to their own society. Yet, because
pastoralism. With this they combined a sense of social or commu they were seen as an occasional hindrance to Mughal hegemony,
nal cohesion that was characteristically distinct from the differen the imperial authorities intermittently endeavoured to establish a
tiated agricultural village communities of the core Mughal areas. military dominance over these people as a prelude to more fun
Scattered references in our sources indicate that societies 29 Also significant
damental economic inroads into their territories.
which were predominantly non-agricultural in nature were viewed is the fact that such societies were not confined to the geographically
as primitive and as a threat to the settled agrarian areas where distant parts of the empire. Some of them were located quite close
Mughal land revenue regulations were methodically applied The 30 and probably com
to important political and military centres,
strangeness of some of these to Mughal society comes through to bined the practice of agriculture with a considerable dependence
us from a few stray comments of Abul FazI. Near the fort of
Chunar (in suba Allahabad), we are told, ‘is a tribe of men who Akbarnama, II, pp. 323—4. According to ‘faithful narrators’, Garh Karanga
27
‘contained 70,000 inhabited villages’.
go naked living in the wilds, and subsist by their bows and arrows 28 Ibid. Their low status did not, however, prevent Salbahan of Ratha, a
25 ‘While hunter-gatherers certainly ay
and the game they kill.’ Chandel raja with declining fortunes, from giving his daughter Durgavati in
peared peculiar to contemporary observers, there were many other marriage to Dalpat, the son of Aman Das, a wealthy Gond chief.
tribes which, even though partially agricultural and well known 29 Ibid.,
pp. 563-4. In 1582 Todar proposed regulations by which Mughal
to Mughal society, were also perceived as being socially distinct. functionaries could take effective action against the ‘dwellers in the ravines’ who,
The Kolis, Bhils and Gonds (suba Khandesh) are referred to as being of a ‘turbulent disposition think the ruggedness of their country a protec
people who ‘can tame lions so that they will obey their commands’ tion and make long the arm of oppression’. The aim was to reduce them to a
and about whom ‘strange tales are told’.
26 docile revenue-paying peasantry, and nomads were to be setded as agriculturists.
In the context of Kabul, Abdul Fazl notes: ‘There are many wild tribes. and . .

most of them at the present time have become settled colonists’: Ain-i-Akbari
24Manucci, Storia, II, pp. 428, 430. Cf. Singh, ‘Conformity and Conflict’ II, p. 407. Akbar proudly refers to the suppression of the ‘carnivorous Afghans’
pp. 337—8. Forest areas in medieval England were often viewed as being disor and the ‘wicked Baluchis and other desert-dwellers who are of a bestial na
derly, as breeding ‘atheism and consequently all disobedience of God and King’: ture. . . Akbarnama, III, p. 1010.
‘:

John Martin, Feudalism to Capitalism: Peasant and Landlord in English Agrarian 30 Proper control over the fort of Rohtas in Bihar could only be established
Development(London, 1983), p. 200. See Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars, after the ‘bandits of the neighbourhood of the fort’ had been coerced by rhe
p. 219, for British attitudes to tribes in colonial India, where ‘Nomads and Mughal army: Akbarnama, II, p. 287; cf. ibid., p. 252, where Abul FazI says
wanderers were seen as disorderly elements—carriers of roguery and dissidence.’ that thirty kos from Agra, near the town of Sakit, were to be found lawless
25 Ain-i-Akbarj, II,
p. 170. elements who ‘were both ruffians and occupiers of rough places’. The Jars and
26 Ibid., II,
p. 233. See Muntakhab-ut-Tawarikh, II, p. 178, for the Kharwaha Mewatis who were to be found at the very centre of the Mughal empire are
tribe of sailors, and W.H. Moreland, India at the Death ofAkbar: An Economic vell-known examples.
Study (rpt. Delhi, 1974), p. 27. 31 Cf. the observation regarding the Roman legions which in the time of
 32 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 33

upon pastoralism.
’ What seems to have insulated them from
3 34 Some sections among the Kolis, Bhils,
commercialized society.
Mughal authority, irrespective of distance, were the densely forested Gonds, Bhattis and probably numerous other tribes were sig
areas which usually surrounded, or were interspersed with, their nificant elements of the Mughal military force in certain areas.35
32 It was into these forests that they retreated when
territories. Despite their socially peripheral position, the various tribes of
confronted with stronger Mughal armies. In the arid areas where herdsmen scattered all over the Mughal empire would have en
animal husbandry was a primary occupation, the paucity of water gaged in various kinds of economic exchange with the adjoining
and the inadequacy of local food supplies severely restricted the agrarian society. Pastoral products, particularly ghee, were items
movement of large invading armies and, therefore, discouraged of commercial value and served as an important -linking factor
permanent Mughal occupation. Their own economies being struc between the two economies.
36 It was probably from such tribes
turally suited to the desert, the pastoralists could seek temporary that new social groups were added to the sedentarized agricultural
refuge in terrain where the Mughal forces dare not venture.
33 population as and when the need arose.37
At this point, however, it is important to sound a note of While he was resident in Kabul and prior to the invasion of
caution against overemphasizing the autonomy of the pastoral Hindustan, Babur seems to have depended to a fair extent upon
tribes. They were not totally isolated socio-economic entitiesd the pastoralIsts of that area; even subsequently, when he was near
theit distinctiveness from agrarian society did not prevent them the Salt Range, he ensured that the flocks of country people were
from interacting with it. In the north-west many Afghan tribes, 38 During their early years in India the Mughals were
not harmed.
particularly the Lohanis, were actively engaged in trading activities probably betterable to utilize the economies of pastoral societies.
that drew them into a fairly close relationship with settled and Apart from the fact that the extent of Babur’s kingdom was much
smaller than that of his descendants, the Mughal land-revenue
Caesar encountered Germanic tribes that were ‘settled agriculturists, with a
system was yet to emerge in its fully institutionalized form. Quite
predominantly pastoral economy’: Perry Anderson, Passages from Antiquity to
possibly, then, the smaller size and the relative lack oforganizational
Feudalism (London, 1978), P. 107.
35 Ain-i-Akbarr p. 233. While the Kolis, Bhils and Gonds constituted the
32 Ain-i-Akbarz, II,
pp. 251—2, 254, for the Koli and Jaitwah tribes living in provincial military force of suba Khandesh, they do not seem to have been part
the forests; Tuzuk-i-Jahangirr H, p. 285, for ‘villagers and cultivators’, who
of the peasantry in this otherwise well-cultivated suba. Manucci, Storia, H,
‘passing their time in the shelter of thick jungles and difficult strong places in
stubbornness and fearlessness, would not pay their rents to thejagirdars’; DeLaet, p. 430, for Bhattis of Lakhi Jangal in suba Lahore entering the faujdar’s service.
36 See Ain-i-Akbari I,
Empire, pp. 19, 21, 34, 184, for Bhils, ‘Grassias’ and Kolis, who lived in ‘solitary p. 60, for large quantities of ghee from Hisar-Firoza
used in Akbar’s kitchen. Raibari herdsmen were also apparently employed to
places’ and ‘trackless retreats’; Manucci, Storia, II, p. 428, for Jats; see also Sujan
graze the royal camels; Ain-i-Akbarz I, pp. 155—6. Shiv Das Lakhnawi, Shah
Rai Bhandari, I(hulasat-ut-Tawarikh (Delhi, 1918), p. 63.
nama Munnawar Ka/am (Patna, 1980), relates an incident where a caravan was
DeLaet, Empire, pp. 68—70, referring to the area around Thattah, mentions
33
plundered by Jats near Hodal during the time of Churaman Jar: the merchants
‘savages who recognize no ruler’ and were engaged in robbing travellers. Fur
were ‘carrying with them 1300 carts of clarified butter’ which were taken away
thermore, ‘if the king sends his armed forces against them they burn their huts,
by the robbers. Ghee in such huge quantities was very likely to have been
which are made of straw, and withdraw to rugged mountains.’ See also Khan,
procured from pastoralists. See also Chetan Singh, Region and Empire. Panjab
Chieftains, pp. 63—73.
in the Seventeenth Century (Delhi, 1991), pp. 266—70; Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen
Baburnama, p. 235; Akbarnama, HI, p. 1160; DeLaet, Empire, pp. 69—70.
and Bazaars, p. 29.
See B.R. Grover, ‘An Integrated Pattern of Life in the Rural Society of North 37 Singh, Region and Empire,
India During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, Proceedings of the pp. 269—70.
38 Baburnama, 380, 402.
Indian Historical Records Commission, 1966, p. 5, for Gujars. pp.
34 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 35
rigidity of the state both required and facilitated the tapping of village some land falls out of cultivation one endeavours to increase
40
non-agrarian sources of income from scattered pastoral com cultivation elsewhere.
munities. After its establishment on firmer ‘agrarian’ foundations
and subsequent expansion, however, the Mughal empire seems to
II
have relied primarily upon land revenue from large agricultural
expanses. With this shift in the scale and nature of the state’s It ought to be remembered that the whole of the merchandise
financial activity, extraction of economic surplus from scattered which is exported from the Moghul kingdom, comes from four
pastoral societies probably became a distracting task with unpre kinds of plants—that is to say, the shrub that produces the
dictable results. Despite these fundamental changes, however, the cotton from which a large quantity of cloth, coarse and fine, is
interaction between Mughal agrarian society and the pastoralists made.. The second is the plant which produces indigo. The
.

can hardly have ceased. third is the one from which comes opium, of which a large
amount is used on the Java coast. The fourth is the mulberry
As suggested earlier, the relationship between the two was not
tree, on which their silk-worms are fed, and, as it may be said,
simply one of outright confrontation. Apart from the apparent that commodity [silk] is grown on these trees.
political and military dimensions of the relationship, its socio —Niccolao Manucci
’
4
economic content seems likely to have been far more substantial
than has so far been recognized. In many parts of the Mughal
empire the lives of peasants and pastoralists were inextricably By stating matters in this way Manucci reduced the most com
entwined. Even while being involved in the mutual exchange of mercialized sector of the Mughal economy to an essential depend
products, the two were simultaneously engaged in a silent and ence upon ‘four kinds ofplants’. In so doing he implicitly provided
fluctuating struggle of encroachment upon and retreat from each a partial explanation for the pronounced interest of the Mughals
other’s living space. While agriculturists frequently intruded into in fostering agriculture and championing the cause of the peas
areas where the herds ofpastoralists grazed, it was equally common antry against more mobile social groups.
for abandoned fields and habitations to be reappropriated by Since the primary objective of the state was, as we have seen,
herdsmen who wandered on the fringes of cultivated areas.39 the extension of cultivation, the peasants were encouraged to break
The history of agriculture in Mughal India was not, therefore, new land. Upon the inhospitable fringes of agricultural areas were
a case of the unabated expansion of cultivation and the relentless probably to be found ploughmen who laboured to push back the
destruction of forests. There were times and places where the forest forest. Certain land-revenue regulations were specifically formu
reasserted itself; old clearings were abandoned and new ones made lated as an incentive for this purpose. That newly cultivated land
in different places. This is apparent from an observation during was entitled to concessional rates of taxation is well known. In
the reign of Akbar by Fath Ullah Shirazi regarding revenue matters: addition to the state, influential members ofthe village community
‘The fluctuations of civilization are apparent to everyone. If in a played an important part in the granting of ownership rights on
virgin land to those who had the capital resources to bring it under
42 The village muqaddams were given the authority to
cultivation.
39 DeLaet, Empire,
PP. 46—7, says, of Sikandarabad, near Bayana, that the
place is in ruins and ‘is inhabited only by a few shepherds called Goagers 40Akbarnama III, p. 690.
(Gujars)’. Even the ‘vast ruins of the ancient city of Delhi’ had become ‘only Manucci, Storia, II, p. 393.
an abode of shepherds’. 5atjsh Chandra, ‘Writings on the Social History of Medieval India: Trends
42
36 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
Forests, Pastoraljsts and Agrarian Society 37
parcel out uncultivated village land to whoever offered to bring it
were driven to this as much by the logic of an expanding agrarian
43 In the case of madad-i-maash grants, too, half
under the plough.
economy as by the pastoralists’ or forest-dwellers’ need for essential
the land granted consisted of cultivable waste which the grantee
commodities from settled agriculturists.
44 Given the incentives
was expected to bring under cultivation. Even at the best of times, and in close proximity to many of
that were provided by the Mughals, it is very likely that many
the agriculturally developed territories, there existed only an un
zamindaris emerged at the frontiers of cultivation as a result of
easy balance between cultivated areas, cultivable village wasteland
the clearing of forests organized by entrepreneurs of this kind. The
and forests. Whenever the struggle between agriculturists and the
actual work of felling was done by groups of professional wood
jungle intensified, or conversely when the husbandmen were
cutters and there probably existed, in some regions, entire castes
forced to abandon cultivation, even this equilibrium was over
which specialized in this kind of work.
45
thrown. It is quite likely that the oppressive demands of revenue
Bankatai (the clearing of forests) and the subsequent settling
officials occasionally compelled peasants to leave their homes and
of cultivators were adequate reasons for staking a claim to the seek shelter in the forests.
47
zamindari of an area, a claim which imperial authorities readily An ambivalence, therefore, seems to have marked the peasant’s
46 Adjacent to the core agricultural areas of the Mughal
recognized. interaction with the jungles that were often adjacent to his fields.
empire, therefore, was territory where a perpetual struggle went His hostility towards the untamed wilderness was tempered by a
on between cultivators and forests. These were also areas where basic dependence upon its natural abundance. Timber for the
different socio-economic systems interacted with each other. They construction of his hut48 and implements obviously came from
these forests, as did fuel and much of the cattle fodder.
49 Now and
and Prospects’, p. 89, and ‘Role of the Local Community, the Zamindars and then, when wild animals were successfully hunted down, a little
the State in Providing Capital Inputs for the Improvement and Expansion of
Cultivation’, pp. 166—83, both in Medieval India: Sociely, the Jagirdari Crisis
During the reign of Muhammad Tughlak, when taxation in the Doab
and the Village (New Delhi, 1982). became unbearable, the cultivators ‘set fite to their houses, and retired to the
3 Habib, Agrarian System, p. 133; Ali Muhammad Khan, Mirat-i-Ahmadi
woods with their families and cattle. Many populous towns were abandoned
(Baroda, 1965), p. 241. In the farman dealing in great detail with the matter and remained so for several years.’ Furthermore, certain tribes which ‘inhabited
of land revenue, it is stated that where ‘land is not owned, the owner is unknown, the country about Soonam and Samana, unable to discharge their rents, fled to
it should be given to one who is able to reclaim it so that he reclaims it.’ See
the woods.’ Ferishta, Mahomedan Power, I, pp. 243—4.
Bayly, Rulers, Townsmen and Bazaars, p. 101, for certain castes of cultivators 48 Baburnama,
which were engaged in the extension of agriculture in the eighteenth century. p. 428, about the nature of villages in Hindustan: ‘they need
not build houses or set up walls—khas-grass abounds, wood is unlimited, huts
‘
Ain-i-Akbari, I, p. 280; Habib, Agrarian System, pp. 302—3. are made and straightway there is a village or town!’
‘ Chandra, ‘Role of the Local Community’,
p. 175. John Francis Gemelli B. Ch. Chabra (ed.), Antiquities ofChamba (1957), II, 147. The Chamba
49
Careri, A Voyage Round the World, in J.P. Guha (ed.), India in the Seventeenth p.
plate of Balabhadra (dated 1641) refers to ‘banj trees used for fodder’. Mirat-i
Century (New Delhi, 1979), II, p. 311: ‘There are also two tribes of Sutars or
Ahmadi, p. 256, refers to ‘leaves of dhakah, palzah and babul skin etc., brought
timber-men; the one called Concanes, and the other Gujarati.’ from the jungle
46 Muzaffar Alam, ‘Eastern India in the Early Eighteenth Century Crisis’:
. . Though the reference is to their sale in the city, it seems
. ‘

reasonable to assume that the villages, with easier access, would have utilized
Some Evidence from Bihar’, IESHR, 28:1, 1991, pp. 65—6. In suba Bihar, such forest resources quite freely. Moreland, India at the Death ofAkbar, 144,
ploughs were donated by the government to such people. ‘Every hal mir (i.e. p.
argues that while the rural population enjoyed an ‘unrestricted supply of such
one who has four or five ploughs) was to be ‘given a dastar [turban] so that he produce’, this advantage was offset by ‘the damage caused to their crops by the
may clear forests and bring land under cultivation’. wild animals’.
38 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 39
50 Interestingly, even salt was obtained,
extra food was obtained. another grant of the same year the village of Sarotha was gifted to
in Assam, by processing the large leaves of a ‘fig-tree’.
’
5 a Brahmin along with a ‘watermill as well as the banj [oak] trees
It was in times of dire need, however, that the importance of 56 The fact that forest land and trees were con
used for fodder’.
forests came to be fully realized. An early-eighteenth-century de sidered worthy of specific mention in land grants suggests that in
scription of famines in the region of Paiwal and Hodal brings out certain areas various kinds of rights over them had crystallized.
the crucial role offorests as a source of additional food. During Some of these rights, indeed, appear to have taken the form of
the famine of 1713, we are told, ‘Many repaired to jungles and ndividwil ownership.
collecting the leaves and blossoms of the Karial boiled them and Pastures were another very important natural resource for the
subsisted on the same.’ 52 In the following year the rains came peasantry. But because of variations in different areas and at
rather too late to benefit cultivation, but were sufficient to re different seasons, it wofild be inappropriate to make a definite
juvenate the vegetation in the forests. We learn that ‘In the forest statement about the amount of pastureland that was available. A
a kind ofwild millet (shamakh) shot up so profusely that the people stray remark by Abul Fazl, to the effect that the means of earning
of that region, big and small, went daily to the forest and collected a livelihood were ‘as abundant to the labourer as forage for his
as much as each of them could bring, and thus gave themselves cattle’, conveys the impression that there was no shortage of
53 Thus, as a last resort, the forest was often of critical
some energy.’ 57 This impression is further reinforced by the fact that
pasturage.
importance to famine-stricken people, a resource that stood be during four months of the rainy season, and also when the emperor
tween life and death.
54 was on the march, no fodder allowance was permitted for animals
Recognition of the value of forests and their usefulness to the in the imperial stables.
58 Bernier, on the other hand, in a more
rural economy is implied in the land grants made by Raja Bal detailed account, seems to contradict Abul FazI by referring to a
bhadra of Chamba in 1641. To his cook the raja gifted the village ‘great deficiency of pasture land’. ‘The heat’, he noted, ‘is so
of Kuhmaro inclusive of the ‘forest and the hill-slope In
. .
.

intense, and the ground so parched, during eight months of the

year, that the beasts of the field, ready to die of hunger, feed on
50 Ain-i-Akbari, II, pp. 181—2, for wild buffaloes which were numerous in
59 In his description of the
every kind of filth like so many swine’.
subaAwadh. Abul Fazi says that ‘people find sport in hunting them’. Wild asses
countryside, perhaps around Surat, another European traveller
were found in some of the drier areas and were, according to Jahangir, ‘lawful
food’: see Akbarnama; II, p. 522; Tuzuk-i-Jahangirr, I, pp. 83—4.
similarly observed that as early as the month of March, while the
leaves on the trees were green the grass was ‘quite burnt up’. He
51 Tavernier, Travelj
pp. 221—2.
52 Lakhnawi, Shahnama Munnawar Ka/.am, p. 22. goes on to add that though the plain areas were rich in all kinds
53 Ibid. of natural produce, the dry summers caused a shortage of pas
5’ Armies that ran short of food supplies during military campaigns were ° For a large part of the year, therefore, the leaves procured
6
turage.
forced to search for food in forests. See Muntakhah-ut-Tawarikh, II, p. 242. In from the neighbouring forests probably constituted a substantial
a campaign against Mewar the Mughal army had to ‘sustain life upon the flesh portion of the cattle fodder.
of animals and the mango fruit. This latter grew there in such abundance as
defies description. The common soldiers used to make a meal of it. in default
. . 56 Ibid., p. 149.
in bread.’ Cf. Akbarnama III, p. 682: when Muzaffar Gujarati fled Mughal Ain-i-Akbar, II, p. 56.
forces in 1548 he went to the ‘mountains of Barda’ where the forests ‘thirty kos 58 Ibid., I, pp. 152, 160.
long and ten broad, are well-watered, and produce abundance of wild fruit’. Bernier, Travels, p. 326.
55 Antiquities of Chamba, II, p. 146. 60 Fryer, New Account, II, pp. 94—5.
 Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 41
40 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
ordinary cultivator was not entirely free to let his cattle roam all
With regard to pastures, however, it seems quite likely that over the village 66commons. Indeed, in certain areas individual
the rights of different social groups were better defined than was usufrucruary, if not proprietary, rights over clearly defined cat
the case with the forests. Control over pastureland was central to egories of uncultivated land had already emerged. The Himalayan
the economy of the tribes which were predominantly pastoral. In state of Chamba was one such area, and numerous land grants
suba Kabul, for instance, where agriculture was not very produc dating from as early as the tenth century until Mughal times
’ the tribal economy apparently depended on pastoralism.
6
tive, indicate this.
Two of the most powerful tribes here were the Hazaras and the Many of these inscriptions specifically mention the inclusion
Afghans, and Abul Fazi makes a point of mentioning that ‘the of ‘grass, grazing and pasture-ground’ in the grant.
67 Furthermore,
62 The
pasturage of the country is in the hands of these two clans’. the officials within whose jurisdiction the land lay were ordered
grazing lands of the Hazaras were virtually treeless meadows, to desist from cutting the grantee’s ‘pasture whether green or ripe’
supporting grass particularly suitable for horses and for the large or from seizing ‘his wood, fuel, grass, chaff and so on’. 68 Apart
63 Nearer the town of Kabul it appears
number of sheep they kept. from land that was thus donated by the raja, there appear to have
that the Mughals demarcated separate grazing areas for the animals existed larger stretches of fairly well-delineated pastureland. There
of different sections of their army. A dispute arising from an were, in fact, some reserved pastures for which the term ghali was
infringement of these could escalate into a major 64 confrontation. used and the extensive territory of Brahmaura (the homeland of
In well-cultivated villages the extent of pasture land was likely
the Gaddi shepherds) was referred to as a ghali.
69
to have been relatively little. This is what seems to be implied by It was perhaps on the wastelands located at some distance from
the statement in the Ain-i-Akbari that tax would have to be paid the carefully cultivated areas that large numbers of cattle were
on cattle by ‘whosoever does not cultivate land liable to taxation allowed easier 7 access. But with regard to such places, too, it might
°
pasturage’. The need to convert cultivated
but encloses it for 65 be erroneous to suggest that grazing rights were completely un
land to pasture indicates that grazing land used in common by restricted. The existence of reserved pastures even in regions of
the villages was not always adequate. The peasants were therefore
particular about where the village livestock was permitted to 66 DeLaet, Empire, p. 95: ‘The condition of the peasants is such
that they
browse. Grazing rights were perhaps fairly well developed, and the have to approach the chief man of their village (who is appointed by the king)
and to declare to him what land, and how much they intend to sow, or where
they will pasture their flocks and herds.’
61Ain-i-Akbari, II, p. 405.
J. Ph. Vogel (ed.), Antiquities ofChamba State (Calcutta, 1911), I, pp. 168,
67
Ibid., II, p. 406. The Hazaras, in particular, were probably more dependent
62
189, 196, 200; II, p. 69. See also Sharma, Rajput Polity, p. 86. Taxes on grazing
upon horses, sheep and goats. (ghasmari), along with other agricultural cesses, were assigned to the grantee.
for
63 Baburnama,
pp. 222—3. Not all grassland in Afghanistan was suitable 68 Vogel, Antiquities, I,
p. 169.
rearing livestock. Babur points out areas where the grass, despite growing in 69 Ibid., II, p. 126, Nagoda grant of Balbhadra, AD 1634. See also
good neither for horses nor sheep. p. 183,
abundance, was for a glossary defining the word ghali. During the course of describing the
64 Mutamad Khan, Iqbalnama-i-Jahangiri, Elliot and Dowson, History of
boundaries of the land-grants, there are frequent references to such land bor
India, WI, p. 428. ‘A party of Rajpurs turned out their horses to graze in the dering on the ‘pasture-land’ of particular areas; e.g., p. 38, the ‘pasture-land of
hunting ground near Kabul and a contention arose with the keepers, in which Mugala.’
an ahadi was killed . . the ahadis sought redress
. . . and dissatisfied with the
.
70 Fryer, NewAccont, I, p.287, ofthe Surat region says, ‘Here in the Marshes
answer they received. attacked the Rajputs, and killed 600 or 700 of them.’
. .
are brought up great store of cattle of all sorts. .

65 Ain-i-Akbari, II,
p. 49.
42 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 43
natural abundance, such as Chamba, shows that this was not the 75 Caste and other factors within
possessed only one or two oxen.
case. It suggests, furthermore, that the dangers of pasturelands the village community may have prevented the poorer sections
becoming depleted were real even in medieval times. 71 from becoming landowners, and they would thus have maintained
A question that arises in this context is whether the common very few cattle of their own. Moreover, the wasteland available for
cultivator in the Mughal period had a larger stock of cattle for supporting livestock in the immediate vicinity of well-cultivated
carrying out his work than did the peasant of a later time. On villages in the agrarian areas was not inexhaustible. From available
account of the relatively greater extent of uncultivated land and information it seems, therefore, that only a few rich peasants had
forests, pastures and fodder were, it seems, more easily available four or more oxen and that the cattle population of the medieval
to the Mughal peasant. The Ain-i-Akbari also states that while agricultural village was not really as large as it has so far thought
collecting tax on cattle an exemption of four oxen, two cows and 76 Under the circumstances one is tempted to argue
to have been.
72 On
one buffalo per plough should be allowed to the cultivator. that if the number of cattle per capita during the Mughal period
the basis of this exemption it has been argued by some scholars was, indeed, greater than what it was in the early twentieth cen
that the peasant in the Mughal period maintained more cattle 77 then it was not merely on account of the large number of
tury,
73 It may, however, be er
than his twentieth-century successor. livestock possessed by the peasantry. A very substantial part of it
roneous to arrive at such a conclusion. Among the primary objec was owned by pastoralists whose huge herds grazed in the in
tives of the state was, as noted earlier, the extension of cultivation. numerable pastures or found abundant fodder amidst thickly
The liberal tax exemption that the Mughals allowed on cattle is forested tracts.
to be seen as an incentive in this direction and not as an indicator
of the number of cattle that an ordinary peasant owned. For this III
reason the tax exemption was linked ‘to each plough’.
Studies pertaining to eastern Rajasthan provide some inter The existence in many areas of an abundance of forests and
74 ‘While some of the prosperous
esting details in this regard. pastureland should not convey the impression that Mughal society
landholders certainly owned numerous head of cattle, the large was unfamiliar with the scarcity of forest produce and fodder.
majority, lower down the social scale, were ordinary peasants who Such an impression would be misleading, for in many cultivated
71For a comparison with European areas similar in many ways to Chamba,
75 In qasba Chatsu (AD 1606), for instance, 79 per cent of the cultivators
see Georges Duby, Rural Economy and Country Life in the Medieval West
(London, 1969), pp. 146—7: the ‘opening of the “alps”, and the meadows on had one or two oxen; in mauza Kotkhawda 68.7 per cent. Of 26 villages in
the high mountains was organized’ during the thirteenth century, and ‘on the pargana Chatsu, 68.7 per cent of the peasants had one or two oxen. The
alpine slopes which had until then been uninhabited, the lords would install at percentages for peasants in this category in the 94 villages of Chala Kalan (sarkar
great altitudes herds of 50 to 100 cattle . . and entrust them to families of Rewari) and the 49 villages of Kotla (sarkar Tijara) were 79.65 and 58.74
herdsmen.’ By 1345 the high pastures on the Alps had been overgrazed and the respectively. In qasba Chala Kalan as a whole it was 45.8 per cent. See Chandra,
village communities in the hills attempted to prevent the entry of outsiders. ‘Role of the Local Community’, pp. 178—9, 182—3.
72 Ain-i-Akbari, II, p. 49. 76 Ibid.,
pp. 178, 182—3. In qasba Chatsu only 10 per cent of the peasants
73 Moreland, India at the Death ofAkbar, p. 106; Habib, Agrarian System, had four or more oxen, and in the 26 villages of pargana Chatsu an average
16.78 per cent of the peasants had four or more oxen.
pp. 53—5; Moosvi, ‘Ecology’, p. 114.
7’ Chandra, ‘Role of the Local Community’, and ‘Writings on Social Hi InAgraan System, pp. 53—4, Habib argues that there was a ‘larger number
story’, in Medieval India. of working cattle per head of population’.
44 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 45
regions natural resources were already under stress. In some areas, people dealing in this commodity is implied by references in our
for instance, fuel had to be transported over long distances. During sources to professional grass-sellers.
84 Some of them were required
the reign of Akbar, six hundred wagons were set aside for bringing to ensure its regular supply to the imperial army wherever it
‘in the space often months, 1,50,000 mans of fuel to the Imperial proceeded and Bernier has provided an interesting description of
kitchen’ 78 Even in Kashmir, one of the obligations of the cul how they went about it:
79 The
tivator was to ‘cut and bring some wood from a distance’.
conveyance of firewood on boats in Kashmir, to which Jahangir These poor people are at great pains to procure forage: they roam about
from village to village and what they succeed in purchasing, they en
refers, seems to indicate that the distances involved were consid deavour to sell in the army at an advanced price. It is common practice
erable and that wood for fuel was not easily available in the vicinity with them to clear, with a sort of trowel, whole fields of a peculiar kind
° Even in parts of Punjab ‘firewood and grass’ seem
of habitations.
8 of grass, which having beaten and washed, they dispose of in the camp
’ The scarcity of fuelwood is
to have been similarly transported.
8 at a price sometimes very high and sometimes inadequately low. 85
explicitly mentioned by Pelsaert when he writers that ‘firewood is
very dear and is sold by weight’, and that the ‘poor burn cow-dung There were times when the shortage of fodder would become
mixed with straw dried in the sun .The latter, too, was sold! acute. This was particularly the case in the eighteenth century,
Nor was the procuring of fodder for animals always a simple when large armies moved through well-populated areas. We have
task. A large number of horses, camels and elephants were main the interesting example of the invading army ofNadir Shah which,
tained by the Mughal emperor and the mansabdars who resided after making numerous assaults on the Mughal encampment near
in the cities. At the imperial stables cash allowances were made Karnal, carried away ‘corn, grass and wood’!
86 During Ahmad
for the purchase of hay, grass and oats, and it is also likely that Shah Abdali’s confrontation with the Marathas at Kunjpura, the
land was set aside to provide fodder for these animals. The price shortage of fodder became so severe that from time to time ‘one
of fodder was naturally higher in the cities compared to the or two thousand of the Maratha horse went out for grass and
83 That a reasonable profit could be obtained by
countryside. 87 Abdali was subsequently able to prevent such excursions;
forage’.

78Ain-i-Akbari, I, p. 159. One Akbari man was equal to 55.32 lbs. Babur a bigha of fresh oats’. Iraqi and Turki horses at the court were provided a daily
makes what seems a contradictory statement about Kabul. He notes that ‘excel allowance of two dams, and in the countryside one and a half dams. The price
lent firewood is had nearby’ and then adds: ‘Given one day to fetch it’: Babur of oats also varied.
nama, p. 233. 84 Tuzuk-i-Jahangiri, I,
p. 432. We come across a reference to a ‘grass-seller’
79 Akbarnama, III, p. 1088. For references to the transportation of firewood in Ahmadabad killed by a thief who had broken into his house. Lakhnawi,
to cities, see Mirat-i-Ahmadi, pp. 148, 232, 256. Shahnama MunnawarKalam, p. 8: when ordered to capture some ‘free-booters’
80 Tuzuk-i-Jahangirz II,
p. 142. who had been creating trouble near Araul (forty miles south-west of Patna) a
. During his rebellion, Khusrau attempted to cross the Chenab
81 Ibid., I, p.
66 Mughal official mistakenly arrested ‘thirteen men, some ofwhom were vegetable
at Sodharah. However, he could only lay his hands on two boats, one of which and grass vendors’.
was ‘full of firewood and grass’. 85 Bernier, Travels,
p. 381. Shops selling ‘forage’ were a regular part of the
82 Pelsaert, Remonstrantie,
p. 48. The use of ‘dried cowdung is further sub tent-bazaar which sprang up wherever the imperial army encamped.
stantiated by DeLaet, Empire, p. 89, and by Bernier, Travels, p. 368. See Fryer, 86 Rustam Mi, Tarikh-i-Hindi, in Elliot and Dowson, History ofIndia,
VIII,
NewAccount, I, p. 111, for a toll levied on cow-dung by the English in Madras. p. 61.
83 Ain-i-Akbari, I,
pp. 142—3, 152. We are informed that ‘three bighas of 87 jafar Shamlu, Tarikh-i-Manazil ul Futuh in Elliot and Dow
land will yield sufficient fodder for a horse’, and that ‘in winter each horse gets son, History ofIndia, Vip. 150.
46 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Forests, Pastoralists and Agrarian Society 47
matters reached such a state that the only people who ventured By the seventeenth century, at least, timber of good quality
out of the Maratha camp were ‘wretched naked labourers who, seems to have become a commodity which could not be obtained
going by stealth into the open country, used to dig up grass from very easily. In Punjab, where it was used for boat-building as well
the ground with their kharpas and offer it for sale’.
88 as house construction, it had to be floated along rivers which issued
It seems that, in as early as the latter part of the sixteenth out of the northern hills.
95 While clearing the thick jungles around
century, the cost of construction materials in urban areas was Jasrota (near Jammu) during a campaign, the Mughal commander
rising. Perhaps on this account Akbar was prompted to fix the Shaikh Farid is said to have come across ‘several old trees’ which,
89 Among these was wood. Abul Fazi
prices of different materials. being suitable for purposes of construction, ‘were cut down and
provides a detailed price-list of eight kinds of wood, graded sent to Lahore for use in government buildings’.
96 The growing
° Some of the other materials included
cording to quality and size.
9 commercial value of timber led to its organized exploitation in
in this price regulation were bamboo, khas, reeds for thatching, forests that were easily accessible. Some of the Himalayan chief
91 Traders must have brought these materials into
munj and san. taincies rich in this resource, too, seem to have benefited finan
the larger towns and cities in huge quantities. From Bernier’s cially on this account.
97
description of Delhi we learn that even amongst the high Mughal There had emerged, therefore, in certain parts of Mughal
officials, very few possessed houses ‘built entirely of brick and India, a profitable market for forest produce and other similar
92 The city, in fact, consisted of an immense number of
stone’. natural resources.
98 Some of these were transported over fairly long
thatched cottages which gave Delhi the appearance of a ‘collection distances,, suggesting thereby that they were not available every
3 In one year, fire is said to have destroyed
of many villages’.’ where, or not easily available in adequate quantities. In many of
60,000 thatched-roof cottages in Delhi. Considering that the the typically ‘Mughal’ agrarian areas, growing commercialization
materials mentioned above had already become items of commer and the extension of cultivation combined with the growth of
cial value, even constructing houses made of bamboo or wood was urban centres to put a strain on locally accessible materials.
not always cheap.
94
95 Bhandari, Khulasat-ut- Tawarikh, p. 77 Habib, Atlas oftheMughal
Empire,
88Ibid., p. 151. p. 32: Khizrabad, on the banks of the Yamuna, was a timber mart.
96 Sirhindi, Akbarnamg in Elliot and Dowson,
89Ain-i-Akbari, I, p. 232: ‘Many people are desirous of building houses; but History ofIndia, VI, p. 126.
honesty and conscientiousness are rare, especially among traders. His Majesty According to Babur, mahuwa wood was used most in the houses of Hindustan:
has carefully inquired into their profits and losses, and fixed the prices of Baburnama, p. 505.
9 Sirmur State Gazetteer, Part A, 1904 (I.ahore, 1907),
articles . p 14. A farman
90 Ibid., (dated 1084 H) of Aurangzeb is quoted to the effect that the emperor asked
p. 233.
in bundles. Raja Budh Prakash of Sirmur to ‘permit a contractor to take sal timber from
91 Ibid.,
p. 234. Kah-i-chappar (reeds for thatching) were sold
Munj was ‘the bark of ga/am reeds and was used for making ropes to fasten the the Kalakhar forest free of charge and to refund to him any due which had been
thatching’. San was mixed with quick-lime and ropes were also made of it. levied. Timber worth Rs 8000 was, in consequence, taken for imperial use.’ It
92 Bernier, Travels,
p. 246. is obvious, therefore, that forests had become a source of revenue for some chiefs
9 Ibid. and that contractors were engaged in the business of timber extraction.
9’ Ain-i-Akbari, II, p. 134. In Bengal a single bamboo house could cost Rs 98 For the existence in medieval times of a
market in Himalayan forest
5000: Muntakhab-ut-TaWarikh II, p. 185. In Bihar a type of house called produce, see Chetan Singh, ‘Humans and Forests: The Himalaya and the Terai
‘chappar-band could cost as much as ‘30,000 or 40,000 rupees each, although During the Medieval Period’, in A.S. Rawat (ed.), History ofForestry in India
they are covered with wood’. (New Delhi, 1991), pp. 171—2.
48 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
But there still remained the peripheral regions within the
territorial bounds of the Mughal empire where such resources
existed in plenty. It was into these areas that agrarian society Chapter Two
steadily encroached, both pressurized and supported as it was by
the Mughal state. The combined logic of military expansion,
increased cultivation and the growing requirement of well-popu Pastoralists in a Colonial World
99 brought the Mughal state into
lated areas for natural resources
even closer contact with societies residing in forested and relatively
less cultivated areas. NEEL4DRI BHATTACHARYA
Agrarian society was certainly not the sole beneficiary of this
increased interaction. Many peripheral societies which had earlier
been only marginally affected by the Mughal state were gradually
drawn into playing an increasingly important role in its economy his essay attempts to understand how the world of pas
as well as its political fortunes. These societies were neither numeri
cally nor militarily insignificant, and their active participation,
either as fuller constituents of the empire or as its opponents, could
T toralists in Punjab changed over the colonial period. I
proceed with two assumptions. One: the specific experi
ence of change was a function of the form of pastoralism. So it is
hardly have been without consequence. It seems reasonable to important to look at the varieties of pastoralism which existed: the
suggest, all things considered, that the ecological diversity found composition of the pastoral stock, the terrain over which pas
within Mughal India enabled and encouraged the existence of a toralists operated, the rhythms of their movements, the range of
corresponding variety of socio-economic systems. Among these activities they combined. Two: pastoralists had to relate not only
the most influential was an agrarian society based principally upon to their ecological surroundings but also to changing political,
peasant production. Growing interaction between diverse social leal and cultural contexts. Ibegin with a discussion ofthe varieties
systems affected not only the peripheral areas and their people but of pastoralism in colonial Punjab, and then analyse how pas
also transformed the nature of agrarian society and the Mughal toralists found their relationship to the world redefined in legal
empire which was the latter’s most powerful political expression and cultural ways.
in South Asia.
Long-distance Nomadism
Much before the nineteenth century, India was linked to Afghanis
9 Apart from she collection of wood, herbs, grass etc., cows and elephants tan through an important annual migratory flow between the two
were also captured from the forests: Travels of Thevenot, in Guha, India in the regions. Powindah was the term of reference for all the migratory
Seventeenth Centuiy, II, pp. 66—7. ‘The huntsmen of Agra go five days’ journey
their business in going Pathan tribes who came down to Punjab every year from their
from the town as far as a mountain called Narwar ...

so far is only to catch a kind of wild cow which they call merous, that are fou:d base in Central Asia. They came to India not only to trade, but
in the wood round this hill, which is upon the road from Surat to Golconda; in search of pasture, work, and a life away from the snowy uplands
and these cows being commonly very lovely, they make great advantage of them.’ of Central Asia. Determined by geo-ecological conditions, their
For cultivators paying revenue in elephants, see Ain-i-Akbari, H, p. 207. movements had a seasonal cycle. They assembled every autumn
 50 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 51

in the plains east of Ghazni with their families, flocks, herds and What we have here is not the movement of individuals and
long strings of camels laden with the goods of Bokhara and small groups, but the mass migrations of humans and animals.
Kandahar. The caravans traversed the Gakkar and Waziri country, Powindahs moved with their families and children, with their
crossed the Suleimans through the Gomal and Zhab passes, and herds and flocks, with arms and merchandise. In the cold weather
entered Dera Ismail Khan. Here they left their families and flock-s of 1877—8 an estimated 78,000 powindahs crossed the passes. Two
on the great grazing grounds on either side of the Indus. While years later about 42,000 entered Dera Ismail Khan. Animals out
some looked after the flocks and some wandered around in search numbered humans. Every year the powindahs were reportedly
of employment, others proceeded with the caravans and merchan accompanied by about 70,000 camels laden with merchandise,
dise to Multan, Rajputana, Lahore, Amritsar, Delhi, Kanpur, and more than 100,000 sheep, besides other animals.
4
Benaras, and sometimes up to Patna. In spring they gathered again The powindahs were not a homogeneous community. They
and returned by the same route to the hills around Ghazni and conibined various forms of economic activities. They were inter
Kelat-i-Ghilzai. As the summer approached, the men moved off nally differentiated on the basis ofproperty and wealth, occupation
to Kandahar, Herat and Bokhara with Indian and European goods and function. Those who had fixed camping grounds known as
acquired in ‘Hindustan’. In October they would return and pre kirris (camp village) could bring their families along to Derajat.
pare once more to start their journey to India. The rights over the kirris were mutually recognized and the same
Militarization was essential for long-distance nomadism. 5 Many powindahs
camping ground was resorted to year after year.
Powindahs had to pass through regions settled by tribes for whom had no fixed camping rights, and they came down without their
feuding and raiding were an integral part of life. 1 The persistent families. Others, the charra folk, had no belongings and came as
fear of attack and plunder necessitated the formation of kafilas labourers, wandering about in search of work. Among the various
(caravkns) and arming of the people.2 The daily march of the powindah tribes (mostly Ghilzai and Lohani Pathans), Mian Khels
kafilas was ‘like that of an army through an enemy’s territory’. were the richest, dealing with luxury commodities; Kharotis were
The main body of the kafila, the camels carrying families and the poorest, many of them were labourers Suleiman Khels
merchandise, was continuously guarded from all sides: brought little merchandise to India, but acted as dalals between
powindah traders and Indian merchants; Nasers, Dawtanis and
A few armed men with knife, sword and matchlock, guard the main Tarakis were primarily pastoralists.
6
portion, but a few hundred yards ahead may be seen a compact body
Within each group there was both a combination of different
of fighting men of the clan, mounted and dismounted, all armed to the
teth. On their flank, crowning the height with greatest care, and
. .
activities as well as sub-specializations. Nasers, for instance, were
almost military exactitude, move a similar body of footmen, whilst in said to be the ‘least settled of all powindahs’; they had no home
rear follows an equally strong party, all on the watch for their hereditary of their own. ‘While living primarily as pastoralists, they also
enemies, the Waziris.
3
‘Punjab Foreign Department Proceedings (Hereafter Punjab For.), February ‘
SR: Dera Ismail Khan 1883—84, p. 76.
1872, A 27; Punjab For., January 1872, A 7; Punjab For., April 1872, A 18; 5 Punjab For. (Frontier), August 1895, A 67—76.
6 There was a relationship of intense conflict between the different groups
Punjab For., December 1872, A 28; Punjab For., March 1879, A 11.
2 Punjab For. (Frontier), April 1894, A 114—19. of powindahs. For the conflict between the Kharotis and Suleiman Kheis, see
William Patrick Andrew, cited in David Ross, The Land of the Five Rivers -

Punjab For., August 1873, A 1; Punjab For., August 1873, A 20; Punjab For.,
and Sindh: Sketches Historical and Descr:itive (Lahore, 1883; Delhi 1970). September 1873, A 21.
 Pastoralists in a Colonial World 53
52 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
powindahs regularly changed their migratory routes to avoid bor
traded. Their activities combined in a variety of ways. Among
7 der posts; they resisted the collection of tirni tax; they forcibly
the Naser Ushwals (camel folk), the poorer faction brought salt recovered animals requisitioned by the colonial state. When rail
from Kohat mines, Multani matti from the hills, and were em ways and lorries threatened to displace their trading activity in
ployed in India at small jobs. The richer Ushwals brought grapes, India, powindahs sometimes combined caravan journeys up to the
madder and almonds for sale and had their own kirris. The Naser frontier with railway travel within India.
Gayewals (ox-folk), Kharwals (ass-folk) and Goshfandwals (sheep- It was the combination of different forms ofeconomic activity
folk) had no kirris and usually took up odd jobs in India—carrying which allowed powindahs to survive the strains of changing times.
earth or bricks. In the long run, some forms of economic activity were more
How did this nomadism change over the colonial period? At adversely affected than others. Powindah fortunes seem to have
one level, the colonial state attempted to encourage and sustain suffered more from the constraints on moneylending in India and
the trade which flowed through this network. It hoped to capture from the decline of the Central Asian trade than from the problems
by this means the Central Asian market, displacing the Russian of pastoral grazing. This was reflected in the composition of the
presence there. After the British annexation of Punjab, passes were migratory flow from Afghanistan. The Lohanis and Suleiman
opened, trade posts established at different points, and control Khels, who were most actively involved in trade, stopped coming
over ‘banditry’ as well as the pacification of frontier tribes were to India by the 1 940s. Members of the Dawtani and Tarkai tribes,
taken up as serious projects.
8 who were primarily pastoralists, continued their annual migration
Yet British policies undermined the very basis of powindah in large numbers. Indian markets were finally lost after the Parti
nomadism. British intervention in the frontier created a prolonged tion of India in 1947, and the grazing grounds of Dera Ismail
crisis of tribal power relations, accentuating tribal feuds and ban Khan were closed to powindahs after 1961.11
ditry. High grazing taxes (tirni)—these trebled between 1870s
and 1 920s—adversely affected pastoralism, already under pressure
9 Collective tribal rights on camp
from vanishing grazing grounds. Alpine Pastoralism
ing grounds were disturbed in many areas when the British granted Gaddis were the shepherds of the hills, and Ban-Gujars were
proprietary rights to loyal tribal groups. The disarming of powin cowherds. In Kangra sheep and goats together numbered over six
dahs on the British border exposed the camps (kirris) to Waziri lakhs in the 1890s, constituting about half the animal population.
raids, which the British border posts were incapable of resisting)° On the hills, flocks of sheep and goats could be more easily
Despite these pressures powindah nomadism continued. The maintained than cattle. Alpine pastoralism is usually sustained by
a vertical movement between the summer pasture in the high
7 H.A. Rose, A Glossary ofthe Tribes and Castes ofthe Punjab and North-West mountains and the winter pasture in the low hills. Buffaloes—even
FrontierProvinces (1883: reprint, Languages Department Punjab, Patiala, 1970), hill buffaloes—found the climb to the high ranges difficult.
vol. III, p. 244.
8 Punjab For., April 1872, A 4; Punjab For. (Frontier), August 1890, A 11 D. Balland and C.M. Kieffer, ‘Nomadisme
et secheresse en Afghanistan:
97—100; Punjab For., October 1876, A 24; Punjab For., February 1877, A 5. l’exemple des nomads Pastun du Dast-e Nawor’, in Pastoral Production and
Punjab For. (For.), October 1879, A 3; Punjab For. (For.), November Society (Cambridge, 1979); Balland, ‘Nomadism and Politics: The Case of
1877, A 20. Afghan Nomads in the Indian Subcontinent,’ Studies in History, 1991, vol. VII,
10 Punjab For. (For.), February 1873, A 20; Punjab For., September 1879, no. 2.
2a; Punjab For. (Frontier), March 1894, A 54.
54 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 55
By the 1 880s, the gaddis and gujars of the hills felt the mountains were similarly divided. Each run, a dhar, belonged to
pressures of colonial change. They found their access to forests a waris with a pattah but was collectively used by a number of
closed, their rights redefined, the rhythms of their movements families. The association between families was said to be ‘a brother
controlled, their spatial mobility restricted. The relationship be ly one, no rent or fee being given or taken’.’
3
tween pastoralists and their grazing runs, and the social relation In Kulu, again, individual rights and collective rights co
ships which sustained their herding activities, changed in complex existed. But here the nature of rights in the summer and winter
ways. This was not a simple shift from a regime of unrestricted pastures was different. Till spring, up to mid June, sheep grazed
grazing rights to one in which such rights were denied. in rirs, the grazing areas near the hamlets. From here they first
In the period before colonial laws were enacted, access to moved up to the gahrs, the forest grazing grounds just above the
grazing runs was regulated through a combination of collective limits of cultivation, and then up to the nigahrs or grassy slopes
and segmented rights. In Kangra, pastures in the low hills were above the limits of the forest. After two months at the nigahrs the
all divided among the shepherds. Each division or circuit was flocks descended back to the gahrs, grazed there for six weeks, and
called a ban, and each ban was claimed by some gaddi family as then moved further down to the low hills. 14 In each nigahr a
2 A prefix was attached to each ban to distinguish the
its warisi.’ hereditary title was claimed by a rasu, the person who held the
warisi ofone family from another. A warisi usually originated with pattah. To each nigahr was attached a gahr. But exclusive rights
a pattah, acquired from the raja by a gaddi family to graze in a of a flock to graze in the gahr operated only during the descent
particular run. The family which acquired the pattah jointly used from the nigahr, not on the way up in spring. The rasu in Kulu,
the run with five or six other families. Usually a flock of 800 to like the malundhi of Kangra, was a waris of a nigahr. In the lower
1200 grazed in one ban. The wath who held the pattah had some hills, however, no warisi was claimed by anyone. There were no
powers and functions. Grazing in the runs had to be managed and exclusive hereditary rights over the winter pastures.
conflicts over rights resolved. ‘The holder of the pattah directed Warisi thus marked and segregated the right of a group of
the course of the flock, and acted as the spokesman and negotiator gaddi families from that of others, but did not define any exclusive
in the case of quarrels or dealings with the people along the line right of the waris within the ban or nigahr. The waris did enjoy
of the march.’ He was recognized as the mahiundi or malik kanda, some power and privileges, but his right to his ban was no different
i.e. the master of the flock; the other shepherds were assamis. The from that of the other families who formed a part of the group
relationship between the waris and the assamis was forged through he led. His power was premised on the role he performed. He
reciprocal claims and obligations, and sustained through the col could even lose his power and rights if he was not in a position
lective use of bans. The waris held the pattah, but he could graze to lead the group. Segregation ofrights between the bans restricted
his sheep only with other families. They had to move together competition and conflict between pastoralists, while collective,
through the forests and up the high mountains, protecting their non-individuated rights within the bans ensured co-operation
flock from attacks and accidents. So the waris charged no dues among each herding group.
from assamis for their right to graze; he did at times claim the
mailani paid by zamindars for sheep dung. 13 Ibid., para 46.
Summer pastures above the limit of forests in the high ‘ ‘Report on Kulu Subdivision’, SR: Kangra 1856—72 ‘Kulu Forest Settle
ment Report’, paras 126—27, Selectionsfrom the Records ofthe Financial Com
12 SR: Kangra 1856—72, paras 26—7. missioner ofPunjab (hereafter SRFCP), NS 25.

I
56 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
Pastoralists in a Colonial World 57
‘When the colonial state claimed forests and ‘wastes’ as state
property, and prepared the record of rights, the framework of the problem. Unable to find sufficient grass in one or two places,
rights was redefined. Having appropriated the forests as state the shepherds had to move over a wider area, multiplying the
property, the state could see gaddis only as lessees. So assamis number of times they were taxed.
became tenants who could graze only on the payment of a fee to The state sought to redefine the temporal rhythms of pastoral
the proprietor—the state. The tax was to be collected by the activity. ‘While the gaddis could graze their flocks in the summer
muqaddam. and winter pastures in which they paid grazing dues, they were
The right of the muqaddam was now premised on his role as allowed only a ‘right of way’ through the ‘unassessed waste’ which
a revenue collector of the state, not on his participation in the they had to pass on their way up and down. Dates for the arrival
5 This legal redefinition of
collective pastoral activity of a group.’ and departure of flocks in each place were specified. In Kulu the
rights led to a complete transformatio n0f the relations between gaddis could not come in before 15 Jait (the beginning of June)
assamis and iiuqaddams. Many muqaddamsbegan calling them on their way up, and they had to leave Kulu by 20 Assauj (the
6 The assami now had to pay 4 annas to 1 rupee per
selves maliks.’ first week of October) on their way down to the low hills.’
9 Fines
hundred sheep to the muqaddam as his due. To increase his were imposed if they arrived too soon or delayed their departure.
income, the muqaddam brought in ‘outsiders’ to graze in his run. This created problems for the gaddis. The temporal rhythms of
As the flocks of the muqaddam expanded and the grazing area their pastoral activities were defined by the seasons and were
was restricted, assamis were dispossessed. At the end of the nine subject to seasonal fluctuations. Clock time and fixed calendars
teenth century it was reported: ‘in many areas there are no assamis, had no meaning for them. When the winter was severe the gaddis
mukaddams.” This
and the grazers are the descendants ofthe first 7 could not move to the high pastures in Lahul within the time
in turn sharpened competition and conflict among assamis, and fixed. They had to wait for the snow to clear.
between them and the muqaddams. Moreover, the gaddis needed time in Kulu if they were to
The grazing dues charged by the state increased rapidly. Very sustain their relationship with the zamindars. Gaddi flocks ma
often, the tax had to be paid separately on each of the runs through nured the rice fields. So great was the demand for manure that
which the gaddi flocks moved. Between the summer and winter the zamindars offered food, grain and even money to have sheep
runs there were many small patches of forest where the gaddis had penned in their fields.
° But in the official calendar there was no
2
to spend a few weeks. In each place they now had to pay a tax to time for all this.
8 The increasing shortage of pastures complicated
the muqaddam.’ The reservation of forests, the restrictions on the lopping of
tree branches—crucial for winter pasture when grasslands were
15Very often, the muqaddam was not a pastoralist. Of the eleven runs dry—and the ban on the firing of grass, all added to the constraints
demarcated in Dehra tahsil, the Raja of Chamba was recorded as the muqaddam within which the gaddis now had to operate. They protested
of two runs. ‘Record of Sheep-grazing Runs in the Dehra Tahsil’ appended to against these new constraints, thus forcing changes in official
the ‘Kangra Forest Record of Rights’, SRFCP, NS 26. policies. At the same time they altered their ways; they too adjusted
16 ‘Kangra Valley Forest Settlement Report’, para 82, SRFCP, NS 26
17 Ibid., para 82.
to the changing times.
’
2
)8 No. 972, dated 8 July 1896, From A. Anderson, Deputy Commissioner 19‘Kulu Forest SR’; chapter V, paras 174—77, SRFCP, NS 25.
20
of Kangra, to The Comm. and Superintendent, Jullundar Division, paras 12—15, Ibid., paras, 127, 167, 171.
21 Exasperated by the hostility of pastoralists
SRFCP, NS 2. to the closure of forest reserves,
Robertson declared: ‘they (the graziers) have been accustomed to graze absolutely
58 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 59
pressures of nineteenth-century colonization. But the pioneer
Pastoralism on the Semi-arid Plains colonizers—the Sikh Jats from the north, the Bagri Jats from the
The nature and rhythms of alpine pastoralism were very different south, and the Muslim Jats and Rajputs from the neighbourhood
from the form of pastoralism dominant in the semi-arid south-east of Sutlej—had to operate against the ecological constraints of the
of Punjab. This region was largely uninhabited in the early nine region. They settled villages, cleared forests and ploughed the soil,
teenth century. When Karnal pargana was annexed in 1803, about but accepted pastoralism as an integral part of their economic
22 Almost
four-fifths of it was estimated to be covered with forest. activity. Agriculture could not displace pastoralism; they coexisted.
the whole of Sirsa was ‘an uncultivated prairie with few permanent The relationship between the two modes of life was both corn—
23 Here, in Sirsa, settled agriculture was
villages’ unknown. Pas plementary and opposed. And this interrelationship defined the
toralism coexisted with shifting cultivation. very nature of pastoralism in the region.
To understand the dynamic of pastoralism in this region, we
The pastoral Musalman tribes who were its oniy inhabitants drove their need to look at another interrelationship: that between this semi
herds of cattle hither and thither in search of grass and water and had arid tract and the intensively cultivated tracts of Central Punjab.
no fixed dwelling place. There were no boundaries and no defined rights. These two areas formed two distinct geo-ecological zones, in
Some families of herdsmen had certain ponds and grazing grounds which
was timately related in complex ways.
they were in the habit of visiting hi turn. Sometimes when grass
. .

scarce, a family would roam long distances in search of pasture and settle The soil over large areas of Central Punjab was fertile alluvial
down in some place far from their former haunt until grass or water loam. As one moved south, the soil became lighter, the proportion
failed them, or until they were driven from their encampment by some of sand increased, and near the southern extreme of the province
stronger family who coveted it.24 firm loam was not to be found. Central Punjab was intersected
by numerous rivers—Sutlej, Beas, Ravi—and drainage lines. The
Over the nineteenth-century, the open fields in the region were south-east had fewer rivers. The Jamuna, which formed its eastern
colonized and the limits of cultivation extended. Yet pastoralism boundary, deposited more sand than fertile loam. Water supply
continued. Pastoral groups like the Bhattis, Joiyas, Wattus and in the two regions varied. The level of precipitation declined in
Bodlas, who earlier grazed their large herds in this tract, felt the relation to the distance from the Himalayan range in the north.
In Central Punjab it was a good 20 to 30 inches; but in the
without restriction of any kind up to now, and their real complaint is against south-east it fluctuated between 10 to 20 inches, falling to less
however innocuous to
any restriction of the privilege however necessary and
Robertson on the Forest Settlement of Tahsils than 10 inches in the southern extreme of Hissar and Ferozepur
their real interests’. Note by F.A.
Muree and Kahuta, SRFCP, 16. And Baden Powell said: ‘The people want which bordered the deserts of Rajasthan. The concept of an aver
rakhs given over to them absolutely, to graze age rainfall is therefore misleading. In the south-east a year of
nothing less than to have the
dated Camp Kaghan, 16 June 1876, Baden Powell, heavy rain was followed by a cycle of bad years. The few natural
everywhere.. ‘.No. 14F,
.

to the Sec. to Financial Comm.) Punjab, SRFCP, inundation canals which existed in the south-east flowed only
Conservator ofForests Punjab,
16, p. 1484. during the monsoon, and their water flow was much less certain
22 No. 30, 14 February 1878, Denzil Ibbetson, Settlement Officer Karnal,
no. 118, p. 81.
than the perennial canals of Central Punjab, which flowed with
to Comm. & Sup., Delhi Division Records, Series I, Basta even speed and volume through the year. Central Punjab was also
23 SR: Sirsa 1879—83, p. 311.
24 ibid.,
a region of well irrigation: the ground-water level was only 10—30
p. 311.
60 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 61

feet below the surface. Towards the south-east the water level sank resource nomadism is a way ofoptimising resource use and spread
in places to below 150 feet, making well irrigation difficult.
25 ing risks; except nomadic societies cannot be conceptualized
The south-east was, in short, more sandy, arid and insecure through this language. The calculations of pastoralists and their
than Central Punjab. Recurring cycles of famine were an integral notions of work and time are not necessarily determined by a
part of the life of the region. In the nineteenth century, a series desire to maximize utilities.
of fifteen famines culminated in the two major famines over the The pastoral and agrarian zones were tied through myriad
26 Even after 1900, scarcities
tragic closing years of the century. structures of interdependence. The agrarian communities of
continued to plague the region, though the areas affected by Central Punjab, and later of the Canal Colonies, provided a
distress contracted. The 1905—6 famine was immediately followed market for cattle reared in Hissar, Rohtak, Karnal and Gurgaon.
by one in 1907—8, and then after a long gap came the famine of At the famous Hissar cattle fair, an average of 12,000 to 20,000
1920_1.27 In Sirsa, five out of six harvests failed between 1919 cattle were sold every year in the 1 870s and 1 880s, and the total
and 1921; and in Gurgaon, Rohtak and Hissar most harvests value of annual sales was over three lakhs of rupees.
29 Buyers came
between 1928 and 1935 failed partially or totally.
28 from different districts of Punjab and beyond: from Lyallpur,
Within this geo-ecological context, intensive agriculture could Ludhiana, Ferozepur, Jullundar, Meerut, Aligarh, Muzaffarnagar,
be sustained in Central Punjab, but not in the south-east. While Farukhabad, Bijnaur, and from as far away as Kanpur. ° Over
3
double cropping (dofasli harsala) was common in places like Jul 10,000 builocks were annually imported into Jullundar. There
lundar, it could not be practised in a region like Hissar. ‘When was a reverse flow of foodgrain and fodder from the agricultural
there was rain, the semi-arid south-east could produce one crop a to the pastoral zones.
year (ekfasli harsala) or two consecutive harvests in two years This relationship of interdependence is reflected in the com
(dofasli dosala). Here agricultural expansion could not easily dis position of agricultural stock. In the agricultural districts, bullocks
place pastoralism: the two activities did not always compete for outnumbered cows and calves; whereas the pastoral tracts present
the same land space or for the labour time of communities. Each a reversed picture (see Tables I and ii). Agricultural zones required
activity supplemented the meagre and insecure income from the bullocks for ploughing and the working of wells, but they could
other, allowing a more optimal use of land and labour resources. not internally rep oduce their agricultural stock. Pastoralists sold
In the language of political economy one might say that multi- their bullocks but retained their cows for breeding, and for the
supplies of milk and ghee which formed an important component
of their family income. Young calves, carefully tended, were ul
25Information on nineteenth-century conditions of the different eco-zones
of Punjab can be found in the numerous Tahsil Assessment Reports, District
timately sold at cattle fairs. More than 90 per cent of the cattle
Settlement Reports, District Gazetteers, Seasons and Crops Reports, and Land sold at these fairs were bullocks.
Revenue Administration Reports. The cycle of pastoral activities was structured by the seasons.
26 Land Rev, and Agr. (Famine), April 1898, A 30—7; Land Rev. and Agr. But the nature of the cycle in the semi-arid plains was different
(Famine), July 1901, A 7; Report ofthe Famine in the Punjab in 1896-7(1898);
Punjab Famine of 1899—1990 (1901), 7 vols.
27 Home Rev. & Agr. Fam., May 1907, A 5.
29 ‘Report on Cattle Fair at Sirsa: 1871—72, SRFCP, No. 13; SR: Sirsa
28 Report of the Fodder Famine Operations in the Ambala Division (1930);
1879—83, pp. 296ff, Punjab Rev. (Rev.), March 1879, A 9; Punjab Rev. (Agr.),
February 1884, A 6—7.
Final Report of the Operations for the Relief of Distre.c in the Hissar District 3° ‘Report on Cattle Fair at Sirsa: 1871—72’, SRFCP, NS 13.
/

(1932—33).
62 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 63
Table I Table II
Variations in Cattle Population Composition of Cattle Population
(in thousands) (percentage distribution)

Years Bulls & Cows Buffaloes Young Years Bulls & Cows Buffaloes Young
Bullocks Male Female Stock Buiocks Male Female Stock
Pastoral Tracts Pastoral Tracts
HIssAR HIssAR

1893 137 180 5 65 164 1893 25 32 1 12 30

1898 116 130 4 58 151 1898 25 28 1 12 33
1904 85 79 5 59 132 1904 23 22 1 16 37
1935 103 121 2 91 251 1935 18 21 1 16 44
ROHTAK ROHTAK

1893 131 119 2 60 163 1893 27 25 1 12 34

1898 115 107 2 58 136 1898 27 25 1 14 32
1904 88 63 1 54 127 1904 19 14 0 12 27
1935 128 87 1 92 226 1935 24 16 0 17 42
Agricultural Tracts Agricultural Tracts
JULLUNDAR JULLUNDAR

1893 183 79 29 41 91 1893 43 19 7 10 21

1898 175 76 32 47 108 1898 40 17 7 10 25
1904 194 76 31 55 112 1904 41 16 6 11 24
1935 152 48 27 94 163 1935 31 10 5 19 34
LUDHIANA LUDHIANA

1893 142 73 4 48 73 1893 42 21 1 14 21

1898 130 81 4 53 95 1898 36 22 1 14 26
1904 131 55 3 55 95 1904 39 16 1 16 28
1935 108 47 1 80 146 1935 28 12 0 21 38

Source: Up to 1899 the statistics of Punjab cattle censuses are reported in

from the one in the hills. As long as grass was available, village
Punjab Administration Reports and Punjab Land Revenue Ad
ministration Reports The 1904 and 1909 Censuses are reported
herds were sent out under the charge of a cowherd to graze in
in Punjab Seasons and Crops Reports. Subsequently there were village commons. And where there was water in village ponds
separate volumes of Punjab Cattle Census. Some of these census ’ By the beginning
cattle were allowed to drink and wade about.
3
statistics are also reproduced in the Agricultural Statistics ofBritish
India. ‘ SR: Sirsa 1871—72, p. 302.
 Pastoralists in a Colonial World 65
64 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
pastoralists who were affected. Cattle are a volatile resource: they
of April the grass in the barani tracts withered, the pools in the perish in large number during times of famine. Enervated by
jungles dried up. Then, pastoralists had to move in search of hunger, they succumb to cattle disease and the winter frost.
36 The
pasture and water. From the Karnal nardak, cattle were driven to famous cattle breeds of Hissar were periodically decimated by
the hills and riverine tracts. With the beginning of the monsoon fodder famines which recurred in the region with tragic regularity.
32 But there were tracts
the herds were back on their return journey. When the rains failed in 1863—4 and the year after, large herds
where rainfall was always inadequate and grasslands rarely greened. were driven towards Karnal. Only two-thirds of that number
In such tracts the monsoon did not bring the herds back home. returned. Between 1866—7 and 1867—8 over half the cattle in the
In the rainy season, we are told, when the Bikaner grasslands were district perished. Those that survived were ‘tottering and emaci
lush, cattle from the dry parts of Sirsa, Patiala and even Ludhiana ated’: they could not even be driven out to graze. 37 In 1868—9
33 They returned north only after the
were driven south to graze. both harvests failed again. Of the estimated 202,327 horned cattle
grass there was exhausted. in the district, only 53,737 survived. In the disastrous years of
These cyclical migrations were of two sorts. One: a regular 1896—7 Hissar cattle-owners moved to the native states in the
annual movement between uplands and lowlands, between the hope of fodder. When they returned after the kharif sowings were
dry tracts and the green. Two: a more irregular movement con over, only a fifth of their stock was left. An estimated 77,000 cattle
ditioned by cycles of good and bad years. In years of drought, 38 After the famines, when bullocks were scarce, buffaloes
died.
migrants from barani tracts went to irrigated areas, within the were used to plough the fields and work the wells; at times women
district and outside, in search of pasture and work, returning home were to be seen pulling the plough.
34 These migrations were ‘in proportion
after the drought was over. Pastoral and agricultural zones experienced good and bad years
to the dryness of the season amounting to an entire exodus in in different ways. A look at Table II will show that when Hissar
35 Such movements set up relationships of inter
times of famine.’ lost its herds, Jullundar did not. Between 1893 and 1904, a decade
dependence between different regions and communities. of acute scarcities, there was a sharp decline in the cattle stocks of
The history of droughts left a very deep mark on the life of Hissar: as much as 36 per cent in the case of bullocks and 56 per
cent in the case of cows. Over the same years the cattle stock of
32 30, 14 February 1878, Ibbetsors, Settlement Officer, Karnal to Davies,
No.
Comm. and Sup., Delhi Div., Delhi Division Records, Basta no. 118, Series I,
J ullundar continued to increase. Peasants in Jullundar did not
suffer scarcities.
p. 85.
SR: Sirsa 1871—72, para 198. In fact, a bad year for Hissar was a good year for Jullundar.
In the famine of 1896, pastoralists were seen migrating from all the barani ‘When the pastoral zone was affected by famines, peasants in
tracts of the province. A report on Sharakpur, a cattle grazing tract in the Lahore Central Punjab gained. The failure of local harvests forced the
district, tells us: ‘When the people realized the impossibility of saving the cattle pastoralists of the south-east into a greater dependence on the
if they stayed at home, many families emigrated with their cattle and all their market for fodder and grain. As the demand for grains and fodder
belongings to the Chenab Canal, the banks of the Ravi and Sutlej, and the increased, their prices soared, inflating the incomes of peasants in
submontane tracts of Sialkot and Gurdaspur. Many villages were left half empty
and in two only one family remained. It is estimated that over 1700 families
36 This fact is authenticated in a large number of studies on ruminants.
left the tehsil.’ Land Rev, and Agr..(Famine), April 1898, A 30—5.
No. 97, May 1885, Deputy Commissioner Karnal to Commissioner and SR: Sirsa 1871—72, para 189, p. 294.
38 Land Rev. & Agr. (Famine), 1898, A 30—5.
Superintendent, Delhi Division, Land Rev. andAgr. (Famine), September 1885,
A 3-4.
66 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 67
the agricultural zones and pushing up the expenses of pastoral and relations to bring cattle into the grasslands of the Nardak.’
’ Not
4
other buyers. When expenditure increased, income dipped. The every one could establish such reciprocal relations of mutual rights
volume of transaction in cattle fairs and the level of bullock prices and obligations.
depended on the seasons. The prospect of a drought led to a rush Pastoralists had to live with high rates of cattle mortality
39 ‘While supplies increased, demand fell. Many
of anxious sellers. during scarcities; but they sought to devise strategies ofminimizing
cattle fairs could not be held in the famine years of the late 42 When grass and fodder were scarce, supplies
long-term losses.
nineteenth century for want of buyers. The price of bullocks were reserved for calves. Older animals were allowed to die of
therefore had a direct relationship to the harvest: it was low in starvation, or slaughtered if they could not be sold. Table I shows
years of drought and high in years of plenty. In 1895—6, when a that during famine years the number of calves did not decline as
dearth of fodder led to high rates of cattle mortality, bullocks rapidly as the number of cows and bullocks. This led to a change
which ordinarily cost Rs 60—80 could be purchased for Rs 25.° in the age structure of herds. After the famines, ‘young stock’
Cycles of bad years benefited nomadic cattle dealers, who bought constituted a larger proportion of the cattle population (Table II).
their cattle cheap in the arid cattle-breeding zone and sold them In the longer term, the pastoral economy in the dry tracts did
dear in the agricultural tracts. A part of the benefit also went to suffer a crisis. The extension of arable and the enclosure of forests
those peasants who acquired agricultural stock in these years. meant an overgrazed, shrinking pastureland. This led to soil ero
Within such structures of a skewed interdependence, im sion and the deterioration of available grazing lands. Migration to
poverishment of pastoralists in the arid zone and peasant ac wet tracts became difficult as pastures disappeared from there.
cumulation in the agrarian zone were tied processes. The symbiotic Even the shamiats were partitioned by agriculturists. The pressure
relationship between agriculture and pastoralism provided both on pastures reflected itself in the decline ofagricultural stock. After
the basis and the limits within which the pastoral economy could the sharp decline in the late nineteenth century there was a re
reproduce itself. covery, but not to earlier levels (Table I). This decline, in turn,
Different groups of pastoralists confronted these limits in affected agriculture. The supply of manure and plough cattle could
different ways. Some effectively redefined the ecological con not keep pace with the demand, creating barriers to agricultural
straints within which they had to operate, others could not. Mob expansion.
ility was a pastoral strategy to overcome seasonal scarcities of grass
and fodder. But all groups could not be equally mobile. Mobility
The Discourse of Property
itself had to be sustained by other strategies. In Karnal, intermar
riage between people of nardak (an upland) and the riverine tract The colonial debate on the rights of pastoralists, forest dwellers
provided a mutual guarantee ofgrazing rights: ‘In years of drought
they [the people of Nardak] seek pasture with riverine countries, 41 No. 30, 14 February 1878, Ibbetson, Settlement Officer, Karnal to Davies,

and in years of flood and heavy rainfall, when the grass in the Comm. and Sup., Delhi Div., Delhi Division Records, Basta no. 118, Series I,
riverine countries is rank and of inferior quality, they allow their p. 85.
42 On the continuing problem of fodder scarcities in the twentieth century,
Punjab Rev, and Agr., February 1878, A 10; Punjab Rev. (Rev.), March see Land Rev, and Agr. (Famine), November 1911, A 8—42; Land Rev, and
1879, A 9; Ambala Division Records, Basta no xiIi/28 (ii), Case 231, 16 March Agr. (Famine), April 1912, A 1—4; Land Rev, and Agr., January 1916, A 13;
1869. Land Rev, and Agr., February 1918, Al; Land Rev. and Agr. (Famine), October
4° Land Rev, and Agr. (Famine), April 1898, A 30—5. 1920, A 1.
68 Nature, Culture, Impe?ialism
Pastoraljst-s in a Colonial World 69
and peasants was framed within a specific discourse of property.
This discourse celebrated proprietorship and viewed all forms of cestral shares may not define rights in the village but were to be
society through two important categories: proprietor and tenant. the absolute basis of rights on the shamilat. By a peculiar logic,
The framing question of this discourse was always the same: who rights to pastureland became the defining basis of the agricultural
has the right of property? The rights of all groups were conceived, 43
community.
classified and fixed in terms of such categories; they were defined But grazing lands given over to village communities were for
in response to such questions. From this initial framing question, agricultural use, not pastoralism. The record of rights categorically
others followed: who owned the grazing runs? the uncultivated stated that the rights to shamilat were to be ‘exercised only for the
land? the open pastures? the forests? how were the rights to these bona-fide agricultural and domestic purposes of the bartandars
lands to be defined? (right holders in protected forests) and only on behalf oftheir own
Within the Punjab tradition, coparcenary village proprietors cattle, not for. . purely pastoral as distinguished from agricul
.

were seen as the core of the agrarian order. The proprietary body tural purposes’.
44 Cattle could be kept for agricultural and domes
was linked together through ties of kinship and a claim to common tic use, not for trade. It was repeatedly emphasized in official
descent. Within such a pattidari community, village land was to discussions: ‘it is to be distinctly understood that the Government
be divided among the proprietors according to ancestral shares. ofIndia do not desire that grazing should be looked upon primari
At the time of the settlement a part of the open grazing land was ly as a source of income’.
45 Not only were the rights of nomadic
allocated to each village as shamikxt deh. The ancestral shares of pastoralists denied, but so were the rights of those who wished to
agricultural land were to determine each proprietor’s claim to the practise agro-pastoralism. Within this regime ofrights, proprietors
shamilat. Only proprietors could have a right to graze their cattle could not allow pastoralists to graze in the shamilat. Orders
in this common land. Within this framework, nomadic pastoral specified that even ‘lambardars and other influential villagers have
ists—people without property—could have no access to the no right to grant leases of the grazing’.
46 Only by becoming a
shamilat. The right to pasture was appended to the right to proprietor and an agriculturist could a pastoralist graze his cattle
revenue-yielding agricultural land. Later, pastures claimed for the on a village common.
agricultural community were assimilated into agricultural land:
Douie, Punjab Sett1ementManua, chapter VIII; SR: Karnal 1872—80; SR:
they were partitioned and cultivated. Ludhiana 1878—83; C.L. Tupper, Customary Law ofthe Punjab: Records ofthe
The logic was caught in the contradiction which it generated. Punjab Government (1881), vols 1—3.
Access to the shamilat was first made dependent on membership ‘Records of Rights: Kangra Forests’, Section C para 11, SRFCP, NS 26
to the coparcenitry proprietary community, but then the very 5 This statement applied to all pasture lands—the class four forests, as

identity of the pattidari community was defined in terms of its defined in the resolution on forest policy issued by the Government of India
relationship to the shamilat. Revenue officials of the nineteenth in 1894. Punjab Land Administration Manua p. 485.
46 ‘Kangra Valle Forest Settlement Report’, pam
century realized that the actual area of land held by proprietors 35, SRFCP, NS 2. See
also ‘Record of Rights of Villages in Kangra Proper Prepared for the Revenue
had no relation to their notional ancestral shares. The size of
Settlement of 1865—69’, Section 18, SRFCP, NS 26; Lyall reported that ‘the
holdings changed.continuously through a complex process ofland Khewatdars only have the right to graze their own cattle and sheep and goats,
transfers. ‘What then was the pattidari tenure? Having invented and they have never exercised any greater power since. . the owners of the
. .

the tenurial term, officials now sought to save it by redefining its soil have no right to allow other persons to graze.. .‘Note by James Lyall,
meaning. In a pattidari community, argued some officials, an- dated 19 February 1892 on MrAnderson’s Report of 20 August 1887 on Forest
Settlement of Kangra Proper, SRFCP, NS 26
70 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 71
This framework of thought could not tolerate open access to associated with all that was considered evil, ugly and miserable.
49
pastures and forests. Vast stretches of grazing tracts in West Punjab Brandreth wrote of the Gujars, Dogars and Bhattis of Ferozepur:
were taken over and partitioned and property rights were given They are utterly devoid of energy and are the most apathetic, unsatis
over to individuals for cultivation. It was officially stated that factory race of people I ever had anything to do with. They will exert
‘hopes should be held out to cultivators that if they fully cultivate themselves occasionally to go on a cattle stealing expedition or to plunder
the land (earlier used for grazing) they would be treated as pro some of the quite well-conducted Arains . but their exertions are
. .

prietors and that if they sank wells the land would be assessed at seldom directed to a better end. They take not the slightest interest in
47 In many areas, permanent leases on grazing
barani rates only.’ any agricultural pursuit; their fields are cultivated in the most slovenly
lands were given to individuals on the condition that the lessees manner; you see none of the neatly kept houses, well-fenced fields, fat
cultivate the land instead of using it to graze their cattle. bullocks, and wells kept in good repair which distinguish the industrious
castes; but the hovels in which they live are generally half in ruins; no
The rights of gaddis were not linked to rights to agricultural
fences ever protect their fields. Their cattle are half starved, and their
land. But within colonial discourse, all rights were recast in the walls often in the most dilapidated condition.
°
5
image of agricultural property rights. As regards the rights of
gaddis, it was stated: ‘their rights are personal and not attached This statement, made in the first decade of British rule in Punjab,
to land; but they are hereditary and descend like property in was endorsed by Malcolm Darling in 1925.’ Seventy-five years
land. ‘
On the grazing runs of gaddis, colonial officials con of pax Britannica had failed to transform the pastoralists. Em
tinued their search for assamis (tenants) and muqaddams (head bodied in such statements is a range of cultural notions about
men). After claiming grazing runs as government property, the work and leisure, good and evil, order and beauty. The statements
state classified shepherds as lessees who held their right direct from express a specific understanding of the relation between nature
the government. Like village headmen who collected land revenue and culture.
from villages, muqaddams were appointed from among pastoral The ‘lazy’ pastoralist was inevitably defined in opposition to
gaddis to collect grazing dues. Landed tenures provided the frame the ‘sturdy industrious’ Sikh peasant, cultivating his field with care
through which the pastoral tenurial structure was conceived. and yielding revenue to the British. Pastoralism was not a worth
Within this regime of property, all rights to land were segregated, while enterprise, cultivation was. Lack of interest in cultivation
fragmented, classified and fixed. Within it the rights claimed by was a sign of ‘apathy’. Land that had not been cultivated was
nomadic pastoralists appeared unintelligible and illegitimate. considered ‘waste’, ‘barren’, a ‘wilderness’. Through cultivation,
through human enterprise, barren land could be made productive
Culture and Nature The Gujars of Ferozepur were said to be ‘unwilling cultivators and greatly
49
In colonial descriptions, pastoralists were objects of contempt. They addicted to thieving’: Brandreth, SR: Ferozpur the gaddis of Kangra were ‘the
most pernicious enemies of conservancy’: Egerton; the graziers of the West
were inevitably represented as lazy, improvident ‘wretched’ as Punjab bar were termed ‘janglis’ and stated to be ‘wild’ and ‘lawless nomads’
cultivators, lawless, wild, and even mean and cowardly. They were who held ‘all peaceful pursuits in unaffected contempt’; Malcolm Lyall Darling,
The Punjab Peasant in Prosperity and Debt (London, Oxford University Press,
Order issued around 1852 by the Commissioner of the Lahore division, 1947), p. 123.
5° FerozepurSR, 1853,
Punjab Land Administiation ManuaL para 764. p. 4.
48 ‘Kangra Valley Forest Settlement Report’, para 30, SRFCP, NS 26
5’ Darling, The Punjab Peasant in Prosperity and
Deb6 p. 62.
72 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 73
and fertile. The.labour involved in this project was ‘productive’ society. To be civilized, they had to be physically integrated with
to be classed as more valuable than that which added nothing to the peasant world.
the fertility of the soil. Those involved in this human endeavour In a way, this ideology of improvement was not specifically
were superior to those who did not participate in it. Nomadic colonial: it was rooted in a long tradition ofwestern thought. The
activity, in fact, was not purposive action. Pastoral nomads were drive to dominate nature began with the desacralization of the
always described as roaming or wandering ‘hither and thither’. So, world and asserted itself with cold vigour in the post-Enlighten
pastoral activity was spurned and pastoralists stigmatized. ment Age of Reason. Christianity was deeply anthropocentric: the
Like other natural resources, land was seen as scarce. Since its function of nature was to serve man’s needs. Nature was seen as
supply was limited, its use had to be ordered and controlled, its predatory and as a possible source of demonic 53 threats. Sub
productive capacity augmented and reproduced. Proceeding from sequently, rationalist post-enlightenment thought conceived of
this perspective pastoral practices were condemned. They used nature as a quantitative, mechanistic mass, a resource to be ex
scarce resources indiscriminately, it was said, and contributed ploited. Its utility could be maximized through scientific, rational
nothing to augment or regenerate the productive capacity of the control, through productive labour. The concept of ordering,
soil. domination and the conquest ofnature was integral to the ideology
The uncultivated countryside was not only barren and desolate of improvement which developed ineighteenth-century 54 Europe.
but also dreary and ugly. Tamed, ordered, inhabited and produc In England, this ideology of conquest was questioned by the
tive landscape was beautiful. Shrubs were dreary, wheatfields were romantic 55 tradition. For the romantics, nature had an inner life,
not. The ‘well-fenced field’ was a sign of industry and order, as an organizing principle, an innate beauty. This natural order had
also a picture pleasing to the eye. The clearance of ‘wastes’ and to be discovered, and a communion with nature had to be re-es
the colonization of land were therefore processes which trans tablished. India played upon this European romantic imagina
formed dreary landscapes into beautiful ones, activities by which 56 Reacting against the monotony of ordered landscapes in
tion.
‘wild’ nature was tamed and ordered. the age ofagricultural and industrial revolution, travellers voyaged
The extension of cultivation was synonymous with progress, to India in search ofwild nature unspoilt by human intervention.
57
and the ‘reclamation of waste land’ was a civilizing project. Un Through this communion with nature, travellers hoped to under
cultivated tracts where pastoralists grazed their cattle were outside stand the ‘true’ meaning of life, in part via psychic experiences
the pale of culture: they had to be ‘claimed’ or ‘reclaimed’ for which their own country denied them. 58 This romantic spirit
humanity through cultivation. Agricultural colonization, a meta 53 Lynn White Jr., ‘The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis’, discussed
phor for the expropriation of pastoralism was represented as a in Donald Worster, Nature’s Economy: The Roots ofEcology (New York, 1979).
process of civilization. Pastoral tracts, in fact, appeared physically See Worster, Nature’s Economy, and Keith Thomas, Man and the Natural
segregated from the realm of culture. ‘Cut off from the rest of the World: Changing Attitudes in England (Harmondsworth, 1983).
world by desert and hill, the people [the pastoralists of west 55 See Worster; also Thomas, Man and the
Natural World
Punjab] are caged in the surroundings, and like birds born in
56 John Drew, India and the Romantic
Imagination (New Delhi, 1987); Javed
52 Enclosed and Majeed, Ungoverned Imaginings: James Mill’s The History of British India and
captivity, have small desire for anything else.’ Orientalism (Oxford, 1992).
trapped, these pastoral regions had no link with the wider, civilized Ibid.
58 See the discussion of E.M. Forster’s
A Passage to India and ‘The Road
52 Ibid., p. 94. from Colonus’ in Drew, India and the Romantic Imagination.
74 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
found expression in literary texts, sketches and paintings. Yet this
F Pastoraljst,c in a Colonial World
by relentless nature’. For Darling, life here was ‘the immemorial
75

life of India, primitive, isolated and fatalistic’; while that in the

romanticism did not throw overboard the official ideology of
Canal Colonies was ‘the new life brought in by pax Britannica,
improvement: rather, it was wedded to this ideology.
The romantic generation of British Indian officials reacted prosperous, progressive, and modern’. The colonization which
against the flattening uniformity of western laws, against the im modernized the region also transformed the landscape:
personality of Cornwallis’s system of government. They wanted Ten years ago it was a country of rolling sand dunes patched with grass,
indigenous systems to be preserved in all their 59 variety. They and of hard, unfruitful plains glistening with salt. In the early nineties,
dreamt of a personalized, paternal rule over the countryside. But a man journeying south from the Jhelum to the Sutlej would have had
they were concerned primarily with peasant institutions and cus to traverse 150 miles of some of the ugliest and dreariest country in the
toms. And their filial care extended to peasants, not pastoralists. world. Here and there round scattered wells. his eye might have been
. .

gladdened by a smiling casis of wheat;. his way would have probably

Lawrence’s ideal was of a ‘country thickly cultivated by a fat,
. .

have lain through an endless waste of bush and scrub, with little sign of
contented yeomanry, each riding his own horse sitting under his life beyond the uncertain footmark of camel, buffalo, and goat, and the
own fig tree
‘.°
In this pastoral imagination, the pastoralists
.
moveable dwelling of the nomad grazer, with its roof of thatch propped
did not figure. Punjab was seen by officials as a land of peasant upon wooden poles... most people would have agreed with the deputy
proprietors. The great debate in Punjab over protective measures
.

commissioner of Jhang who described it as ‘unrivalled in the world for

concerned only the 61 peasants. its combination of the most disagreeable features a landscape is capable
These notions inform even the most sensitive colonial ac or arrorcirng.,62
counts of rural Punjab. Consider Malcolm Darling’s The Punjab
Darling could never forget the ‘impression of desolation made
Peasant in Prosperity and Debt. Perceptive and brilliant in many
upon his mind’ when, ‘fresh from the verdure and beauty of
ways, the book is emphatic in its celebration of peasant culture in
England’, he found himself in this West Punjab scrubland. His
opposition to that of the pastoralist. And it is an account in which
description repeats all the stereotypes of colonial discourse. We
the story of colonization becomes a narrative of progress. In the
have the contrast between pastoral land—subject to uncontrolled,
Canal Colonies over twenty lakh acres of grazing lands were taken
untamed nature—and agricultural colonies where we ‘feel every
over by the state, pastoralists were expropriated, agricultural col
where the beneficent hand ofman’. One region epitomized pover
onies were set up, canals were constructed, and blocks of land were
ty, misery, ugliness, a primitive state ofbeing; the other prosperity,
granted to the ‘sturdy peasants’ of Central Punjab. Darling’s chap
well-being, beauty and progress. Darling reacted against the Util
ter on the Canal Colonies is preceded by one on the pastoral tracts
itarian ethos, but his writings are saturated with much the same
of West Punjab, a narrative strategy meant to heighten contrasts
Utilitarian attitude to nature.
63
between the two regions. The arid pastoral region represented a
Darling loved the Punjab countryside and hated the ‘uncleanly
picture of ‘poverty, ignorance and oppression’, a life ‘dominated

62 Darling, The Punjab Peasant, p. 112.

59Stokes, The English Utilitarians and India (Oxford, 1992).
60 R.N. Cust, Pictures ofIndian Lf (London, 1881), P. 255.
63 argues that Darling was influenced by the late-nineteenth-century
61 The shifting concerns within the debate over protection is studied by
idealist philosophy at Cambridge which reacted against traditional utilit
in arianism. See C.J. Dewey, “Cambridge Idealism”: Utilitarian Revisionists in
P.H.M. van den Dungen, The Punjab Tradition: Influence and Authority Late Nineteenth Century’, in the HistoricalJournah XVII, 1974.
Nineteenth Century India (London, 1972).
76 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 77
aroma of Indian city life’. Yet he clearly did not discover any strengthened this association between the pastoral nomad and the
innate beauty in nature. During what he calls his ‘rural rides’, he primitive. The evolutionist scheme saw the movement from sav
was not in search ofunspoilt nature or the beauty ofthe wilderness. agery to civilization as an evolution from tribe to state. Family,
Almost invariably, an ideology of improvement is woven into his property and territory were established at different stages of this
lyrical descriptions of landscapes: unilinear movement. Once the signs of civilization were fixed,
different groups could be ranked within a single evolutionary scale.
the hills were veiled in the thick mist of a drying earth. But the earth
itself could not have been lovelier—young wheat, ripening cane and Social groups such as the pastoral tribes—which were assumed to
dark mango grove all showing man’s cunning hand in complete harmony have no association with property, territory and state—appeared
with nature’s, and not, as so often in India, struggling half heartedly on the lower rungs of the scale. And once characterized as primi
against her callous caprices. tive, property, territory and state were always seen as alien implants
on pastoral nomadic society.
Only labour yields the desired harmony with nature. Beauty is a
productive landscape marked with human toil.
From such a framework of thought flowed a specific measure From Nomads to Vagrants
of civilization. The level of control over nature and the level of How were the pastoralist and the nomad perceived within popular
efficiency in using natural resources here define the status of a culture?
65 Those who master nature are advanced; those subject to
society. There is no doubt that at one level the social and cultural
the rhythms and dictates of nature are primitive. This argument world of nomads was opposed to that of settled peasants. Powin
legitimizes the power of the West and sanctions its ‘civilizing’ dahs considered mobility as their defining characteristic: the very
project. It sustains the critical attitude ofofficials towards nomadic term powindah, as I said, means ‘one who travels on foot’; the
66
pastoralism. alternative Persian term ‘kochi’, used in Afghanistan, has a similar
The evolutionist ideas of the late nineteenth century meaning: ‘one who moves’. Powindahs saw nomadism not only
as a legitimate way of life but as the very basis of their status and
Darling rode through the Punjab countryside and produced several vol
64
67 Those who settled, lost this identity. But the settled
pride.
umes his rural rides. See Darling, RusticusLoquitur (London, 1930); Wisdom
on
Pathans of the plains distanced themselves from the mobile hill-
and Waste in the Punjab Vihage (London, 1934); At Freedom’s Door (Oxford,
1949). The diaries and notes of these rural rides are available at the Library of
men. For them, ‘a hill man is no man’. And they commonly said:
the Centre for South Asian Studies, Cambridge. See Darling Papers, Boxes II, ‘don’t class burrs as grass, or a hill man as a human being’.
68
III, V, LVI, LIX, LX. Each group, the settled and the mobile, looked down upon
65 See Michael Adas, Machines as the Measure ofMen: Science, Technology,
and Ideologies of Western Dominance (Cornell, 1989; rpt., New Delhi, 1990). rehabilitated as a masculine pastoral hero: ‘there is a sort of charm about him
66 beyond the agrarian frontier could the nomads capture the romantic He leads a wild, free, active life in the rugged fastness of his mountains; and
official imagination. The Pathan nomads were troublesome, yet objects of there is an air of masculine independence about him which is refreshing in a
fascination; the desire to subdue and control them went along with a respect country like India.’ Denzil Ibbetson, Punjab Castes (1916; reprinted, Lahore,
for their masculine pride. Ibbetson wrote: ‘The true Pathan is perhaps the most 1986), p. 58.
barbaric of all the races with which we are brought into contact in the Punjab 67 Akbar Ahmad, ‘Nomadism as Ideological Expression: The Case of the

he is bloodthirsty, cruel, and vindictive in the highest degree; he does not Gomal Nomads’, Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol. 17, no. 1, 1983.
know what truth or faith is.’ Condemned as barbaric, the Pathan is immediately 68 Ibbetson, Punjab Castes,
p. 58.
78 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 79
the other. Pastoralists were frequently the subject of peasant ridi between the double transformation from king to commoner and
cule. In the dry tracts of the south-east, a gujar was suspect as back from commoner to king. In such popular narratives a life of
friend and neighbour. There was a common saying: ‘befriend a wandering is seen in opposed ways: it is both a punishment for
gujar only when all other communities die’ (sabbi zat marjae jab, social transgression as well as a quest for knowledge, an act through
kar gujar se dosti
)•69
One could sleep with ease, it was said, only which the norms of society are re-established. The journey reveals
when dogs, cats, ranghars and gujars were not present (kutta biii the innate nobility of the prince who is in commoner’s clothes.
do; ranghar gujar do/ye charon na ho, to pair phelake so). ° Ahirs
7 The journey becomes a method ofself-discovery, a process bywhich
were similarly stigmatized: they were faithless (ahir be-pir); they experience and knowledge are acquired, a passage through which
71 In
were as ruthless as the Baniya, as treacherous as the jackal. the self is constituted in confrontation with the world. The in
their self-conception, represented in the myths of their origin, dividual moves out of society to demonstrate his right to be rein
Ahirs contested such terms of censure. tegrated within it.
73
The mobile and the settled, nomads and peasants, were thus This notion of journey as a mode of self-realization and self-
locked in continuous conflict. But they also coexisted through constitution was premised on a specific conception of knowledge
conflict: nomadism was not yet repressed. Nomadic activity oper and experience. It is implicit here that knowledge comes from
ated not merely within the pores and interstices of society but was experience, that experience is spatially limited, that a specific
an integral part of it. And social attitudes towards the wanderer, experience is contained within a particular space. So, spatial
the outsider and the nomad were complex, contradictory, ambi mobility is necessary for the expansion of experience and
valent. knowledge, for self-realization. The journey marked the move
The wanderer was not univocally or universally censured. The ment from one enclosed world to another, one realm of experience
theme of travel or wandering appears insistently in Punjabi kissas. to another.
In the kissa of Raja Rasalu, for instance, the prince is banished In many popular Punjabi kissas the ‘outsider’ is romanticized.
from the kingdom for violating social 72 propriety. As Rasalu The hero is very often a pardesi. Izzatbeg, the hero of the kissa of
wanders from one region to another, he faces new problems, new Sohni-Mahiwal, is an amirzada from Bokhara who comes to India
tests. He confronts them all and in the process reveals himself—his with a kafila of saudagars. Izzatbeg moves with the saudagars,
valour, determination, intelligence, kindness. At the end, he re helping them sell horses and spices, and falls in love with Sohni,
turns to his kingdom. the daughter of a potter. In the kissa of Hir—Ranjha, Hir’s pas
This narrative structure recurs in other kissas. The prince sionate romance unfolds with Ranjha, who comes from across
becomes a commoner, wanders into unknown land, and later the Chenab. In the kissa of Sassi—Pannun, Sassi falls madly in love
commoner becomes the king. It is usually a journey which mediates with a pardesi, a Biloch, whom she has never even met. When
9R. Maconachie, ed., Selected Agricultural Proverbs of the Punjab (Delhi,
1890), p. 242. ‘3 For a discussion of the theme ofjourney in the context of Bengali popular
70 Ibid.,
p. 242. literature, see Roma Chatterji, ‘The Voyage ofthe Hero: The Selfand the Other
71 Rose, vol. II, in One Narrative Tradition in Purulia’, Contributions to Indian Sociology, vol.
p. 7.
72 Several versions of the Raja Rasalu stories are recorded in Temple, Punjab 19, no. 1, 1985. On the theme of transformation, see Brenda Beck and A.K.
Legendc, vols I, II, III. See also Charles Swynnerton, The Adventures ofthe Panjab Ramanujan, ‘Social Categories and their Transformations in Indian Folktales’,
Hero Raja Rasalu and Other Folktales ofthe Panjab (Calcutta, 1884). in D.P. Pattanayak and Peter Claus, eds. Indian Folklore I (Mysore, 1981).
80 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 81
Pannun comes to meet Sassi, he accompanies the saudagars from in these open spaces that Hir—Ranjha and Sohni—Mahiwal meet
Afghanistan and is dressed as one of them. each other. They move out of the village, away from the constraints
Yet relationships with outsiders was in a sense problematic. A of society, into a realm of freedom, a world of passion and dream.
76
stranger could never be trusted. In the kissa of Sassi—Pannun, Their return to the village marks a return to the sphere of con
74 Sassi is fated to love a
recorded in the early nineteenth century, straints.
stranger who will desert her. Her love for Pannun ends in tragedy In these kissas the flute appears as a metaphor for romantic
for both. This kissa powerfully expresses the popular fear of relat love and freedom from society’s norms. In the popular imagery
ing to outsiders. The stability and security of the knowable com here, as in some of the pastoral forms which developed elsewhere,
munity appears in contrast with the instability 0 f the outside the flute is associated with the pastoral nomad. Ranjha as well as
world. Mahiwal wander about in the grazing runs, playing the flute, much
Pastoral themes recur in the kissas in a variety of ways, reveal like their literary counterparts in British or Italian Pastoral poems
ing a complex of ambivalent and conflicting attitudes. In the kissa and eclogues.
77
of Hir—Ranjha, Hir falls in love with a zamindar’s son who be The flute is in fact associated with an entire way oflife. Ranjha
75 In the kissa of Sohni—Mahiwal, an amirzada
comes a cowherd. and Izzatbeg delight in a life of ease, untroubled by work. Even
from Bokhara becomes first a traveller and later a mahiwah the when compelled to work, they only end up playing the flute and
cowherd with whom Hir’s passionate love develops. Both Ranjha grazing cattle. The kissas set up a rhetoric of contrasts: a good fife
and Izzatbeg have to renounce their material, social inheritance. without work and pain is opposed with a life of toil and labour;
Only as mahiwals can they act out their romantic roles. This nomadic life appears in opposition to the norms of settled society.
transformation from a person of social standing to a wanderer and Pastoral life appears, in the Indian context as in the Western, as
then a cowherd is not represented as a fall: social transgression the romantic other; and so the object of the romantic imagination
does not produce a feeling of guilt among those who transgress. comes into being coterminously with the social censure of a
The pastoral theme has a spatial imagery. Romance in these peasant society.
kissas usually develops on the grazing runs and in the forests. It is The kissas, it could be said, reveal a tension between the
necessity of social codes and the urge to transgress them; between
the conjugal norms of society and the dream of passionate extra
This kissa, originally from Sindh and southern Baluchistan, was popular
all over Punjab. Hasham Shah transformed the folktale into a literary form.
marital union. Norms are represented as constraints on freedom
Bardic versions continued to differ from literary versions. For a bibliography on as well as the basis of order; transgression is celebrated as well as
the kissa, see Indian Antiquary, voi. xi, p. 291. The bardic versions of Hir— damned. The pardesi, the wanderer and the cowherd appear as
Ranjha and Sassi—Pannun recorded by Temple in the late-nineteenth-century romantic heroes, but they are also transgressors of norms. They
show the complex relationship between the bardic and literary versions of these
kissas. They show how the bardic versions borrowed from, contested and trans 76 ‘Bela vich o maujan kitrde, koi no rokandar’ (They made love in the wilds,
formed the classic literary renditions of folktales. See ‘A Version of Sassi Pannun where no one was to restrain them) ‘Qissa Hir Ranjha Musannifa Hafiz Ahmed
as Told by a Bard from the Hoshiarpur District’, Temple, vol. III, and ‘Qissa Mutawattan-i-Jhang’, in Temple, vol. II.
Hir Ranjha Musannifa Hafiz Ahmed Mutawattan-i-Jhang’, Temple, vol. II. In one version recorded in Temple, vol. II, Ranjha plays thirty-six beautiful
75 In some popular versions of the kissa, Ranjha claims to have been a cowherd tunes in the forest and makes all creatures dance. For the Renaissance Pastoral,
since he was five. See ‘The Marriage of Hir Ranjha as Related by Some Jatts see Sukanta Chaudhuri, Renaissance Pastoral and Its English Developments (Ox
from the Patiala State’, Temple, vol. II. ford, 1989).
82 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 83

enact their romance but, in the end, move out of society: they direct access to the Prophet, for he is the cowherd who supplies
have to renounce the world or die. The lovers reunite through the Prophet with his daily requirement of milk. Hir and Ranjha
78 And
death: Ranjha enters Hir’s grave and Pannun enters Sassi’s. inhabit a liminal space between the human and the divine: the
once dead they are deified: there is a shrine of Hir—Ranjha near seashore where Abdullah’s ship is stuck, and where no other
Jhang where, in the late nineteenth century, a fair was held in human lives, represents that liminal space. Ranjha, rather like
February. Virgil in Dante’s Divine Comedy, has the power to move between
The pastoral heroes of the kissas are deified in a variety of spaces, between different worlds. Abdullah’s journey between the
ways. In the version of Hir—Ranjha’s marriage narrated by the human and the divine world is made possible by Ranjha. Abdullah
Patiala Jatts in the late nineteenth century, the character of Ranjha was a Sayyid and was known for his sanctity. But it is Ranjha the
the cowherd fuses with that of a yogi with miraculous powers. cowherd who has closer proximity to the Prophet.
Ranjha does not become a follower of Balnath after Hir is married Nomads, pedlars and pastoralists faced a more univocal op
to Khera. The powers of a yogi inhere in him. 79 In the kissa of position under the colonial regime as the state attempted to dis
Abdullali Shah of Samin narrated by Ghulam Muhammad Bala cipline and settle them, and as the institutions of disciplinary
chani Mazari, the story of Hir and Ranjha reappears, emplotted power crystallized over time. The conflicting images, with all their
° In this, Abdullah Shah
in a narrative which sanctifies Ranjha.
8 ambiguities and possible variations in meaning, fused into one
sets off on a pilgrimage to Mecca. His ship having run aground, stereotypical image of the nomad as vagrant. Watched, hounded,
Abdullah disembarks to make the ship move. In the process, the harassed and frequently prosecuted by the police, nomads hence
ship sails off, leaving Abdullah upon a desolate shore. Abdullah forth lived a life of eternal persecution.
then discovers Hir and Ranjha. Ranjha takes Abdullah to the The Criminal Tribes Act of 1871 gave legal sanction to official
Prophet and brings him back to earth. In this kissa Ranjha has actions against ‘wanderers’. By the act of 1871, wandering became
a crime. Tribes classed as ‘habitual wanderers’ were now expected
78This plot structure is common in Punjabi kissas. See the kissa of ‘Adam to stay confined to their villages. Licences of leave were to be
Khan and Dur Khanai’ in W.L. Heston and Mumtaz Nasir, The Bazaar ofthe issued, but only to those who pursued an ‘honest livelihood’.
Storytellers (Lok Virsa Publishing House, n.d.). What is important is to see the Anyone found wandering without a licence was to be prosecuted,
way familiar plots are imbued with specific meaning: how the characters are fined and arrested. Pastoralists in the Canal Colonies (‘janglis’)
actually defined and subplots worked into the general structure. were classified as criminal; in many districts gujars, bhattis and
Through this plot, Waris Shah explores the relationship between earthly love
others pastoral groups appeared in the list of criminal tribes.
and mystical love. Grewal has suggested that Waris Shah, who wrote Hir-Waris
in 1766, was deeply influenced by Sufism. When Hit dies, Ranjha’s soul departs
Through other acts, the state extended control over the pas
from his body. Waris says that both Hit and Ranjha have left dar-i-fana and toralist’s animal stock. All animals—camels, ponies, horses, mules
gone to dar-i-baga. In Hir Waris, true love on earth is like a Sufi’s union with —were to be enumerated, registered and branded. In each district,
God. J.S. Grewal ‘The World of Waris,’ in Sudhir Chandra, ed., Social Trans the number of animals had to be ascertained, and in times of war
formation and Creative Imagination (New Delhi, 1984). For a reading of Hir, they were pressed into the service of the state. These measures
Hans,
as a failed allegory within the framework of Sufi imagination, see Surjit provoked continuous conflict as well as frequent confrontations
‘Why the World of Waris Collapsed’, Journal of Regional History, vol. lv, 1983.
between pastoralists and the state. ‘When in 1878 powindah camels
79 Temple, vol. II.
80 ‘Kissa of Abdullah Shah of Samin’ (recorded in the Biloch language from
were forcibly requisitioned for military carriage, the powindahs
the narrative of Ghulam Muhammad Balachani Mazari), Temple, vol. II.
rebelled. In a massive operation, celebrated later as the great rescue,

I
84 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Pastoralists in a Colonial World 85

armed bands ofpowindahs fought the police, stripped them naked, I would argue that a more complex process is at work. ‘While
burnt several thanas and recovered their animals. Such confronta pauperized, some nomads took to wage labour, earning small sums
tions were common. Yet the Punjab Military Transport Act of by digging canals or building roads. Some became part-time peas
May 1903 was passed, legalizing government rights over all trans ants or expanded their cultivation to supplement a declining
port animals. To exercise more effective control over animals, income. Others concentrated on trading activities. And finally,
nomadic pastoralism was discouraged in favour of settled animal there were those that continued their earlier pastoral activities even
husbandry. Willing breeders could get large land-grants in the within the new regime where a legal order classed them as vagrants
Canal Colonies. and criminals, forest acts appropriated their grazing grounds, and
Nomads, vagabonds and wanderers were thus to be disciplined an expanding agrarian frontier colonized the tracts over which they
and settled. Their identities had to be fixed. They had to belong earlier moved. At times, they silently defied the encroaching norms
to a marked territory—a village, a district, a province. To exercise of the new order; at other times they rebelled more openly. Their
power the state had to know the identities of those over whom conflicts with the state and agrarian society sharpened over time.
power was to be exercised, and confine them within controllable, Grazers set fire to reserved forests, defied restrictions on grazing
delimited spaces. Nomads appeared elusive, unknowable, an rights, raided peasant communities, destroyed crops, and carried
onymous beings whose identities were difficult to ascertain. Their 82 The conflict with peasant society was perhaps
off peasant cattle.
mobility was, to an extent, acceptable; their anonymity was not. most acute in the Canal Colonies, where pastoralists were ex
Since the anonymity of the nomad threatened the very basis of propriated on a grand scale. For a prolonged period, the ‘janglis’
power, their mobility had to be restricted and regulated. carried on a war with the early peasant migrants from Central
83
Punjab.
There was thus both resistance and adaptation to change. I
Conclusion can see no simple, smooth process of displacement and disposses
In concrusion I wish to draw out the implications of my general sion; no uniform, unilinear development.
argument. 82 on Grazing: no. 47, dated 16 October 1883, Report on Rohtak Birs,
In an interesting essay, Chris Bayly has written about a general Delhi Division Records, Bundle 4, Memorandum on Grazing in Government
process of peasantization of nomads in the nineteenth century.
He
81
Forests and Wastelands, Delhi Division Records, Bundle 4; on cattle lifting, see
counterpoises this process to the traditional thesis on the pro no. 260, dated 17 January 1907, from the Superintendent of Police, Lahore, to
letarianization of peasants. This counterposition is problematic: in the Deputy Commissioner, Lahore, Punjab Home Police, ‘September 1907,
a sense, Bayly shares the premises of the argument he opposes. This A13.
is because both these apparently opposed theses share the common Peasant settlers found the pastoral scrubland hostile in every way, and the
assumption that vulnerable social groups invariably succumb to the pastoralist (‘janglis’) appeared as their worst enemies. Malcolm Darling asked
Maharaja Singh, one of the first 140 migrants to Lyalipur, about his initial
irresistible and all-powerflil forces of commercialization and
impressions of the place. Singh recollected that the country was ‘all waste but
agrarian expansion. Unable to resist, peasants, according to one dotted with jand trees, snakes lifting angry heads, enormous scorpions, and not
thesis, become paupers; according to the other, nomads become a bird to be seen’. Darling, At Freedom’s Door, p. 79. In this description we have
peasants. all the images of danger, fear, poison, death and desolation which recurred in
CA. Bayly, ‘Creating a Colonial Peasantry: India and Java, c. 1820—1880,’
81 other accounts that Darling heard from the colonists. All the colonists also
Itinerario, vol. I, no. 1 (1987), pp. 93—106. complained of trouble created by the ‘janglis’.
 Whose Trees? 87

By using classical literature, oral traditions and archaeological

evidence, M.L.K. Murty and Gunther-Dietz Sontheimer recon
Chapter Three structed the history of pastoralism and pastoral communities in
the Deccan region from prehistoric times.’ Their studies pointed
to the antiquity of a sedentary, village-based dairy-cum-agricul
Whose Trees? Forest Practices and tural system, and also the historical evolution of a complex re
Local Communities in Andhra, lationship between agricultural, forest and pastoral regions. By
1600_1922* tracing through religious legends the cultural history of Kuruvas
living in Balapalapalle, a village seventy kilometers south-west of
Kurnool town, Murty shows the ‘acculturation of communities
of different subsistence systems, who were drawn into the fold of
ATLURI MURAIJ 2 Even though some pastoralists might,
each other in an ecosystem.’
over a period of time and on account of ecological changes, have
retreated to a life in the forest—thereby leaving space for others
to become settled agriculturists—there were legends and oral tradi
n order to understand the depletion of forest resources under tions, like that of Mallikarjuna, which showed the ‘permeation of

J the colonial paradigm of ‘scientific’ management and exploita

tion, we have to start with the differences between traditional
and colonial approaches to the use of forest resources, as well as
3 The legends associated with this
pastoralism and agriculture.’
pastoral god Malhikarjuna, endowed with two wives—one from
the higher caste (or class?) and the other from the tribes—supports
the nature of the conflict arising over the use of these resources the argument for this process. The legend associated with a famous
between local communities and the state. Siva shrine, Mallikarjuna, in Nandikotkur taluqa, Kurnool dis
To reconstruct the culture of the human—environment trict, shows Siva meeting a beautiful Chenchu girl on one of his
relationship—which is traditionally mediated by religion (i.e. hunting expeditions and marrying her. He is worshiped both by
beliefs, rituals and institutions)—we have to depend upon uncon the tribal Chenchus and the pastoralist Gollas.
4
ventional sources in the regional languages, in particular upon
‘M.L.K. Murty, ‘Ethnoarchaeology ofthe Kurnool Cave Areas, South India’,
classical literature, stalapuranas, village kaiflyats (local chronicles)
World Archaeology, 17; 2, 1985, pp. 192—205; and with G.D. Sontheimer,
and oral traditions. Classical Telugu poetry is full of observations ‘Prehistoric Background to Pastoralism in the Southern Deccan in the Light of
on the countryside, the landscape, the seasons, the fauna, the flora Oral Traditions and Cults ofSome Pastoral Communities’, Anthropos, 75, 1980,
and the inhabitants of the region. Equally, a mapping of the pp. 163—84; G.D. Sontheimer, ‘The Vana and the Kletra The Tribal Back
environmental situation from the 1790s to the 1850s could .be ground of Some Famous Cults’, in G.C. Tripathi and Hermann Kulke, eds,
done by using travelogues and the sympathetic observations and Eschmann Memorial Lectures (Bhubaneswar, 1987), pp. 117—64; and Son
notations of district-level colonial administrators. Finally, after the theimer, Pastoral Deities in Western India (New York, 1989).
1 860s we have the records of the Forest Department.
2 Murty and Sontheimer, ‘Prehistoric Background to PastoraUsm’,
p. 165.
Ibid.
*
I am grateful to David Arnold and Ramachandra Guha for their support The story is,taken from N. Ramesan, Tempits andLegends ofAndhra Pradesh
4
and keen interest in my work; also to Richard B. Barnett, University ofVirginia, (Bombay, 1962). For information on the legend of Mallikarjuna at Sri Sailam,
and V. Rajagopal, University of Hyderabad, for their comments. see Murty and Sontheimer, ‘Prehistoric Background to Pastoralism’.
88 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 89
Starting from the time of the Chalukya-Cholas and Kakatiyas by Krishnadeva Raya, spells out what ought to be the policy of the
(eleventh to fourteenth centuries AD), the inscriptional sources state towzrds forests and tribal groups. Though he recommends
found on the walls of Draksharama, Srikurmam, Simhachalam that the state should deliberately develop impenetrable forests on
and other temples clearly indicate the involvement ofthese temples all the boundaries of its kingdom in order to protect people from
in agriculture irrigations taxation and the land reclamation that thieves, he advises only a partial clearing of forests in the centre of
followed the expansion of cultivation. All these aspects were direct the kingdom, not others.
7 The policy towards the people living in
in medieval Andhra.
ly related to the management ofthe ecosystem the forests, called mannepu janulu, was aimed at assimilation and•
The pullay (tax) on grazing lands seems to have been one of the
not annihilation. One poem reads thus:
main sources of income for the state. Temples were also involved
in appropriating—via royal and private grants or donations—the The tribal people, who roam about in the forest and hill areas, possess
several defects. Even by imposing severe punitive measures one cannot
income from grazing and from the businesses of cattle-breeding
remove their defects, for it is like washing a mud wall to remove the
and rearing goats. Pastoralism therefore played an important role mud. Instead, it is better to maintain friendship with them by a policy
in social life. For instance, the inscription in the Draksharama of truthfulness and offering gifts. By doing so the king can get their
temple (in East Godavari district) specifically recorded the role of physical support during his expeditions against rival kings. Moreover,
go-raksakas (cowherds), kiratas (hunters) and boyas (tribals) in by using them, the king can get his enemy’s lands looted .

village life and temple functions. The support of these social

. .

groups—tribals cowherds and hunters—along with the peasant In the medieval period the maintenance of well-nourished
and artisan classes was considered to be crucial for the political forests, interwoven with hills, was helpful not only as an effective
legitimacy of the rulers. From the fifteenth-century we have textual defence against the enemy, but also as a political boundary. In
sources elaborating state policy towards these social groups and fact, Krishnadeva Raya is very specific in his policy about the need
the ecosystems they were living in.5 to avoid hills and forests during military expeditions against rival
The necessity for a well-defined policy towards agricultural and
forest regions and its relevance for political stability drew the atten have been written between AD 1515 and 1521 I have used the critical and
tion of Krishnadeva Raya, king of the Vijayanagara empire. A explanatory edition of Sri Vedam Venkataraya Sastry, first published in 1927
Aamuktamalyada, written
sixteenth-century classical literary text, 6 (in Telugu, Madras, 2nd reprint, 1964).
7
5
T his account is based on M. Rama Rao, Inscriptions ofAndhradesa, vol. Ii, Adauuu gaas aesamulavi;
part I (Tirupati, 1968); N. Narasimha Rao, Corporate Lifr in Medieval dadamuluga pempumu
Andhradesa (New Delhi, 1967); Draksharama Inscriptions (Hyderabad, 1970); aatma dharanistalikin nadumalavi, pollupolluga,
E. Hultzsch, ed., South Indian Inscriptions, vol. I (1870), vol.11 (1892), vol.111, podzpimpumu dasyu badha pondaka yundan!
part i (1899) and part ii (1903), and later H. Krishna Sastri, ed., vol. III, part Poem no. 256, ibid., pp. 459—60.
iii (1920) and part iv (1929); S. Subramanya Sastri, ed., Tirumala-Tirupati 8
Devasthanam Epigraphical Series, 4 vols (Tirupati, 1930); V. Kamesvara Rao, Kibama gurumannepum gahanacharijanambeda doshadrusti Kudyamu
Temples in Rayalasima (Telugu, Hyderabad, 1974); B.R. Subrahmanyam, ‘Social gaduganga pooniki; tega dalgina sarvamu; baasa neegi Vasyamuga nonarpa
and Economic Life in Ancient and Medieval Andhra’, and A.V. Jevechandrun, daadikagu; now gadi Kollalakun; shataaparaa dhamunu sahasradandamu
‘Temples as Cultural Centres’, in H.M. Nayak and B.R. Gopal, eds., South natarkyamu sarvamu neeluvanikin.
Indian Studies (Mysore, 1990), pp. 288—99, 310—23. This English translation is a free-style prose version of Poem no. 257, ibid.,
6 Krishnadeva Raya’s Aamuktamalyada alias Vishnu-Chittiyamu was said to
p. 460.
 Whose Trees? 91
90 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
the state, did not put any pressure or, broadly speaking, evolve a
kingdoms. He also evolved a well-defined policy to combing his
9
‘commercial’ attitude towards the forests. In reality the control of
own subjects in alliance with migrants from outside. He provided
tribal groups over the forests was recognized by the state as an
immigrants with cattle (apart from other items of wealth) when
unquestionable natural right. By recognizing the natural rights of
ever such people came on account of scarcity, drought, epidemics mannepujanulu over forests, and through its policy of friendship,
and other calamities.’° the state tried to assimilate them into the empire.’
2 In other words,
One important aspect of the Vijayanagara economy was the
during the sixteenth-century the well defined, mutually sustaining
encouragement given to the spread of settled agriculture. The state relationship between agriculture, forest and pastoral regions seems
was directly involved in developing irrigation systems and helped to have continued.
expand agricultural production with lower taxation on small The antiquity ofthe cultural—economic and political construc
farmers. But this thrust towards expanded irrigation does not seem
tion of human—ecological relationships can also be discerned from
to have depleted the forest cover. From the twelfth to the sixteenth the stalapuranas and village kaifiyats.’
3 I attempt here to discuss
centuries, the peasant-warrior migrant groups from coastal Andhra the role of religious traditions in preserving virgin forest tracts
are said to have introduced tank irrigation technology into the dry around the sacred hills, pilgrim centres, temples and sacred springs
upland zone, resulting in the development of cultivation on dry, which were associated with curative miracles.’
4 I will also analyse
fertile soils. How far these newly irrigated areas diverted pressure some of the village kaiflyats in order to map out the character of
from dat reclamation of forest lands to cultivation in the wet and the relationship between agriculture, pastoralism and village set
the dry upland regions is a matter yet to be researched. For the tlement patterns in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
purposes of our argument, we can safely presume that the spread Cohn Mackenzie, Surveyor-General of India, who arrived in
of tank irrigation did engage the energies of peasant-warrior mi India in 1783, was entrusted the task of surveying the villages of
grants from coastal Andhra by bringing the dry fertile zones under Andhra in 1790. With the help of Kavali Boraiah, Bhaskaraiah,
cultivation, not only in Telangana but also in Rayalaseema and Ramaswamy, Abdul Azees and Srinivasaiah, he compiled a series
some regions of Tamil Nadu.” Naturally the peasants, and even ofdescriptive histories ofvillages known as kaiflyats. They covered
See Poem no. 268, ibid., p. 466.
10 See Poem no. 245, ibid., p. 453. Agricultural Development: A Study in Medieval South India’, Economic Weekly,
11 For details, see K.S. Shivanna, The Agrarian System ofKarnataka, 1336—
Annual Number, 1961; Peasant State and Society in Medieval South India (New
1761 (Mysore, 1983); Gribble, A History ofthe Deccan, 2 vols (London, 1895— Delhi, 1980), and Vjayanagara (Cambridge, 1990); David Ludden, Peasant
1924); T.V. Mahalingam, Economic Lf’ in the Vjayanagar Empire (Madras, History in South India (Princeton, 1985).
1951); T.M. Srinivasan, Irrigation And Water Supply: South India, 200 BC—AD 12 See poems in Aamuktamalyada,
pp. 435—44, 447—9.
1600 (Madras, 1991); B. Muddachari, ‘Economic Life in Vijayanagar’, Journal 13 The important stalapuranas which I have looked at are related to Sri
M.L.
of Historical Studies (University of Mysore, 1979), vol. 15, pp. 47—56; Kalahasthi, Sri Sailam, Tirupathi, Alampur, Annavaram, Draksharama, Sim
Saraswathi, ‘Irrigation in Vijayanagar: Methods of Construction’, ibid., vol. 16, hachal Kshetram or Simhadri Kshetram and Annavaram.
Vijayanagar as Reflected in the Porumamil
pp. 77—89; ‘The Irrigation System in I am making a detailed study of these aspects in my project, ‘The Mediation
la Tank Inscription ofAD 1369’, ibid., vol. 17, 1983, pp. 15—19, and ‘Irrigation
of Religion in the Human-Ecological Relationship in Andhra, 1600—i 900’,
System in Bellary during the Vijayanagara Period’, ibid., vol. 18, pp. 16—20;
which is part of an all India joint project on ‘Socio-Religious Movements and
M. Krishnamurthy, ‘Vijayanagar Interest in Irrigation Facilities in Cuddapah
Cultural Networks in Indian Civilization’;indian Institute of Advanced Study,
District, Andhra Pradesh’, in Itihas (Journal of the Andhra Pradesh State Ar
Shimla, 1991 to 1995.
chives, Hyderabad), IX and X, 1982; Burton Stein, ‘The State, the Temple and
92 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 93
the origins—historical but also as preserved in the social memory numerous settlements, the origins of this village are associated with
through legends and myths—of each village, its flora and fauna, a cowherd, a pond, a sweet mango tree, and pastoral lands on a
people, religious and secular monuments, inscriptions, natural distant hill covered by a dense forest. This legend also demon
resources, religious custàms, functions and practices.
15 These strates that the traditional process of pastoralism coexisted with
kaiflyats offer us very useful information about the geographical virgin forest zones. The pressure exerted on forests never seems to
and topographical background of each village from the seven have been above the needs ofthe subsistence agrarian-cum-pastoral
teenth-century through to the early twentieth centuries. 7 In the case of Namavaram village, it seems this was
economy.’
The histories of Anakapalli, Yalamanchali, Aarantlakota and surrounded by five big as well as a few small water tanks on all
other small villages in Doddugolla Seema in Visakhapatnam dis sides, the existence ofwhich went back to antiquity; however, four
trict illustrate an interesting pattern of harmonious relationship out of the five major tanks were dug in the mid-seventeenth-cen
between pastoralism and the agricultural economy. Though most tury. Because of the newly expanded tank irrigation, both the
of the village settlements started with the clearing of small patches productivity and the value of the lands is said to have increased.
of virgin forest, initially the transition from pastoralism to settled One of the two mango groves was a hundred years old, established
agriculture converted some of the forest lands to agriculture. How by a Vaishya (Komati) named Kandula Kanumanthu.’
8 In Madu
ever, it was mainly the gayalubhumi (waste, uncultivated land) gula taluqa, there were twenty-four agraharas with fertile lands
which was converted into pasturage and cultivated land. There brought into settled agriculture. The unique character of these
seems to have been no particular pressure on forests once enough agraharas was that they were full of well-nourished groves with
6 One important feature of
area for subsistence had been cleared.’ many varieties of fruit-bearing trees. The whole area, before the
the ecology of all the villages was the widespread pattern of main establishment of East India Company rule, was controlled by the
taining a variety of orchards, fruit gardens, tanks, and topes (or family of a Konda raja. Though the water was unhealthy, the hills
chards) especially of toddy trees, and some form of mandabayalu were covered with manchigandham (sandalwood) trees and were
(open space). rich in honeycombs. The hills and the surrounding dense forest
For instance, Gopalapatnam village in Visakhapatnam district areas were also full of different species of birds and wild animals.’
9
was started as a pastoral settlement, and its origins went back to The story of Rapathinpatnam, written down by a Niyogi,
myths of the Mahabharata period. One legend was associated with Dinavali Krishnam Raju, is another example of ecological condi
Sahadeva, the youngest of the Pandavas, who spent his time in tions decisively influencing the pattern of a village pastoral-cum
hiding, looking after the cattle of the king of Virata. As with agricultural economy. This account describes, in considerable de
tail, hills covered with dense virgin forests as well as areas developed
‘5 The origins and histories of villages were, quite often, converted into oral
both for pastoral and agricultural needs—with irrigation from
traditions. This kept the histories alive in social memory. The religious cere natural streams and waterfalls. One is reminded of Krishnadeva
monies and annual religious functions or rituals associated with temples con Raya’s policy of integrating tribal areas as a natural protective polit
structed over a period of time also played an important role in the
memorialization of these histories.
ical barrier against attack, for the whole settlement was protected
16 Only fifteen village kaiflyats of Visakhapatnam district have so far been

published; the rest are in manuscript form in the Andhra Pradesh State Archives, ‘ For full details of the story, see ibid., pp. 10—11.
Hyderabad. See H. Rajendra Prasad, ed., Grama (Village) Kaiflyats: Visakhapat 18 Ibid., p. 12.
nam District (Telugu, A.P. State Archives, Hyderabad, 1990). 19 Ibid., pp. 13—14.
94 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 95
on one side by hills covered with forest and on the other three 23 It traces the antiquity
Mokhalingam, which is very important.
sides by tribals (kondavaandlu) living in the forests. The natural of the settlement to the sage Agatsya in Kritayuga, and while doing
ecology was thus exploited cleverly: the pastoral and agricultural so it depicts the taming of forests to create a settled agricultural
needs of the community were met, and these served simultaneously area. Yet,in the process, on account of some natural calamity, the
as a natural protective barrier against external threat.
°
2 whole area is said to have been once again covered with dense
The village kaiflyats in West Godavari district also show the forest. The reclamation process in the subsequent periods and also
tradition of clearing forests and porambokes (common wastelands) the entry of new tree species is explained in detail. The history of
to construct village settlements; the development of tank irriga this reclamation process is preserved in a legend associated with
tion; the conversion of bidu (wasteland) into cultivation, the devatas and kiratas, basically representing the penetration of social
paying of shrotriem (an estate on which the land revenue had been groups from settled agricultural areas (devatas) and their interac
assigned to the holder), and the development of well-nourished tion with the people living in the forests.
’
2
’ The story ofAaginapalli village in Krishna district, written
2
topes. Even in Guntur district, now a completely settled agricultural
in 1815, is another fascinating example. The origin myth of this area with well developed irrigation systems, the stories and his
village was traced back to the legend of Sri Sobhanachala Swami 25 The origin myth ofAmrithaluru
tories are the same in character.
stala mahatyam, narrated in the Brahmanda Purana, and the chan runs thus:
ges in the name of the hill in different yugas. Except for the temple
Previously the area was covered by a jungle in which a cowherd used to
of Sri Sobhanachala Swami, the other temples in use at the time
graze his cattle. A cow from the herd was giving milk daily over a Siva
(Malleshwara Swami and Shiva) were said to have been con lingam hidden in an anthill. When the shepherd tried to milk her after
structed around 1700. To support religious functions, rituals and returning home, he found her udders dry. Presuming that somebody
temple institutions, elaborate arrangements were made in land was milking the cow stealthily, he waited in ambush in the branches of
grants. Apart from these land grants, various totalu (gardens) were a tree and threw his axe over the lingam when the cow was milking.
cultivated and often dedicated to various Eods: they played a very The cow jumped for her life and trampled over the lingam, and a chip
significant role in maintaining the ecology of village settlements. of the lingam the size of the cow’s hoof came off. During the night Lord
Even the temple mantapas were constructed on hilltops, integrat Siva appeared in the cowherd’s dream in a terrible form and informed
ing a wider ecological zone into the protective ring of temples.
22 him that he was the God Amriteswara who had been living in the anthill
In Srikakulam district there is, among various histories—of for a long time and consuming thc milk, and he ordered the shepherd
Kalingapatnam, Kasipuram, Nagavalinadi, Tyadmanyam, Veera to expose the lingam from the anthill and construct a shrine. The
Ghottam, Rajam and Srikakulam—one particular narrative, by cowherd brought his relatives and others to the anthill and found the
lingam after excavation. Then he built a shrine, consecrated the lingam

Ibid., pp. 17—26.

20 23 For details, see H. Rajendra Prasad ted.), Grama (Village) KaijIyats: Sri
For details, see H. Rajendra Prasad (ed.), Grama (Village) Kafiyats: West
21
Kakulam District (Telugu, A.P. State Archives, Hyderabad, 1990).
Godavari District (Telugu, A.P. State Archives, Hyderabad, 1990). Only twelve 24 Ibid.,
pp. 22—30.
Kaf1yats are published in this volume. Al the village kaiflyats of Gunrur district have been published. I have used
25
So says the story ofAaginapalli, in H. Rajendra Prasad, ed., Grama (Village)
22 the latest collection for the English summaries provided here. See V.V. Krishna
Ka/lyats: Krishna District (Telugu, A.P. State Archives, Hyderabad, 1990), Sastiy, ed., Grama (Village) Ka/Iyats: GunturDistric4 vol. 5 (A.P. State Archives,
pp. 1—12. Hyderabad, 1990).
96 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 97

and named it Athriteswara. Then he built the village after clearing the Enugula gives a detailed narrative of villages that were mixed with
jungle and gave it the name Amrithaluru.
26 forest tracts, and shows the close relationship between settled
agricultural regions, pastoral lands and natural forests. He also
Though the origin of the village was related to a pastoral shows that hills and forest tracts were linked with famous temples
economy, over a period of time it expanded into a town, especially of all faiths, pilgrim centres, sacred rivers and springs associated
from the sixteenth-century. During the rule of Krishnadeva Raya, with curative miracles, fruit-bearing groves, ponds, and so on.
his karyakartha (regent) Nagappa Nayanimgaru allowed a re There are interesting descriptions of virgin forests preserved
mission of sunkam (tax) and gave donations for a period of three around temple centres like Srisailam, and of tribal involvement in
years; thereafter he regulated taxes and issued lease documents to managing these ecological zones. The author records how in
weavers, servants, and merchants in the year 1526. The village is several places he was told about wild beasts, such as tigers, which
said to have declined under Mughal rule and passed into the hands roamed freely, and of the grazing available for goats and cattle in
of the East India Company in 1802. At the time of the writing of the villages. Even the urban business centres seem to have become
this kaiflyat (the date is given as 8 September 1811) by Karanam integrated with agricultural regions and forest zones. The forests
Mallayya, this village was in the hands of Raja Vasi Reddy Ven adjacent to village settlements appear to have been used for mango
katadri Naidu. With the completion of the Krishna anicut the orchards and other fruit-bearing species.
°
3
village, which by then was settled as a ryotwari area, was trans The description of the living environment in these travel
formed into a fully developed agricultural area in Nizampatnam accounts could also be collated with the observations made by
taluqa. As Sontheimer and Murty suggest, most of the origin Julia Thomas during 1 836—9.’ Like the author of Kasiyatra Chari
stories of Andhra villages which are recounted in myths and oral ira, Thomas depicts a close relationship between wild jungles,
traditions were closely related to the god Siva or Mallikarj una, and cultivated regions and village areas. Giving her impression of the
to the spread ofvillage settlements based on a bovine-cum-agricul journey by road from Vizagapatam to Rajahmundry, she says there
27 What is worth exploring is the close association
tural economy. was ‘a great deal of pretty country and some notorious tiger-
of pastoralist groups and Brahman cultivators with temples and 32 She also comments on the early clearing of forest tracts
jungles.’
village settlements. by the colonial administration to make roads. She describes in
The ecological situation was not radically altered till the mid passing the beauty of the wildlife living close to inhabited areas,
dle of the nineteenth-century, as shown by the travel accounts of the ecology of towns and villages, the revolts by tribals and native
Enugula Veeraswamy in Kasiyatra Charitra (1830_1)28 and Kola rajas, and the raging of a cholera epidemic which took a heavy toll
Seshachalakavi in Nilagiri Yatra (1846).29 j Kasi)iatra Charitra, of the ‘poor natives’.
33
Between 1760 and 1800 the growing demand for teak was
The story is taken from the English version, in ibid., pp. ii—iv.
26 one of the matters which received attention from the colonial
See footnote 1.
27
28 Enugula Veeraswamy, Kasiyatra Charitra, Telugu original compiled by
30 Kasiyatra Charitra, pp. 1—29 and 198—232.
Komaleswarapuram Srinivasa Pillai, English translation by P. Sirapati and V. 31 Letters From Madras, During The Years 1836—1839, by ‘A Lady’ (new
Purushottam (Hyderabad, 1973).
29 Kola Seshachalakavi, Nil4giri Yatra (Journey to the NiIgiris) This is a prose
.
edn, London, 1861).
32 Ibid.,
work written in Tel ugu in 1846. The critical edition is published by the Madras p. 41.
33 Ibid.,
Government Oriental Manuscript Library (Madras, 1950). pp. 39, 41—3, 66, 137—8.
98 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 99
rulers. From 1800 the Madras government ‘encouraged and
34 Close scrutiny of the Board of Revenue Proceedings indicates
supported’ those who showed an interest in entering the teak trade that, at least till the 185 Os, the old forest cover did not suffer much
in coastal Andhra, and the Revenue Department even started depletion despite the advent of private commercial interests. A
gathering information systematically at least starting from 1800— speedy transformation occurred from the 1 860s, with the com
2. The creation of a market for teak and the imposition of govern pletion of the Godavary and Krishna anicuts.38 In a recent study,
ment control over forests were resented by the local communities T. Vijay Kumar has argued that, as a consequence of this anicut
because colonial needs cut into their customary subsistence needs. system, coastal Andhra was rapidly transformed from subsistence
The administration, however, partially succeeded in reorienting to market-oriented or commercial agriculture.
39 The rapid strides
local business through altered taxes and duties on the timber trade, in the development of canal irrigation in Godavary, Krishna and
and also by intervening in and manipulating local markets and Guntur districts converted most of the banjar (wasteland), minor
35 By 1813, as is indicated in the Board of
bazaars for their needs. forests and even common porambokes into cultivated land
Revenue Proceedings, the colonial administration could easily find producing mostly paddy and commercial crops. °
4
eager local merchants to cut, process and supply timber for export The pressure on forest resources on account of expanded
from places like the Raichotee and Chitwell taluqas. One contrac cultivation was only a part of the story of the process of forest
tor is said to have offered to pay three times the price offered by depletion after the 1860s.
41 Pressure was being exerted by the
others to exploit forest timber for the market. The government,
however, did not give total control over timber exploitation to
38 For details on the ‘projected’lintended consequences of the ailicuts, see
Reports on the Direct and Indirect Effects of the Godavary and Krishna Annicuts
private commercial interests, since sympathetic local administr
in Rajahmundsy, Masulipatam, Guntoor, etc., and the Coleroon Annicuts in
ators expressed concern about the displacement of people’s inter Tanjore and South Arcot (Madras, 1858); A.T. Cotton, Report on the Irrigation
36 In August 1838
ests in the forests by commercial middlemen. ofRajahmundry and the Deltas of Godavary (Madras, 1844).
G.A. Smith, Collector of Rajahmundry, in his report to the Board 39 See T. Vijay Kumar, ‘Agrarian Conditions in Andhra Under the British
of Revenue on the state of forests in the region, expressed sadness Rule: 1858—1900’, unpublished Ph.D thesis, Department of Histoiy, Osmania
at the decline in the supply of ‘large timber’. Smith was of the University, Hyderabad, 1992; also G.N. Rao, ‘Agrarian Relations in Coastal
opinion that supplies of such timber had fallen off since he first Andhra Under Early British Rule’, in Social Scientist, 61, 1977, pp. 19—29; Rao,
joined the district in 1822. He had seen an immense quantity of ‘Transition from Subsistence to Commercialised Agriculture: A Study of Krishna
District of Andhra, c. 1850—1900’, Economic and Political Weekly, XX, nos
large timber, ‘for the supply of which the forests had been severely 25—26; ‘Review of Agriculture’, June 1985, and Rao, ‘Canal Irrigation and
taxed’, so that now ‘only small timber was to be observed, and Agrarian Change in Colonial Andhra: A Study of Godavary District, c. 1850—
complaints had been made about the failing supply’.
37 1890’, Indian Economic and Social History Review, XXV; 1, 1988, pp. 25—60.
See, Madras Irrigation: Reports for Years 1876—77 to 1916—17 and 1925—
E.P. Stebbing, The Forests ofIndia, 3 vols (London, 1922—7); see voi. I, 26 The land reserved by the state for public purposes—village sites, roads,
part II, p. 63. tankbeds, etc.—is called a poramboke.
Letter to Samuel Skinner, Collector of the 2nd Division of Masulipatam, 41 Several new cattle diseases also seem to have appeared with the anicuts

from G. Garrez, Fort St George, 6 April 1802; and William Petrie to Board of and their numerous canals, such as Jalaga disease. Cattle mortality, the ap
Revenue, in Godavary District Records, vol. 944—8, pp. 395—412. pearance of new diseases, and the shrinking pasturage were dosely related.
36 See Cuddapah Collector, C.R. Ross, to the Board of Revenue, Madras,
H. Morris, Acting Collector of the Godavary, to Wudleston, Sec., Board of
July 1813, and other correspondence, in ibid., vol. 904, pp. 177—237. Rev., 28 September 1863, no. 314, in Board ofRevenue Proceedings, 1 December
.Stebbing, Forests ofIndia, vol. 1, part II, p. 77.
37 1863, pp. 6991—2.
100 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 101
Government of India on Fort St George for effective control and for his views were immediately transformed into the Madras Forest
management of forests, obviously for the benefit of the state and Act of 1882.46
42 Early Conservators of Forests,
state-aided commercial interests. This colonial ‘scientific’ conservation policy denied the needs
such as Cleghorn and H.R. Morgan, did respond critically, though of local communities at two levels. At one level, it denied the
without much effect, to pressure from the Government of India. 43 tribals their traditional subsistence living by banning both podu
The discourse of a ‘scientific’ conservation of forests, both at the (shifting cultivation) and the collection of minor forest produce.
47
all-India level and in the Madras Presidency, sought to make a This created the basis for a series of tribal revolts after the mid-
clear demarcation between the state and private commercial needs nineteenth century.
48 At a second level, the peasantry in the settled
on the one hand and the customary rights of local communities agricultural regions—both in the wet and the dry ecological zones
44 On 17 September 1875 the Government of Madras
on the other. —were deprived of their traditional grazing facilities and their
appointed a committee to prepare a draft Forest Bill which would customary rights to fuelwood, manure leaves and wood for agricul
apply to state forests, communal forests and proprietary forests. tural implements.
49 The consequences of this policy could be seen
As early as 5 August 1871, the Board of Revenue wrote endorsing during the 1920—2 no-tax movements and forest satyagrahas.
°
5
traditional community rights over the forests:
There is scarcely a forest in the whole of the Presidency of Madras which Peasant Perceptions of Colonial Intrusions
is not within the limits of some village, and there is not one in which,
so far as the Board can ascertain, the State asserted any rights of property By encroaching on small forests, the government stripped many
—unless royalties in teak, sandalwood, cardamom, and the like can be peasants of their grazing facilities.
’ Once the forests, porambokes
5
considered as such—until very recently. All of them, without exception, and dharmakhandams (community common lands) were declared
are subject to tribal or communal rights which have existed from time
immemorial and which are as difficult to define and value as they are Presidency (Madras, 1883), p. 20.
necessaiy to the rural population . Here the forests are, and always have
. .
46 For the text of The Madras Forest Act, 1882, see The
Madras Code, vol.1,
been, a common property [emphasis added]. pp. 368—97.
‘
See Atluri Murali, ‘Alluri Sitarama Raju and the Manyam Rebellion of
But by 1882, ‘circumstances’ seemed to ‘have changed’, and, as 1922—24’, in Social Scientist, 131, April 1984.
Brandis put it, ‘It is now recognized that there are no communal 48 Ibid.; and David Arnold, ‘Rebellious Hilimen: The Gudem-Ram
pa Rais
forests as distinct from state forests in the Presidency of Madras.’ ings. 1893—1924’, in Ranajit Guha, ed., Subaltern Studies I(Delhi, 1982).
In fact Brandis’s report on the need for effective state control over See the last section of this essay.
5 See Atluri Murali, ‘Civil Disobedience Movement in Andhra, 1920—22:
the forests epitomizes the logic of the ultimate denial of the needs
The Nature of Peasant Protest and the Methods of Congress Political Mob
of agricultural and tribal communities in the Madras Presidency,
45
ilization’, in Kapil Kumar, ed., Congress and Class: Nationalism, Workers and
42 Se Stçbbing, Forests ofIndia. Peasants (New Delhi, 1988).
5’ Report of the Forest Committee, Appointed in G. 0. No. 1677, Revenue,
‘
Ibid. See the sections on Madras Presidency. 5
44 The Board ofRevenue Proceedings, 1862—97, contains several interesting June 1912 (Madras, 1913), vol. II (hereafter RFC); D. Brandis, Suggestions
observations by district administrators on the conflict between the Revenue and RegardingForestAdministration, p. 61; C.H. Benson, An Account ofthe Kurnool
Forest Departments over the issue of controlling wasteland, porambokes and District Based on Analysis of Statistical Information Relating Thereto, and on
minor forest areas. Personal Observation (Madras, 1899), pp. 5—7; FR. Hemingway, Godavari
‘5 D. Brandis, Suggestions Regarding Forest Administration in the Madras Gazetteer(Madras, 1907), pp. 95—102.
102 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 103
reserved areas, people were not only deprived of grazing facilities 1912 that the ‘Kondavidu reserve [was] closed for the last 5
. . .

for their cattle, but their animals were also impounded when or 6 years. It is cut for hay. [After the grass has dried] it is cut
. .

52 As Dunda Nagireddi, a
ever they trespassed into adjacent areas. and removed by the Forest Department. They keep it in a depot
peasant from Guntur district, observed before the Forest Com to sell and the ryots buy it at 6 annas a bandy [cart-load] ‘56
mittee: The colonial government also extended its control over ac
The reserve (formed around 1900) is not even one furlong from the tivities like the collection of fi.iel, leaf manure and wood for
village. There is no vacant place where we can let our cattle stand in agricultural implements. For centuries, villagers had depended on
groups and there is no ground for men to ease themselves. The forest small forests and porambokes for the free supply of firewood and
people [officials] are putting us to many troubles [sic] that we should fuel. In the words of Kalavai village ryots in Nellore district, paying
not even enter the reserves. When we go to our pattalands for cultivation for permits to get firewood ‘has not been the custom up till now.
purposes they say that we have no right of way. On the sides of the There are only three or four rich ryots and all the rest are poor
reserve lie our patta lands. The reserve runs midway between the patta and cannot pay for fuel.’ But they had to pay: there were no free
lands, and to the east and west of our lands we have reserves. We pay permits to be had. Moreover, there was ‘no fuel on patta lands;’
them [the officials] a bribe and go. 57
and if people brought fuel from unreserved forests, they were
In other words, the main cause of friction between the Forest caught for having brought it from reserved forests by corrupt forest
Department and the peasants was the question of control on officials who extracted mamuls (bribes) •58 All this naturally fuelled
‘public grazing . rural needs for fuel, and small timber for
. . peasant resentment against the government’s monopoly ontje
agricultural [purposes]’. This friction surfaced as an anti-imperi sale of firewood.
alist consciousness by 1920, for the exploitative and oppressive Another vexed question was the peasant’s right to collect
‘interference of the low-paid [forest] subordinates in the daily life manure leaves, such as bandaru, from the forests. Before the
of the villager was great’.
54 government’s control, villagers below the hill ghats or nearer the
There were several sore points associated with the govern forest never lacked leaves for manure: they had access to forests
ment’s control of forest resources. The Forest Department’s without payment. But from the beginning of the nineteenth cen
monopoly of fodder extraction and the sale of it with the help of tury this collecting of manure leaves was barred by the Forest
forest subordinates was one area of conflict, for this adversely Department. Moreover, the Madras government increased the
59
55 One peasant complained in
affected peasants’ grazing needs. price of leaf manure in those areas where peasants were allowed
to collect it on payment of a fee, from 5—6 annas to Re 1 per
bandy. This meant the cost of manure increased by nearly 125
52 RFC, II, pp. 3, 7, 13, 22—3, 39, 64, 71, 82, 177—8, 230, 256—7, 451.
5 Ibid., pp. 177—8; also pp. 230, 451. A patta is a memorandum of the 56 the evidence by Indupalli Veeriah of Prattipadu, Guntur district, RFC,
See
particulars ofa holding and land assessment, given by the state to the landholder, II,pp. 200—3.
usually considered as constituting a title to the land. A pattadar is a holder of Ibid., p. 64.
a patta. 58 Evidence by R. Duraiswami Aiyar,
Nellore cahsildar, ibid., p. 5. For
5’ Annual Administrative Report of the Forest Department of the Madras
evidence from other parts of Andhra see, pp. 13—22, 143, 215—17, 259; also
Presidency, 1912—13 (Madras, 1914), p. 13. (Hereafter ARFD.). ARFD, 1902 (Madras, 1903), pp. 23—30; 1912—13 (Madras, 1913),
Ibid., 1904—05 (Madras, 1906), pp. 26—7; also see Reports for 1902—3 to pp. 13—14;
Govt. of Madras, Revenue, G.O. 141 (Revenue), 3 February 1901, 3.
1922—3. p.
RFC, II, pp. 34—6; also pp. 58, 64—5, 134, 138—9, 422—3 and 446—SO.
 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? i 05
104
per cent, even without the transport 6 charge. It was observed by
° Raghava Reddy, a landlord of Chennagiripaliam village in
one ryot: Gudur taluqa, Nellore district, narrated that the reserve

I got a license for one rupee. The cost of bringing one cartload of leaves is only 4 or 5 yards from my house. I am 45 years old, and the reserve
will be Rs 3.50 because they have to pass the ghats. Seven or eight was constituted 25 years ago and the house was built by my ancestors.
of
cartloads are required for one acre of wet land. Rs 24 or 25 worth The boundary of the patta lands is the reserve itself. If the bullocks in
leaves is required. More money is required for other manur e. We have ploughing put a foot within the reserve land, then fees are 64
collected.
in
to pay for fuel, and thus poor people suffer. It costs much to mainta It was this proximity of the boundary of the forest reserves, and
cattle for manuring purposes. the consequent official harassment, which was most resented.
Free access to timber in the forests for agricultural implements If a reserve is near, cattle generally go there Immediately, they a
the . .

had also been the traditional peasant practice. Here again,

.

impounded, whether there is a permit or not [and] charged com

. .

came in the way. .

Forest Department’s monopoly on forest timber n

pounding fees in additio to the permit fees; they cannot get inside the
rved
The permit system allowed peasants to take wood from unrese forest for fitel and to bring jala sticks for protecting fields; even if one
n
porambokes which lay adjacent to the villages, but the inco cow goes there [to the forest], all the cattle are taken to the pound by
caused them to
veniences involved in getting permits or licences the Forest Guards and 6Watc5 hers.
rved
wait for months to make a plough. The area under unrese Thus runs the narrative of one marginal peasant.
porambokes had, by the second decade of the twenti eth-cen tury,
ts The peasants’ other grievances were integral to their under
been slowly swallowed up by ‘reserves’. Consequently, the peasan standing of the new colonial control over space. The traditional
their
had to pay private agencies high prices for wood to make system of manuring cultivated lands depended upon leaves from
would have meant
agricultural implements. Waiting for permits the forests and porambokes. Biradavolu Venkataraghavayya, the
getting their tools much after they needed 62 them.
of living space in the villages, village munsf and a middle-class peasant, said that from time
Traditionally, the organization immemorial peasants had gathered manure leaves from the forest,
total
both public and private, was organically linked with the ‘but not now, because we have to pay for permits and it is very
l over
ecological space. Colonialism, in its bid to extend contro difficult to get them. Paying fees and bringing manure leaves “is
nal organi zation resultin g
forest resources, destroyed this traditio 66 The evidence of the ryots of Kalavai
not an advantage to us”.’
reserve s)
in a shifting of the boundaries of public space (forest further illustrates this interesting process of the appropriation and
closer to private space, especially to houses and cultivated lands.
the
The slightest violation of this, by beast or human, was seen by Connerton, How Societies Remember (Cambridge, 1989).
perceiv ed
colonial administration as a ‘crime’, whereas the peasants 64 He had ‘2000 cattle before the reserves’ were constituted ‘ten or twelve
n
this reordering of geography and space as ‘illegal’. It is this dime years ago’ but their strength had been reduced to 100—fifty bullocks and fifty
which I propos e
sion of peasant consciousness or ‘social memory’ cows. Even though he grazed the cattle on his own lands (340 acres including
.
to illustrate through the use of oral evidence as narrative 63 texts 40 acres wet), Reddi took permits for 50 cattle for Srihatkota reserve, for ‘he
has to go through the reserve lands to his patta lands through a narrow path of
60 Ibid., p. 71. 3/4 of a mile. Even if they touch the margin they are impounded’. RFC, H,
61 Ibid., p. 513. p. 22; also see pp. 26—30.
62 Evidence by R. Subbarayadu, Nellore, ibid., pp. 6—7; also pp. 3,
82. 65 Ibid., p. 13; also see
pp. 4—5, 39.
63 For an interesting analysis of ‘social memor y’ as a cultura l faculty , see Paul 66 Ibid.,
p. 58.
106 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 107
reconstruction of tradition in social memory when confronting to be open to grazing. Since 1879, it has been closed. During the time
contemporary issues.
67 of floods it was open for grazing. At other times it is not open. There . .

are some charitable [grazingi tanks close to our village and between our
Committee: What is your next grievance?
village and the Kistna river and if cattle go, they are impounded by the
Ryots: We have no firewood; and are not given permits for them.
forest people . I was fined Rs 3
. . prior to 1879, the whole was
. . .

Committee: Are you willing to pay for permits for firewood?

dharmakhandam [for three villages—Penumaka, Yerrapaliam and Gun
Ryots: No; it has not been the custom up till now. There are only
davalli]; no pullary [grazing tax] . each ryot had sixty or seventy
. .

three or four rich ryots and all the rest are poor and cannot
69
cattle.
pay for fuel. We pray that we may be given the grants.
Committee: At present what do you burn? The ‘substantive economy’ in peasant societies has a physical
Ryots: We use cow-dung cakes. No fuel on patta lands. We want and ecological dimension.
° Since the physical basis of a peasant
7
more manure leaves. economy was subject to the vicissitudes of the natural environ
Committee: Do you always use them? ment, there evolved a specified way of adapting to natural ecosys
Ryots: When the land was a shekada, we used to get leaves for tems. This ‘harmonization’, in turn, was sustained through a
manure, sixteen years ago. network of community-based customary rights and cultural sys
Committee: You do not get them now?
tems. Since colonialism basically operated within the ideological
Ryots: Occasionally one or two men who can afford it send their
men to distant places and get leaves from there. By the logic of the ‘capitalist law of nature’, it came into conflict with
time we return to Kalavai time is lost; and only one or two the traditional customary rights of peasants in forests.
’ Through
7
get permits, and the rest cannot go. Our cattle also suffer intermediaries (private contractors) the logic of the colonial
much for want of grazing, and we are obliged to send them money economy was ordained upon the peasant’s life-world. 72 A
to Cuddapah district.
69 RFC, II, pp. 200—1.
Invoking tradition was not, however, the exclusive preserve of the 70 Karl Polanyi defines the substantive economy as having a physical base in
peasantry. The colonial interrogation of ‘tradition in history’,
68 nature: ‘The substantive meaning of economic derives from man’s dependence
and the particular construction of social memory in support of for his living upon nature and his fellows. It refers to the interchange with his
the existing system can also be discerned. It was this contradictory natural and social environment, in so far as this results in supplying him with
process of the recovery of historical tradition which is a useful the material means of want satisfaction.’ See his essay, ‘The Economy as In
pointer to the emerging social and political crisis. At one end of stituted Process’, in Conrad Arensberg and Harry Pearson, eds, Trade and
the spectrum, the peasant’s narrative of tradition implicitly sought Market in Early Empires (Glencoe, 1957), p. 243. For an elaboration of the
implication of Polanyi’s ideas, see Rhoda Halperin and James Dow, eds, Peasant
to undermine the colonial hegemony over community space—
Livelihood: Studies in Economic Anthropology and Cultural Ecology (New York,
porambokes, shekadas and dharmakhandams—and forests. The 1977). And for a Marxist critique, see Maurice Godelier, The Mental and the
evidence of P. Seshagiri Rao of Penumaka village near Mangalagiri, Material (London, 1986), pp. 179—207.
Guntur district, indicates this: 71 One finds a striking similarity between eighteenth-century Britain and
nineteenth-century colonial India in so far as conflict over forest resources was
We want Penumaka hill—Tadepalli reserve. We want the whole reserve
concerned. See E.P. Thompson, Whigs and Hunters: The Origin of The Black
Act (Harmondsworth, 1977).
67 Ibid., pp. 64—5. For another example, see pp. 65—6, 69—78. 72 For colonial and neo-colonial interventions in African societies, with
68 See Edward Shils, Traditions (Chicago, 1981). disastrous consequences on their ecosystems, see David Anderson and Richard
108 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 109
realization of this conflict was at this level very much part of Madras Presidency. The witness was C. Rama Rao, a landowner
peasant consciousness. Two memorials sent to the Forest Com of 200 acres and a retired district munsif of Ongole in Guntur
mittee by peasants of Nizampatam and the surrounding villages district.
of Guntur district expressed this consciousness: Committee: You say that the payment of fees in lieu of free-grazing
‘We have considerable difficulty about grazing leaves. Our which was enjoyed until the enactment of the forest laws
cattle graze on mudda leaves and kadu grass and they cannot live was a grievance, is that a grievance?
upon grass. Others’ cattle do live without mudda leaves or kadu CR. Rao: It is not so in the big jungles, but in the scrub jungles it
grass. They are not used to it from time immemorial. The mudda was so.
leaves which are necessary to our cattle will kill other cattle Committee: I am inclined to think you are mistaken. Records show
Now we are prohibited from getting mudda leaves and kadu grass that 120 years ago, there was a charge called pulla?y levied
—from some 10 years ago. We aren’t allowed to go to the forest on cattle whether on forest or village lands. They all paid
and cut grass. There is a contractor who demands payment, who pullary?
changes every year and who gives permits on a monthly basis. It CR. Rao: Yes. That was an old custom. At the same time, a tax called
is not the contractor who oppresses the people. It is the forest moturpha was levied on evety sheep and goat even if it is
grazing in the backyard.
officials . .From time immemorial we have been grazing our
.

Committee: in view of these facts, are you able to say that it was free?
cattle free . The mudda leaves are also sometimes used to build
. .
CR. Rao: At all events it was not considered to be a charge and not
houses. complamed against.
There was also a witness who pinpointed the magnitude of Committee: Did you not say that there were village commons? [called
the crisis. Before it was closed, ‘some 20 villages were grazing’ in mandabayalu in Telugu].
Kondavidu reserve: ‘with hardship they are now sending cattle to CR. Rao: Yes. The village cattle used to lie freely there. There were
Palnad or Gurupala taluqas or Nizam’s Dominions’.
74 village commons where the cattle used to graze and lie
How did colonial discourse seek to address this issue? To deny down there.
75
legitimacy to peasant demands, administrators, in their turn, in What was left out, perhaps deliberately, by the administrators
voked the tradition of customary practices and by this means when they called upon tradition was the fact that under the old
sought to justify their control over forest resources as well as their system cattle ‘had their belly-full ofpasture from all the open area’,
commodification as well. There is an interesting interrogation of
and this with ‘no fee’ being ‘levied on cultivators’.
76 Not surpris
a witness by the Forest Committee which shows these conflicting ingly, they showed a one-sided eagerness in pointing out the
invocations of tradition to legitimize both sides of the struggle in
practice of paying pullary under the traditional system.
At the heart of this legitimization struggle was also the issue
Grove, eds, Conservation in Africa: People, Policies and Practice (Cambridge,
of access to temples located on hills within the forests, another
1989).
3 RFC, ii, pp. 185—6. traditional cultural practice. For instance, here is the narrative of
7’ Ibid.,
pp. 202—3. According to one Lambadi, Nilanayakudu of Birijepal Timma Reddy of Yerrabommanahaffi, Anantapur district.
lipad: ‘Before the reserves were constituted they were not levied grazing fees
75
In the initial stages (of the formation of reserves) the Rangers took As. 3, and Ibid., pp. 132—5 (emphasis added).
even As. 8 in khandams, but at that time they were allowed to take cattle wherever 76 narrative of a seventy-five-year-old big landlord, Dodla Beta Reddy,
Jbid,
they like in the forest’. Ibid., pp. 242—5. p. 129.
110 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 111
Committee: ‘What are your difficulties about the forests? replaced by a ‘worship [of] forest subordinates’, it caused a huge
Timma Reddy : There are two temples on the top of the hill, the An resentment among peasants)’
7
janeyaswami and Lakshmidevi temples. There is worship In sum, the forest conflict was, to borrow the words of
there every week. There are many devotees. If ryots go E.P. Thompson, ‘a conflict between users and exploiters’.
78 This
there, the forest subordinates trouble them and they do evolved into a conflict between two different cultural systems under
not go even to the temple. If we do not worship in any colonialism in the Madras Presidency. While the colonized people
year, tanks will not get supply of water.
looked ‘upon the forests as their own’,79 the colonizers’ monopo
Committee: Did you worship this year?
listic interests sought to close them off. These monopolistic interests
Timma Ret/dy Yes. A case was also made against us. While the God was
being taken along the path, some trees were said to have were camouflaged in an ideological discourse: the conservation of
been injured and the District Forest Officer inquired and forests was for the ‘good of all’.
80 This ‘good of all’ ’ meant cur
8
let us off. The Ranger took an explanation and the case tailing peasants’ customary rights and conserving forests for colonial
was dismissed. We worship the God every year. Instead commerciaii needs. 82 As S. Earcuey ii
Wumot observed:
ofworsh;pping the God there, the ryots have to worship the If the Forest Reserves in the Presidency will not yield produce in grazing
forest subordinates. or other material enough to satisfv the desires ofthe population in grazing
Committee: Did you not represent to the District Forest Officer? and other forest produce, only two courses appear to be available, the
Timma Ret/dy : Once we went to worship the God and a case was made area of Reserves must be increased and the unreserved lands more
against my brother that he went for hunting. The District stringently protected or the demands of the people reduced. I cannot . .

Forest Officer charged us for trial in the Taluk but recommend that [the latter] be followed here 83
.

Magistrate’s Court. There we were acquitted. Even if we

go to the D.F.O., we thought we will not have justice. Before going into factors which catalysed peasant protests, it
So we do not go to him. There is a right ofway (to
. . is interesting to note conflicting class interests among the peasantry
the temple). But the branches of trees obstruct the path. and the expression of these in their demands.
We represented the matter to the Ranger [but in vain]. 77 Ibid., pp. 451—3 (emphasis added). He had 30 acres of wet and 112 acres
The District Forest Officer has permitted us to worship
of dry land; 8 cows, 14 bulls and 6 she-buffaloes, 150 sheep and 10 or 12 goats.
four or five times a year and to take Gods there [in a 78 Whigs ant/Hunters, p. 245.
ceremonial procession] and worship. But Ranger does ‘ RFC, ii, p. 152.
not permit us to take them there. [They were worshiping 80 D. Brandis, ‘Memorandum on the Demarcation of the Public Forests:
for ‘all these 30 years in the reserve.’] The Indian Forester, December 1901, pp. 618—22.
81 In the process of establishing social hegemony the ruling class has first of
Timma Reddy’s narrative ends with his demand for ‘free
all to persuade those it rules that the norms and sanctions of society, especially
grazing’ and ‘free worship’. Why the peasants had chosen to link
the laws and acts which in reality benefit only the privileged few, are devised
their worship with the water supply in the tanks—and build for the good of all. See Antonio Gramsci, Selections from the Prison Notebooks
around it an elaborate system of cultural practice—is a question (New York, 1971); Joseph V. Femia, Gramsci’s Political Thought: Hegemony,
which cannot be answered here. But what is important is the fact Consciousness, and the Revolutionay Process (Oxford, 1981), pp. 23—60.
that their livelihood was rooted in these cultural practices. There 82 For a similar construction of logic in Africa, see Anderson and Grove, eds,

fore, when their right of way to their temples and traditional Conservation in Africa.
83 Notes On An Inspection OfSome Forests In The Madras Presidency 1907—
practices of worship in order to get water in their tanks were
1908 (Calcutta, 1908), p. 26.
112 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 113
Before going into factors which catalysed peasant protests, it 88 As S.P. Rice,
consequences for poor and marginal landholders.
is interesting to note conflicting class interests among the peasantry I.C.S., Acting Collector of Anantapur, remarked:
and the expression of these in their demands. I hasten to add that
I am told that in a reserve close to Anantapur and adjoining the public
these class perceptions and interests were articulated within a road, straying cattle have been impounded and one Anke Yengadu, a
nationalist ideological discourse. The rich peasantry demanded Boya Ryot of Anantapur had to pay Rs 300 which reduced him to
‘more freedom’ and ‘less fees’, not the free grazing and traditional beggary. Another man named Bandar Ahmed had to pay Ps 15 which
system ofcommunity management of forests. ‘All the cattle should cost him his only cow. He sold it for Rs 8 and borrowed the rest.
89
be allowed to graze with a lower fee. If all cattle are allowed the
grass will be exhausted. There should be differentiation in the Under this system the main victims were the poor, as they were
84 An educated
reserves’, argued one contractor and landholder. also the main offenders of fuelwood lifting, etc. It is not surprising
and professional non-cultivating rich landlord, H. Narayana Rao, that the major grievance of villages like Penubarti, with a pre
a pleader, was pragmatic (as was the Gandhian nationalist leader dominantly poor peasant population, had been ‘disafforestation.’
°
9
ship). He merged the demands of the rich and the poor peasantry There were other causes equally, if not more compelling,
in a bid to reconcile different class interests, at least at the level of which prompted the peasantry to take to forest satyagrahas. One
articulation. By arguing that the existing ‘grazing fee is not heavy’ cause was the enhancement of rates charged for grazing in the
on the rich, he advocated ‘free grazing for poor people, since the Andhra districts after 1915. The enhancement in Kurnool, for
85 Sanjiva Reddi of
poorer class of people find it difficult to pay.’ example, for ordinary cattle was from 3 annas to 8 annas per cow;
Somandepalli, Anantapur district, who had 200 acres of wet and in Vizagapatnam it was increased from 4 to 8 annas per cow. 91 To
1,000 acres of dry land, told the Forest Committee: ‘We are ready reduce heavy grazing in Chittoor reserve, a higher grazing fee was
to pay for permits. We wish to have free permits .It is because
. .
charged from 1 July 1920.92 Higher grazing taxes were charged in
of the trouble of the Forest subordinates that we are ready to pay other areas as well: the rates of grazing fees fixed for reserves
permit fees. We will be freed of the trouble if the minor subor
. .
situated in the plains were, for a cow 8 annas, for a sheep 4 annas,
86 The rich peasant class thus shifted the
dinates are removed.’ and for a buffalo Re i.
conflict from ‘the burden of fees’ to freedom from forest subor As noted earlier, the pressure of this enhanced grazing fees was
dinates. felt more by poor and middle-class peasants, not so much by the
For this poor peasant class, the conflict was obviously located rich, for it was the former classes who depended most on govern
in their inability to pay. R Subbarayadu, pleader from Nellore, ment grazing grounds. Oral evidence in Volume Two of the Report
summed it up: ‘even though the amount may be small it presses ofthe Forest Committee of 1913 shows that almost all the rich ryots
rather heavily on the poor ryots, and works a hardship on them,
especially when they happen to have dependents.. ‘87 On several 88Ibid., p. 508.
89
occasions the system of imposing a compounding fee had ruinous Ibid., p. 71.
90 ARFD, 1919—20 (Madras, 1921), p. 4.
9’ Ibid.,
p. 17.
84 RFC, II, p. 39 (emphasis added). Also pp. 132—5. 92 R Dis. no. 606 5/30, A4, 29 September 1931, Visakhaparnam district,
85 Ibid., pp. 42 1—2. Also pp. 35—6, 446—50. Dept. of Revenue, Collectorate Records, Visakhapatnam, p. 55.
86 Ibid., pp. 424—5. 93 RFC, II, p. 152; Proceedings of the Chief Conservator of Forests, Mis.
87 Ibid., p. 5. 579, 7 December 1920, Govt. of Madras.
114 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 115
sent their valuable cattle to private grazing grounds, even though bribes. For such peasants, justice was no easy matter: there was
97
the fees there were higher than government rates, whereas poor an unwritten understanding between lower forest employees,
and middle-class ryots invariably sent their cattle to government forest officers and village munsifs.
98 In one case, ‘the Munsif and
grazing grounds, even when these were nearly bereft of grass, for the Forest Officer brought a charge that 30 cattle grazed in the
they could not afford to pay the higher fee. This perhaps explains reserve, but they caught hold of 12. We paid poundage for 30,
the militancy of forest protests: their origin lay in a poor peasant but payment for 18 was divided among the subordinates themsel
subsistence economy. Leadership, however, was provided by the ves, and Government got only for 1
rich peasant class, which had links with the Congress organization, Thus, nefarious extractions like ‘yearly mamools’,
° heavy
10
ideology, programme and politics. compounding fees, ’ and bribes to overcome false charges and
10
The intrusion of corrupt forest officers, especially subor prosecutions left peasants and Lambadis open to full exploitation
dinates, and of the oppressive colonial judiciary in the day-to-day by forest officials and subordinates.
102
existence of the peasantry was also an important catalyst in trans The peasantry saw the British judicial system as the epitome
forming peasant discontent into organized protest. The peasants of coercion. The experience of a rich landlord, Vema Reddi Rama
along with the Lambadis—traditional graziers who took cattle into Redcli ofVarapali in Nellore district, revealed to him the excessive
the forest for grazing—were subjected by subordinate officials to nature ofcolonial retributive justice. In 1901, Reddi took a permit
endless demands for bribes, or to ‘what they [officials] consider for forty cattle and once, when he failed.to carry this permit with
their due’. These illegal exactions by forest officials were almost
twice as much the actual government fees paid by the peasants Ibid., p. 23.
94 This apart, ifthe ryots or Lambadis failed to strike
and Lambadis. Evidence by the iyots of Kotagunta and Lingampalam village, ibid., p. 69.
98
a bargain with forest officers to get grazing permission, their cattle Ibid., p. 3.
100 In his evidence, B. Narasinga Rao, Vice-President, Taluqa Board of
were likely to be impounded on the pretext of some offence or
Narasaraopet, Guntur district, quoted a classic case where he personally ap
other, and they themselves subjected to other ‘petty annoyance’.
95
peared. He said that ‘In a case in which 4 annas worth of grazing implements
Forest Department employees were notorious for corrupt were taken by a ryot in Madalapad, the composition fee fixed by the District
practices in many other ways. For instance, they often drove away Forest Officer was Rs 100.’ When an appeal was made ‘he was fined by the
cattle grazing near forest reserves and extracted ‘from the ryots Magistrate Rs 125, at the rate of 4 annas per rupee above the composition fee.
96 If
pound fees as well as compounding fees, or else prosecuted’. I had some talk with some magistrates, and they told that there was a circular
the matter led to prosecution, peasants were either charged exor that fine should be heavier than the fee’. Ibid., p. 258.
101 For instance, one witness, Venkararaghavayya, a village
bitant fines or set free only after parting with heavy sums as rnunsifofNellore
district, observed that the forest officers ‘say they will impound the cattle and
94 Ibid. For numerous instances, see narratives of different witnesses from ask money for leaving off They sometimes ask Rs 50 to Rs 60. They threaten
various districts ofAndhra, pp. 1—3, 13, 17,22—3,28, 36—9, 58,69—71, 149—54, to impound the cattle and make out a case against us. I’m also told that they
177—9,231,242—3,258—9,424—5,434,476—7, 508—9.AlsoseeARFD, 1902—3 take 3 pies per permit issued over and above the permit fee. The ryots are afraid
to 1923—24. In each year’s report the subject of increasing corruption among of cases and ny to give money to them, and they are demanded Rs 2 per head
the forest officials was discussed in detail under the head, ‘Conduct of Estab of cattle (whereas the pound fee per head of cattle was 4 annas).’ Ibid., p. 58;
lishment’. also see pp. 64, 164, 172, 434.
102 The evidence of the previous five instances is from
5 RFC, ii,
p. 1. ibid., pp. 3 1—2, 69,
232, 476—7.
96 See for instances, ibid.,
pp. 23, 36—7, 57—8, 159—64, 434, 476—7.
116 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 117

him, the Forest Ranger impounded the cattle. The magistrate is Ranger was not there. But some had their own suspicions,
said to have ‘believed the evidence of the Forest people and fined and they returned to the village. Then all the villagers went
Rs 60.’ He said the peasants were not against the law as such, but to the place. In the meantime, they drove the cattle to the
pound, and they were handed over to the Chagaram Mun
‘the way in which the rules [were] being carried out by the forest
sif. The permits were shown to the Village Munsif. He
subordinates. To begin with there [was] the infliction of two
. .

wanted to know why they should be caught when they had

sets of punishments for one offence. Compounding fee itself [was] permits. ‘We do not care for them. Will you take the cattle
higher than the usual impounding fee.’ The enormity of the and give us the receipt or not?’ was the question put to the
miscarriage of justice was such that even the Forest Ranger on Munsif by the Watchers. The village Munsif would not
Special Duty in Nellore district, Seshagiri Rao, had to admit before give the receipt for a long time, since he has seen the
the Forest Committee that ‘the percentage of cases in which the permits. We put in a petition to the Collector, and the
District Forest Officer has made any enquiry when reported by District Forest Officer and told all our difficulties. The
I
Guard before fixing the compounding fee was 3 or 4 in a 100.’ Magistrate fined us Rs 300—Rs 50 each man.
The best illustration is the evidence of the ryots of Kotagunta and I Committee: What was the offence?
Ryots: The offence was that we grazed in the closed kanchas. It
Lingampalem villages, Nellore district:
happened two years ago.
Ryots: The elders were not at home. The cattle were sent and Committee: Did you make an appeal?
brought half-way. Boys were in charge. Rupees 10 were Ryots: We made appeals in two previous cases without success.
demanded [by] the Watchers. The boys said they will bring So we did not make an appeal. It is for fear that we paid
their father, and settle the matter. He was two miles off. compounct tees. 103
,,.

He threatened us by saying that if we did not compound

the case, we would be charged Rs 10 per head. So much for the colonial legal permit. One is reminded of
Committee: If you said in the Magistrate’s Court that it was your own Marx on the juridical illusion ‘that a man may have a legal title
kancha, and it was your own cattle, you would not have to a thing without really having the thing.’
4 The theory ana
°
1
paid fines? practice of colonial forest laws were light-years apart. There was
Ryots: But we have paid fines already to the extent of Rs 300. not only no proper administrative check on official misuse of
Committee: Why were you fined Rs 300? power, the retribution did not fit the ‘crime’ either)°
5 Poor
Ryots: There was a Supervisor in our beat. He asked us for a bribe peasants’ customary rights were not recognized, nor were they
for allowing our cattle in the reserve. Our villagers were
afraid that something will happen if the goats go into the
‘°
R
3 FC, H, pp. 69—71. Kancha is a Government wasteland let out for grazing.
reserve. Therefore they did not pay anything. So he col 104 ‘Theses on Feuerbach’, in Marx and Engels, Selected Works (Moscow,
lected a large number ofWatchers of Gundagolu and other
1969), p. 79.
villages, and said that permits are to be checked. So they 105 The colonial situation was in conformity with the legal discourse and
drove all the cattle to a place called Jangambavi where the practice in Britain from the seventeenth-century. See David Lieberman, The
Supervisor said the Ranger was. They cheated the boys and Province ofLegis4ation Determined: Legal Theory in Eighteenth Century Britain
drove the cattle to Jangambavi. Then the forest people took (Cambridge, 1989); J.S. Cockburn, ed., Crime in England, 1550—1800 (London,
all the permits. The boys asked where the Ranger was. 1977); Thompson, Whigs and Hunters. For an interesting analysis of the opera
They said he was somewhere further off, and they must go tions of the Waltham Black Act in eighteenth-century England, see Frank
there. So they went to the boundary of Chagaram. The McLynn, Crime andPunishmentin Eighteenth-CenturyEngland(London, 1989).
118 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
Whose Trees? 119
compensated for the loss of their old ‘life world’. To borrow punishment of ‘forest offenders’ should be seen in relation to the
from Marx again: ‘the right of human beings give way to that steady increase of pressure for grazing rights in the forests. For
106
o young trees. example, the total number of buffaloes, cows and bullocks grazed
These ruinous day-to-day experiences and their consequent during 1899—1900 in the Madras Presidency was 1,441,000; in
7 of British rule not only strengthened anti-colonial con
‘hatred”° l9Ol—2itwas 1,487,000, and in l9ll—l2itroseto 1,858,135.109
sciousness over time, it also took the form of a movement which The result was a clash between forest law-enforcement officials
expressed itself in a spontaneous peasant protest. This eventually and peasants—’the infringers of forest regulations’.
linked up with the national liberation struggle of 1920—2, via the The first and spontaneous individual peasant protest against
local Congress leadership. forest regulations took the form of a violation of government
Officially, it was conceived that ‘an important branch of forest restrictions. Illegal grazing and the resulting impounding of an
work consists in the protection of the forests from damage at the imals had become perennial problems, despite strict supervision
hands of the people or by forest fires.’ It was ‘the people’ who by forest There was an increase in cases of un
seemed to have hunted the colonial forest administrators, for the authorized grazing and the removal of grass and other forest
‘usual course of operations’ of the Forest Department were ‘with produce. Unauthorized felling was the biggest forest offence in the
regard to the detection and punishment of arson, theft and en eyes of the state in Guntur, Nellore, Chittoor and Anantapur.
’
11
croachment in the
108
In the first two decades of the In 1919—20 as many as 8900 cases of forest ‘crimes’ were reported.
twentieth century, one notices a shift in the nature of ‘punishment’ Of these, ‘2434 relate to Guntur and this district probably tops
meted out to such people, who now turn out to be simple the Presidency as regards forest offences.’ in fact, ‘protection from
‘offenders’ of forest regulations. In the Madras Presidency, while man and beast become the chief problem in Guntur district.’112
the number of cases disposed off by the courts decreased from These perennial forest ‘offences’, the symbols of peasant protest
7082 in 1901—2 to 5363 in 19 11—12, the number of cases corn against the removal of customary rights, were considered by the
poundedincreasedfrom 13,827in 1901—2to 19,456in 1911—12. colonial state as ‘crimes’, and the peasants and the villages that
Legalistic forms of punishment were slowly being overshadowed harboured these offenders were ‘dens’.”
3 This transformation of
by arbitrary punishments meted ou.t on the spot. This shift in the forest ‘offences’ into ‘crimes’ which invoked severe punishments
undermined the legitimacy of the colonial state:
106 ‘Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood’, in Marx and Engels, Collected
In short, if popular customary rights are suppressed, the attempt to
Works, I (Moscow, 1975), P. 226.
107 The cause for this ‘hatred’ was summed up by G.N. Thomassen of the
exercise them can only be treated as the simple contravention of a police
regulation, but never punished as a crime. The punishment must
American Baptist Telugu Mission, Bapatla, Guntur district, in his evidence
. .

not inspire more repugnance than the offence, the ignominy of crime
before the Forest Committee: ‘I presume that it is [hatredi because people look
must not be turned into the ignominy of law; the basis of the state is
upon the forest as their own. They cannot get firewood and cannot take a single
stick without being handed over to the Magistrate. The Forest Department has 109 These statistics are from ibid., pp. 22 1—2; for 1911—12, pp. 260—1.
interfered with their liberty. This is reason for complaining against the Forest 110 See tables on ‘Comparative Statement of Impounded Cattle’ in AFRD,
department . . again and again that they pay mamul and yet they have no
.
for 1910 to 1924.
surety their cattle will not be impounded.’ REC, II, p. 152. “Ibid., for 1905—6, 1918—19.
108 Statement Exhibiting the Moral and Material Progress and Condition of 112 Ibid., 1919—20,
p. 17.
India 1901—2 (London, 1903), p. 222. 113 Ibid.,
p. 29.
120 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Whose Trees? 121
undermined if misfortune becomes a crime or crime becomes a mis
r
rortune. 114 Conclusion
How appropriate these words are to our situation! In the pre-colonial period, people in the Deccan region lived in
Protests against such definitions of forest ‘offences’ consol an ecosystem which had evolved historically with a complex but
idated into a coherent movement in 1920—2 not only because of mutually sustaining relationship between agricultural, forest and
this ignominious situation but also, as was observed by the District pastoral zones. We have seen the antiquity of the cultural, eco
Collector, due to ‘(a) unfavorable season, (b) great short-age of nomic and political contours of this interface after the sixteenth
fodder and water, (c) the recent more vigorous enforcement of the century, especially through Telugu literary texts and kaiflyats. An
5 When the
Forest Rules, and (d) non-co-operation agitation.” important point is that peasants and pre-colonial rulers did not
unfavourable season and the consequent famines added further develop a ‘commercial’ attitude towards forests; the control of
misery to peasant lives, the Non-Co-operation Movement started tribal groups over forests was recognized by the rulers as their
6 The
by Gandhi gave a political character to social protest.” unquestionable natural right. The forest cover in Andhra districts
nationalist intelligentsia articulated peasant perceptions of an im was not altered radically until about the mid-nineteenth century:
moral colonial monopoly over forest resources and mobilized the only from the 1 850s did the deliberate policy of the Madras
peasants to join the Gandhian movement. This can be illustrated government—to develop both private and state commercial inter
with a famous nationalist song sung in the villages and at political ests in teak and other varieties of timber—begin the depletion of
7
meetings.” forest resources.
Bharatamata
Simultaneously, during this period, the systematic extension
- Three hundred years back of colonial juridical control over the entire minor and major
Company man descended Bharatamata
Bharatamata forests—porambokes, village wastelands, etc.—as well as the emer
You have kept quiet
He robbed the whole nation Bharatamata, gence of market-oriented agricultural production, brought new
He claims all forests are his Bharatamat4 pressures on the forests. In other words, the entire ecosystem was
Did his father come and plant? Bharatamata. transformed under the influence of the colonial model of ‘private
property’ in land, water and other natural resources. The custom
of cultivating wastelands by villagers ‘without authority’ was
Marx, ‘Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood’, p. 235.
114 banned by converting wastelands into ‘reserved lands’. This ex
Confidential letter from F.W.R. Robertson, to Marjoribanks Chief Sec.,
115 tension of colonial law to wastelands meant the exclusion of-the
July 1921.
Govt. of Madras, 17 July 1921, in G.O. 483, Ordinary Series, 30 poor. The state claimed a monopolistic right to alienate these
116 For details, see Murali, ‘Civil Disobedience Movement in Andhra’,
September lands, ‘under the wasteland sale rules’, basically to the propertied
Andhra Patrika, 21 January, 3 February, 25 March, 22 July, 8—9 classes. The same -was true for trees: these were converted into
monthly, Kakinda), July—August 1919; Report on Native
1920; Anasuya (Telugu
843, 1235—6; Madala Veerabhadra Rao, ‘reserved’ trees; the right to fell them was entrusted to the Forest
Newspapers (Madras, 1921), pp.
Deshabhaktaleevita Charitramu (Masulipatnam. 1966), pp. 8 1—3; NyayaDipika Department, which in turn sold them ‘at higher rates than those
14—15. charged for unreserved trees.”
8 In 1862, the ‘use of teak or
(Madras), 4 October 1921; AFRD, 1919—20, p. 17, 1920—21, pp.
117 ‘Dandalu Dandalu Bharatamata’ by Vaddadi Sitaramanjaneyulu, in Satinwood for ploughs’ by the ryots was declared ‘clearly an abuse
Pilupu (‘Call of
Sarojini Regani and Devulapalli Ramanuja Rao, eds, Deesam
1972), 19—22 (translated from Telugu).
the Nation’) (Hyderabad pp. 118 Brandis, ‘Suggestions Regarding Forest Administration’, pp. 27—8.
122 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
119 But this did not restrict the colonial
which should be checked.’
state from selling this same wood to the same ryots on payment
° The pre-colonial method of a collective village
of seigniorage.’
2 Chapter Four
regulation of grazing lands was banned; the state now introduced
21 The most crucial
a uniform tax on all kinds of grazing lands.’
change, however, was the conversion of all the major and minor
British Attitudes Towards Shifting
forests into government reserved forests, with boundaries drawn Cultivation in Colonial South India:
on the land conspicuously. This ‘skilfull demarcation’ ofthe boun
22 had, by
daries of reserved forests and the ‘settlement of rights” A Case Study of South Canara
the 191 Os, become the visible space for the execution of colonial
District 1 800—i 920
laws. ‘The world condition of unfreedom’, said Marx in the con
text of a debate on the law on the theft of wood in Germany,
23 It was this colonial
‘required laws expressing this unfreedom.”
JACQUES POUCHEPADASS
juridical and socio-economic context which shaped popular per
ceptions of colonial rule as unjust, alien and immoral. Such per
ceptions and their context were the ultimate basis for radical
agrarian and tribal movements in Andhra during 1920—4. A quo here is a subject of much interest and importance and which is
tation from the report of a correspondent, published in Swadesa
mitran on 18 July 1893, may serve as a conclusion:
T deserving of the attentive consideration of Government, not so
much perhaps with reference to the immediate or future supply oftimber
[I regret] to see that there is no space left for cattle-grazing in the North for public purposes as in the general bearing which it cannot fail to have
Arcot and Ceded Districts; all the wastelands, including even village sites at no distant period upon the welfare and condition of the Province. I
and porambokes, having been brought under reservation by the Forest allude to the rapid destruction which is going on amongst the forests
Department . .that this procedure on the part of the Forest Depart
.
along the whole length of the district by the process of Coomeri cul
ment is due to ignorance prevailing among the ryots, whose sole kingdom 1
tivation.
is their village, of which the village monigar is the sovereign . . that
.

reservations of this nature are not in the least felt by officials and traders, These are the introductory words of the section on shifting cul
but fail with great severity on the Foor ryots, whose stock of cattle tivation in a report sent by the Collector of Canara to the Madras
dwindles into nothing day after day. Board of Revenue in 1847, when the preservation of the Canara
forests began to assume in the eyes of the colonial authorities a
119 Board of Revenue Proceedings, Govt. of Madras, 19 December 1862, character of primary importance. The problem, in this opening
8284, pp. 3946—7. sentence, is at once set in very general terms, in accordance with
120 Ibid., 3 February 1864, 733,
pp. 552—3. the tendency of the time: shifting cultivation, locally known as
121 Ibid., 24 June 1867, 3885,
pp. 3777—8; C.F. Brackenbury, Cw.Idapah kumri (literally ‘hilly land’) cultivation, is deprecated not’merely
District Gazetter, p. 105.
122 Brandis, ‘Suggestions’,
p. 16.
123 Manc, ‘Debates on the Law on Thefts of Wood’, p. 230. 1 Collector of Canara to
Board of Revenue, Fort St George, 31 August 1847,
124 Report on the Native Newspapers, Madras, July 1893, p. 179.
in Madras Board of Revenue Proceedings (hereafter BRP), 8 November 1847.
124 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation 125

as a waste of forestresources, but also as a persistent threat to the ernmost district of Kerala, which then formed its southern taluk.
general well-being of the region and, as we shall see, to its progres The country was described as follows by B.H. Baden-Powell in
sive march towards civilization. This old question had in fact been 1892:
raised afresh in all the districts along the Western Ghats, and The whole district lies along the coast between the sea and the lofty
indeed in all the main forest areas of the Indian empire, at about Ghats clothed with evergreen forest. This country is undulating, com
the same time. It will be studied here in some detail within the posed of laterite ridges intersected by the deep-soiled valleys of the
framework of one particular area, the South Canara district of streams coming down from the hills, and by estuaries running in from
Madras Presidency, in which two juridically distinct forms of the sea: cultivation is here very rich. Beyond this, there are valleys
shifting cultivation were found, namely sarkar kumri (practised by running farther into the hills, and a tract of table-land above.. Above,
.

itinerant cultivators in forests not claimed by owners of estates) rise the main siopes of the Ghats with dense evergreen forest on the
and warg kumri (practised by tenants in the holdings—called
• 2
ridge.
wargs—of the local proprietors or wargdars). The comparison The district was still characterized at that time by one of its former
between the different policies followed by the colonial government collectors as ‘essentially a forest district,’ where heavy forest ap
regarding these two forms of kumri cultivation will throw some proached within a few miles of the sea to the north (the northern
light on the ideological foundations of official attitudes towards part of Coondapur taluk) and south (the southern portion of
shifting cultivation. It must be emphasized that the shifting cul Kasargod taluk), though it generally began from twenty to thirty
tivators and their practices will only be seen here through the eyes miles from the coast. Cultivation was confined mainly to the
of the administrators. As is well known, the subalterns of the coastal plains and to the bottoms of the valleys of the numerous
past—here peasants and tribals—were mostly unable to write, and streams which wound their way from the Ghats to the sea. Most
left no accounts of themselves. The agents of the modern state ofthe forest below the Ghats was however already highly degraded,
considered them only as consumers of natural resources, as actual ‘varying from moderate forest to mere scrub,’ with occasional bare
or potential tax- or rent-payers, and from the point of view of law spots which produced nothing but thatching grass, having been
and order. Thus, while the records provide interesting insights ‘recklessly denuded for the supply of fuel and 3 manure’.
into the ideology and woridview of the British state and its agents, Kumri cultivation was mainly practised in the extreme north
they give only fragmentary or oblique evidence about the people and south of the district (Coondapur and Kasargod taluks), where
and practices with which they explicitly deal. The present essay the Ghats came close to the sea and the breadth of dense forest
then, is primarily a study of British attitudes and policy. was widest. Some shifting cultivation was also met with in the
eastern Uppinangadi (later Puttur) taluk, which at the end of the
Shifting Cultivation in Nineteenth-Century South Canara last century was still largely covered with heavy forest. There is no
place here for a detailed description of the techniques used by the
South Canara as a distinct administrative entity came into being local ‘kumri cutters,’ but a good account given by the District
only in 1862, when the old Canara district of Madras Presidency
was divided into two districts, North Canara and South Canara, 2 B.H. Baden-Powell, The Land Systems of British India (Oxford, 1892),
the former being transferred to Bombay Presidency. During the vol. 3, p. 146.
British period, South Canara included the present-day districts of 3J. Sturrock, South Canara (Madras, 1894) (Madras DistrictManualseries),
Dakshin Kannada (Karnataka) and Kasargod, now the north- p. 15.
126 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation 127
4 In the warg kumri
Collector in 1858 is appended to this paper. could only travel on foot.
7 In any case, as kumri was at that time
area of Kasargod, the crop raised was usually paddy mixed with repeated on the same ground only once every twelve years on the
gram and cotton. Elsewhere, ragi and gram were the principal average—though the lapse of years was more in some localities
crops. Castor, gingelly, chillies and vegetables of different sorts and less in others—the real extent of forest land subjected to
5 This
were also mixed with the main crops in small quantities. slash-and-burn amounted to more than 200,000 acres (70,000 in
form ofcultivation was both strenuous and uncertain: ‘[It] requires Kasargod) 8 This official kumri area probably started decreasing
great toil and is very fluctuating in its success, depending entirely in South Canara from 1860 on account of the gradual enforce
on a favourable monsoon. From the necessity of being carried on ment of the restrictive orders issued by the Madras Board of
in dense jungle, it requires constant exertions both by night and Revenue in Coondapur and Kasargod taluks. Cases in which
day and constant exposure to the inclemency of the weather to kumri was cleared in excess of the extent allowed or cultivated
defend the crop from the attack of bison, elk and hog to which contrary to existing orders were then punished either by the
they are liable’.
6 collection of double assessment or by confiscating the produce
It is impossible to estimate the area of kumri cultivation in and punishing the offender under the Penal Code. The actual
Canara in the nineteenth century with any accuracy, as the district decrease of kumri in Kasargod was slow because the ryots, at least
remained unsurveyed until 1896, when this practice was decidedly in the beginning, were quite successful in resisting the orders. It
on the wane. The district accounts for the year 1856 gave the area was thought to be somewhat quicker in Coondapur, where offi
under kumri at 17,084 acres for North Canara and South Canara cially not more than 803 acres of kumri were actually cut in 1865.
together, of which roughly one third (5983 acres) were within the In Puttur only 156 acres were cut in that year. Even in Kasargod,
limits of Kasargod taluk (this was mainly warg kumri). But it was however, the assessed area under kumri in 1868 had shrunk to
well—known that the actual quantity of kumri cut every year was 9 But these figures were only approximations of the
35,000 acres.
related more to the capacity and means of the cultivators than to truth, which was almost impossible to ascertain in a district which
the official figures found in government accounts. Large areas of remained unsurveyed. The Revenue Survey conducted from 1889
forest were and had long been under untaxed kumri. In such cases, to 1896 placed the kumri area of South Canara at the much more
the local authorities had no means to assert the rights of the realistic figure of 140,000 acres.’°
government, because the taluk employees were unable to inves— In all likelihood, kumri cultivation in Canara during the first
tigate the situation in a mountainous jungle country where they
Fisher’s Report.
See Appendix. This is taken from the report sent by W. Fisher, Collector 8 Government Order 830, 23 May 1860, in Madras Government, Revenue
of Canara, to the Board of Revenue, Fort St George, 30 August 1858, in BRP, Department Proceedings (hereafter RDP), May 1860, 33.
13 October 1858, 91 (hereafter Fisher’s Report). Fisher’s description partly 9 Land Revenue Settlement Report of South Canara for 1861—62, 825;

draws on earlier reports devoted to the same question. One of the first accounts idem for 1862—63, para. 8—Ill; Collector of South Canara to Madras Board of
is that of F. Buchan-in, A Journey from Madras through Mysore, Canara and Revenue, 180,22 September 1866, in BRP, 24 June 1868,4664; Sub-Secretaiy
Malabar (London, 1807), vol. 3, p. 72. to Secretary, Board of Revenue, Madras, 24 June 1868, ibieL; ‘Statement of
5 Sturrock, South Canara p. 209; Statistical Atlas of the Madras Province kumaries in the talook of Kasargod’ in BRP, 21 March 1871.
(Madras, rev. ed., 1949), p. 938. ‘°K.N. Krishnaswami Ayyar and J.F. Hall, StatisticalAppendix, together with
6 BRP, 4 April 18502370. ‘Bison, elk and hog’ most probably refer to the a Supplement, to the two District Manuals for South Kanara District (Madras,
Indian wild buffalo (gaur), sambhar and wild pig respectively. 1938), p. 29.
128 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation 129

half of the nineteenth century had been in a phase of expansion. by the Collector in 1847, by the influx of Marathas from above
‘It was formerly confined entirely,’ the Collector wrote in 1847, the Ghats following the prohibition of kumri in Mysore.’
5
During the period of expansion of kumri cultivation, its social
to the race of wild and uncivilized people who dwelt habitually in the base grew more complex. ‘It was formerly carried, on almost ex
jungle, but others have since taken it up and many of the ryots from clusively by a wild and little civilized class of people who had no
the plains and others who have come from the Mysore and the Mahratta
fixed habitation, but built temporary huts on the spot which they
country have adopted it as a means of livelihood. There is little doubt
that the prohibition of this practice in the Mysore country will drive a occupied for the year, and shifted their place of residence with
great many of those who have carried on their operations in the forests their cultivation,’ the Collector wrote in 1850. But it was now
of that country into Canara, and the destruction will be carried on more pursued to a considerable extent by more ‘civilized’ and settled
rapidly than ever until the woods are finally exhausted.” cultivator who had begun to resort every year to the forests to
carry on this cultivation. This, however, was actively discouraged
As the old forest gradually decreased along the coast, the cultivators in the 1 850s, as it was increasingly felt that only the forest tribes
resorted to jungles in the interior which were formerly left alone should be allowed to continue practising kumri. In the warg kumri
because of their remoteness. And since firewood was becoming areas of Kasargod and elsewhere, kumri cultivation was part of the
increasingly scarce in the coastal zone, the peasants began practis regular business of every ryot. But in this case also, the actual
ing kumri cultivation in the forest areas adjoining the numerous kumri cutters were mostly forest dwellers who cultivated the forest
streams issuing from the Ghats. This provided them with both as tenants-at-will or labourers of substantial and influential raiyats,
ragi and firewood, which they floated down in large quantities.’
2
whose oppressive terms they had no means to resist. In South
There is, moreover, evidence that in Kasargod, where land suitable
Canara, they were either local forest tribes (Malai Kudigals) or
to garden and rice cultivation had become insufficient for the Maratha Kudubis. These two categories together, according to an
support of a growing population, and where kumri cultivation early census, represented about one sixth of the population of
had assumed the character of regular cultivation, the length of the 16 The Malai Kudigals
Kasargod in the late 1 850s (59,500 persons).
fallow period tended to decline from the original ten or twelve (‘inhabitants of the hills’) were described by the Collector in 1820
3 The Collector of
years to eight and even, at times, six years.’ as ‘a miserable class of human beings’ who were rarely seen in the
South Canara in 1860 was of the opinion that while the area of villages below the Ghats, and whose ‘wretched and only means of
kumri cultivation in Kasargod, according to accounts furnished support’ was kumri cultivation. ‘They are a people,’ he added,
by the ryots themselves, had trebled since the British annexation, ‘with whom (compared with their present state of incivilizttion)
it was in reality probably quadruple or quintuple of what it was the slave on a Champagne estate is an enviable creature. No
4 The rate of forest destruction was accelerated, as foreseen
then.’ melioration can be attempted with a prospect of good resulting
11 Collector of Canara to Board of Revenue, Fort St George, 109, 13 July 7 There were more than 10,000 Kudubis in 1891,
therefrom’.’
1860, in BRP, 4 August 1860, 3595.
12 Sub-collector Hall to Collector of Canara, 22 March 1849, in BRP, 4 ‘5 Ayyar and Hall, StatisticalAppendix, p. 159.
April 1850, 2370.
16 Collector of Canara to Board of Revenue, Fort St George, in BRP, 4 April
13 Fisher’s Report; Board’s letter to Collector of South Canara, BRP, 4 1850, 2370; Sub-Collector Hall to Collector of Canara, 22 March 1849, in
August 1860, 3595. BRP, 4 April 1850, 2370; Fisher’s Report
17 Collector of Canara to Govt. of Madras, 13 September 1820, quoted in
14 Collector, South Canara, to Board of Revenue, Fort St George, 109, 13
BRP, 21 March 1871, p. 1958.
July 1860, in BRP, 4 August 1860, 3595.
130 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation 131
mainly in Coondapur taluk, into which they had migrated two to be. In point of fact, the kumri cutter did all the work himself
centuries earlier from the Maratha country. Unlike the Goa Kudu with the help of his family, and the assessment, in remote forest
bis, who had taken to settled cultivation in the plains, they were areas, was often evaded. Thus the real profit was probably higher
almost exclusively itinerant forest dwellers living on kumri cul than estimated. But a large part of it went to the moneylenders
tivation!
8 of the coastal zone who gave advances to the kumri cultivators,
Kumri was not considered an unprofitable cultivation in and that part of the crop which had to be marketed in order to
money terms, though it was not as remunerative as punam cul meet their demands fetched a very poor price, being sold in times
9 An Assistant
tivation in Malabar was generally believed to be.’ of seasonal price depression, and to all-powerful intermediaries
Conservator of Forests conducted an enquiry on this point among who were in a position to dictate their own terms. It was well
kumri cutters in 1859, and gave the following details of the cost known that kumri cutters, whatever the ‘profits’ they were sup
and profit of 1½ acres of kumri:
°
2 posed to make, lived in wretched temporary huts, were kept in
abject poverty by their masters or moneylenders, and hardly earned
Expenditure Rs As P or produced enough to survive—in complete contrast to the gen
0 erally substantial raiyats of coastal 2
Canara. Their lot improved
’
Assessment per 1 ½ acre 1 8
somewhat in the warg kumri areas of Kasargod after the 1 860s.
Two men cutting for ten days 3 0 0
0 4 0 In those areas, although land was ostensibly taken up for the
Ragi seed (9 seers)
4 purpose of kumri cultivation, and partial burning did still take
Clearing grass for 1 month (1 man) 0 0
place here and there, the main object of the raiyats was to cut and
Watching 3 months (at Rs 2 per month) 6 0 0
4 0 0
sell the firewood growing on the lands in question. Large quantities
Gathering crop offirewood were exported annually from that part ofouth Kanara
18 12 0
28 0 0
both for the Mangalore and Bombay markets, and it is the kumri
Receipts Ragi, 28 modas at 1 Re.
4 cutters who were employed in cutting this firewood, a rather more
Profit 9 0
lucrative pursuit than their original 22occupation. As far as the
wargdars were concerned, this new dimension ofkumri cultivation
Of course the problem with such computations is that they on their forest lands of course increased their profits substan
evaluate in money terms factors of production and agricultural 23
tially.
products which belong largely to a non-market economy, or, if 21
commercialized, are subject to forced instead of free commer Ibid.; Collector of Malabar to Conservator of Forests, Madras, 1—663, 5
July 1869, in RDPt May 1860, 32; Govt. Order 830, 23 May 1860, in RDP,
cialization, and thus are not in fact as remunerative as they seem May 1860, 33.
18 Sturrock, South Canara p. 178. Col]ecror of South Kanara to Board ofRevenue, 180, 22 September 1866,
22
19 Punam landi were the wooded highlands of the Northern Division of in BRP, 24 June 1868; Acting Collector of South Kanara, to Board of Revenue,
Malabar district on which shifting cultivation was practised. The lands were 126, 17 July 1867, ibid The riverside kumri wargthvofKasargod taluk supplied
cultivated evety six years. The rriain crops were ‘jungle rice,’ millet and pulses. a very large proportion of the firewood used in Mangalore in the 1880s: cf
Cotton was also grown occasionally: see W. Logan, Malabar (Madras, 1887, Acting Collector of South Canara to Board of Revenue, Madras, 512, 6 March
repr. 1951), vol. 1, p. 630, and vol. 2, p. ccvi. 1883, in RDP, 29 August 1883, 1050.
Conservator of Forests, Madras, to Secretary to Govt., Revenue Dept.,
23 Madras Board of Revenue
20 Resolution, 1760, 19 June 1883, in RDP, 29
Fort St George, 755, 17 August 1859, in RDP, May 1860, 32. August 1883, 1554.
132 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shfiing Cultivation 133

Ideological Foundations of British Attitudes observed that forest regeneration was not jeopardized even after
two or three successive episodes of slash-and-burn, as was some
The principal reason put forward by the colonial foresters to justify times believed. Nothing of the sort ever happened in Kasargod,
the restriction of kumri cultivation was, of course, its destructive where kumri cultivation was practised in a systematic way. 26 As
character. Commenting upon the rapid shrinkage of the forest against such pleas in partial defence of kumri, H. Cleghorn, the
cover in Canara since the beginning of the nineteenth century, influential Conservator of Forests of Madras Presidency, when
the Collector in 1847, Mr Blane, singled out the kumri cutter as asked by government to state his views on shifting cultivation in
the main culprit who ‘recklessly felled and burned [the forest] for Canara, declared chat this practice, which he described as ‘a rude
the purpose of obtaining one or two scanty crops of dry grain’. system of culture’ and ‘a wasteful and barbarous system,’ had
‘The practice ofkumri cultivation,’ he added, ‘is one of so wasteful serious disruptive effects on climate, and, moreover, had none of
and improvident a nature that it appears to me it ought not to be the alleged beneficial effects on public health. ‘While permanent
tolerated except in a very wild and unpeopled country, and the clearings brought about a distinct improvement in this regard, he
time seems to have arrived when it would be most advisable to said, the dense thorny scrub which succeeded slash-and-burn was
place it under considerable check and regulation, if not entirely more unhealthy than open high forest. Cleghorn also deplored
to prohibit it’—as had recently been the case in the neighbouring the destruction of valuable timber which was urgently required
Mysore state. The one objection to total prohibition which he saw for shipbuilding and railways. This, incidentally, was an old offi
was that the clearing of jungles, according to all reports he had cial complaint: the Bombay Government had already addressed
received, tended to diminish the prevalence of fever. This had been the Madras Government in 1820 on the report by the Marine
particularly evident in the Mangalore region, where kurnri cul Board of Bombay of ‘instances of the devastation by the owners
tivation had been carried on with great activity in the preceding of land of teak trees growing in that Province, the property of
years. 24 Government,’ for shifting cultivation.
27 For all these reasons,
The question of the effect of forest clearance on climate and kumri cultivation in Canara, in his opinion, had to be done away
soil fertility was very much on the agenda at that time, as the with. It could at best be tolerated on poor soils where trees did
Court of Directors had raised the question in a despatch to the not attain a great size, or in areas where the timber could not be
Madras Board of Revenue, and all the Collectors of the Presidency transported to a road or river due to physical obstacles, or in
25 Shifting
had consequently been asked to report on the subject.
on this account. In jungles where bamboo growth was extensive.
28
cultivation was at first severely condemned
These views, which became the official view regarding kumri
dictments became less radical thereafter. W. Fisher, the Collector in Canara, were fraught with moral overtones. This system of
of Canara in the late 1 850s, doubted whether kumri had any cultivation, the Collector wrote in 1847, ‘has no doubt some
str9ng adverse effect on climate, as it was only rarely carried on attraction for those who are impatient of control, and are fond of
in the forest at the crest of the hills, which, he thought, had a a wild roving life, but it leads to unsettled habits,’ and every step
greater effect on the passing clouds than those beneath them, while
providing the seed for resowing the clearings made below. He also
26 Fisher’s Report.
24Blane’s Report. 27 Quoted in BRP, 21 March 1871, p. 1957.
25 Board of Rev., Fort St George, to Chief Secretary to Government, 8
28 Conservator of Forests, Madras, to Revenue Dept., Fort St George, 755,
November 1847, ibid. 17 August 1859, in RDP, May 1860, 32.
134 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shfting Cultivation 135
should be taken to discourage a pursuit which ‘takes many away in kumri districts,’ he added, ‘are even for natives idle in the last
from the regular cultivation of a fixed spot’. In 1855, his successor degree. They detest work. The easy subsistence afforded by
. .

added that ‘this must not be done too suddenly. The habits of a kumaring [sic] appears to be somewhat similar in its effects on the
people cannot be changed at once,’ and too sudden a prohibition habits of people to that of the potato (before the disease was
can be ‘the cause of severe suffering to a people who have so long known) on the Irish.’
’ Thus, shifting cultivation was regarded as
3
subsisted by this species of cultivation’. W. Fisher concurred in a social evil, the eradication ofwhich would be a civilizing measure
this view three years later: and would benefit the shifting cultivators themselves (much as the
Want of capital, and the ease with which a man who possesses nothing British empire in general was believed to promote the well being
but a good knife and a strong arm can obtain a living by labour which of the Indian people without their being conscious of it or even
habit has rendered more congenial to him than that which falls to the against their will). The Order (830 of 23 May 1860) passed by
lot of the common cultivators of the soil, will prevent anything but a the Government of Madras on the subject stated explicitly: ‘Sarkar
gradual change. But I am satisfied that that change has already com kumri. seems to be a great evil even as respects the interests of
. .

menced, and that a more settled mode of life and more regular habits the cultivators themselves. It appears certainly to retard the im
will spring from it, and in the end benefit this class, and make them provement of the forest races, and tends to keep them in their
both more useful and more independent members ofsociety. Regular . .

present degraded condition’. Thus sarkar kumri without previous

cultivation [he added] is not palatable to these people, who are accus permission was prohibited in Canara.
32 It was decided twenty-five
tomed to migrate from one position to another among the hills, but the years later that permits would only be granted to those applicants
restrictions placed on kumri have I think already had some effect in
who were willing to undertake some settled cultivation along with
inducing them to follow more regular pursuits, and will eventually lead
their kumri, ‘with the view of gradually accustoming these men
to their becoming tenants or labourers on the regular estates, and to the
improvement of their position in the social scale.
29 to do with smaller amount of kumri and at the same time contract
the habits of a settled life’.
33
This discourse on the social dangers implicit in ‘wild roving Finally, the British attitude towards shifting cultivation was
habits,’ on the necessity of social ‘control,’ on the desirability of dictated in part by the concerns of the colonial state regarding the
‘regular pursuits’ and ‘settled habits,’ belongs to the normative ownership of land and the taxation of its produce. Modern ideas
Victorian social ideology which was to lead a little later to the legal on property in land and on the land revenue implied, as is well
definition and arbitrary repression of the so-called ‘Criminal known, that every piece of land should have a recognized (in
30 The cliché of the ‘lazy native’ occasionally showed up
Tribes’. dividual or collective) owner for the payment of a determined land
in these statements. The Revenue Surveyor of Dharwar and Bel tax, itself calculated on the basis of a systematic assessment of the
gaum wrote to Cleghorn in 1859 that people resorted to kumri productive capacities of the land concerned. Shifting cultivation,
because ‘it requires no stock or agricultural capital’ and ‘it requires of course, fitted rather badly with these conceptions, as it was
less labour than any other description of cultivation’ (a quite practised on lands whose ownership was open to question, which
unfounded statement, as we have seen). ‘The habits of the people
29 Blane’s Report; Collector of Canara to Board of Revenue, Fort St George, 31 Superintendent of the Revenue Survey, Southern Mahratta Country, to
1664, 12 June 1855, in BRP, 7 August 1855; W. Fisher’s Report. Conservator of Forests, Madras, 26 July 1859, in RDP, May 1860, 32.
repressive
30 Cf.
J. Pouchepadass, ‘The “Criminal Tribes” of British India: A 32 RDP, May 1860, 32.
concept in theory and practice’, internationaijournalofAsian Studies, 2:1, 1982. 33 Settlement Report ofSouth Canarafir the Year 1884—85, 18(3).
136 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shfting Cultivation 137

were difficult of access, and on ever-changing patches of forest, by Until 1822, the kumri due owed by the village contractor was
people who escaped ‘control’. In the more accessible forest areas actually entered in his account under the head of motarfa (i.e.
of Canara, however, kumri cultivators were taxed directly by the miscellaneous revenue, such as fisheries, honey, etc.), and not as
local government officers. ‘They cut and cultivate [the jungle] as an item of land revenue. In 1822, however, the Board of Revenue
they please,’ the Head Sheristadar of the district wrote in 1830: directed that this due, being a revenue from the land, should figure
in the accounts of the estate holders as an item of land revenue.
37
After they have cleared a spot and sown it, the Tahsildar collects from This being done, thekumri assessment gradually came to be mixed
them the tax payable according to the custom of the village. In some up with the regular land revenue levied on the raiyat’s private
places this tax is fixed at so much for a couple (man and woman) or so permanently cultivated lands. The kumri cultivation even became
much for a man alone. In others it is fixed according to the number of
bill-hooks, or hatchets they make use of in clearing the jungle, there the subject of transfer by sale, suits, attachment for decrees of
being a fixed rate of payment on each bill-hook, and another on each court, thus ceasing to be merely a right involved in a lease, but
natcnet. 34 apparently incorporating a proprietary right.
38
At this stage, there were two distinct juridical forms of kumri
In more remote areas, the collection of the kumri dues was initially cultivation:
farmed out to substantial peasants of the neighbouring villages, (i) sarkar kumri, under which an individual settlement was
who made their own terms with the kumri cutters, usually on a made with each kumri cutter who paid his due directly to the
non-monetary basis. The assessment was similarly fixed in relation government;
to the number of cultivators or implements concerned and not to (ii) warg kumri, under which the raiyats (wargdars) collected
35 The Collector of Canara in 1822
the area of forest to be burnt. the kumri due from shifting cultivators who cultivated portions
described the system in these terms: of their land or were otherwise under their influence, subject to
[The kumri cutters] inhabit the Ghats and never descend into the low payment by these raiyats of a specified sum as part of the revenue
country. They depute a headman to the renter on the part of the sarkar demand on their estates.
39
annually to arrange their barter of hill produce such as cassia, pepper, Warg kumri posed a problem to the government from the
cardamoms, ragi and wax. The renter gives them dal, rice, tobacco, and 1 840s, when the restriction ofkumri cultivation became the order
arms in return. For this permission, he enters into contract with the of the day. If the proprietary right of the wargdars in the forest
i 36
sarKar. tracts from which they were levying kumri dues was given general
3’ Quoted in BRP, 21 March 1871, p. 1969. It was similarly common until recognition, the government would cease to have any kind of
the end of the nineteenth century, in unsurveyed pioneer areas such as the control over such tracts. In a period when kumri cultivation was
Himalayan terai, to tax cultivators according to number of ploughs without clearly on the rise, every settler would simply become their tenant.
reference to the actual area cultivated. Because of the same problems of estimat It was moreover the interest of the wargdars along the Ghats to
ing acreage, shifting cultivators in some other parts (e.g. Bastar) would be taxed encourage kumri. By so doing, they increased their local influence
according to the number of ‘able bodied men’ (information communicated by and could command the additional labour force they needed to
R. Guha).
35 BRP, 4 April 1850, 2370, pp. 4878, 4890; BRP, 21 March 1871,
3’ Ibid., p. 1969.
pp. 1968—9. 38
36 Collector of Canara to Board of Revenue, 20 August 1822, in BRP, 10 BRP, 4 April 1850, 2370, pp. 488 1—2.
June 1822, quoted in BRP, 21 March 1871, p. 1962. Fisher’s Report, para. 44, 63.
138 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation 139
bring waste lands into cultivation, for which they would be other as the Government Order of 23 May 1860 said, was carried on
wise unable to find tenants from the plains, due to the inferior by the resident wargdars of Kasargod ‘as a regular part of their
40 Against
quality ofthe lands or to the unhealthiness ofthe climate. farming, and not by wandering tribes unconnected with the soil,’
the claims of the wargdars to the ownership of the kumri tracts, as in the northern parts. Two-thirds of the warg kumri area of
the government asserted its rights with increasing rigour from the Canara was located in Kasargod in 1859, in a total of 147 estates.
43
1 840s onwards. Private proprietary rights in forest lands which These forest areas thus escaped reservation during the forest set
were deemed to have been formerly public were gradually extin tlement operations at the end of the century. Though some of
guished. When the various categories of peasant proprietors had these warg kumris were subsequently converted to permanent wet
been initially created in south India for the establishment of the or dry agriculture, kumris still existed in twenty-one villages of
colonial land-revenue system, the non-existence of property rights Kasargod at the resettlement of 1932—4.
in the modern sense, before the advent of the British, had been
overlooked. Ironically, it was now upheld in order to justify the The Stages of Government Repression of Kumri Cultivation
government take-over of the forests claimed by these proprietors.
‘As under native Government,’ Fisher wrote, ‘all cultivation was Very little is known about the status of shifting cultivation in
taxed according to description and value of its produce, the gov Canara before the advent of the British. The Collector reported in
ernment having a recognized right to a certain share in that 1820: ‘There is no subject on which so little information is to be
produce whatever it might be, there is good reason to suppose that gathered as on the “forests of Canara.” I have searched the records
• this kumri tax was but a rent for certain forest privileges, and did of my office in vain; my people are unacquainted with the subject.’
not confer [on the wargdars] any proprietary right in the soil’.
’
4 He attributed this state of things to the fact that control over forests
The claims of the wargdars on kumri lands were, however, was not in the hands ofthe Collector but ofthe Conservator, whose
exceptionally recognized in Kasargod the southernmost taluk of establishment and powers were limited, and who usually lacked
South Canara district. The rights which these wargdars claimed local experience and knowledge. Regarding shifting cultivation in
on the forests attached to their estates were held to be of a different particular, Fisher similarly reported in 1858: ‘No researches that I
nature, superior to those which were denied to the wargdars of have been able to make enable me to place the question before the
other parts. Kasargod had initially been part of Malabar, and the Board in other than [a] very general way.’
45 It was, however, known
wargdars there were Nairs. The government had never questioned that in this part of India prior to British rule, under the Nagar
the rights of property enjoyed by the Nair chiefs on the forests of kings for instance, or in the Coorg kingdom, the government
Malabar. It was only logical that the same course should be exercised close control over the forests, and that certain kinds of
42 Kumri cultivation,
adopted regarding the wargdars of Kasargod. trees were preserved for its use. The forests, moreover, were often
strictly preserved from destruction on account of the security which
40 BRP, 4 April 1850, 2370, pp. 4891—2; Fisher’s Report, para. 20.
3 BRP, 16 April 1859, 1350,
41 Fisher’s Report, para. 61. pp. 337—8; Collector of South Canara to
jndia, Home, Revenue and Agriculture (Forests Branch) Proceedings, June
42 Board of Revenue, Madras, 512, 6 March 1883, in RDP, 29 August 1883,
1880, part B, 112: ‘Papers relating to state rights in the forests of South Canara’. 1054, p. 595.
“ Ayyar and Hall, StatisticalAppendix,
Baden-Powell questioned, however, the idea that private property in land existed pp. 160, 189.
in South Canara or Malabar while it did not elsewhere: cf Baden-Powell, Land Collector of Canara to Board of Revenue, 13 September 1820, quoted in
Systems vol. 3, pp. 144—5. BRP, 21 March 1871, p. 1953; Fisher’s Report, para. 104.
140 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shfiing Cultivation 141
they were supposed to afford against invasion. In Mysore, kumri The problem, of course, was that while the burning for cul
was believed to have always been treated as a temporary rent, and tivation of forests containing trees required for state use was
as such was abolished in 1848 on account of the rapid destruction prohibited, the prohibition was not strictly enforced because of
which the forests were undergoing because of the increase of this 50 With the increase of population and the
lack of surveillance.
46
form of cultivation. imposition of restrictive regulations in neighbouring regions, this
In Canara the official policy was relatively lenient until 1847. problem began to assume serious proportions, as the report by Dr
Replying to the already mentioned complaint by the Marine Board Gibson, the Conservator of Forests of Bombay, showed in 1847.
of Bombay that teak trees belonging to government were being However, in consideration of the fact that forest clearance was
‘devastated’ in Canara by kumri cultivators, the Collector wrote believed to diminish the prevalence of fever, the recommendation
in 1820 that the cases alluded to were mostly trivial, and that to of the Collector of Canara (Mr Blane) went no further than the
prohibit kumri would ‘in a great measure interfere with the actual renewal of the former rule prohibiting the cutting of the better
welfare of the most abject race of our subjects equally deserving kinds of timber, and the entire preservation of the forest in spots
47 His successor, Mr Thackeray,
of our protection as the highest.’ near the rivers or the sea coast, where timber extraction was easy
impressed upon the Board in 1822 that it was in fact highly and where ordinary wood could be cut as firewood for export.’
5
desirable to clear jungles from which in any case it was impossible The government thereafter simply decided to authorize the Col
to extract teak for naval purposes on account of natural obstacles lector to restrict the cultivation ‘to such places and to such an
or distance from the sea, while both revenue and health purposes extent as he might deem expedient’.
52
would be served. Thackeray’s report was fully endorsed by Thomas Explicit official restrictions were first imposed in 1849, when
Munro, then Governor of Madras Presidency, in his minute dated it was decided that the felling of jungle for kumri would be
16 November 1822.48 This policy remained by and large un prohibited within nine miles of the sea, and within three miles of
changed for a quarter of a century. The Court of Directors wrote rivers capable of floating timber or high roads. It was also pro
to Madras in 1846: hibited in sites favourable to teak and in virgin forests. The
The forests of Canara are represented as being less unhealthy and more Collector in 1855 was, however, of the opinion that the time had
easy of access than those of Malabar, and it may therefore be advisable not yet come for the stopping of the clearing of forests and of the
to reserve some of them to meet the requirements of Government. But extension of agriculture. Gibson, he said, had received a false
when those best adapted for the purpose have been selected and placed impression regarding the state ofkumri cultivation in Canara from
under proper management, there seems to be no reason why the natives the fact that clearings, for accidental reasons, were particularly
should be excluded from the others or subjected to new restrictions in extensive along the high road which he had taken. Kumri in this
the felling of trees in them excepting teak and sissoo. On the contrary, district was the only means of subsistence of the population in a
it seems rather desirable to encourage them to clear away the jungles by large part of the district. Thus it was quite out of the question to
49
which so large a portion of the province is covered. prohibit it entirely, as had been done in Dharwar district, and the
46 BRP, 4 April 1850, 2370, pp. 4883—4. 50 See for instance A. Gibson’s ‘Report on the Forests of North Canara,’ in
‘
Quoted in BRP, 21 March 1871, pp. 1957, 1962. BRP, 19 July 1847.
48 Quoted in BRP, 21 March 1871, pp. 1957, 1962. 51 Blane’s Report.
9 Letter from the Court of Director, 28 November 1846, quoted in Minutes 52 Government Order, 3 December 1847, in BRP, 16 December 1847,
of Consultation, 518, 17 December 1847, in BRP, 3 February 1848. 3226.

I
142 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation 143

existing restrictjons, which were almost identical to those imposed rivers as would under proper care produce valuable plantatiojis_of
in Belgaum district, had already been carried as far as practicable. timber suited to shipbuilding and domestic purposes.’ The Board
The rules, however, had failed to have full effect because of the found it wise to follow the recommendation of the successive
prevailing system of assessing kumri by the bill-hook. The money Collectors of Canara (Blane, Maltby and Fisher), who concurred
lenders were always ready to give advances to the kumri cutters in the view that kumri should not be prohibited altogether: ‘It has
once they had been registered, so that they might call in relatives been shown to have diminished the prevalence of fever, and the
to cultivate with them. For two or three bill-hooks officially taxed, grain thus raised is said to be necessary for the subsistence of the
areas of up to forty or fifty acres were consequently burnt for population, while the species of cultivation affords a means of
cultivation. The Collector for this reason changed the system livelihood to wild races who, in all probability, can only be grad
entirely in 1852, and assessed the land by the acre. This brought ually brought to settle down to a more regular kind ofagriculture.’
about an immediate decline in the area of kumri. ‘I cannot say,’ However, in accordance with the suggestions of Fisher, it was
he added, ‘that in a country so wild and extensive the rules have proposed that warg kumri in South Canara as a whole should be
never been broken, but in each year additional knowledge is gained confined to certain patches of forest, ‘portions of which the cul
53 While the rate for sarkar kumri
and the system gains ground.’ tivators must cut periodically if they cut at all.’ This was already
per bill-hook had been around Rs 2, the rate per acre was Re 1 in the case in the warg kumri areas of Kasargod. The assessment of
North Canara, and As 8 in the South, where the assessment had As 8 per acre of kumri was to be continued. As far as sarkar kumri
always been low. People not belonging to the ‘jungle tribes’ were was concerned, it was to remain prohibited within nine miles of
forbidden to practise kumri, and three acres per year was the the sea and three miles of a river, as warg kumri had been since
maximum area of forest allowed to one kumri cutter. When this 1847. This last rule was to be relaxed at the Collector’s discretion
limit was found to have been exceeded, the offender was fined or in Kasargod, as it appeared to be harsh in a country intersected
a double tax levied on the excess area. In extreme cases, the crop by rivers and which did not contain ‘valuable’ timber. All these
raised was sometimes confiscated. The extent of kumri allowed to recommendations of the Board were sanctioned by Government
each individual was subsequently reduced gradually. By 1858 it Order 830 of 23 May 1860. The Government added that sarkar
had shrunk to 1.5 acres in North Canara. kumri, meaning kumri cultivation in government forests, was
These restrictions were considered sufficient by Fisher in prohibited from then on without special permission, and that
1858. Both Revenue Officers and Conservators were, he says, permission ‘should be given sparingly, and never for spots in
‘unanimous of opinion that, under proper restrictions, large, and 54 The demand assessed on kumri lands (both warg
timber forests’.
as far as procuring timber goes inaccessible, jungles may be sub and sarkar) was raised by the Board from As 8 to Re 1 per acre
mitted in rotation to the knife of the kumri cutter and be made towards the end of 1860, as the Collector considered the former
to contribute to the resources of the people and the revenues of rate to be eccessively moderate. 55
the State.’ He added: ‘I am far from wishing to see a complete The sweeping orders of 1860 amounted in fact to a virtual
prohibition except as regards tracts producing the more valuable prohibition of kumri, both warg and sarkar, except in Kasargod
kinds of timber, and such positions on the banks of our numerous taluk, where private property in forest land was recognized.

5 Collector of Canara (F.N. Maltby) to Board of Revenue, Fort St George, 54 Fisher’s Report, para. 26—32, 83—85, 96.
12 June 1855, in BRP, 7 August 1855. 55 See correspondence in BRP, 21 September 1860, 4297.
144 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shfting Cultivation 145
Though these orders were not strictly obeyed at once, they did of their villages, and consequently held that they could not be
bring about a decrease in the area of kumri during the following legally forbidden to cultivate kumri to whatever extent they wished
56 The roles regarding sarkar kumri had however to be sub
year. within the limits ofwhat they considered their estates. The govern
sequently relaxed in order to meet the needs of the tribals in the ment, on the other hand, did not admit this claim to property in
forests of Coondapur and Uppinangadi (later Puttur) taluks, who forests and waste lands, but conceded that the right to kumri had
had no other means of livelihood than shifting cultivation. More gained some degree of validity by long prescription, and thus
over, the total prohibition of kumri might have depopulated the allowed warg kumri to continue while sarkar kumri was virtually
forests of these areas to such an extent that labourers would have stopped.
become difficult to find to collect minor forest produce and carry In order to ensure that only the permitted amount of kumri
on other operations on behalf of the Forest Department.
57 was cut, permits were given annually, and the cultivation measured
It was warg kumri in Kasargod which proved most difficult every year, all excess over 10 per cent of the permitted area being
to restrict. A set of csubordinate rules was drawn up for the taluk charged with a penal assessment of P.s 8 per acre. But it proved
by the Assistant Collector and put into force in 1865, without difficult to implement the annual measurement of steep and im
58 According to these rules, each wargdar carrying on kumri
success. practicable hillsides by low-paid subordinates:
cultivation was allotted a block of forest eight times as large as the
annual clearing allowed, a special permit being issued to him to The accurate survey of hilly forest land is difficult under any circumstan
ces. The wargdars who cut under the permits can only guess at the
this effect. The kumri assessment was Re 1 per acre. Kumri was
. .

extent they are cutting, and the untrained men who are told to measure
forbidden in virgin forest or in forest that had remained uncut for it up without either adequate time or knowledge or appliances, and with
more than nine years. In addition, the wargdars were requested to every man’s hand against them trying alternately to cheat, to intimidate
cut a path or ditch around the year’s clearing. Each year’s block and to bribe, are just as likely to come to grief when they work honestly
was to be contiguous to that of the preceding year, so as to ensure as when they do the reverse.
that after eight years, the kumri holding of each wargdar would
be entirely demarcated on the ground. The wargdars almost u After various attempts at reform, the government eventually gave
nanimously refused to comply with this requirement, ostensibly up the measurements in 1883, and decided that instead of paying
on account ofthe labour and expense involved, but more probably Re 1 per acre actually felled, each wargdar would pay annually a
because they were unwilling to have any restrictions at all. They fixed standard assessment based on the average of the kumri
claimed an absolute property right to the forests and waste lands charges he had paid the preceding years. Pending the carrying out
Collector of Canara to Board of Revenue, 180, 22 June 1866, and
56 See the Settlement Reports of South Canara in Report on the Settlement of Sub-Secretary to Secretary, Board of Revenue, 24 June 1868, in BRP, 24 June
the Land Revenue of the Provinces under the Madras Presidency for the Years 1868; Sub-Secretary, Revenue Department, Madras Government, to Secretary
1 861—62 (para. 25), and 1862—63 (para. 8). to Chief Commissioner, Mysore, 1240, 5 May 1869, in BRP, 12 June 1869,
5 Sturrock, South Canara, pp. 17, 210; Sub-secretary to Secretary, Board of 4225. A wealth of information regarding the functioning of warg kumri in the
Revenue, Madras, 24 June 1868, in BRP, 24 June 1868. According to the adjoining North Kanara district can be found in the proceedings of the ‘Kanara
settlement Report of South Canara for 1865—66, 803 acres of sarkar kumri were Forest Case’, which have been reprinted in the Indian Law Reports, Bombay
cut in Coondapur and 156 in Puttur, which corresponds, in the case of a kumri Series, vol. III (Bombay, 1979); see M. Buchy, ‘Colonial forest exploitation in
rotation of twelve years, to a maximum kumri area of 11,500 acres. the Western Ghats of India: A case study of North Kanara district,’ Pondy Papers
58 See text of the rules in BRP, 21 March 1871, pp. 1917—19.
in Social Sciences, 7, Pondicherry, French Institute, September 1990, pp. 6—7.
146 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation 147

of the regular survey and settlement of the district, ‘a register they were ignorant of the methods of settled cultivation gradually
should be prepared recording as accurately as possible the boun lost weight in the eyes of the foresters.
daries and descriptive particulars of the tract within which each With the progress of forest settlement and reservation at the
wargdar is allowed to cut kumri; and during the felling season, turn of the century, sarkar kumri was thus increasingly curtailed,
the revenue and forest subordinates should be on the alert to and the Kudubis were often forced ‘to live by cultivation or coolie
prevent felling outside the authorized limits, in virgin forests and work like other people’ (as the authors of the revised District
in jungle of twelve years’ growth.’ In fact, the total amount of the Gazetteer wrote in 1938). Many of them took to paddy cultivation
kumri revenue being inconsiderable, the government was not under the local landlords. They usually took advances from these
prepared to take more expensive measures (such as the appoint landlords, and thus became permanently attached to them, as they
ment of a special establishment) to improve the system. The new could never repay the money. ‘Some of them,’ the District Forest
system was also more willingly accepted by the wargdars con Officer of Mangalore said in 1916,
cerned: ‘A little grumbling still continues that the government who happen to live near the locality where the Forest Department
won’t admit absolute property right to the whole of the forest of permits kumri cultivation, take to kumri cultivation, but their number
the [villages], but there is no doubt that the present arrangements is few. In return for kumri cultivation, the kumridars are bound to
give very much more satisfaction than those which preceded supply labour on payment whenever wanted by the Department, and
them,’ the Collector wrote in 1885.60 the works on which they are employed are creeper cutting, fire protection
Warg kumri was thus allowed to continue under strict restric works and catechu manufacture . But it is very difficult to attract
. .

tions. As regards sarkar kumri, the prohibition was not rigidly them to work. They are a class without ambition and extremely lethargic
enforced, and it was still being practised in a few areas towards and ignorant. They do not want money but generally yield to pres
the end of the century, both in the north and south of the district. sure . .The only way of attracting them to labour is by permitting
.

shifting cultivation on a greater scale. This is against the interest of

It remained permitted in Coondapur in the case of tribals who
reserved forests and cannot be permitted. Kudubi labour is thus becom
were shifting cultivators by tradition; but with a view to accustom
ing scarce year after year.
them to settled life it was decided in the early 18 80s that, along
with their kumri, they must undertake either to cultivate waste Sarkar kumri was stopped altogether in 1920, but it did not
lands in the estates of the neighbouring wargdars, or to gather die out completely even then. The Forest Department initiated a
forest products for the government against payment at the depot policy in 1898 which allotted limited areas offorest to the Kudubis
rates. Similar arrangements were made with the Kudubis of north for kumri cultivation combined with the raising of crops of teak.
ern Kasargod, and in a few scattered areas elsewhere in the district This lasted until 1915, and scattered patches of teak were already
where cultivated estates were reverting to forest or where valuable noticeable at that time among the re-growth on old kumri areas in
minor forest products were unutilized for want of labourers to north Kasargod. In the 1920s the plight of the Kudubis prompted
’ As a result of this policy, the plea of the tribals that
gather them.
6 the Forest Department to revive the system. They were given
kumri work to do on condition that they raised a forest crop under
60 Collector of South Canara to Board of Revenue, Madras, 512, 6 March the supervision of the Department in conjunction with their field
1883, and Government Order, 1054; Sturrock, South Canara, p. 124; ‘Settle
crop. Thus a satisfactory solution had, it was felt, at last been
ment Report of South Canara for 1884—85’, para. 18(3), in BRP, 16 August
1886, 1837. found to what was now largely a humanitarian problem: ‘The
61 ‘Settlement Report of South Canara for 1884—85’. experiment has proved successful, as it not only provided congenial
148 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation 149
work for the Kudubis, but greatly improved the existing forest, circumscribed areas, mainly for humanitarian reasons, or within
which was the result of the old unregulated kumri ‘.
the settled limits of the wargs, in domesticated form, so to say.
It has been contended that shifting cultivation, though it is
commonly equated with primitive forms of social life, has in fact
Conclusion been able to sustain in the past stratified societies and centralized
The imposition of state control over the forests of India during states, as long as increasing population densities did not impose
the second half of the nineteenth century, which included the the adoption of more intensive forms of agriculture.
63 This con
restriction or suppression of shifting cultivation in the more tention necessarily implies that this type of cultivation could be a
threatened forest areas, was only one aspect of the all-round ex surplus-producing activity. The evidence from the central Western
pansion of the modern state which characterized the post-Mutiny Ghats in the early nineteenth century, as we have seen, seems to
period of Indian history. Modernizing legislation was then being point to the same conclusion. It proves that shifting cultivation
passed in the domains of social and economic life which the state was not inconsistent with market exchange, that it could bear
needed to regulate; the peoples of the subcontinent were being taxation, and that it was not incompatible with property in land.
systematically counted, described and classified by state statis It also shows that the shifting cultivators of the hills in that region
ticians and ethnographers; the integral surveying and mapping of maintained regular contacts with the population of the plains.
the Indian territory at the cadastral scale had begun; rights in land There existed in fact a complementary and even (in the case of
were everywhere being recorded and customs were codified; the warg kumri) symbiotic relationship between shifting cultivation
network of administrative divisions and jurisdictions was being and sedentary agriculture, which formed one aspect of the diver
slowly tightened and brought closer to the people; road and sified pattern of interaction between the settled peasantry of the
railway communications were being developed. (To what extent countryside and the forest people. In the colonial situation, the
this resulted in a parallel progression of effective state control over combination of population growth and the rise of the modern
Indian society at the local level remains, however, an open ques state transformed this stable system into a lopsided relationship
tion.) ‘While the instrument of state control in the rural areas was between an expanding centralized space and a residual periphery.
the Revenue Department the implementation of forest legislation This evolution was helped by the dominant ecological preconcep
was the responsibility of the Forest Department. In the country tions of the authorities, who tended to view the domestication of
side, one of the characteristics of the new age was the regression nature and the artificial, specialized ecosystems of settled agricul
of nomadic lifestyles, which had been so prevalent all over India ture as one of the distinguishing features of civilization.
until the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the forest, the
shifting cultivator similarly came to appear as the last remnant of
an uncivilized past. Shifting cultivation was not banned every
where in India. But as far as the central Western Ghats were
concerned, it was eventually allowed to survive only in very strictly

63 See for instance D.E. Dumond, ‘Swidden agriculture and the rise of Maya
62Indian Industrial Commission, Minutes of Evidence, 1916—17, vol. III,
Madras and Bangalore (Calcutta, 1918), p. 366; Ayyar and Hall, Statistical civilization,’ SouthwesternJournal ofAnthropolosy, 17(1961), repr. in A.P. Vayda
Appendia pp. 159—60, 302. (ed.), Environment and Cultural Behaviour (New York, 1969).
150 Nature, Culture, Imperialism British Attitudes Towards Shifting Cultivation 151
APPENDIX
*
In the North the crops are reaped in November and Decem
ber, and in the South in October and November, and the produce
Kumri Cultivation in Nineteenth-Century Canara
is said to be at least double that which could be obtained from
Level ground is not suitable to this kind of cultivation and a hill the same extent of ground under the ordinary mode of culture.
side is always selected on the slopes of which a space is cleared A small crop is taken off the ground in the second year, and
during November, December and January. in Soopah (North Canara) 1 have heard that a scanty produce is
The fallen timber is then left to dry until March and April, sometimes reaped in the third, after which the spot is deserted
by which time the action of the sun and of the dry easterly winds until the jungle is sufficiently high to tempt the coomery cutter
which prevail at that season have rendered the dead branches and to renew the process.
brushwood highly combustible. In the South, where ground suited to regular cultivation is
The largest trees, it must be observed, are usually left standing, comparatively scarce and the population is more dense them in
their arms and branches only being removed, and this mass of other talooks, coomery has long been carried on in a systematic
comparatively dry wood generates a fierce fire, the effect of which way unknown in the North. The forest is regularly worked, and
are visible in the soil to a depth varying from three to six inches. a man goes over his holding once in 12, 10 or 7 years as the case
In most localities, the seed is sown in the ashes on the fall of may be, whereas in North Canara virgin forest often falls before
the first rains, the soil having been left untouched by implements the coomery knife and the people select at pleasure (or rather have
of any kind. In Bekul [later Kasargodi however, the ground is done so) old coomeries or jungles which in the memory of man
ploughed before the bed is sown. have never been subjected to the process.
When the young plants begin to appear, the coomery is fenced
in by a kind of wattle where its place is not supplied by fallen
trees, and the chief labour afterwards is weeding. The whole
process, it will be observed, is one requiring little skill and less
capital, but long continued and hard labour on the part of the
cultivator, who must moreover watch his clearing day and night
until harvest time in order to protect his crop from the ravages of
elk, bison and other wild animals with which the forests abound.
In the South (Bekul) the grain raised in coomeries is chiefly
paddy but in other parts of the District ragee takes its place. The
shares of the different cultivators are marked off in the South by
cotton and castor oil plants, whilst in the North the latter only is
common. The cotton grown in these clearings is of course small
in quantity, but is highly esteemed by the people, though its value
in the English market as estimated by the Bombay Chamber of
Commerce would be small and much better prices can be obtained
for it here than could be obtained in the Bombay market.
*
From Fisher’s report.
 Maps as Markers of Ecological Change 153
shifting cultivators, have interacted closely with the environment.
Chapter Five Although there have been debates on the impact of these com
munities on the vegetation of the Nilgiris, recent research has
shown that the Nilgiri shola (thicket) and grassland vegetation
Maps as Markers of Ecological complex has not changed significantly for the last 30,000 years.
Settled agriculture is supposed to have come into the hills during
Change: A Case Study of the the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. This was brought in by the
Nilgiri Hills of Southern India* immigrant Badaga community.
2 With this, a wide variety of crops
like ragi, wheat and barley were introduced into the hills. Major
and significant changes in the environment and ecology of the
Nilgiri hills were brought about in the colonial period, after 1800.
R. PRABHAKAR tD MADHAV GADGIL This essay concerns itself with ecological changes in the Nilgiri
area from the colonial period to the present, as discerned in maps
of the area.
To do science is to search for repeated patterns, not simply to Maps are a graphic representation of selected natural and
accumulate facts, and to do the science of geographical ecology man-made features of a geographical area at a particular point in
is to search for patterns of plant and animal life that can be put time and at a particular scale. For ecological studies, where the
on a map.
1 interest lies in analysing the spatial and temporal distribution of
Robert H. MacArthur biological communities, maps form an important data source. For
historical studies as well, they provide information that has hither
to lain unused among historians of modern India. They provide
quantitative, location-specific information on different aspects or
I. Introduction, ‘layers’ of land use, topography, vegetation, communications, set
tlements, etc.; all this can be used for a formal analysis of landscape.
uman societies have had a significant impact on the

H patterns of distribution of plants and animals on the

earth’s surface. Especially over .he last two hundred
years, human societies have expanded to every corner of the world
In addition, the graphic representation of time series over the maps
yield visual impressions and inferences that provide significant
clues on the process of ecological change.
and have transformed landscapes in significant and irreversible
ways. Our area of study, the Nilgiri hills of southern India, has II. The Nilgiri Area and its Cartographic Data Base
been colonized by people at least from the second century BC. The historical value of these maps [of the Survey of India] is
These communities, mainly pastoralists, hunter-gatherers and considerable, though uneven. Many of them make definite
reference to interesting historical events, persons and dates
*
We wish to thank DrAnindya Sinha for his editorial help, and the Ministry Generally speaking, these maps may be taken as good evidence
of Environment and Forests, Government of India, for partial financial support.
I Robert H. MacArthur, Geographical Ecology (Princeton, 1972), p. 1. 2 Paul Hockings, Ancient Hindu Refugees (New Delhi, 1980), p. 12.
154 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 155

as to the face of the country at the actual time of survey,

especially as to roads, towns and villages and boundaries also
where they are definitely 3indicated. 76°E 77°E
Colonel R.H. Phillimore 1 2°N

The Nilgiri area, lying between 11 N to 1TN and 76E to

77°l 5’E, forms a part of the Western Ghats chain of mountains
in southern India. The area is constituted by an upper plateau,
with an average elevation of over I 800m, the surrounding plains
tapering off in the south to the Paighat gap. Our study area
stretches about 80 km east to west and about 50 km north to
south (see Map 1). Geologically, the entire area belongs to the
continental block of peninsular India made up of metamorphic
4 The fault plains in the Nilgiri area suggest
Archaean rocks.
considerable tectonic activity causing block upliftment of the
Nilgiri massif from the surrounding plains during the late Jurassic
period, which is about 160—210 million years ago.
Out cartographic data base of the area starts when it came
into the possession of the East India Company after the fall of
Tipu Sultan in 1799. The first efforts of the British in the area
were to consolidate their position and to gain control over the
western and northern portions of the hills. In 1802 Colonel Cohn
Mackenzie was deputed to survey these hills. He does not seem
to have ascended the Nilgiris but his report refers to an account
and a map of the hills drawn by his surveyors. These could not
5 Other colonial officers from the collectorate of Coim
be found.
batore did discover routes of access to the hills, but there were no
detailed maps prepared until 1822. A map and a brief report were
prepared by Captain B.S. Ward, showing the early routes to the
hills and the progress of European settlements in the Nilgiris.
The next detailed map that forms an important data base for

of
Quoted in S.N. Prasad (ed.), Catalogue ofHistorical Maps ofthe Survey
India (1700—1900) (New Delhi, 1989), p. 1.
Map 1. Biophysical Zones of the Nilgiri Area.
Hans J. Von Lengerke, The Nilgiris (Berlin, 1977), p. 8.
5 W. Francis, The Nilgiris (Madras, 1905), p. 106.
156 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers of Ecological Change 157
our study was a consequence of a survey done by Captain question, i.e. over the two hundred year period. These features,
Ouchterlony and submitted to the Madras Government in 1847. then, form the basis of the biophysical zones of the Nilgiris.
This map was dtawn on a large-scale of 1 inch = 1000 feet, or
1:12000, showing in detail the European and indigenous settle III. Methodology
ments, agricultural areas, forest areas, streams and swamps, and
routes on the Nilgiris. This map, along with a detailed survey We divide the Nilgiri area into six biophysical zones, based on
memoir, formed the basis of a later revenue settlement of the topography and climate. These form an independent variable
district. on which the ecological history of the area is constructed (see
Our next significant cartographic data base is the topographic Map 1).
sheets of the ‘Modern Survey’ initiated in 1905. After this period, 1. The Nilgiri plateau and slopes: This is formed by the
a uniform and reliable time series of maps is available on the triangular mountain block rising steeply from the surrounding
standard scale of 1 inch 1 mile, or 1:63000. These are essentially plains with an average elevation of 1800 m. The physio graphic
the products of geodesic and topographic surveys done in the area and orographic effects combine to give the area a cooler climate
after 1905. In 1950 a survey committee was appointed to further than the surrounding plains, and expose the western portions of

*1
rationalize the legends on the maps, and to produce maps along the plateau to monsoon fury. Thus, it has a rainfall ranging from
the metric system. These were surveyed and drawn to the scale of 1000 mm to 5000 mm. Its natural vegetation is the shola grassland
1:5000. They provide accurate information on natural vegetation, system on the upper plateau, with dense forests on the outer slopes.
plantations and agriculture; legal land categories; water resources 2. The Szurplateau: This stretches on the northern side of
and drainage patterns; topography; and human artifacts like set the Nilgiri hills and forms a part of the Mysore plateau. However,
tlements, communications, power lines, reservoirs, temples and it is separated from the latter by a chasm 300 m deep, known as
places of worship, fairs, festivals and markets. Sporadically, there the Moyar gorge. The Sigur plateau itselfis at an elevation of 1000
were other surveys conducted of selected areas, such as forest m. Being on the leeward side of monsoon winds, it receives a very
surveys on the scale of 1:15000, and revenue surveys on the scale scanty annual rainfall of 500 mm to 1000 mm, but is fed by many
of 16 inches to the mile. streams originating in the Nilgiri plateau. The natural vegetation
On a consolidated level for the whole of the Nilgiri area, one is mainly dry deciduous, with pockets of scrub in drier places and
set of maps represents four surveys during the seasons 1847, riverine evergreen vegetation along the perennial streams.
1905—8, 1950, and 1970. These provide four snapshots of the 3. The Coimbatore plains: These plains stretch on the east
physical features in time. ern side of the Nilgiri plateau and are contiguous with the Tamil
In addition, there have been thematic maps of the area, rep nadu plains. The area has an average elevation of 300 m, and
resenting climate, soils, geology, and land use. The current receives sporadic rainfall of 1000 mm to 1500 mm, in the winter
scenario of land use and vegetation is derived from the visual months, from the north-east monsoon. The area is mainly agricul
interpretation of a set of satellite images covering the period 1973 tural, with a few patches of natural vegetation of dry deciduous
to 1989, with thematic overlays and extensive ground surveys. forests and scrub. There are a few perennial streams and the tract
These are listed in the Appendix. is well endowed with subsoil water.
For a historical analysis with maps, some features such as 4. The Attappadi plateau: This is a narrow plateau of un
topography, climate and geology are invariant over the period in dulating hills, stretching from the south of the Nilgiri hills to the
158 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers of Ecological Change 159
Palghat gap, with an average elevation of 800 m. The western 3. Communications and settlementpatterns : The opening up
portions of the plateau receive heavy monsoon rains, amounting ofhinterlands by communication networks have helped the spread
to 2500 mm a year. The annual rainfall declines eastward towards of commercialization and the market economy into remote areas.
the Coimbatore plains, to 800 mm. The natural vegetation, con These have been conduits for resource extraction, leading in many
sequently, ranges from dense evergreen forests in the western cases to ecological change. The progress of communication net
portions to dry deciduous and scrub jungle in the eastern parts. works, faithfully represented on the maps, thus reveals the integra
5. The Nilambur plains: On the western side of the Nilgiri tion of areas into the market economy.
plateau lies the Chaliyar valley and the Nilambur plains, with an 4. Water resources: The utilization and distribution ofwater
elevation of about 0 m. From here the Nilgiri massif rises steeply resources have played a significant role in agricultural and urban
to over-2000 m, forming deep and highly eroded escarpments. communities. Further, the availability of water, whether seasonal
Open to the western seaboard of the Arabian Sea, it receives a very or perennial, is significantly linked to the rainfall and land use
high rainfall of 2500 mm to 5000 mm. The natural vegetation is patterns in catchment areas. Human artifacts like dams, reservoirs,
dense evergreen forests, with all the altitudinal variations. canals and wells, which have altered the water regime in significant
6. The Wynaad plateau: This is a flat tableland with an ways, have had consequences for the ecology of many areas. These
average elevation of 800 m. It lies to the west of the Nilgiri hills, water resources have been well represented in historical maps of
forming the south-western extremity of the Mysore plateau. It the Nilgiri area.
contains low rounded hills with large swampy valleys. It has a
monsoonal climate and receives an annual rainfall of 1500 mm
W. Analysis and Results
to 2500 mm. The natural vegetation consists ofswampy grasslands
in the valleys, with dense moist deciduous and evergreen forests Based upon our cartographic data base and survey memoirs, we
on the hill slopes. The area is currently under intensive plantation analyse each of the biophysical zones and draw inferences on the
cropping. process of ecological change. Further, we attempt a more formal
We analyse the ecological changes in these six zones with quantitative analysis for the Attappadi biophysical zone.
respect to each of the following parameters: 1. The Nilgiri plateau and slopes: The Nilgiri plateau, with
1. Land use: This is represented in the available maps as a an area of 1686.44 km2 was considered an isolated tribal enclave
colour wash, giving details of agricultural lands, natural forests, of peninsular India during the pre-colonial period. However, the
commercial plantations, forest plantations and settlement areas. evidence of routes suggests that the Nilgiri plateau had regular
In addition, the survey memoirs give information on agricultural contact with the northern areas of Devarayapatna in Mysore, and
areas and agricultural practices. with the Kongu region, stretching to the Coimbatore plains. The
2. Legal and administrative categories of land: These are area seems to have been administered from a place called Denai
marked on the maps and represent revenue lands under the control kenkotai in the north-eastern tip of the plateau. The presence of
of the Revenue Department. Such lands are used for agriculture, many antiquities and forts on the northern prominences of the
and for various other purposes which come under open access to Nilgiri plateau suggests that the area was in regular contact with
local communities. Also represented on these maps are reserved the surrounding country. Early surveys of 1812 record three routes
forests under the c9ntrol of the Forest Department, where local to the plateau, one from the north-east, one from the north, and
communities have restricted access. the other from the south-west. None of these was suitable for
160 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 161
wheeled traffic and thus most of the communication and trade was year. Early estimates of the total agricultural lands on the plateau
on foot, although it is asserted that Tipu Sultan carried up some were fixed at about fourteen square miles or 3625.2 ha, i.e. 2.25
cannons and horses to the forts on the northern prominences per cent of the total land area.’
3
6 The settled villages were confined
overlooking Mysore territory. The western portions of the plateau were largely uncultivated.
to the eastern and northern portions of the plateau, and so was They were used as seasonal grazing grounds by Toda buffalo
7 The western portions of the plateau were mainly
agriculture. keepers during the dry months of January to March. There were
pastoral. Locally by custom, the area was divided into three ter no permanent habitations in the area, only several seasonally-used
ritories: Porunganad to the east, Maikanad to the south, and buffalo penning sites.’
4 There were brooks and streams on the
Todanad to the west. William Keys notes that there were 41 plateau but practically no irrigation.
principal and 119 subordinate villages. However reliable or unreli It was upon this scene that the Europeans descended in the
able the actual numbers may be, most of the agricultural villages first half of the nineteenth century. Discovering the cool environ
were small, consisting of about four to six houses in a row, sur ment of the hills, they established many routes to the upper
8 Village hamlets were often in
rounded by agricultural fields. plateau. By 1850 they had set up townships, municipalities and
clusters of three or four within 9 The
one kilometre of each other. sanatoriums at Kotagiri, Wellington and Coonoor on the eastern
only large and well-settled villages were the Kota villages, dis side of the hills, and Ootacamund towards the west.’ 5 These
tributed evenly all over the plateau. Their main activity, in addition townships and municipalities became centres of immigration,
to subsistence agriculture, was to provide artisanal services to the drawing a large number of people from the plains of Coimbatore
agriculturist Badagas on the plateau. Each village -had forty to fifty and Mysore. By 1847, at the time of the Ouchterlony Survey, the
houses, arranged in neat rows.’° On the north-eastern and south immigrant population was 8887, slightly higher than the in
eastern slopes, in the flat portions of the steep valleys, there were digenous population of 7704 persons.’
6
a few Irula and Kurumba villages that subsisted with some shifting The agricultural area expanded fourfold during this period,
cultivation in the fertile valleys, augmented by the gathering of to 12718 ha, and many marginal lands were put under shifting
numerous sorts of forest produce for both subsistence and cultivation. All this expansion was still confined to the northern
The soils of the cultivated areas were very fertile and well and eastern parts of the plateau. The western parts were relatively
2 On the flat upper plateau, cultivation was done
looked after.’ untouched by all this activity, although two routes had been
with the use of the plough, and with two cropping seasons each established westwards, one vi the Sispara pass and Silent Valley
6 Letter from William Keys, Assistant Surveyor, to W. Garrow, Collector
to the Nilambur plains, the other via Gudalur towards Mysore.’
7
of Coimbatore, 1812, in ‘A Topographical Description of the Neelaghery
There were some experiments with tea and coffee on the hills.’
8
Mountains’, in H.B. Grigg, A Manual of the Nilagiri District in the Madras ‘ Keys, 1812.
Presidency (Madras, 1880), Appendix 17, pp. xlvii—li. 14 Ibid.
7 B.S. Ward, ‘Geographical and Statistical Survey of the Nealgherry Moun 15 Major
J. Ouchterlony’s, Map ofthe Neilgherry Mountains upon a scale of
tains’ 1822, in Grigg, ManualoftheNilagiri District, Appendix 20, pp. Ix—lxxviii. 1000 ft. = 1 inch or 1:12000, 1847.
Keys, 1812.
8 16
j• Ouchterlony, ‘Geographical and Statistical Memoir of the Neilgherry
9
W ard, 1822. Mountains, under the Superintendence of Captain J. Ouchterlony’, Madras
10 Ibid. Journal ofLiterature and Science, 15 January—December 1848, pp. 1—138.
11 Ibid. 17 Ouchterlony, 1847.
12 Ibid. 18 Ouchterlony, 1847, and ‘Statistical Memoir’, 1848.
162 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 163
Europeans and immigrants from the plains had already begun during this period from 18.75 km 2 to 47 km , mainly in the
2
to see the brooks and streams as a resource. They had plans for southern portion of the hills.
the utilization of water for agricultural expansion, and by 1847 It was also during this period that water resources in the area
they had built the Ooty lake, with plans for harnessing other began to be harnessed to generate electricity. A series of dams and
streams in the Nilgiris. reservoirs was built, which significantly altered the water regimes.
By the beginning of the twentieth century, communications This was to have important consequences for the ecology of the
were well established all over the Nilgiri hills. The main route lower hills. On the Nilgiri hills themselves, most of this activity
to the plains was via Coonoor, the railway route having already was confined to the western portion. The reservoir and dam-con
been laid from Mettupalayam to Ootacamund. The centre of struction activity itself had major ecological consequences. These
trade and commercial activity shifted from Kotagiri to Coonoor. areas had been relatively undisturbed and were the only remnants
On the western side, the route over Kundahs was abandoned and of the original vegetation within the Nilgiri hills. They were
a new route to the Kerala plains opened via Gudalur. A network penetrated with a network of roads, and the influx of a lar,ge labour
of roads opened out southwards from Coonoor, bringing the force led to the destruction of sholas around the reservoirs. The
southern fringes of the Nilgiri hills in proximity to markets. Pykara Reservoir, built in 1932, had a waterspread of 4 km 2 and
Plantation crops like tea and coffee, first experimented with on a catchment area of 185 km . This scheme linked up the northern
2
the northern slopes, spread to the southern side. These areas, streams of the Moyar catchment; these had consequences for the
with an altitude of 1200 m to 1800 m, were ideally suited for Sigur plateau which will be discussed later.
plantation crops. These occupied 18.75 km 2 as one continuous The modern period is marked by a massive growth in com
i 19
patcn. munication networks; the growth of non-agricultural labour set
The western side of the plateau was still unpopulated. By this tlements; the large-scale conversion of reserve forest areas into
period the European elite, concerned with the destruction of the forest plantations; a massive manipulation of the water regime by
sholas, introduced many exotic plantation crops to meet the dams and reservoirs; the conversion of agricultural and degraded
fuelwood requirements of the population, and they reserved unin lands into tea plantations; and the degradation of the Nilgiri slopes
habited areas and remaining sholas all over the plateau. Thus, by into scrub vegetation.
20
1905, eighty per cent of the lands of Ootacamund taluk and The Kundah range, the last hinterland area without com
forty per cent of Coonoor taluk were declared as reserved in over munication networks, was suddenly opened up by roads for the
400 small and large patches under the Madras Forest Act of development of hydro-electric schemes. Over 90 per cent of the
1882. catchment of the Bhavani was bound with a network of reservoirs
By the 1 950s the road communication networks had further ’ With it came settlements to provide labour
to generate power.
2
expanded into the western portions of the hills. Tea plantations and other services for their construction and maintenance.
22 The
were experimented with in these inhospitable areas. In the south series of dams built did not essentially change the land use patterns
ern fringes, many forested tracts were converted into coffee estates, on the hills, but they made many ofthe streams flowing southward
utilizing virgin soils in the area, under the micro-climate provided
by natural forest vegetation. Tea and coffee estates expanded 20 Satellite Image Interpretation of LANDSAT TM, 6 February 1989.
21 Survey of India, 58A, 1981, Survey Year 1974.
22 Ibid.
19 Survey of India, 58A, 1922, Survey Year 1905—8. S
164 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 165
and eastward seasonal, which had consequences for land use on
the lower hills.
With the impetus given by the National Forest Policy of 1952,
large areas under the control of the Forest Department were con
verted to plantations to provide raw material to industry. Attempts
were made to covert over 90 per cent of the grasslands into wattle
and eucalyptus plantations. These failed on the western fringes of
the plateau because of frost and the fury of the monsoon. In other I
areas, plantations became an industry and supported a large im
migrant labour force that encroached on government lands.
Agriculture witnessed a marginal expansion with attempts to settle
Toda graiers. Because of the loss of tree cover in the southern
portions, so11 fertility and the micro-climate had changed. Conse-
quently, many coffee plantations were replaced by the hardier tea
plantations. Other areas degraded into scrubland. :
Table I summarizes the ecological changes on the Nilgiri
plateau; Map 2 shows important landscape changes during the t
period. +— -5
The Sigurplateau: This plateau, with an area of 281.25 km ,
2
had been a major population centre during the pre-colonial H
period, being at the tn-junction of the Tamil plains, the Mysore
plateau and the Wynaad area. It had many settled agricultural u
villages along the perennial streams and was a major communica-
tions route. The many ruins of forts, as well as indications of bridle
tracks criss-crossing the area, reveal that Tipu Sultan had sig
nificant control over the area on account ofits strategic importance
in his fight against the British. Thus, when it came into the
possession of the British after the fall of Tipu in 1799, early
surveyors set down much detail on this area, as revealed in Ward’s
map of 1822.23 Ward’s map shows the area thickly forested by
teak trees in the western portions, with sandal trees towards the
east. It shows roads through the area leading to Wynaad in the
west and Devarayapatna in the north. All the routes to the Nilgiri
plateau were from this area. There were three perennial streams,

23 B.S. Ward, Map ofthe Neelgherry Mountains, 1822.

166 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 167
along which were settlements. Some of these streams had canals
branching off for the irrigation of paddy lands.
24
The map notes eight inhabited villages, seven abandoned
villages and a couple of temples in the area. ‘It is piain that it had
been more largely cultivated some years back, and had likewise
some paddy fields; but the depredations of wild elephants of late
and the diminution of hands have almost laid it desolate’.
25
The British considered the plateau highly malarial and did
In not venture there in the wet season. Early attempts to expand
a) agriculture into the area with commercial crops like cotton failed.
But during the second halfof the nineteenth century they extracted
valuable timber, which was used as building material for townships
in the Nilgiris. The Sigur ghat was also opened up and formed
the main route into%e Nilgiris from Mysore.
26
At the beginning of the nineteenth century the agricultural
area constituted 4.2 km
2 i.e. 1.4 per cent of the total. This was
not much more than existed in 1822. But in forest c[earings, coffee
plantations were tried. They constituted about 1 km 2 in the
western portions. By this period the whole areawas reserved under
forest reservation laws, and commercial timber removed. There
were many seasonal cattle-penning sites in the reserved forests
which were frequented by Badaga agriculturists of the Nilgiri
plateau. Along the Mysore route, a new township had come up
at Masinagudi. It provided trade and services to coffee plantations
and travellers.
There were no major changes till the 1 950s, when hydro
electric projects were established on the Sigur plateau. This was a
part of the Pykara hydroelectric system that diverted the Pykara’s
westward-flowing water onto the Sigur plateau. Construction
tivity further increased the township of Masinagudi. It was during
this time that malaria was eradicated, and this too contributed to
immigration.

24 Keys, 1812.
25 Ibid.
26 Survey of India, 58A, 1922.

Map 2. Landscape Changes on the Nilgiri Plateau.

168 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers of Ecological Change 169
The modern period has been marked by a decrease in agricul
ture, declaration of forest lands as a wildlife sanctuary, water
shortage due to the seasonality of two of the earlier perennial
streams, and increased scrubland in the area.
27
As a consequence of the increas ed utiliza tion of water in the
s
upper plateau for intensive agriculture, two the major stream
of
watering the Sigur plateau have become seasonal. Agricultural
areas have thus shrunk to less than 200 ha. 28 Further, because of
overgrazing by an increased cattle and buffalo population con
centrated near water-holes and milk-collection centres, areas
around them have degenerated into thorny 29 scrub. The declara
t
tion of60 2 of the plateau as part of a wildlife sanctuary brough
increased tourism alongside the growth of the Masinagudi town
s
ship. Coffee estates have deteriorated as a cosequence of change
V

in the micro-climate, brought about by a decrease in forest cover,

and many have since been abandoned.
Table II summarizes the ecological changes on the Sigur plat V
.
eau; Map 3 shows important landscape changes during the period
of the Wynaa d
3. The Wynaad plateau: Little is known
plateau, with an area of 1048 km, during the pre-colonial period.
2
this
Even after the fall of Tipu there was independent resistance in
memoi r of
area. It is first mentioned in the Ouchterlony survey
1847.30 Detailed maps of the area are available only from the
1 900s. From these, inferences are drawn to indicate that during
een
the pre-colonial period the area was thickly forested with evergr
contain
and moist deciduous trees. Major portions of it did not
permanent settlements but were, all the same, used by tribal
ents
communities for hunting and gathering. Permanent settlem
with settled agriculture existed only in a few swamp y lands where
paddy was cultivated.
By 1847 a rough track was established from the Nilgiri hills
was
through Gudalur to Sultan’s Battery in the Wynaad. The area
27 LANDSAT TM, 1989 and Survey of India, 58A, 1981.
28 Survey of India, 58A, 1981, ibid
29 LANDSAT TM, 1989.
30 Ouchrerlony, 1848.
170 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 171
surveyed in 1847 and pronounced very suitable for coffee planta
tions. By 1905 regular communication routes for wheeled traffic
31
were established, and coffee estates had spread to cover an area of
. There was a well-established European community
about 25 km
2
in the plantation area with its own settlements and recreation
centres. The northern portions of the Wynaad, rich in teak trees,
were constituted into reserved forests by 1905 under the Forest
Act of 1882, with an area of 281 km . These forests were regularly
2
worked and teak trees harvested to build townships on the Nilgiri
plateau.
V
By 1950 Gudalur had become a trade and communications
centre, with roads leading to Mysore, the Kerala plains and the
Nilgiris. With the eradication ofmalaria, the area drew immigrants
from Kerala and Mysore, and Gudalur became the most important
J)
V town in Wynaad. Tea and coffee estates spread in the area oc
cupying a total of 130 km 2 by the end of this period.
0 In recent times the area has seen an unprecedented growth of
settlements. Ambiguous legal land categorization and political
reorganization of the linguistic states brought waves of immigrants
U from Kerala. Forested areas were cleared for agriculture and cul
V

0
tivation, and the government took over 800 ha, converting them
- to tea estates to settle refugees from Sri Lanka. While lands were
d
under litigation between the Forest Department and immigrants,
forested arças were being clear-felled and cultivation expanded.
Thus, at the end of this period, except for the reserve forest of 281
2 and 1200 ha of other forest,
km 32 all the other areas were con
verted to intensive agriculture and plantation crops. About 260
2 of forest lands in the northern portion were declared a sanc
km
tuary and forest workings in them were minimized.
Table III summarizes the ecological change in the Wynaad
area.
4. The NilamburpLiins: The first detailed map of the Nil
ambur area of 265 km 2 was after the 1905—8 survey of the area.

31 Ibid.
32 Survey of India, 58A, 1974, Survey Years 1954—1955.
172 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 173
I I In the pre-colonial period parts of the Nilambur plains adjacent
II to the Nilgiri hills were densely covered with lowland evergreen
C
U
C
V U V V
forests, inhabited by a few hunter-gatherer tribal societies. The
,_
I
°
0,
C C flatlands of the Nilambur plains were cultivated. By tradition,
C ç
.-C
U U U the forested areas were called temple lands and were held with
the temple of the area. On the periphery of the forest there were
a few teak and other commercial timber trees.
-dV
C,,
By 1905 Nilambur had become an important trade, com
C C-. V
.
munications and administrative settlement. It was on the main
C C-C, V U
route connecting the Kerala plains with Mysore and the Nilgiris.
t I
c_) >.
- 0
Realizing the importance of teak, efforts were made to raise plan
tations of this species. This, the first attempt by the British to
U ,
-C
C V V
grow teak artificially in India, proved successful on the Nilambur
,u
.j4 Uc
-eU plains. Rubber was also experimented with as a plantation crop
CC
C
- zoe z
0
during this period. The thickly-forested hill areas were reserved
.-d .-C
under the Forest Act of 1882 and many of the accessible areas
VVC
worked for timber.
vI
- i Cc
C,
0
By 1950 the railway line was extended to Nilambur with the
, ,, U
%-e c Cn U c, C)
sole purpose of exporting sleeper timber for railway expansion
.
u C ° c

U
from the evergreen forest around the Nilambur area, and on the
V
U 0
.- .
-
slopes of the Nilgiri hills. The rubber plantations had established
U
themselves in the Nilambur plains, where the climate was most
appropriate. They were confined to an area of about 12 km 2 on
.
-
C,,
Q
c
0
C
C-. C-.
ç)
4-’
the forest fringe at the edge of the plains.
CO
0
U Z.n cI_ ‘—4C,
During the recent period, large areas of the plains have been
C’,
C converted to rubber plantations. On forest department lands,
c
0
4-,
U
IH, about 25 km2 of forests were clear-felled and converted to teak
U
oC. —
C 33 On the fringes of the forests, new
and other timber plantations.
‘- v
- &C
C
C-

settlements were established which provided labour for rubber

- .-
— 4- C., r_ plantations and forest work.
C.-
ScE -
Uc
C U -
Table IV summarizes ecological change in the Nilambur plains.
So-.—. ve CO 5. The Attappadi plateau: We attempt a quantitative
9S UU vU
C
.
4 ,
OUØ
-.
C analysis for the landscape changes in the Attappadi plateau with
an area of 806.25 km 2 during the historical period. The earliest
C C C
.

C c
Survey of India, 58A, 1981, ibid.
174 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 175

maps of the area date from 1905; and we have four data points
for the landscape from that time to the present.
In the pre-colonial period the Attappadi area was mainly
c U
inhabited by tribal communities growing a variety of crops by
-
C
shifting cultivation, along the perennial streams and water courses.
I- U
0
-C
U
0
-
U
0 The area was watered by two perennial streams from the south
and three from the north, joining into the main Bhavani river that
flows eastward through the plateau. This thickly-forested area was
-
,-, an important source of minor forest produce in the form of roots
.
0 and herbs collected and traded for medicinal use.
‘I,
U
,,
The first available maps, those of 1905, show 89 km 2 of the
c-) Silent Valley designated as reserved forest, and the remaining land
-
o under local control. Minor routes extended towards the Coim
I C C
-C-C
U.2 c
- c’3
-
batore plains in the east and Mannarkad in the west. Agriculture
t4_ z
U
0 0
was limited to about 22.5 km 2 in thirty-six patches all over the
0 0
,-,

northern portions of the plateau. These were mainly small patches

zV of shifting cultivation used with an intervening fallow period.
-C C
C
-
0 By 1954 communications into the plateau were opened up
CC
..D 0
$2 E
cU from the Coimbatore plains, bringing in agricultural immigrants
.0 -
who occupied the flat valley bottoms on the banks of the Bhavani
t.
-I
C.U-
CU- river. A large patch of about 60 km 2 thus came under annual
c-)
1“
I- V
b cultivation. Shifting cultivation tribals were displaced to the slopes
E C 0 ‘-

0 — of the hills. The total agricultural area of about 109 km

2 increased
0
c
-CC- to about 171 km 2 by 1975. Smaller patches along the slopes were
8 ___z ZZcE completely inadequate for rotation, and much of this area de
4-
v graded into scrub. A series of dams, built on the upper plateau in
C
-0
the 1970s, made the two perennial streams on the northern side
-C
V
of the plateau seasonal. This transformed these regions of the
-s . plateau into dry scrubland too, and much of the agriculture now
-C
ui..
..D0
C v
‘
C ‘ -
shifted southward.
‘-:i u
0 U

-‘C c0 During this period communication links were established with

uC the Kerala plains in the west. A wave of colonizers from the west
UC CC
S C
occupied the south-western portions of the plateau, converting
H oc £:: HS the forests into a variety of garden and plantation crops. By 1989
C
C C this had come to occupy about 66 km 34
.
2
----

3’ LANDSAT TM, 1989, ibid

 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 177
176
Table V
c
Patch Size Distribution of Agriculture on the (.
z ‘4

Attappadi Plateau . E-
cd
E -

c
. 200 2o
v
Patch Size *
1908 1954 1974 1989 .. ‘- bO
2 4. ‘4
Cd .-.
I-, V
6.25 km No. Area No. Area No. Area No. Area U
-t
U E
t
CdV 0 0
0.1
< 27 1.51 15 0.8 1 0.05 4 0.24 V U V

0.1 1.0
— 9 2.09 9 2.13 7 2.65 5 0.85 -
I

1.0— 5.0 0 0 3 4.9 1 1.45 0 0 .

0 U
5.0 10.0
—
0 0 1 9.59 1 8.15 1 5.25 o
U
t’4
Cd
> 10.0 0 0 0 0 1 15.12 1 17.83 cd
-
U
* *
ci .E
Total 32 *
28 *
11 11 —. .— I-.
Cd
Cd Cd
Total -
- :
-

U
-

U
U
agricultural 3.60 17.37 27.4 24.17 a tU
.. Et z z
area

For a formal analysis of the landscape, we calculate the area

of each agricultural patch for each of the years 1908, 1954, 1974,
and 1989. Their patch size distribution is shown in Table V. In
1908, all the agriculture was in shifting cultivation patches of
2 distributed along the perennial streams of the area.
below 6 km
These patches were rotated around favourable sites which were
d I

‘)
-

.U
‘-

...

C)

I.,
cd’4

Eu
.$
U-
ot
‘4
b

.—U

t
3
(
04)
E
1.

0
‘4

c
oc’
.

0
numerous in the Attappadi area. By 1954 immigrant agriculturists L)
ci
E
from the Coimbatore plains had settled permanently in the 0
-t
4•_•
cd
-t
‘
Cd 4) 4-
.-.
1- U

Bhavani Valley and 55 per cent of the agricultural land was 0 c>LS
Q

aggregated into one large patch of 65 km . By 1989, with im

2 z ‘4
t
migration from the surrounding areas, 73.8 per cent of the land .
U
was aggregated into one large area ofpermanently used agricultural C CiD
U ;-.
0
Cd C

land, marginalizing the small shifting cultivation plots to just 1 -

-d
u
4••
U
. — ‘ l_ -.
0U
per cent of the total agricultural area. U •-t:j
U U
U
Table VI summarizes the ecological changes on the Attappadi c b.O
cdo
,. U
plains; Map 4 shows changes in the landscape during this period. UCdt
U Cd
t4-.

6. The Coimbatore plains: With an area of 750 km , the

2 v— 0 Eo
U U
cdZ
C./)
Coimbatore piains were a major agricultural area during the pre
colonial period. They had agricultural settlements typical of the 0
oo 0
a N
—
— — —
Tamilnadu plains, formed by both agricultural and artisanal corn-
 178 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 179
munities. Wells and lift irrigation were prevalent in this area. To
the east and north were the hills of the Nilgiri and Mysore plateau
respectively. These were thickly forested and inhabited by tribal
communities practising shifting cultivation and collecting forest
produce for barter with the agricultural communities of the plains.
Many routes passed through the area, connecting Mysore,
Wynaad, the Kerala plains and the Tamilnadu plains.
35 The Coim
batore plains came into the possession ofthe British after the defeat
1-.
of Tipu Sultan in 1799. The British established their administra
C)
tive centre at Coimbatore, and soon it became an important trade
and communication centre.
By 1850 routes to Mysore and the Nilgiris passed through
Coimbatore. The forested tracts adjoining the hills were thus
C opened up for exploitation. Agriculture had spread to the foot of
these hills and tribal communities inhabiting the area were pushed
<0 -S further up the hill slopes of the Nilgiris.
The 1905 map shows patches of cultivation all along the slopes
I. of the hills: permanent cultivation had spread along the streams
J
(_)
and communication routes of the Coimbatore plains. The remain
ing forests adjoining the hills towards the west and north were
reserved, limiting the further spread ofagricultural areas. The 1905
map shows some of the agricultural settlements on the hills as
being abandoned, possibly as a consequence of the famine of
1 876_8.36 In addition to being an important administrative and
trade centre, Coimbatore became an important railway junction,
with tracks leading to Kerala in the west and Mettupalayam and
the Nilgiri hills to the north.
By the 1 950s Coimbatore had grown in size and stature to
become an industrial town, drawing in waves of immigrants. In
the perennial river valleys some plantations had spread and many
dry agricultural areas were irrigated by means of wells. The Noyil
river basin was one such region where lift irrigation was practised.
During this period roads were laid into the hill slopes and into

35 Ward, 1822.
36 Survey of India, 58E13, 1927, Survey Years 1905—8.
180 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers ofEcological Change 181
the Attappadi plateau, which opened up areas for the emigration
of agriculturists from the Coimbatore plains. .- I v
.

During the recent period the increase in lift irrigation by deep

C,

C V

borewells has significantly lowered the water table in the area, V -

-
0

leading to the abandoning of cultivation in large tracts. This has 4.

-e 0

also led to an increase in scrub vegetation on the hillsides and the

foothills of the region. With a fall in agriculture and an increase C v
-

°
C.-) ,,, —

in efficient communication networks, many small industrial town

ships have sprung up over the entire area. .
.— C)

Table VII summarizes ecological changes in the Coimbatore o

-‘
4-, C.,,
U C)

plains. C,,
c:3
—
c
0
C
Cd
C
Cd
‘-j.— -
o _ C) C)

V. Summary and Conclusions V

I-,
C C.,
C C
A study of the time series of maps for the Nilgiri yield a history -O 0 -j U,

of the landscape of the area which has implications for changes in Cd Cd

C
resource use patterns. In the pre-colonial period resource flows 0 C_
u..
were localized in each of the bio-physical zones. The area sup V ‘, ,,
,,cd
C
C
,
Cd

ported a wide spectrum of communities from hunting-gathering

V
82 oç5 — U)

iH
-

C.
and pastoral communities to subsistence agriculture and artisanal E__
r’
C
v --‘
v—
C•
communities. These communities interacted among themselves in
C_.-

the exchange of goods and services. The area also had cultural .- e u . ‘-. - u - ‘
v CM

U c.) C.,

links with the larger south Indian civilization. There were many c)
C_0 UU
-0-—
trade and communication routes passing through the lower plat C C_ C., —
d
$
o
0 C
C) —Q
tU 0
eau, some of which led up to the northern ridges of the higher 0
C.)
- UZ,ZUoUQ
plateau. However, there was no large-scale export of resources Cd ‘-

from the area, other than certain special forest products like = cE
B C.

medicines and honey. .Q B V

The British gained control of the area after the defeat of Tipu .LC_cj
-
-C
Cd
0
in 1799. Their earliest efforts were to consolidate their control over ‘-
U
-d
the area. They discoered the cool climate of the Nilgiri plateau C,,

and concerted attempts were made to establish a European colony u

0
- C-”
Cd
U
C)

in the hills. Townships and cantonments were established; routes

.

0oC ._
— •,

were laid to the hills from the surrounding plains; agricultural

stations were set up to experiment with and acclimatize temperate . c
C C
C C
iir
plants; and the immigration of people from surrounding areas was
 r
182 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Maps as Markers of Ecological Change 183
encouraged to provide the necessary services. Consequently, at highly subsidized rates to forest-based industries. Plantations of
agriculture expanded in the Nilgiri hills. The surrounding plateaus wattle and eucalyptus were established in remote areas. Under the
of
and plains were relatively undisturbed during this first phase ‘grow more food’ campaign of the agriculture department, the
colonial rule. But during this period an infrastructure was created expansion, intensification and commercialization of agriculture
and commercial experiments such as tea plantations and mining were encouraged. The water resources of the area were extensively
still
for gold, were tried. However, major resource flows were tapped by setting up a series of dams and reservoirs for the genera
confined within the area, and there was an inflow of resources in tion of power. These activities were accompanied by a network of
the nature of immigration infrastructure and biota from outside. communication routes in hitherto inaccessible areas. Settlements
By 1905 coffee and tea had established themselves as sig sprang up all over, and the natural vegetation was confined to
nificant commercial crops. Large areas on the Nilgiri and Wynaad limited areas where the government had established national parks
plateaus were cleared of natural vegetation and commercially ex and sanctuaries. The borders between such areas and the trans
with
ploited with tea and coffee plantations integrating the area formed areas became very sharp, bringing conservation objectives
Nilgiri
the global market. The remaining natural forests on the in direct conflict with the people. Now resource flows reached an
plateau were legally ‘reserved’ for their aesthetic and recreational unprecedented scale. A wide variety of agricultural and natural
appeal to the colonists, whereas forests with valuable timber species products were brought into the market economy. The indigenous
in the Wynaad and Sigur plateau were reserved for commercial inhabitants, mainly forest dwellers and hunting and gathering
exploitation to the exclusion of the rights of local inhabitants. communities, were completely marginalized, with much reduced
The pauperization of the surrounding areas in the Coimbatore access to their subsistence resources. They had to depend mainly
plains and Mysore provided the much needed immigrant labour on labour for their livelihood. Agriculturists were at the mercy of
for
force for a commercialization of the Nilgiri plateau. Thus, but market forces to provide inputs for their agriculture and markets
the
the plantation crops and the expansion of agriculture to meet for their produce, leaving small patches of subsistence agriculture
requirements of the towns and settlements in and around the area, in areas that were not suitable for commercial crop production
resource flows were still confined to the local area. and were inaccessible to markets.
By the 1950s the favourable areas in the Nilgiri plateau had The following conclusions are drawn from this study of the
planta
been completely converted to commercial tea and coffee Nilgiri hills.
tions. Along with this, communication networks and settlements 1. During the period 1800—1990, human activity has been the
expanded in these areas. In the lower plateau a network of roads most significant force in transforming the landscape.
was selectively built to penetrate into areas that had commercial 2. Each bio-physical zone has imposed its own range of pos
timber. In other areas subsistence and commercial mixed agricul sibilities and constraints in determining human activity.
ture expanded with the entry of immigrants from the surrounding 3. Over the period in question, there has been a differentiation
areas. of access to natural resources with an increasing role for the state
In the recent period the landscape of the Nilgiris has been and corporate sectors.
significantly altered. With the encouragement of government pol 4. There has been an increasing influx of market forces mediated
for the
icies, the natural resources of the area have been exploited by the spread of communications and labour settlements across
larger ‘national’ interest. Thus, with the new forest policy 0 f 1952, the entire landscape.
commercial forest plantations expanded to provide raw materials 5. During the period there has been a sequential exploitation of

j
I
184 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
and
resources: from more accessible areas to less accessible areas;
resources to a
from a limited range of exploitable and marketable
more diverse set of resources. These have been mediated by the Chapter Six
development of infrastructure, communications and technologies.
flows, from
6. There has been an increase in the scale of resource Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris
expanding into
being confined within the geographical area to
larger and larger domains.
of the landscape
7. These have caused large-scale transformations
Natural areas DAVID HARDIMAN
from natural vegetation to man-made vegetation.
parks
have been confined to state-protected areas such as national
and sanctuaries.
landscape features at
8. Time series maps, representing selected ne of the criticisms made today of large dam projects in
f ecological change.
the time of the survey, are efficient markers 0
However, they do not cantain information on cropping
forest types, or the socioeconomic and cultural
the population which comprises the principal
patterns
characteristics of
actors in the process
Q India is that irrigation needs are served better and more
equitably by a large number of small dams rather than
by a few big dams. Small dams, it is argued, change the environ
added to the ment less drastically and encourage more sustainable and environ
of ecological change. This information needs to be mentally friendly forms ofagriculture. The systems are more under
of the
historical maps in order to create a comprehensive account the control of local people, are used more efficiently, and serve
ecological history of the Nilgiris. local needs better.’ However, although it is clear that systems of
irrigation based on small dams were important for agriculture in
APPEND1X Thematic Maps and Satellite Images Used many parts of India in the past, very little is known about the
(Pondicherry, extent of such systems, the manner in which they were organized,
1. J.P. Pascal, Bioclimates of the Western Ghats
or the reasons why they often declined. Were they found only in
1974).
Vegetation a few limited areas where the terrain was suitable? Were they
2. M.F. Bellan, Nilgiri Hills (India), Map of the Main
Inter organized by autocratic rulers who deprived the cultivators ofmost
Types from LANDSAT imagery Institut de Ia Catre
of the fruits of their labour? Did they die out because they had
nationals du Tapis Vegetal (Toulouse, 1985).
become an anachronism? Answers to questions such as these could
3. SPOT Satellite Image, 4 February 1989.
help us to evolve better strategies for the sustenance or revival of
4. SPOT Satellite Image, 23 November 1989.
such systems today.
5. LANDSAT TM Satellite Image, 6 February 1989.
The existing literature provides no clear answers. Irfan Habib,
6. LANDSAT Satellite Image, 31 December 1987.
in his comprehensive study ofthe agrarian system ofMughal India,
7. LANDSAT Satellite Image, 21 January 1982.
has a lot to say about the major state-sponsored canal systems of
8. LANDSAT Satellite Image, 27 February 1973.
the plains regions, and about tanks and wells, but very little about
9. LANDSAT Satellite Image, 10 February 1973.
1 E.g., see Claude Alvares
and Ramesh Billorey, Damming the Narmada:
India’s GreatestP&znnedEnvironmentalDisaster (Penang, 1988), pp. 56, 157—61.
186 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris 187

‘—‘ Satpuda Range ,—.-‘--—-

small-dam systems. He has, however, one short paragraph which
--
- ‘-
— - is of relevance.
,,.-..
,..._z’- — —
-..-
.—“
—‘

Talodha
. In the Dakhin the practice ofleading small canals from rivers and streams
was, like that of storage, an ancient one. We are told, for example, that
in Baglana ‘they have brought into every town and village thousands of
canals, cut from the river for the benefit of cultivation,’ and these were
managed, probably, according to the co-operative pha.d system, which
still survives in that area.
2
Baglan was a region in the Sahyadri mountains, with fertile river
valleys. Although dams are not mentioned in this source, evidence
which will be set out later in this essay shows that small dams were
central to the irrigation system of Baglan. Such locations seem to
have been particularly suited to small-dam-based agriculture. In
South Bihar, where many small rivers run off the central Indian
plateau towards the basin of the Gauges, there was similarly wide
spread irrigation using small dams. Water was diverted by the
dams to the fields by channels. Rice could thus be grown in an
area without very high rainfall. Nirmal Sengupta, who has studied
these systems, believes that they date back to 700 BC and that they
provided a surplus sufficient to allow major civilizations to flourish
3 Similar small dams feeding water via channels to
in the region.
rice fields were found in the southern tip of India, in what is now
Tamilnadu. Again, the dams were on rivers running from moun
tain ranges, and they allowed rice to be grown in areas where
otherwise the rainfall was inadequate. These systems date back
4 In many Himalayan valleys agriculture
about a thousand years.
depended on the use of irrigation channels. Small dams were not

2 Irfan Habib, The Agrarian System ofMughallndia (1556—i 707) (London,

1963), p. 31. The quote within the quote is from Sadiq Khan, Shahjahannama
Scale (Km.)
(mid-seventeenth century).
0 10 20 30 Nirmal Sengupta, ‘The Indigenous Irrigation Organization ofSouth Bihar’,
3
Indian Economic and Social History Review, 17:2, 1980, pp. 157—89.
M.S.S. Pandian, The Political Economy ofAgrarian Change: Nanchilnadu
1880—1939 (New Delhi, 1990) pp. 27—8,33—6; David Ludden, Peasant History
,,FL,..r.. Rivers • Towns Mountain Ranges. in South India (Princeton, 1985), pp. 21—2.
The Baglan Region.
188 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris 189

needed, however, as water could be merely diverted from the of South Bihar in earlier times, but during the colonial period
rapid-flowing and perennial rivers. Small dams would not have they were maintained largely by zamindars. Peasants were equired
5 It seems,
withstood the constant pounding of these torrents. to carry out maintenance work—if they refused they were likely
therefore, that small-dam systems flourished mainly in piedmont to be coerced by the zamindars. Gyan Prakash, in his study of
areas where rainfall was less and the rivers often dried up or agrarian labour in this region, has used oral tradition to argue that
dwindled to a trickle during the dry season. The dams not only the dams were built and canals dug by low-caste labourers under
fed canals but also created reservoirs in which water could be stored ’ The small-dam system
the supervision of members of the gentry.
1
during the dry months of the year. of South Bihar seems, therefore, to have involved highly exploita
How was all this organized? There are conflicting schools 0 f tive relationships of production, but not a highly centralized auto
thought in this respect. According to one school, irrigation systems cratic state. The small-dam systems of southern Tamilnadu, on
of all sorts have in the past required highly centralized forms of the other hand, appear to have been built by kings but managed
organization. According to Wittfogel, they have provided the chief subsequently by others. David Ludden argues that the main
6 This has been disputed by Robert and Eva
basis for despotism. tenance was carried out initially by local chiefs, later, in some cases,
Hunt, who, in a comparative study of traditional systems of by temples, and then by powerful peasants, and never by the
irrigation throughout the world, have argued that while such 2 M.S.S. Pandian shows that
peasant community as a whole.’
systems have normally been created by a ruling class—which has during the early nineteenth century the rulers—in this case the
then exercised an overall responsibility for their continuatinn— kings ofTravancore—made it a legal requirement that the peasants
organization and maintenance have been carried out at the local carry out community labour to maintain the central canal in the
level most commonly by local 7 collectivities. This has been borne Nanchilnadu region. Smaller channels were, however, the respon
out in studies by Edmund Leach (Sri Lanka), 8 Clifford Geertz sibility of local communities. At the village level the dominant
9 and others.’° For India there appear to be no studies of
(Bali), peasantry, as a corporate group, employed workers to maintain
similar quality on the organization of such systems, and it is hard the channels, and open and close the sluices. The workers were
to come to any definite conclusions. Nirmal Sengupta admits that paid with a share of the crops, which helped to ensure that they
little is known about the organization of the small-dam systems 3 Pandian’s evidence shows that com
were diligent in their work.’
5 Jogishwar Singh, Banks, Gods and Government. Institutional and Informal
munity-based systems of irrigation did exist in India, as in Sri
Credit Structure in a Remote and Tribal Indian District (Kinnaur, Himachal
Lanka, Bali and elsewhere.
Pradesh) 1960—1985 (Stuttgart, 1989), p. 80. These systems all seem to have declined badly over the past
6 Karl Wittfogel, Oriental Despotism: A Comparative Study of Total Power two centuries. Why did this happen? Sengupta argues that the
(New Haven, 1957). decline set in after the British took over the management of the
7 Robert C. Hunt and Eva Hunt, ‘Canal Irrigation and Local Social 4 Lud
systems of South Bihar from the zamindars in the I 930s.’
Organisation’, CurrentAnthropolo,gy, 17: 3, 1976, p. 395. den believes that the British were interested only in large-scale
8 Edmund Leach, Pul Eliya: A Village in Ceylon (Cambridge, 1961), pp. 28—

47. 1 Gyan Prakash, BondedHistories: Genealogies ofLabour Servitude in Colonial

9 Clifford Geertz, ‘Organisarion of the Balinese Subak’, in Walter Coward India (Cambridge, 1990), pp. 50, 73—8.
(ed.), Irrigation andAgriculturalDevelopment in Asia (Ithaca, 1980), pp. 72—84. 12 Ludden, Peasant Histoy, pp. 30, 90.
10 See chapters by Beardsley, Hall, Ward, Lewis, Bacdayan, Roberts and 13 Pandian, Political Economy ofAgrarian Change, pp. 33—41.

Coward in ibid. 14 Sengupta, ‘Indigenous Irrigation’, pp. 171—2.

190 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris 191
irrigation works which could be controlled by the government the north of Nasik to the Tapi river. The Kings, who were of the
and which would provide a high revenue. The state, therefore Rathod clan, at times controlled parts of the adjoining regions of
neglected the small systems of southern Tamilnadu. High taxes Khandesh, the Deccan and South Gujarat. Their base was at
on irrigated land and the ioss of power by the local gentry also Mulher—a strongly fortified hill commanding the valley of the
5 Pandian likewise holds that the state—in this case
played a role.’ Mosam. This river rises at Saiher, the second highest mountain of
Travancore—ruined the indigenous system of irrigation. The the entire Sahyadri range. Salher and other mountains were also
state asserted its control more tightly in the late nineteenth fortified. These strongholds were extremely hard to reduce. They
century and then neglected the infrastructure. In the 1 920s it helped to ensure that the kingdom maintained its independence
superseded the existing managing collectivities by Irrigation until the mid-seventeenth century. The Baglan kings normally
Boards. These proved inappropriate and they were moribund accepted the overall paramountcy of more powerful rulers, paying
from the start. Without proper attention, the canal systems dis tribute to them. Between 1317 and 1347 they were under the
6 Over-centralization of management, intro
integrated quickly.’ paramountcy of the rulers of Daulatabad. After a period of inde
duced during the colonial period, is therefore blamed for the pendence, in 1370, they were again obliged to pay tribute, this
decline of these small-dam systems. time to the Pajas of Khandesh. In the fifteenth century they were
In this essay I want to explore some of these points, taking as tributaries of the Sultans of Gujarat. When Akbar conquered
my focus the area mentioned by Irfan Habib—the Baglan region. Gujarat in 1573, they transferred their allegiance to the 17
Mughals.
‘While travelling in the valleys of this part of the Sahyadri range At that time Abul Fazi described Baglan as being a country one
in the 1980s I came across the remnants of ancient dams on small hundred kos long and thirty kos broad (one kos was equivalent to
rivers running off the mountains. The dams were mostly broken about two kilometres). The ruler commanded 16,000 infantry and
and out of use. However, in the valley of the Mosam river I found 2000 horse and the revenue was six and a half crores of dams (at
the dams still in use. The peasants had dug small channels to carry that time a dam was worth between Rs 35 and Rs 4018).19 The
water from these dams to their fields. This was organized by the kingdom therefore represented a rich prize, and in 1599 Akbar
people—there were no landlords or dominant peasants castes in attacked it. Akbar failed, however, to reduce the hill forts, and the
the valley controlling these systems. I shall examine the small-dam two rulers eventually came to an agreement in which certain
systems of Baglan, using what written sources are available to me. territory was ceded to 2 Baglan. In 1638 the future emperor,
°
I have not carried out any systematic mapping of the old dams or Aurangzeb, finally conquered the kingdom for the Mughals. The
sought other archaeological evidence, or explored oral traditions in king of Baglan appears to have been allowed to continue to rule
this respect. This would be a highly worthwhile task for the future.

Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, vol. XVI, Na,sik (Bombay, 1883),

II
pp. 187—8 (hereafter Na.cik Gazetteer); Abul Fazi, The Akbar Nama (reprint,
The kingdom of Baglan was situated in the northern reach of the Delhi, 1973), p. 41.
‘ Habib, Agrarian System,
Sahyadri range of the Western Ghats, in the area running from p. 388.
AkharNam p. 43. The revenue was surely exaggerated; what is important
19
is that the Mughals believed it was vesy high.
15 Ludden, Peasant Histo7y, p. 145. 20 Finch, in W. Foster (ed.), Early Travels in India (Oxford, 1921),
16 Pandian, Political Economy ofAgrarian Change, pp. 105—13. pp. 136—7.
 Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris 193
192 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
important—going by the account of Tavernier. Sadiq Khan’s
under the paramountcy of the Mughals for a time, but around statement, quoted earlier, that ‘they have brought into every town
1658 the kingdom merged into the province of Khandesh. ’
2 and village thousands of canals cut from the river for the benefit
Accounts of the mid-seventeenth century talk of the great 27 Nothing is said, however, about
of cultivation’, bears this out.
agricultural prosperity of the region. Jean Baptiste Tavernier small dams.
travelled through this area on more than one occasion between The Baglan region was conquered by the Marathas in 1670.
1640 and 1667. Writing of Navapur, which was in the Baglan Between 1723 and 1795 the area around the old capital of Mulher
kingdom, he said: was controlled by the Nizam of Hyderabad. Between 1750 and
Nawapura is a large village full of weavers, but rice constitutes the 1753 there was a fierce battle for control of the region between
principal article of commerce in the place. A river passes by it, which the Nizam, the Peshwa, and the Maratha families of the Bandes
makes the soil excellent, and irrigates the rice, which requires water. All and the Gaikwads. The latter two families, who were allied, looted
the rice which grows in this country possesses a particular quality, causing the villages to prevent the Nizam or Peshwa from realizing taxes.
it to be much esteemed. Its grain is half as small again as that of common The Bhils of the adjoining forest tracts took advantage of the
rice, and, when it is cooked, snow is not whiter than it is, besides which, disorder to carry out their own looting. In the process, many dams
it smells like musk, and all the nobles of India eat no other. When you (this is the first clear reference we have to their existence) were
wish to make an acceptable present to any one in Persia, you take him destroyed and the region became depopulated. The Peshwa’s army
22
a sacK or rice. gained control over the area in 1753, and in 1754 the Peshwa
This description was echoed by Jean de Thevenot, who passed ordered that Rs 5000 be paid annually for five years to repair the
through the Baglan region in 1666 and wrote later: ‘the rice dams which had been broken.
28 The tract remained under the rule
(wherewith the fields are covered) is the best in all the Indies, of the Peshwas until 1818, when it came under the British. A
especially towards Naopura, where it has an odiferous taste, which sub-division of Khandesh was formed which was called Baglan.
that of other countries has not’.
23 In 1869 this taluka was transferred to Nasik district, with the
According to Irfai Habib, this famous variety of rice was headquarters at Satana. This arrangement continues to this day.
24 Other agrarian products for which the region
known as kamod The British found a whole network of dams in the area. They
was famous were sugarcane, grapes, pineapples, pomegranates and were known locally as bandharas. In 1857 an anonymous officer
25 Pineapples had been introduced to India by the
citrus fruits. of the Bombay Government gave a detailed description of them.
29
Portuguese only in the sixteenth century, which shows that the They were, where still erect, solidly constructed of blocks of black
farmers of Baglan had been quick to cultivate the new crop. 26 basalt stone bound together with coarse concrete mixed with small
Unfortunately, little is said as to how these crops were grown. pieces of brick and pointed up with high quality cement. They
Irrigation from the rivers running off the hills was clearly very 27 Ibid., p. 31.
21 Habib, Agrarian System, p. 9; Nasik Gazetteer, pp. 403—4. 28 Stewart Gordon,?Recovery from Adversity in Eighteenth-Century India:
22 Baptiste Tavernier, Travels in India, vol. I (London, 1889), pp. 49—50. Rethinking Villages, Peasants, and Politics in Pre-Modern Kingdoms’, Peasant
23 S. Sen (ed.), Indian Travels of Thevenot and Careri (New Delhi, 1949), Studies, 8: 4 (1979), pp. 67—71. I am grateful to Mahesh Rangarajail for this
p. 102. reference.
24 Irfan Habib, AnAtla.s ofthe Mughal Empire (New Delhi, 1982), p. 26. 29 Dams and Rivers of Khandesh’, The Bombay QuarterlyReview, vol. V,
25 Ibid. January—April 1857, pp. 48—73.
26 Habib, Agrarian System, p. 50.
194 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Small-Dam Systems of the Sahya€Iris 195
were thick at the base, tapering to the top. They were kept in place the northern flank of Saiher mountain and flowed down a valley
by foundation stones which were set in holes cut in the bed-rock past Mulher. For the first ten miles of this river there were a series
of the rivers. If a firm rock-base could be found stretching straight of dams still intact with reservoirs stretching up-river from them.
32
across a river, the dams were straight, otherwise they were bent in Other such rivers were the Aram, rising on the southern flank of
an irregular manner, following the line of available rock. In this Salher and flowing down a valley towards Satana; and the Panjara,
respect they were built to be practical, not to look good. The dams which rose west of Pimpalner. These river-valleys formed the
raised the height of the water in the river (making it resemble a heartland of the old Baglan kingdom. In 1857, of all the talukas
weir). Channels were constructed on one side, taking water to of Khandesh, Baglan had the most dams which were still intact—97
subsidiary channels, and thence to the fields. These channels were in all. Of the other areas which had been a part of the kingdom,
° They followed the
excavated from the earth, with earth banks.
3 Nandurbar had 60 dams and Pimpalner (which then included
contours of the land so as to avoid a fast flow of water, which Navapur) 56 dams. As one went east into the flatter plains of
would have eroded or broken the banks. The channels needed Khandesh (an area outside the sway of the Baglan kings), the
constant maintenance, with silt having to be cleared from their number of dams became fewer and fewer. Dhulia taluka had 18,
bed and heaped on their banks or adjoining fields. Many of the Malegaon 12 and Amalner 10. North of the Tapi river, where
dams were still in use in 1857, though some were abandoned—due there was a plain bordered on the north by the dramatic escarp
to lack of water or because they had become silted up—and others ment of the Satpura mountains, there was only one dam, near
were dilapidated or in ruins. In some places the only evidence Sultanpur. Here, it seems that the fall of the rivers off the moun
revealing the existence of a former dam was a row of foundation tains was so steep as to make construction impractical.
holes cut in the bed-rock of the river. The official who wrote the The report of 1857 covered only Khandesh district. Parts of
description believed that ‘the dams of this Province must have the Baglan kingdom had, however, lain outside the boundaries of
been very numerous in former times; for one scarcely crosses the British district. For instance, the upper valley of the Jankhri,
nullah of any size, on which remains of them are not distinctly river, which ran west towards Surat from near Pimpalner, had
’
3
visible’. once been a part of Baglan. There the anthropologist B.H. Mehta,
The largest number of dams were found closest to the western who carried out fieldwork in the area in 1929-30, found the
border of Khandesh. The border ran south to north along the high remains of 187 substantial masonry dams. 33 In Kalvan taluka, to
escarpment of the Sahyadri range, with, on the west, a precipitous the south of Baglan taluka and also once a part ofthe old kingdom,
drop towards Gujarat. To the east, running into Khandesh, there there were 59 dams on the Girna and other rivers. 34 In all these
was a series of subsidiary ranges running parallel to each other. In areas the landscape was well suited to dam building, with rivers
the valleys between these ranges there were rivers running east. running off the mountains down long valleys. The gradient al
These were the rivers on which most of the dams had been lowed a good flow of water in the monsoon, but not a torrent.
constructed. Most important was the Mosam river, which rose on
32 Nasik Gazetteer, p. 400.
30 In the Mosam valley I have myself observed that the channels are carried 33 B.H. Mehta, ‘Social and Economic Condition of the Chodhras, an Ab
over small galleys in hollowed out tree-trunks. Otherwise, they are all dug from original Tribe of Gujarat’, unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Bombay,
the earth, meandering around the sides of the hills. 1933, p. 576.
31 ‘Dams and Rivers of Khandesh’, p. 50. 3 Nasik Gazetteer,
p. 396.
196 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
Small-Dam Systems ofthe Sahyadris 197
The mountains attracted high rainfall, which was then carried by
the rivers to areas with less rain. This is possible because at the end of the thirteenth century
The report of 1857 said that according to local tradition the there was a period of great social disruption in the region, brought
bandharas were built by ‘the Mohamedans’, and that it was not about by the terrible Durga Devi famine, which continued from
unlikely that this vast system of irrigation had been constructed 1396 to 1408. This devastated the area, wiping out much of the
when Khandesh was ruled by the Mughal minister Malik Amber 39 The chief peasant community of Baglan—the Kon
population.
(1610—3O). This was felt to be likely because ‘the Mohamedans’ kanas—have a tradition that they came to the area at that time,
were great builders ofcanal systems, while Hindu kings were better themselves escaping from the effects of the famine. 40 They came
at constructing vast tanks. This argument seems wide of the mark, from the Konkan region.’ It is probable that they brought with
4
for the Mughals did not at the time of Malik Amber control the them certain skills of agricultural engineering. The Konkan con
Hindu-ruled Kingdom of Baglan, where most of the dams were sists of a series of valleys running down to the Arabian Sea. The
located. The Khandesh Gazetteer, on the other hand, felt that it peasants had made fields by terracing the sides ofthe valleys. Water
was probable that many of the dams ‘date from the time of the from the many small rivers and streams flowing off the mountains
36 The Faruki kings ruled Khandesh from 1295
late Faruki kings.’ was diverted to the fields by dams and channels. A lot of land had,
to 1600. Again, they were not rulers of Baglan, so it is hard to see moreover, been reclaimed from the sea with the help of long
what connection there could be between them and the majority embankments. The Konkanas who migrated north to Baglan are
42
of the dams. Local people to whom I spoke in the 1980s told me likely to have brought with them the skill of building strong
that the bandharas had been built at the time of ‘Gaoli Raj’. This embankments, a skill used now to dam rivers rather than keep out
is the name commonly given in the region for the Yadav dynasty the sea, and knowledge about how to construct systems ofchannels
of Devgiri (later Daulatabad, near Aurangabad), which controlled to convey water to terraced fields. If this was so, then it suggests
Khandesh in the thirteenth century. Many old temples, ponds and that a peasant community was responsible for the constructiGn
wells of Khandesh are said to have been built by an officer called and maintenance of the bandliara system of Baglan, rather than
Hemadpant, who was in charge of the region during the reign of some centralized authority—such as a king or minister—as the
MahadevYadav (1260-71). At that time Baglan came under the British assumed (with a characteristic bias) must have been the
overall paramountcy of the Solankis of Gujarat, rather than the case.
38 so it is unlikely that Hemadpant and the Yadav
Yadav kingdom, It is in fact difficult to know who was responsible for building
Kings were responsible for the bandharas. The popular tradition and maintaining these dams. The Maratha evidence for the mid-
about the Gaoli Raj might, if nothing else, be a means ofindicating eighteenth century shows that the state played an active role in
that the dams are extremely old. It is possible, however, that the
39
idea reflects a fairly accurate understanding of the antiquity of the Khandesh Gaz.etteer, p. 40.
40 Enthoven, TribesandCa.ctes oftheBombayPresidency vol.2 (Bombay,
R.E.
dams. 1922), p. 265.
5 ‘Dams and Rivers of Khandesh’, pp. 50—1. In his linguistic survey of India, Grierson reported that this tradition -is
36 Gazetteer ofthe Bombay Presidency, Khandesh, vol. XLI (Bombay, 1880), supported by the fact that the K nkanas’ language continued to have in it many
p. 139 (hereafter Khandesh Gazetteer). elements of northern Konkani. G.A. Grierson, Linguistic Survey oflndia vol. IX
3’ Khandesh Gazetteer, p. 242. (Calcutta, 1907), p. 130.
38 Nasik Gazetteer, p. 401. 42 Gazetteer ofehe Bombay Presidency;
Thana vol. XII, part I (Bombay, 1882),
pp. 281—4 (hereafter Thana Gazetteer).
 r
Nature, Culture, Imperialism Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris 199
198
The only outside material used was the high quality cement with
encouraging the rebuilding of dams, after they were broken during
which the work was finished off. This could have been obtained
disturbances, by providing grants. We do not know, however,
outside and carried in the peasants’ own bullock carts to the site
whether the state took such work in hand itself or provided the
of the dam. It is, however, likely that the state took an active
means for the peasants to carry out the work. The official who
interest in the construction of the dams. The wealth of the kings
wrote the report of 1857 felt that the dams had been built by the
state, for they were large and solid and would have required much I: of Baglan—and thus their power in the region—seems to have
rested largely on the agriculture made possible by these dams. The
labour and organization to construct. The report also says that the
Peshwas, likewise, understood the importance of these dams for
state appointed certain people to maintain the dams and remu
the prosperity—and thus the revenue—_of the area, and provided
nerated them with grants of tax-free land. The villagers were then
grants for their reconstruction. It should also be noted that these
required to dig and maintain the channels themselves. Because of
constru3ction. The dams needed the military protection of the state, for they could
this, the channels were less substantial in 4
channe ls were mainta ined by be broken fairly easily by enemies, as happened during the distur
Khandesh Gazetteer said that the
with consid bances of 1750—3.
channel-keepers called atkaris. who were endowed
4 A report of 1928 stated, however, that It seems unlikely that these systems were operated at the village
erable grants of land.
level by a dominant class, such as the gentry of South Bihar. The
maintenance of the dams and water-channels, and access to the
inhabitants of the villages of these valleys tended to be overwhelm
water, was controlled by the peasant community as a whole—a
ingly of one community, without any very great internal stratifica
system known asphad This was defined as: ‘A system of irrigation
tion and without any class of dominant peasants or gentry. There
under which a number of small holders join together for the
is no evidence that any such classes ever dominated these villages
economic use of the water supply available, for the growing of
plan.’ ‘When I visited the upper in the past. With each dam serving only a fairly limited area,
irrigated crops on a regular 45
extra-local organization was not in any case required. The state may
reaches of the Mosam valley in 1982, I was told that the system
well have appointed people to look after some of the bigger dams
was organized on a co-operative basis, with the fields being dis
and their channels, while leaving the maintenance of the large
tributed so that each household had a share of the irrigated land.
majority of smaller dams to the people themselves. Such a division
Maintenance of the channels was carried out by the people them
of responsibility has been found to exist generally in small-dam
selves.
irrigation systems in pre-capitalist societies all over the world.
There is no technical reason why the people themselves could
In all, it seems probable that these small-dam systems were
not have organized the construction of a large majority of the
constructed as a result of co-operation between the state and
dams. The stone was available locally, and in the dry weather the
peasant cultivators skilled in the use of such systems. The peasants
rivers declined to a trickle, making construction work possible
were probably involved in the building of the actual dams, with
without the need for any diversion of the water. The dams were
some aid from the state. They are likely to have taken the initiative
built in a rough and ready manner—not with the style associated in constructing water-channels and terraced fields. A village coun
with state-built dams, designed to enhance the prestige of the ruler. cil representing the cultivating households appears to have been
‘Dams and Rivers of Khandesh’, p. 57. responsible for the maintenance of the systems.
Khandesh Gazetteer, p. 140.
‘4
Report of the Royal Commission on Agiiculture in India (London, 1928), R. and E. Hunt, ‘Canal Irrigation and Local Social Organisation’, p. 395.
pp. 325, 755.
200 Nature, Culture, Imperialism.
Small-Darn Systems of the Sahyadris 201
Little is said in the land settlement reports for Nasik district practised all over Maharashtra, both in the Deccan and 49
or Khandesh district about the manner in which crops were cul Konkan.
There are good accounts of the methods for the latter region, and,
tivated in these villages. The settlement report for Songadh taluka as the Konkanas came from there originally, it is worth describing
(under Baroda State) describes rice cultivation using the method them here. During the dry weather each year, bits of wood and
known as rab. This involved selecting a piece of ground for a other vegetation were gathered from the hills above the terraced
seed-bed and then fertilizing it by burning tree-loppings and other rice-fields. Layers of cow—dung, tree-loppings, shrubs, leaves and
vegetation before the seeds were planted. Once the rains had set grass were piled up on a field selected as a seed-bed. Earth was
in, the seedlings were transplanted in the fields. This was con piled on top to keep it all in place, until it was set on fire just
sidered by many officials of the day to be a ‘primitive’ form of before the monsoon. Once the rain came, rice was sown and
agriculture. The settlement report in question described the peas allowed to grow a few inches high. The seed-beds were always on
ants as ‘slothful and averse to hard work’, and thus inefficient. ground slightly higher than the main body of the fields, as rice
This ignored the fact that a lot of labour would have been required seedlings rotted if allowed to become too wet. Once they had
to transplant the seedlings and then irrigate and weed the fields.
47
A report for the Dangs of 1902 provides a more detailed
account of rab. The Dangs was the region lying due west of Baglan.
grown sufficiently, they were transplanted on to land which had
been ploughed up in the previous weeks. Transplanted rice gave
a far higher yield than broadcast rice. Rab provided a particularly
V
In the past it had been under the overall paramountcy of the kings good medium for rice seeds. Cow-dung manure retained too much
ofBaglan, though local Bhil chiefs had considerable indepenäence. water, whereas rab allowed for a drier and more porous soil.
In the nineteenth century the population was divided almost Burning also destroyed any weeds in the soil before the rice-seeds
equally between Bhils and Konkanas. According to the rcport of were sown. It was calculated that for every acre of rice grown in
1902, during winter time branches were lopped from trees and this way, about three acres of forested upland were required to
bambdos were cut and arranged in a square on the ground. This. provide the rab. Valleys with such uplands were therefore ideal
was burnt in the summer, after the wood had dried out. Seeds for such 50 agriculture.
were sown in the ashes. The adjoining land was ploughed with a It is therefore likely that rab cultivation was used in Baglan
bullock-drawn plough, and when the seedlings were large enough to grow its famous rice and other commercial crops such as
they were transplantcl. This form
practised in
sugarcane. These crops did not, however, cover most of the cul
of agriculture was

river valleys on more level ground, largely by peasants 0 f the

tivated area. In 1880-1 only 0.95 per cent of the cultivated land
Konkana community rather than by people of other communities of Baglan taluka was under sugarcane, and 0.71 per cent under
—such as the Bhils.
48 rice. The chief crops were the millets bajra (56.47 per cent), and
Although we are not told in the reports whether rab was used juvar (10.38 per cent).
’ In Pimpalner taluka in 1878-79, bajra
5
in cultivation in the valleys which formed the core of the old
Baglan kingdom, it seems probable that it was. Rab method
is a

D.D. Kosambi, The Culture and Civilization ofAncient India in Historical

Outline (London, 1965), pp. 44—5.
Jamabandi Settlement Report ofthe Songadh Taluka ofthe Navsari Division
47 50 Thana Gazetteer, 284; J.A. Voelcker, Report
1902—03 (Baroda, 1902), p. 14. V
p. on theimprovementoflndian
48 Report by E.M. Hodgson, 29 August 1902, Maharashtra State Archives,
Agriculture(London, 1893), pp 109—1 0. See also Indra Munshi Saldanha, ‘The
Political Ecology of Traditional Farming Practices in Thana District,
Bombay (hereafter BA), Revenue Department (hereafter R.D.), 1902, 107/49,
Maharashtra (India)’, The Journal ofPeasant Studies, 17:3, 1990.
part II. 51 Nasik Gazetteer,
p. 406.

L
 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris 203
202
ofrice. They grew the local staple foodgrain, nagli, on their poorer,
was grown on 37.29 per cent of the cultivated land; rice on 12.76
land. Even unirrigated land. Besides this, they grew some wheat, maize, pul
per cent. Sugarcane took up only 0.35 per cent of the 52
ses, vegetables and sugarcane of a low quality, mostly for their own
though it is likely that the area under rice and sugarcane had 4 tion. It is likely that the peasants of Baglan did the
century, it is likely consump
5
declined considerably since the seventeenth 53 same, selling much of their high quality rice and sugarcane to earn
also that bajra, and to a lesser extent juvar, had even then been money to pay taxes to the state, while keeping the less marketable
the staple foodcrop of the peasants. These crops required far less
produce for their own consumption.
water than rice or sugarcane, and, although they were to some
extent grown on irrigated land, they were for the most part grown
higher up the sides of the valleys, beyond the reach of the water III
channels. In the villages of Baglan as a whole, only a small area The heyday of this system of agriculture was from the sixteenth
fell
was irrigated by water channels. In 1867—8 only 2,908 acres to the eighteenth centuries, with the decline coming in the early
acres
in this category, out of a total cultivated acreage of 91,132 nineteenth century. A report written in 1839, mentioning this
(3.19 per cent). Although the system of bandha ra irrigati on was
ofland development, said that the dams were not so far gone as to be
by then in a state of decay, it is unlikely that the extent unrepairable, and that timely maintenance would allow large areas
irrigated by water channels had ever been anythi ng more than a
ted. What more. The 1857 report revealed a system in
to be irrigated once 55
fairly small fraction of the total land which was cultiva a state of collapse, with dams and water-channels being allowed
this meant was that the fine varieties for which this region was so to silt up, and peasants carelessly damaging the sides of channels
famed in the seventeenth century were grown on only a limited them. Figures for the number
by driving their carts or cattle over 56
irrigated part of the land, with many other crops being grown on of working dams in Baglan Taluka show a continuing decline in
the rest of the irrigated land as well as on the unirrigated land on subsequent years. In 1857 there were in Baglan 97 bandharas, in
the sides of the valleys. 1881—2 49, in 1902—3 In West Khandesh as a whole (ex
It is probable, going by evidence from a part of the Sahyadri cluding Baglan, which came under Nasik district in 1869), there
range lying to the south of Baglan, that the peasants sold the crops were, in 1857, l57workingbandharas, in 1911—12 80, in 1922—3
which had a high marketable value, retaining crops with a lower only 358 The system therefore disintegrated under British rule.
value for their own consumption. A report on the Mahadev Kolis, Why was this allowed to happen? At the advent of British
the chief inhabitants of this southerly region, written in the 1 830s, rule, the system was not in a healthy state, as a result of a profound
mentions ten varieties of rice grown by methods very similar to
to
those found in Baglan. These varieties ranged from very fine 54 Mackintosh, ‘An Account of the Tribe of Mhadeo Kolis’, Transactjo,zs
A.
very coarse. The best were much prized by the Brahmans and
was ofthe Bombay Geographical Society, vol. 1, 1836—8, pp. 211—16.
other moneyed people of Maharashtra. Most of the better rice Dallas to Blane, 23 March 1839, BA, Political Department 1839, 15/1011.
55
sold to local traders, who in turn sold it in the towns and cities. 56 ‘Dams and Rivers of Khandesh’, p. 55.

The villagers kept only a small amount for themselves, to be eaten Ibid., p. 51; Nasik Gazetteer, p. 401; Nasik Gazetteer, B vol. (Bombay,
es
when festivals were celebrated. They also sold the coarser varieti 1903), p. 12.
58 ‘Dams and Rivers of Khandesh’,
pp. 51—3; Khandes/ Gazetteer, B vol.
(Bomb ay, 1926), p. 70. In the latter referen ce the figures are for sources of
52 Khandesh Gazeneer, p. 400. irrigation other than or
wells tanks— which meant in that region bandharas.
53 The reason for this will be discussed later.
204 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris 205
social crisis which occurred in the region towards the end of the was very critical about the way in which the water channels
Maratha period. In 1802—3 civil war amongst the Marathas led meandered around the contours of the slopes without any masonry
to ruthless looting of the peasants to pay and feed the warring lining to prevent the water from being absorbed by the soil. It was
troops. This led to a devastating famine, with large number of argued that the channels needed to be improved by the Public
peasants either dying ofstarvation or having to desert their villages, Works Department, with cuttings to straighten the line of the
59 Many villages were left with no population, and
never to return. ’ This was never done,
channels, and the use of more masonry.
6
the land soon became covered in scrub, then trees. due to lack of funds for a department which was responsible also
There had, however, been earlier crises, as in 1750—3, andthe for road construction and official buildings. Whatever little money
systems had been repaired with state support. Why did this not was available for irrigation works tended to be spent on new
happen again after the crisis of 1802—4? The Peshwas were still projects, laid out according to plans drawn up by the Civil En
the rulers in the region, but now they lacked the resources, power gineer, and which were subsequently under the complete control
and will to organize such work. The British, who replaced them of the department. It was considered that the peasants were in
in 1818, could, however, have done this. Briggs, the first Collector capable of maintaining ustainab1e systems of irrigation by them
of Khandesh, commented on the subject: selves. Maintenance of existing bandharas was hampered, further
In many instances I met with the most importunate petitions for repairs more, by the fact that permission for all PWD projects had to be
of the numerous fine dams in Candeish which will at some fhture period obtained from Bombay. In some cases this meant that the file had
so naturally tend to the increase of the land revenue, but I invariably to pass though the hands of nine different officials (not including
told them it must depend on the expected increase of revenue desirable the Civil Engineer himself) before work on a bandhara could go
from those repairs whether or not Govt. would undertake to sink so 62 This hampered any attempts at regular maintenance of
ahead.
mucfl money. 60 the bandharas.
As a result he turned down all such requests for grants. The Official neglect is not, however, the only reason for the decay
reaction was short-sighted in the extreme, for, without the restora of the small-dam systems. In many cases the peasants themselves
tion of the systems, the prosperity of the region could not be contributed to the decay. This was most obviously the case in the
restored. As Stewart Gordon remarks, his attitude contrasted areas which were resettled after the crisis of the early years of the
strongly with that of the Peshwas in 1754, who were quick to nineteenth century by members of the Bhil and Maochi com
provide immediate aid for such rebuilding. Because of this, reset munities, who practised slash-and-burn agriculture in an area
tlement in the region was patchy and slow. 63 A field was cut from the forest, the
which had reverted to forest.
Although the British claimed frequently that they wished to
61 ‘Dams and Rivers of Khandesh’, pp. 49—50.
preserve these irrigation systems, in practice they did little to
62 Ibid., pp. 60, 65—6.
encourage the. Generally, they placed a low value on any irriga
papersRelatingto the OriginalSurvey Settlement of148 villages ofNandurbar
63
tion system which the peasantry themselves were responsible for.
Taluka (includingNavapurPetha), 17 Government Villages ofthe Shirpur Taluka,
Even the otherwise sympathetic report on the bandharas of 1857 and 11 Government Villages ofthe Shahada Taluka ofthe Khandesh Collectorate.
5
Selection from the Records of the Bombay Government, No. CCCCX)UV—New
Khandesh Gazetteer, pp. 182—3.
60
Series (Bombay, 1904), pp. 2, 5. This report says that many of the Bhils and
Quoted in S. Gordon, ‘Recovery from adversity in eighteenth-century
Maochis who practised slash and burn cultivation in Navapur Taluka had been
India’, p. 76.
in the area only since the last years of Maratha rule.
206 Nature, Culture, Imperialism hi
Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris 207
cut vegetation was burnt, and seeds were planted in the ashes. been well wooded not long ago.66 Deforestation therefore appears
After two or three years ofcultivation, the peasants selected a fresh to have been an important cause of the decay of the bandharas
plot in the forest. One such area was Navapur—formerly famed and their channels in many part of Nandurbar.
for its fine agriculture and prized rice—which was described in This does not explain the decay of the small-dam systems in
1864 by the Collector of Khandesh as a ‘vast jungle tract. The . .

the valleys in which there was no radical change of population or

present inhabitants are mostly Bhils, with a few Konkanis, almost deforestation during the nineteenth century. Baglan and Pimpal
as wild as their country.
.‘
Shifting cultivation did not require ner talukas came into this category. There the cause appears to
dams, water-channels and terraced fields, and without mainten have been a combination of high taxes and growing indebtedness
ance the systems quickly disintegrated. They have never been which made irrigated agriculture uneconomic.
revived to this day. When the British conquered the region they found a system
In some areas small-dam based agriculture seems to have of taxation in the channel-watered villages in which the rate of tax
survived the crisis ofthe early years of the nineteenth century, only depended on the value of a crop grown in a field. Sugarcane paid
to have decayed later on. The report of 1857 found that many the highest rate, normally over Rs 30 per bigha (in that area, one
peasants who should have been capable of running such systems bigha was ¾ ofan acre). Rice paid Rs 15 or more per bigha. Other
were failing to do so. One reason—advanced in a report on 67 Rates in different channel-irrigated villages
crops paid less.
Nandurbar taluka of 1862—was that many of the rivers were no ranged from Rs 2 ½ to Rs 70 per bigha, according to crop 68 grown.
longer supplying adequate amount of water to fill the dams and The rates reflected the amount of water needed for each type of
feed the channels. Because of this, of the 69 dams found in the crop, and they helped to ensure that crops which used most water
taluka, only 9 were still in use by 1 862.The local people attributed were grown in only a limited way, so that no excessive strain was
the drying up of the rivers to British rule—though they could not placed on the irrigation systems. After 1818 the British imposed
explain why this was so beyond advancing what the official called a uniform tax per unit of irrigated land. The rate was fixed
‘superstitious reasons’. This official provided his own scientific

J
high—the aim being to encourage the peasants to concentrate on
explanation, arguing that the felling of trees in the adjacent hills growing the most valuable crops, so as to maximize the tax rev
during the early nineteenth century now caused the monsoon rain 69 The average rate per bigha in Baglan taluka was fixed at
enue.
to run off the slopes so fast that very little water was absorbed by about Rs 12.70 Although lower than the rates levied previously on
the ground. In the process much soil was washed down, leading rice and sugarcane, it was much higher than the rates paid for the
to the rapid silting-up of the dams and water channels, making less valuable crops which covered a good part of the irrigated
them almost useless. On top of that, lack of trees had led to a land. To pay the new high rates, peasants were forced to take credit
rainfall. The people of the area said that the hills had
decline in 65 from moneylenders. By manipulating the books, these money
64 in Papers Relating to the Revision Survey Settlement ofeheNandurbar lenders soon had the peasants deep in debt. Using the civil courts
Taluka of the Khandesh CoIL”ctorate, Selections from the Records of the Bombay established by the British, they could threaten to have the peasants’
Governmen4 No. CCCXLIX—New Series (Bombay, 1896), p. 4. 66
65 ‘Report on Nandurbar Taluka, 25 January 1865’, in Papers Relating to the
Ibid., p. 469.
67 ‘Dams and Rivers of Khandesh’, p. 62.
Introduction ofRevised Rates ofAssessment into Eight Talookas and Two Petha.c of 68 Khandesh Gazetteer, p. 279.
the Khandeish Co&ctorate, SeLectionsfrom the Records ofthe Bombay Governmen4 69 ‘Dams and Rivers of Khandesh’, pp. 59—60.
No. XCIII—New Series (Bombay, 1865), p 471.
Najik Gazetteer, p. 253.
70
208 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Small-Dam Systems of the Sahyadris 209

property and even land confiscated unless they handed over a —such as the Haranbari dam on the Mosam river—which flood
larger and larger proportion of their crops at each harvest. By the a huge area of what were once fertile fields irrigated by small
1 860s it was being reported of Baglan that: ‘Even the best chan bhandaras and their channels. Revival of small-dam systems is not
nel-watered villages had few signs of wealth. Most of the people a programme high on the agenda of the Irrigation Department—
were forced to seek the moneylender’s help and were in debt.71 though a few small steps. have been taken in this direction.
Increasingly, peasants found that the only way they could
survive was to abandon the high-taxed irrigated fields and con w
centrate on low-taxed unirrigated cultivation. In this way they
ceased to have any interest in maintaining the bandharas and The evidence in this essay shows that small-dam systems of irriga
waterchannels. They allowed the sides of the channel to disin tion existed in the past which were sustained over long periods of
tegrate, so that the fields below became swamped. Once such decay time. Although they depended on state support, at the village level
set in, a whole system could become useless in very little time.
72 they were controlled and managed by village communities. Al
In the e’nd, ljandhara-based irrigation survived in only a few though the pre-colonial state derived a substantial surplus from
pockets, such as the more remote reaches of the mountain valleys, this agriculture, there does not appear to have been severe exploita
where tax was paid according to the number ofploughs used rather tion of one class by another within the villages, as was the case
than area cultivated. with many small-dam systems studied in other parts of India.
The decay of the small-dam systems of the Baglan region was, ‘Whether or not such a form of agriculture can be revived or
therefore, brought about by a combination of causes, the most extended today on a large scale in areas with a suitable terrain Is
important of which were colonial disinterest, resettlement of cer problematic. The problem is not merely a technical one, depend
tain regions by shifting cultivators who had no interest in the ing on the policy gf the Irrigation Department, but also a social
dams, deforestation, and the decay in the old system of com one. Rural society has become so polarized over the past two
:1 centuries that it is hard to see how a genuinely co-operative system
munity-based control as a result of colonial taxation and policies
which gave rise to ruinous forms of usury. The forest policy of management and resource allocation could be established.
pursued by the British at the end of the nineteenth century made Nowadays access to any system ofirrigation reflects the inequalities
the situation still worse. The hilltops were demarcated as reserved of the society.
forests under government control and the peasants were prevented If nothing else, however, a general policy in favour of small
from gathering material for rab for their seed-beds. This caused dam systems would be far less damaging to the environment. Also,
great resentment, with protests against the forest laws culminating with small-dam systems in operation the conditions for more
in forest satyagrahas in the 1 930s.
73 co-operative and environmentally friendly forms of agriculture
Nowadays this region is considered to be a backward one, would at least exist. With a certain amount of state support, the
inhabited by ‘primitives’, classified now as ‘scheduled tribes’. De struggle to achieves this could be carried through. With large-dam
velopment projects in the area concentrate on building large dams systems, these conditions do not exist.

71 Nasik Gazetteer, p. 251.

72 ‘Dams and Rivers of Khandesh’, pp. 5 5—6.
73 Interview with Madav Joshi, Mulher, 6 January 1982.
 Models of the Hydraulic Environment 211
—and their ability to turn nature to human use—as among the
Chapter Seven most powerful justifications for ‘their monopolization of leader
2 Though it is
ship and managerial roles in colonized societies’.
doubtless a mistake to stress a single mode of thinking as a central
Models of the Hydraulic explanation for a phenomenon as complex as the expansion of
colonialism, the definition of the environment as a natural field
Environment: Colonial Irrigation, to be dominated for productive use, and the definition of the
State Power and Community British as a distinctive colonial ruling class over alien peoples, went
hand in hand.
in the Indus Basin Expansion of irrigation represented one extremely important
arena in’which this ethos was reflected. Though nineteenth-cen
tury colonial irrigation policy reflected a variety of financial and
DAWD GILMARTIN political influences, it increasingly drew on an international dis
course of water engineering that colonial engineers and irrigation
administrators shared with entrepreneurs and water engineers in
much of the world. As Donald Worster describes it, this ethos was
s natural orders defined in relationship to particular hu rooted in the transformation ofwater itself into a commodity: ‘All
man communities, ‘environments’ exist only insofar as mystery disappears from its depths, all gods depart, all contempla
human communities are defined. ‘Environments’ are in tion of its flow ceases. It becomes so many ‘acre-feet’ banked in
essence models of the relationship between communities and the an account, so many ‘kilowatt-hours’ of generating capacity to be
natural world around them, and as such, they are, like all models, spent, so many bales of cotton or carloads of oranges to be traded
1 The environmental
‘made by humans for specific communities’. 3 Few British irrigation engineers in India, of
around the globe’.
history of India under British colonial rule is thus bound closely course, held such a single-mindedly commercial view of the con
to an analysis of the historical structuring of communities in trol of water. But the underlying engineering vision of environ
colonial\India. mental domination was widely held in India, and nowhere more
British colonial rule shared in many respects the ethos of so than in the Indus Basin, where British irrigation engineers
domination over nature that marked the emergence of ‘middle- sought in the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries to
class’ government in Britain. Shaped by the increasing influence bring the land under the ‘command’ of a massive system of
of capitalist modes of thinking, many British leaders saw domina irrigation. By transforming the region from ‘an arid waste’, fringed
tion of nature, and its commodification, as both a critical measure with narrow strips of cultivated area extending from the Jumna
of class power and a legitimizer of the British in India as a ruling to the mountains of the Suleiman Range’, they defined both
community. As Michael Adas argues, Europeans often looked to
their own ‘vastly superior understanding of the workings ofnature’ 2 Michael Adas, Machines as the Measure of Men: Science, Technology and

Ideologies of Western Dominance (Ithaca, 1989), pp. 205, 210—21.

1 Stephen Gudeman, Economics as Culture: Models and Metaphors ofLiveli
3 Donald Worster, Rivers ofEmpire: Water, Aridity and the Growth of the
hood (London, 1986) p. 37. American West (New York, 1985), p. 52.
212 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
Models of the Hydraulic Environment 213
their power over the environment and the British right to dom encompassing structure of order that was continuous, ‘forming a
inate the region.
4 unity or whole whose parts were in mechanical and geometric
The distinctive character of the engineering vision of domina 6 Mitchell thus stresses not only the conceptual
co-ordination’.
tion derived also from the distinctive manner in which British separation of the state from the ruled, but the disciplining of
irrigation engineers came to conceive of the environment—as a colonial society that was also inherent in the colonial process of
mathematically modelled system. With irrigation engineering oniy ‘enframing’ or modelling.
in the process of development, nineteenth-century British Indian Such a view only partially captures the political significance
irrigation by no means depended entitely on mathematical of the mathematical modelling of the environment, On one level,
models. But as engineers increasingly came to dominate canal of course, turning the environment to productive use implied the
construction, they sought to control water and apply it to maxi discipline of water users. But in abstract terms the international
mum areas of land by mathematically modelling its flow, distribu ethos of irrigation science that shaped hydraulic modelling de
tion and use. In doing so, they defined a conception of the pended upon the distinctive social discipline provided by a mid
hydraulic environment as a system of discrete and interlocking dle-class partnership between state science and the maximizing
parts, knowable (and potentially controllable) by ‘objective’ ob capitalist water user. As Donald Worster has written of water
servers and by the state. As modelling conveyed to the concept development in the United States, the state and the individual,
of the ‘environment’ an increasingly ‘scientific’ definition as a though potentially (and at times actually) at odds, each required
bounded and knowable system, it thus underscored also the the other for nature’s conquest to be actualized. While ‘science
particular form of the state’s power over nature. Indeed, it under and technology are given a place of honour in the capitalist state
scored the separation of the state (and thc ruling British com and put to work devising ways to extract from every river whatever
munity) from its field of domination; ‘scientists’, as Michael Adas cash it can produce’, the transformation ofwater into a commodity
remarks, ‘set nature apart as an object of dispassionate inquiry’.
5
also required an ‘aggregating [of] individual drives to maximize
As mathematical modelling set the observer apart from the system personal acquisitiveness’. The resulting ‘drive to make the bleakest,
being modelled, it thus also carried implications for the conceptual most sterile desert produce more and more of everything’ provided
separation of the state from the ruled that took on distinctive ‘an ideology shared wholeheartedly by agriculturists and water
meaning within the colonial context. bureaucrats, providing the bond that unites their potentially rival
The importance of models, or frames, in defining the character centers of power into a formidable alliance’.
7
of colonial power more generally has recently been discussed by In colonial India, however, the mathematical creation of an
Timothy Mitchell for Egypt. Mitchell has stressed the significance integrated hydraulic environment took on a distinctive colonial
of ‘enframing’ for the overall project of colonialism, the impor colour. The political imperatives of colonial domination largely
tance for the colonial power of forcing colonized societies into an precluded the concept of a partnership between maximizing water
users and the state. Colonial political authority required the con
‘
The area ‘commanded’ by a canal referred, in technical jargon, to the area ceptual separation of the state not only from the natural environ
capable of being reached by its irrigation water. The quotation is from Punjab ment, but also from Indian society, a separation implicit in the
Public Works Department, Irrigation Branch, A Manual ofIrrigation Practice
(Lahore, 1943), section 3.0. 6 Timothy Mitchell, ColonisingEgypt(Cambridge, 1988) p. 38.
5 Adas, Machines as the Measure ofMen,
p. 211. -

Worster, Rivers ofEmpire, pp. 52—3.

A
214 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Models of the Hydraulic Environment 215

definition of the British as a ruling community. Pulled in con State Power and the Modelling of the Hydraulic Environment
flicting directions, British policy thus tended to focus on a vision
of Indian society as composed of indigenous communities whose The importance of the modelling of the environment as a system
local water use could be adapted to the requirements of larger of discrete interlocking parts became evident in the development
hydraulic models. Hardly partners with the state, these com of Indus Basin irrigation in the last decades of the nineteenth
munities remained culturally alien even as they were pulled into century. The British, of course, were not the first to develop
the state’s projects of environmental transformation. The British, irrigation in the Indus Basin; large numbers of wells and many
in fact, grounded these communities in a language of ‘naturalism’ inundation canals off the Indus and its tributaries shaped patterns
that defined them as parts of the ‘natural’ environment to be of agriculture and pastoralism long before the British arrival. In
modelled and controlled. From the beginnings the processes of fact, the years before the British annexation of the Indus Basin
environmental modelling and change were thus tied to the larger region were years of considerable expansion in irrigation, under
political processes of colonial control. the auspices of the regional Indus Basin states that preceded the
By examining the history of irrigation in the Indus Basin British, including the Sikhs, the Nawabs of Bahawalpur and the
during the British colonial period this essay will focus on the Amirs of Sind. All these states had used localized inundation canal
relationship between environmental modelling state power and construction to expand state revenue and to control elites by tying
the meaning of community. The history of British irrigation them to the land. The British were not the first to link investment
expansion was linked closely to the self-definition of the British in irrigation with the structuring of political power.
as a community empowered to rule India. But it is a story marked In the early years of their control in the region, the British,
by considerable ambiguity as the British sought to define their drawing on their experience elsewhere in the subcontinent and on
notions of the environment and of their relations with com the policies ofearlier Indus Basin states, sought to develop irrigation
munities of Indians they ruled. This essay will examine the politics works in part to encourage agricultural settlement and political
of irrigation in the Indus Basin on two levels. First were the stability, in part to expand production and stabilize state revenue.
problems intrinsic to the development by the British 0 f a tech Though British administrators at the all-India level were increas
nology and a scientific state apparatus that could control an ingly moving in the mid-nineteenth century toward a more ration
environment modelled as a broad system of interlocking parts. alized and coordinated irrigation policy,
8 early British irrigation
This involved both the development of state-controlled technol development in the Indus Basin tended nevertheless to be
ogy and the definition of state power. Second, and more critical piecemeal, focused largely on the repair and expansion of existing
in terms of the long-term relationship between environment and canals, including the Ban Doab canal in central Punjab and inun
the structuring of political power in India, were the relationships dation canals in Sind and south-west Punjab. Local circumstances
implied by this environmental modelling between the state and significantly shaped decisions on particular canal projects, and
the communities of Indians who inhabited the Indus Basin. By 8 For a history of irrigation in colonial India, see the article by Elizabeth
examining British irrigation systems in Punjab and Sind from Whircombe in Dharma Kumar (ed.), The Cambridge Economic History oflndia,
the perspective of environmental history, the aim is thus to gain vol. I1(Cambridge, 1982) pp. 677—737. For a good account of British canal
insight into the structurings of community that shaped British development in the Ganges Basin, see also Ian Stone, Canal Irrigation in British
colonial rule. India: Perspectives on Technological Change in a Peasant Economy (Cambridge,
1984).
216 Nature, C’ulture, Imperialism
r Models of the Hydraulic Environment 217

British policy tended to stress local initiative as much as overall Collection of statistics that would facilitate the overall modelling
state control. British irrigation policy in the 1 860s and 1 870s, for of the Indus and its tributaries accelerated, and this led to the
example, though influenced by larger strategic, financial and pol creation of an Indus River Commission in 1901 charged not only
itical concerns, frequently encouraged iocal initiative in private (or with the management of embankments and canal heads along the
semi-private) canal building by local landlords or tribal chiefs. river, but also with the scientific collection of statistics for the
By the late nineteenth century, however, Indus Basin irriga study of the river and its capacities.
tion disclosed an increasing concern with a view of the Indus Basin More important, however, was the increasing integration of
environment as an integrated network. In some respects, this irrigation works. This began with the decision in the 1880s to
reflected the more co-ordinated financial and investment policies transform the Chenab Canal in Punjab (a project originally de
of the Government of India emanating from Calcutta. But the veloped as an inundation canal) into a perennial canal and to open
development of Indus Basin irrigation also manifested a new large tracts of ‘wasteland’ in the Rechna Doab for settlement. As
ideology of state power fuelled by efforts to extend co-ordinated the first of the successful ‘canal colonies’, the opening of the
state control over the environment. Chenab Colony marked a new era in irrigation development.
In some ways this began with transformations in the British Indeed, with the Chenab Colony recognized in the early years of
view of the Indus River itself. Though long concerned with water the twentieth century as an overwhelming financial and technical
control along the river, the British increasingly approached the success—’one of the finest properties of the greatest Government
river in the late nineteenth century as the central spine of a single in the world’, as a 1904 irrigation report declared—new proposals
water environment. One dramatic instance of this was the growing for large projects in the Indus Basin attracted widespread atten
criticism by engineers, particularly in Sind, of the historically 10 Since the opening of new canal colonies required perennial
tion.
haphazard approach to the embanking of the river. As the Acting water supplies for new settlers, this also required increased atten
Superintending Engineer wrote in 1890, local embanking of the tion to the overall availability of water within the Indus network.
river to protect crops and local irrigation works had proceeded The increasing water demands of the canal colonies thus dictated
apace in the previous decades. But it had often shown so little an increasing concern for approaching the Indus Basin as an
attention to the ‘natural ways’ of the river that it had created the integrated hydraulic environment.
potential for devastating floods by creating linked embankments The debate in the early twentieth century that preceded the
that were disastrously raising the river’s bed above the surrounding launching of the Triple Canal project in western Punjab made
countryside. ‘Other nations’, he said, alluding among others to this clear. With inadequate supplies in the Ravi and Sutlej toopen
China and its Yellow River, ‘have learnt to their grief and cost a a new canal colony in the Lower Ban Doab and meet the existing
bitter lesson from irterfering, for the sake of gain, with the natural and potential demands for water downstream, Punjab irrigation
laws of. large rivrs’. But the answer to this was not an end to
. .
engineers decided to move water from the Jhelum River across to
interference; the answer was greater attention to an understanding Public Works Dept. (PWD), Bombay, 1 Nov. 1890, 105 of1891, pt. I; Bombay
of the larger processes of the river as a whole—and the appoint PWD (Irrigation), vol. 349 of 1890—8, Maharashrra State Archives, Bombay.
ment of a larger engineering staff in the province for adapting the 10 Technically, it was not the Chenab colony hut the Sidhnai that was the

irrigation system to a scientific understanding of water’s ways.9 first of the Indus Basin canal colonies, importing agricultutal colonists from
central Punjab. But the Chenab colony was the first great financial success.
9 R.B. Joyner, Acting Superintending Engineer in Sind to Sec. to Govt., Punjab PWD, Irrigation, 355, 1904, p. 17.
218 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Models of the Hydraulic Environment 219

the Lower Ban Doab, first carrying it to the Chenab via the Upper created greater potential for conflict among hydraulic segments in
Jhelum Canal, then across the Rechna Doab via the Upper Chenab a single system. Old inundation canals, for example, which had
Canal to the Ravi, and finally into the Lower Ban Doab canal to long functioned under largely local control and which still
water the new colony. For the first time, water was thus carried provided a significant portion of Indus Basin irrigation in Sind,
on a vast scale from one river to another, each now treated as part Bahawalpur and southern Punjab, now found their interests often
of a broader environmental system defined by state science and in conflict with those of water planners who sought to distribute
state control. The opening of the Triple Canal project meant that water to the new canal colonies. Particular attention had now to
water supplies delivered to the canal commands on the Jhelum, be paid to the effects of rabi withdrawals in the canal colonies on
Chenab and Ravi rivers were now all administratively and scien the critical opening and closing dates of irrigation on all inunda
tifically interrelated. Beginning in 1915, the Superintending En tion canals downstream, where the success of local cash cropping
gineers of the five ‘linked canals’ (Upper Jhelum, Lower Jhelum, often depended less now on the effectiveness oflocal canal manage
Upper Chenab, Lower Chenab, Lower Ban Doab), which watered ment than on upriver withdrawals. Perhaps most importantly,
the major canal colonies of the Punjab, met annually to discuss hydraulic integration also created the framework for increasing
forecasts of needs and supplies, based largely on the expanding debate between Sind, Punjab, and Bahawalpur, which all sought
collection of hydrological and crop statistics. This allowed theri to protect their existing irrigation while at the same time putting
to attempt (not always with success) to match water availability forward plans for large-scale perennial canal expansion. For many
to water needs, often by mandating rotational closures of canals.’ years Punjab’s Sutlej Valley Project, for example, was pitted against
Perhaps most significantly, the opening and operation of the Sind’s attempts to finalize its long-debated project for a high-level
system also signified a new claim to state power—a power achieved perennial canal at Rohri, a project that developed eventually into
by modelling the Indus Basin as an integrated, interlocking hy the massive Sukkur Barrage scheme. But the long and convoluted
draulic environment that allowed the British to move water freely debate over these large projects, which ultimately required the
to maximize the environment’s productive potential. intervention of the central government, also illustrated the trend
This is not to say, ofcourse, that this vision of the environment toward centralization of irrigation decision-making that marked
was achieved without conflict. On the contrary, the structuring the growing integration of irrigation development throughout the
of the Indus Basin as an interlocking network of discrete parts also 12 And the success of these increasingly large and
Indus Basin.
‘scientific’ projects served to define the colonial state’s distinctive
Punjab PWD, Irrigation, 122, 1914 (‘Distributing the supplies of the
11

Rivers Jhelum, Chenab and Ravi between the five canals’). Irrigators and officials
12 It also illustrated the need for the constant evaluation of the system to

complained at times of the ‘expert’ manner in which supplies were distributed, determine the relationship of the parts. For an overview of the history of disputes
but engineers defended their right to make these ‘technical’ decisions. As one over the Indus network, see Aloys A. Michel, The Indus Rivers: A Study of the
wrote of a request from another official to open these meetings: he ‘can hardly Effects ofPartition (New Haven, 1967) pp. 99—133. Committees and commis
water
be aware of the implications of his suggestion regarding throwing open our sions were repeatedly set up in the period between 1919 and 1947 to provide
meetings to officials and representatives of the interested public. With our data on Indus flow and to evaluate the relationship of the interests of Sind,
Superintending Engineers fighting like tigers for optimum supplies for their Punjab, Bahawalpur, etc. See, in particular, Report ofa Committee ofthe Central
own canal, to increase the personnel of the meeting would be to render Board ofIrrigation on Distribution ofthe Waters ofthe Indus and its Tributaries,
it

unworkable.’ Note by Under-Secretary, Irrigation (29 Nov. 1934), Punjab 1935 (Anderson Committee) and Report of the Indus Conimission. 1942 (Rau
Board of Revenue (BOR), file 25 1/46/00/2. Commission).
220 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Models of the Hydraulic Environment 221
identity and its power. As H.T. Sorley wrote of the Sukkur Barrage of waterlogging and salinity had caused difficulties even on some
(Lloyd Barrage), opened in 1932: ‘Until the nineteen twenties inundation canals.
15 But these problems became more marked as
Sind lay at the mercy of the Indus. But with the coming of
. .
irrigation policy stressed the large-scale building of perennial canals.
the Lloyd Barrage the river was made to surrender its power before Already by the time of the planning of the Triple Canal project,
‘13
the largest ever irrigation system of the world This was a engineers had begun to systematically monitor and map the level
product not only of the technology of canal construction, but also of the water table in the already opened Lower Chenab and Lower
of the creation by the British of the concept of an integrated Indus Jhelum colonies, and to incorporate data on ground water levels
Basin hydraulic environment. Defining an integrated model of in modeling water requirements and water availability on the
the environment empowered the central state to control it, just as ‘linked canals’.’
6 Early proposed solutions to the problem thus
the state’s power authorized the conceptual creation of an environ focused on\ broad processes of canal construction and operation,
ment of discrete but interrelated parts. including the lining of channels (which was expensive), the con
However, British success in modelling the hydraulic environ struction of drains, and particularly, the restriction of supplies in
ment depended not just on the definition of an environment of areas in which the water table had risen too close to the surface.
broad geographic scope, but also on an integrated understanding This last approach tended to be favoured in the years before 1930,
of the micro-constraints on optimum, productive local water use.’4 and led to the designation of certain new canals as kharfchannels,
The British effort to explain the spread of waterlogging and salinity which were not supplied with water during the cold weather.
within the Indus Basin irrigating network provides a striking ex But by no means all irrigation engineers agreed on the efficacy
ample, illustrating how the effective modelling of the overall system of this expedient, particularly since it created broader problems of
involved more than extensive, macro-level networking. British con water scheduling that undercut efforts to define other productive
cern with rising water tables as a central aspect of expanding canal water needs as a foundation for distributing water within the
irrigation dated back to the mid-nineteenth century, and problems broader irrigation system. Further, debate on these issues suggested
that engineers (as many themselves realized) possessed inadequate
13 The project covered ‘1,028 miles of main canals, 1,071 miles of canal
data and understanding of the interrelations between ground and
distributaries and 5,196 miles of watercourses. Old and new warercourses run
for over 50,000 miles, enough to circle the globe twice . . H.T. Sorley,
. ‘ 5 See, for example, the discussion of waterlogging in the Sanawan Tehsil of
Gazetteer ofthe Former Province ofSinet’ (Lahore, 1968), p. 458. Muzaffargarh District, an area served by inundation canals. Punjab PWD,
14 There were also some efforts to incorporate broader climatic and ecological Irrigation, 55, 1899.
concerns into hydraulic models, but this had little impact. Inquiries by the 16 In 190l, the Punjab Chief Engineer had issued instructions that for the
Secretary of State in 1907 prompted the Punjab Irrigation Department to prevention ofwarerlogging in the Khadir (low-lying) tracts of the Lower Chenab
evaluate whether the loss of forest cover in the Himalayas might have increased and Lower Jhelum colonies, the percentage of the gross areas of villages that
the seasonal variability of river flow, which in turn might have affected ‘the could be supplied with water for irrigation would be based on a scale ranging
utility of the canals’ that depended on an adequate year-round supply of water. from 50 per cent (when the spring water-level was 40 feet or more deep) to 25
But when the first inquiries were undertaken along these lines in 1909, the per cent (when the spring water-level reached a level of less than 25 feet). Note
Chief Engineer of the Punjab reported that there were inadequate data to reach by H.F.B. Frost, Superintending Engineer, LJC, 6 Feb. 1911. Punjab Water-
any conclusions on the issue. Further inquiries were undertaken in the 1930s, logging Note, pt. III, p. 12. The difficult relationship between waterlogging and
but again no statistically significant results were reported. Punjab PWD, Irriga the problem of distribution of supplies between the ‘linked canals’ is dealt with
tion, 349, 1908 (‘Relation between forests and the retention of atmospheric more generally in Punjab PWD, Irrigation, 12, 1909 (‘Reduction of Rabi
moisture and soil moisture’). supplies and remodelling of the Lower Jhelum Canal’).
 r
222 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Models of the Hydraulic Environment 223

surface water, and micro-level processes, to model them together for ‘economical’ use of water by cultivators played as important a
7 The appoint
effectively within a broader environmental system.’ part in the problem as other technical micro-processes, and itself
ment of a Waterlogging Enquiry Committee in the mid 1920s required careful integrated research by the Agricultural Depart
was intended to address the problem and led to the establishment 9 In fact, the integration of the local irrigator into models
ment.’
in 1930 of an Irrigation Research Institute at Lahore, which of the hydraulic environment dated back to the earliest efforts to
undertook scientific experiments to explain (among other things) produce such models in the late-nineteenth century. As J.S. Beres
the processes within the soil responsible for the level of ground ford had written of the Ganges Canal in 1875 (in a memorandum
water and the movement of salts to the surface. Subsequently, the reprinted in a Punjab Irrigation Branch Paper in 1905), an irrigat
results of experimentation in Lahore and in the field were reported ing ‘machine’ consists of four separate parts: ‘the main canal, the
annually to a provincial Waterlogging Broad, and, despite con distributaries, the village watercourses, and the cultivators who
tinuing controversy about the causes and solutions for waterlog apply water to their fields’.
° As engineers realized, incorporating
2
ging and salinity in the years before Partition, scientific research the ‘losses’ of water in village watercourses and in the cultivators’
on the interaction between ground water and surface supplies fields into their models was as important as the understanding of
became a central part of attempts to model the hydraulic environ the movement of water in the main and distributary channels.
’
2
8 Though lack of consensus (and resources) prevented any
ment.’ The search for a mathematical means to do this had, in fact, led
concerted, large-scale effort to deal with waterlogging and salinity early on to an emphasis on assessing the ‘duty’ of irrigation water
until well after Partition (when the massive projects of integrated within irrigation systems, a statistical measure of the cropped area
canal and tubewell development under SCARP began), the history that a specific quantity of water could be expected to bring to
of the debate on waterlogging showed that the modelling of an maturity. As an overall measure of the ‘efficient’ use and distribu
environment that would define the state’s ability to control nature tion of water within a system, this was an aggregate statistic that
for productive purposes required, ultimately, an integration of was yet sensitive to the theoretical impact of cultivator practices
both macro-level and micro-level scientific concerns. on a system’s operation.
But the most critical difficulty in defining such an environ Such a measure also justified state intervention on the most
ment and in exerting state power over it lay in the incorporation local level in irrigator practices in order to control the wider
into such a model of the role of the local producer, or the local hydraulic environment. But the modelling of human behaviour
community of producers, a problem that the emphasis on the necessary to include irrigator practices in the larger hydraulic
micro-level processes involved in waterlogging reinforced. As a
Punjab Conference on Waterlogging concluded in 1917, the need ‘9 Punjab Waterlogging Note, pt. III, p. 103.
20 Memo. ofJ.S. Beresford, Aug. 1875. Punjab Irrigation Branch Papers, 10
7 See, for example, the proceedings of the Conference on Waterlogging held (‘Remodelling of distributaries in old canals’), 1905.
at Lahore in 1917. Punjab Waterlogging Note, pt. III, pp. 95—103. This con 21 The importance of ‘losses’ in village watercourses was rediscovered in the

ference offered no comprehensive approach, though it found the earlier rules of 1 960s and 1 970s as a central problem of Indus Basin irrigation, but an awareness
1901 entirely unworkable and inadequate. of the importance of this element in hydraulic models dates well back into the
18 For an indication of the situation with respect to waterlogging at the time nineteenth century. R.G. Kennedy estimated j 0 1883, for example, that out of
of partition in Punjab, see Proceedings ofthe Waterlogging Confrrence, 1946 For every 100 cu. ft. entering the Ban Doab canal system, 20 cu. ft. were ‘lost’ in
Sind, see Report ofthe Sub-Committee ofthe Central Board ofirrigation Appointed the main channel, 6 cu. ft. in the rajbahas (distributaries) and 21 Cu. ft. in village
to Enquire into the Question of Waterlogging in Sind (1936). watercourses. Punjab Irrigation Branch Paper, 10.
224 Nature, Culturç, Imperialism
Models of the Hydraulic Environment 225
environment represented a more fundamental challenge to both
environmental control to the effective micro-control of water in
science and state power. For some engineers (and other admin
the fields. Though such a framework did not obviate the need for
istrators), the effective control of the state over the larger environ
irrigation rules, it held the power to transform the meaning of
ment simply empowered the state to frame rules of proper irrigator
these rules and thus also transform the theoretical function of the
behaviour that would allow them to control people as canals
irrigation bureaucracy. It suggested the importance in environ
controlled water. Rules were thus issued on most canals to define
mental control ofan alliance oflarge-scale state-controlled techno
correct irrigating practice and to punish breaches. These included
logy and administration with the small-scale action of maximizing
rules for the proper application of water to the fields (including
individual actors to define and control the environment around
the mandated use in many cases of kiaris, or enclosed beds), rules
them.
against ‘wastage’ of water, rules requiring proper construction and
But significantly, in spite of considerable concern for these
clearance of village watercourses, rules prohibiting the growth of
issues, the full British acceptance of this model of Indus Basin
certain crops (such as rice) in certain areas, etc. These rules were
environmental control proved impossible. In matters of water
laid out in Irrigation Department manuals and were enforced pricing, for example, engineers discussed endlessly the sacrifice in
(theoretically) by a system of monitoring and the levying of fines
‘efficiency’ ofwater use caused by the official policy of taking canal
by the Irrigation Department bureaucracies. At times, the bureau rates based on the crop return from irrigated land, rather than as
cracy seemed simply to become an instrument whereby irrigator
a market charge on the actual quantities of water delivered. But,
behaviour was xroulded by surveillance and punishment to fit into
in practice, technical and political pressures kept in place through
the scientifically modelled contours of the larger system. In prac
out the colonial era (and beyond) a system of water delivery in
tice, of course, the colonial bureaucracy—itself only partially
which charges for water reflected neither the constraints ofdemand
under state control—proved entirely inadequate to this task.
or supply.
22 In part this resulted from the seemingly insurmount
Far more important for many engineers, therefore, were at
able technical problems of delivering water in such a manner as
tempts to use a market model of human behaviour to define for to make market pricing and individual maximizing behaviour
it conceptually a more effective place within this system as yet
possible. Technical problems of developing tamper-proof canal
another discrete, interrelated element in the larger structure of
gauges (or modules) capable of delivering measured amounts of
state environmental control. The British needed a framework in
water to outlets (in the face of changing canal levels) preoccupied
which both lower-level irrigation bureaucrats and irrigators would
engineers for decades. Along with this engineers faced administra
play their parts. And on one level this came from the framework
tive problems in marking off the precise areas attached to each
of market thinking that had shaped the emergence of irrigation
outlet so that the measure of water to fields could be calculated.
engineering as a discipline. Running through much of the discus
These and other problems virtually stymied the few Punjab Irriga
sion of local water ‘use’ (and problems of rule enforcement) in the
tion Department experiments undertaken to deliver water to
nineteenth and twentieth centuries was an awareness of the ideal
farmers on contract demand. After touring irrigation works in
that ‘efficient’ use of water could be achieved only if irrigators Spain and France in 1913, for example, F.W. Schonemann pro
were given choices allowing them to maximize their own produc posed that the British hold water auctions modelled on the system
tive return. By modellirg irrigator behaviour mathematically in
terms of market rationality, many irrigation engineers glimpsed a 22 For a discussion of British water pricing, see Ian Stone, Canal Irrigation
theoretical framework linking their larger vision of integrated
in British India pp. 159—94.
226 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Models of the Hydraulic Environment 227

he found in operation in Lorca, Spain, in which the government of the irrigation system, with a system of rational environmental
23 But the
auctioned water on contracts to syndicates of irrigators. control operating on one side, and a world of indigenous, cus
problems ofdelivering precise quantities and ofdefining the nature tomary and kin-based community organization operating on the
of the local ‘syndicates’ of irrigators that would contract for this other. Even as indigenous communities were rigidly excluded from
water proved fatal to all experiments aimed at making such a influence over the main, scientific irrigating system, their domina
system a reality.
24 tion over the disposal of water ‘beyond the outlet’ was largely
accepted as an inevitable fact of colonial irrigation. Indeed, such
communities came to be viewed as part of the ‘natural’ environ
Environmental Modeffing and Indigenous Community
ment, to be ‘controlled and guided, led and regulated’, like
Perhaps most important of all, the establishment of a market Punjab’s rivers, by ‘scientific’ administration, rather than as allies
model for irrigation raised larger questions about the political of government in a common project of rational environmental
relationship between state environmental control and the nature domination.
ofBritish rule in India. Ifthe model ofmarket rationality promised Engineers were often well aware of the potential price paid
theoretically to integrate irrigators on a micro-level into a system for this division in terms of measurable irrigating ‘efficiency’, and
of colonial environmental control, it also threatened to undercut they not infrequently pointed this out. But it became, nevertheless,
the theoretical separation of the British, both from the environ a vision that dominated British conceptions of the system (and
ment and from Indian society, that was so central to their position influenced irrigation administration well after Partition). The ten
as a ruling community. Indeed, the alliance between large-scale sions that this created were indicated, for example, in the operation
government control of the environment and profit-maximizing of the warabandi system, which was the closest that British en
individuals held the potential to define political foundations for gineers came to devising (or adapting) a technical structure for
a community linking the state and society, a community forged incorporating local communities of irrigators into the system at
through a common relationship to the environment. But this was each outlet. On one level, warabandis, or registers of timed water
not a vision of community for which colonial rule provided a turns for the irrigators on each outlet, defined the position ofevery
structural foundation. For the British, the scientific definition of individual irrigator with respect to the irrigation system, as each
the environment served to legitimize the state’s separation not only register specified the quantity of water (or, more accurately, the
from the natural world that it sought to control, but also from time of water use) to which each irrigator was entitled. But in
the customary, community-based structure of Indian society. practice warabandis were viewed more as efforts to energize local
British canal administration was therefore marked by a strong communities ‘beyond the outlet’ in water distribution than to
tendency to view the canal outlet as the great theoretical divider extend a unilring system of rational irrigation control into the
villages. Official intervention in the preparation and enforcement
23 F.W. Schonemann, Report on a Thur ofInspection of Certain Engineering
of warabandis thus depended, according to dominant engineering
Works in Spain and France (Lahore, 1914). doctrine, not directly on the state but on the initiative of local
24 of effectively fixing the amount of water delivered to individual
outlets ruined even experiments aimed at fixing revenue assessments in the canal
irrigators. As Irrigation Department correspondence indicated in
colonies over long periods of time, quite apart from the problem of adjusting 1940, departmentally framed warabandis existed only for those
supply to market demand. Imran All, The Punjab Under Imperialism, 1885— outlets that had specifically requested them—at that time on less
1947(Princeton, 1988), pp. 169—77. than half the watercourses in the Punjab. And perhaps more
228 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Models of the Hydraulic Environment 229

importantly, the effective working of warabandis depended criti and manifested the same problems that bedeviled government
cally—at least in British eyes—on the bonds of local community efforts under the Act to organize local societies and panchayats
operating in the villages. Warashikni, or the violation of waraban more generally: they encountered continual problems with inter
dis, was common. But as one engineer noted, unless canal officers nal disputes or domination by a few leading local landowners.
26
were to be given magisterial powers to interfere widely in the This is not to say, of course, that villages were without organization
village (which was a bureaucratic nightmare), the best hope for for watercourse clearance—or without relatively effective mechan
improvement would be ‘to leave the present system alone and try isms for internal water distribution either according to warabandis
25 Though
and strengthen the village panchayat or public opinion’. or otherwise—but that these rarely operated without serious in
the meaning of village ‘public opinion’ in this context is less than ternal conflicts (and rarely according to an idealized vision of
clear, the implication was that only the strengthening and manip ‘natural’ community organization shaping irrigation ‘beyond the
ulating of the existing, indigenous community ‘beyond the outlet’ outlet’). In fact, local conditions, and the nature of local water
would make effective water distribution a reality. distribution, meant that structures of local organization varied
But the contradictions that this engendered were considerable, enormously within the Indus Basin. And the structure of the
and were reflected in continual complaining by irrigation officials colonial irrigation system thus guaranteed an ongoing tension
about the failure of villagers to co-operate—as they were eKpected between this variation and the British vision of an efficient, math
to—for the purposes necessary to make the overall system efficient. ematically modelled system, combining rational networking and
Central among these, for example, was the clearance and main customary community along a vast chain of uniform outlets.
tenance of village watercourses. Inadequate upkeep of village The irony in the whole structure becomes clear when it is
watercourses was an important cause of the seepage of water that viewed in terms of the relationship between environment and
ontributed to waterlogging, as engineers well knew, and yet community. The moving force behind British irrigation expansion
officials could only bemoan the lack of effective local combination lay in the fact that the definition of the large, integrated, scien
in watercourse maintenance (and direct the bulk of their scientific tifically-defined (and potentially controllable) hydraulic environ
concern with waterlogging elsewhere). Limited efforts were made ment helped to empower the colonial state and define the British
before Partition to empower the formation of local silt clearance as a distinctive, scientific ruling community. But insofar as local
societies under the working of the Punjab Cooperative Societies conceptions of the environment also helped to define the ‘natural’
Act ‘with powers to allot work and get it done either by the communities ‘beyond the outlet’ that were ‘upposed to fit into
member or at his cost’, or to authorize panchayats to control this system, British irrigation works were in many respects them-
watercourses in the villages (to prepare warabandis and repair
26
watercourses). But these efforts had an extremely limited impact, In 1923 there were only 18 cooperative silt clearance societies in Punjab;
Report on the Working of Cooperative Societies in the Punjab for the Year Ending
25 Punjab PWD, I4rigation, 124, 1908. It is significant also that irrigators 31 July 1923. p. 31. Panchayats in Punjab were authorized under the 1921
could be held collectively responsible for violations of warabandis, unauthorized Village Panchayar Act to prepare warabandis, but this power was withdr?wn by
irrigation, outlet tampering, etc. ‘because’, as one official wrote, ‘the irrigators the Punjab Panchayat Act of 1939. The reason, wrote one irrigation official,
are in a position of trust, so to speak, being responsible for the maintenance of was that ‘panchayats had made a mess of the warabandi cases during the years
the watercourse and the due application of the water therein to purposes 1921 to 1938 when they had the necessary powers to frame or modiI’
authorized and non-wasteful ... Note by M.W. Fenton, Commissioner, Mul
‘
warabandis Punjab PWD, Irrigation, 115, 1932 (‘Miscellaneous petitions-
tan (4 Dec. 1908). Punjab BOR, file 25 1/423. Lower Jhelum Canal’).
230 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Models of the Hydraulic Environment 231
selves responsible for undercutting the very vision of local com But Merrey’s descriptions also suggest the degree to which the
munity that the system relied on. In fact, the increasing depend bonds of biradari, however divisive, served ironically for many
ence on relations with an irrigation bureaucracy for securing the local irrigators as a means to counter the cleavages built into the
most critical of productive resources for the local environment— colonial irrigation system by the state itself. Far from completely
water—guaranteed that a meaningful definition of the environ undercutting integration, the mobilization of biradari ties repre
ment that was purely local was impossible, as was, therefore, a sented in some respects a form of both adaptation and resistance
structure of encapsulated, ‘natural’, local communities operating to a structure of environmental modelling that sought to separate
in their outlet-defined spaces. By trying to incorporate indigentius a realm of mathematical modelling (and state control) from a
‘natural’ communities into a larger hydraulic model, the colonial realm of local community entirely encapsulated by the outlet. In
stats thus undercut the local environmental foundations for the fact, there is considerable evidence to suggest that kin-based bira
very local communities that it professed to rely on. dan networks provided a mechanism through which some local
An examination of the various local responses to these policies irrigators were able to influence both local politics and the larger
is beyond the scope of this discussion. But the implications of the irrigation bureaucracy to exert control over the flow of water
colonial irrigation structure are evident in the recent work of reaching their outlets from the outside. Frequently, powerful local
Douglas Merrey. Merrey has used long-term data from one village leaders mobilized their clients and biradaris to stabilize their own
in western Punjab to demonstrate the ways in which competition water supply (and that of their followers) at the expense of oppos
in the villages for izzat (honour) among leaders of local biradaris ing neighbours and factions, often by defying Irrigation Depart
(extended kinship groups) undercut the development of local ment regulations (by creating breaches, taking excessive water,
irrigation efficiency. Merrey describes in detail how kin-based putting dams in watercourses, etc.) and/or by allying themselves
concepts of honour and status created endemic conflicts beyond with Irrigation Department officials (through bribes or kinship
the outlet, which undermined government efforts to encourage ties) to protect their local position. Department engineers re
co-operation and efficiency, as, for example, during a 1 970s gov sponded officially by fining offenders, but as the noting on peti
ernment-sponsored watercourse improvement programme. tions to the department indicates, it was often difficult to disen
Though potentially benefiting the village as a whole, this project tangle the networks of clientage and kinship relations penetrating
failed, in Merrey’s view, largely as a result of a prevailing ‘Punjabi across the outlet into the Irrigation Department bureaucracy it
culture’ which inhibited the co-operation (or ‘civic’ sense, as Mer 28 In a world in which the colonial state sought simultaneously
self.
rey puts it) that irrigation planners had sought to encourage in
the village to improve distribution and efficiency. Merrey’s analysis Merrey has also written the most important, long-term historical case study of
highlights the frustrations of irrigation officials and aid experts the influence of British irrigation on an Indus Basin village: Douglas James
with the fact that the most powerful bonds of local community Merrey, ‘Irrigation, Povertyand Social Change in a Village of Pakistani Punjab:
solidarity, based on kinship, made problematic the effective in An Historical and Cultural Ecological Analysis’, University of Pennsylvania
tegration of villages into the larger hydraulic 27
environment. Ph.D. dissertation, 1983.
28 Petitions against the actions of lower-level
irrigation staff were common.
As one engineer put it, ‘it is not infrequent on the part of clever Zilladars [low-
Douglas J. Merrey, ‘Irrigation and Honor: Cultural Impediments to the
27
level irrigation officials] to join hands with clever Zamindars in order to hood
Improvement ofLocal Level Water Management in Punjab, Pakistan’, Colorado wink the simple share-holders in the matter of distribution of canal supplies’.
State University, Water Management Technical Report, 53 (Dec. 1979) p. 3. Punjab PWD, Irrigation, 1, 1914 (‘Petitions from and against Zilladars’).

I
232 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
to include local irrigators within a larger hydraulic environment,
and yet, at the same time, to separate them from the culture of
r Models of the Hydraulic Environment
no accident in this connection that it was Akalis in the 1 930s
(with their notions of a panth composed of many smaller, linked
233

communities) who took the lead in organizing co-ordinated village

scientific modelling that defined the larger hydraulic system (and closures of outlets in the canal colonies to protest against the
the ruling community), the manipulation of biradari and clientage policies of the Punjab Irrigation Department (while most Muslim
represented in some respects a rational response to the system—a villages, in spite ofsimilar local grievances, but without these forms
mechanism for influential irrigators to mobilize forms of local of reformist religious organization, failed to participate effective
solidarity and patronage to define and control their own hydraulic ° These were efforts, in essence, to define new indigenous
3
ly).
environment. models of community coterminous with new state models of the
Even so, the price, in terms of poverty and the lack of effectiye environment.
mobilization for efficient productive control of the larger,
modelled environment was, as Merrey’s work shows, high. But
this was not the only mechanism of cultural adaptation to the Post-colonial Legacies
colonial structuring of the hydraulic environment. Many move Ultimately, of course, the emergence of nationalist movements in
ments of rural cultural and political reform in the Indus Basin both India and Pakistan created large conceptions of community
reflected more co-ordinated efforts, on a large scale, to come to capable of constraining bureaucratic and scientific control of the
terms simultaneously with the realities of colonial environmental hydraulic environment. These movements challenged the British
transformation and colonial state structure. Rural movements of as a ruling community by establishing their own claims to rule—
religious reform in part fit into this pattern; the gurdwara reform defined not only by their command of the language of science,
movement of the 1 920s and the rise of the Akalis among the Sikhs, but also by their assertion of the existence ofnational communities
for example, represented at least in part a movement linking locally incorporating people on both sides of the outlet. But with ideo
based communities that were increasingly tied into larger environ logies developed in large part from above (by urban elites), these
mental and economic networks into correspondingly large com movements faced their own serious limitations in integrating large-
munity structures (and community conceptions) capable of scale scientific modelling of the environment in the Indus Basin
exerting greater influence over integrated networks of environ
mental control. Sikh religious ideas were in many instances linked
to local community control of irrigation in 29Punjab, and it seems the Gurdwara-priest who announces by the bell when the turn of one zemindar
ceases and that of another begins’. Randhir Singh, An Economic Survey ofKala
Gaddi Thamman, Board of Economic Inquiry, Punjab, 27 (1932), p. 47.
Equally noticeable was the mobilization by powerful landholders of large fol 30 Protests were organized in 1938, for example, by Moga Committees
lowings in disputes for years. Departmental petitions chronicle, for example, a (‘Outlet Committees’) on particular distribataries against canal department
dispute over the local control of water between Gardezi and Tragger zamindars charges, enforcement of rules and, in particular, the reduction of water supply
in Multan district that lasted a decade as each side appealed to connections at on the occasion of the engineering remodelling of channels. These were not
different levels of the official hierarchy. Punjab PWD, Irrigation, 115, 1932 exclusive Akali organizations, but government officials noted that there was a
(‘Miscellaneous petirions-Haveli Canal Circle’). strong correlation between Akali strength on outlets and the co-ordinated closing
29 The relationship between Jar Silth religious identity and irrigation is
of outlets as a protest. (Although the Punjab Congress took up these issues to
suggested in Murray). Leaf, Information andBehaviorin a Sikh Vzllage(Berkeley, attack the government at the provincial level.) See, for example, The Tribune
1972) pp. 163—4. In a village in Lyallpur with a departmental warabandi, for (Lahore), 1—29 July 1938.
example, zamindars ‘arranged ‘arranged for a watch and a bell to be kept with
234 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Modeic of the Hydraulic Environment 235

with the political mobilization of a large indigenous community. communities also empowered new elites to assert their own en
Indeed, these problems were evident in post-Partition efforts in vironmentally defined claims to power within environmental sys
both India and Pakistan to remake the environment (in both tems on both sides of the border. The definition of distinctive
reality and in conception) and so to legitimize new conceptions provincial water environments (linked to distinctive provincial
of ruling community as the British departed. elites), and the rhetoric of their appeals, like appeals to national
This was clearest in the moves by both the new states after ism, demonstrated the continuing importance of environmental
Partition to break the Indus Basin hydraulic environment in two control as a charter for community. One urban Punjabi writer
so that the hydraulic environment would match (and legitimize) illustrated this in complaining about Pakistan’s decision in the
the claims of the two competing national ruling communities to 1970s temporarily to close a critical Indus Basin link canal (to
rule separately. With a large investment from the World Bank, divert more water down the Indus to Sind): ‘The closing of the
the rivers of Punjab were literally severed by the Indus Waters Chashma Jhelum Link Canal created a Karbala in the Punjab’, he
Treaty of 1960 along the Partition line; the waters of the Ravi and wrote. ‘After every Karbala Islam lives’. In the same way this canal
Sutlej that had flowed into the Indus were diverted into East closing gave life to the sleeping Punjabiness (Punjabzyat) in Pun
Punjab and Rajasthan, while Pakistan constructed a new canal jabis’. A distinctive claim to provincial community identity thus
sweeping along the Pakistani side of the Indian border, intercept emerged here from the fusing of Islamic imagery with the struggle
ing and feeding the canals that had previously come from East to control the hydraulic environment—and in a way that defined
Punjab with water brought from the Chenab and carried in a an awakening Punjabi identity in opposition, not only to that of
syphon under the bed of the Ravi (Bambanwala-Ravi-Bed Canal). Sind, but also to that of Pakistan as a whole. Similar appeals to
Pakistan’s water losses to India were retrieved with the construc environment and community were increasingly used in the 1 970s
tion of large storage dams on the Jhelum and Indus, in a process and 1980s by elites in Sind on the Pakistan side, and in Punjab
that allowed state control of the environment to proceed on both and Haryana on the Indian side of the border as well.32
sides of the border with minimal reference to each other. Scientific But the most severe tensions in the structuring of hydraulic
modelling ofthe Indus Basin hydraulic environment thus matched environments in the Indus Basin continued to be those associated
(in each case) the state’s claim to define and control its environ with the relationship of the ‘communities’ of irrigators beyond
ment as a ruling community, perpetuating (at least in significant the outlets to the larger scientific system. Though developments
part) the relationship between environmental modelling and com in India and Pakistan have diverged considerably, the relationship
munity definition and control established by the British.
’
3 between definitions and models of the environment and the defini
But the emergence of national states and the signing of the tion and political structuring of local communities continues to
Indus Waters Treaty did not end political tensions in these Indus shape irrigation development. In Pakistan at least, in spite of the
Basin environmental systems. The linking of environmental
modelling and control with the political structuring of broad new Muhammad HanifRame, Panjab ka Muqaddama (Lahore, 1985), p. 149.
32
The reference to Karbala is to the suffering and martyrdom of Husain, due to
31Th Indus Waters Treaty in part authorized the works that split the Indus human oppression and lack ofwater, a moment which has often served in Islamic
Basin, and in part confirmed the developments that had already occurred since imagery as a charter of commitment to community. Provincial control over
1947 (including the Pakistani construction of the BRBD Canal). For a full water has also been a major issue in Sikh separatist rhetoric and in Punjabi
account, see Michel, The Indus Rwers. conflict with Rajasthan and Hatyana.
236 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
acceleration of integrated irrigation development, and the massive
mathematical modelling—now with computers—not only of
canal flow but ofconjunctive groundwater and canal development, Chapter Eight
the system still, in critical respects, continues to hinge at the outlet,
and in ways that have helped to support a particular kind of state The Environmental Costs of
authority inherited from British colonial tradition. In spite of
recent efforts to develop local water-users’ associations, corruption Irrigation in British India:
and biradari patronage networks continue to shape the hydraulic
system. Irrigation experts have hardly been oblivious to the prob ‘Vaterlogging, Salinity, Malaria
1cm—and the environmental degradation—that this has helped I
to cause. But the roots of the system are to be found in the political
implications of the relationship between environment and corn- ELIZABETH WHITCOMBE
munity established in the colonial era.

Immense Canal System: Achievement in India

Today Sir Malcolm Hailey, Governor of the United Provinces,
formally opens the Sarda Canal, and the day will be memorable
even in the wonderful history of irrigation in India... [There
are] 4000 miles of main canal and distributaries. command
. .

ing over 7,000,000 acres, a region as large as all the fertile land
of Egypt .The country which will receive water is already
. .

highly cultivated, but the introduction of the canal, besides

relieving distress and obviating heavy expenditure on reliefwork
in famine years, will lead to a better class of crops being
grown . . It is anticipated that the project will yield to the
.

State a net annual return of 7 per cent on the capital outlay of

about 7.5 million.
The Times, 11 December 1928

T
he Sarda Canal, the last of the great systems constructed
by the British Government of India, symbolized British
Indian irrigation enterprise. The scale of the work was
matched by the ingenuity of its engineering: an advanced techno
logy devised by the government’s engineers for Indian conditions;

I
238 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Environmental Costs ofIrrigation 239
a radical departure from precedent Indian and European, it be The huge investment entailed huge costs. The financial costs
came the model for developing agriculture in the Middle East, were accounted for in the dismal balance sheets presented annually
western America and Australia. Sarda epitomized irrigation policy; by the Government ofIndia. Other costs eluded the account books
unchanged in principle in the century since large-scale irrigation but were registered in the official records early in the history of
had begun, this policy was directed towards the rationalization of the canals: water-loss from evaporation and seepage, aside from
two aims: (a) to protect against famine; and (b) to produce a disrepair, was estimated to compromise the canals’ efficiency by
profitable return on investment by giving priority to works de 60 to 70 per cent: ‘deleterious effects’, seepage, waterlogging,
signed to enhance the prcductivity of the most highly cultivated salinity and malaria were described repeatedly in association with
regions. extensive reaches of all the major systems within a decade of their
Most of the works were financed by loan capital. Hence, in opening.
the sanctioning of constructions the emphasis was necessarily To a detached observer, such as the American W.C. Sweet,
placed on the prospect of their remunerativeness. The procedure, seconded from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1936—7 to report
however, failed to guarantee financial success. The canals as a on the association of malaria with perennial irrigation, such costs
whole did not pay until the hugely profitable Punjab systems were were the price of government policy:
completed by the early 1920s.
1 Just why an extensive irrigation system should be expected to repay its
capital cost in a minimum number of years (at the expense of the
Table 1 efficiency of its operation and the health of its people) and in addition
British India Public Irrigation Works: Financial Results, 937— give government a handsome return on its money, is one of those
8 mysteries which ordinary mortals may not fathom.
2
Policy, dictated so largely by remunerativeness, determined
that the engineers should concentrate their attention on the aspects

I I tEL i1
1! of irrigation which paid: the calculation of the water requirement
of crops and the devising of means by which it could be delivered
as quickly and cheaply as possible. Drainage, in contrast, was
UttarProch1ctiv(13)14,002
neglected. But there was more to it. Official confidence that the
Pradesh vagaries of nature could be controlled and the physiography of
Protective 2,000 427,000 36.7 1.0
155 6.4 the subcontinent amended to economic advantage was misplaced.
Madras Productive (26) 14,000 2,500,000
1.2
The canals which were designed to remedy the imbalances of the
Protective 1,500 190,000 38.6
environment in effect compounded them. Irrigation succeeded—
Bombay: profiting agriculture and thereby government—where natural
Sind Productive (16) 9,000 4,000,000 297 2.6
conditions of adequate drainage permitted it: but where natural
Protective 370 100,000 2.8
conditions did not permit it the costs of irrigation were written
—

Punab Productive (13) 17,000 12,200,000 345 15.0

on the landscape and in the records of public health: waterlogging,
For a summary of the economic history of large scale irrigation see E. Whit
combe, ‘Irrigation’ in D. Kumar, (ed.), The Cambridge Economic Histo7y of 2W.C. Sweet, ‘Irrigation and Malaria’, Proceedings ofthe National Institute
India, 2 (Cambridge, 1983), pp. 677—737. ofSciences ofIndia, 4, 1938, pp. 185—9

L
240 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
The Environmental Costs ofIrrigation 241
salinity and malaria. The incomparable documentation of India’s
gross disrepair and hence failed to control the silting of the rivers.
irrigation history makes it possible to demonstrate where, when
Silt choked the channels over a large part of the Cauvery basin,
and why these costs were incurred.
depriving the once highly productive land of its regular water-
British-Indian irrigation began in the south, with the restora
supply. The distress of the agricultural population and a con
tion of the Grand Anicut (barrage) on the Cauvery and Coleroon
comitant falling-offof revenue prompted the government to repair
rivers. By the late-eighteenth century the Anicut had fallen into
the Anicut. The costs were low, which enhanced the work’s at
tractiveness. No radical departure from the ancient design was
needed to restore efficient sluicing of silt to the southern delta.
Construction of Principal Irrigation Works, c. 1800—1940 The Anicut itself, acquired free of charge by conquest and cession,
while never precisely valued, nonetheless accounted for a substan
I. South: Madras
tial proportion of the capital invested. The restoration was a huge
success: agriculturally, since drainage of the delta was restored; and
Table 2
financially, since the capital investment was underestimated and
Madras. Irrigation Works, 1820—46
revenue overestimated, the entire increment to land revenue being
Cauvery—Coleroon Delta entered to the irrigation account. The huge profits proved a potent
stimulus to expand the irrigation system into the northern deltas
Grand anicut, Trichinopoly, with subsystems
of the Kistna and Godavari, with something of the same success,
2nd century AD Constructed (Raja Veeraman)
discounted by the greater costs incurred in having to construct
the barrages ab initio. The control of silting had felicitous effects
18th century AD Gross disrepair on the environment, stabilizing the delta and enhancing the
1804 Survey, first repairs—reconstruction (Caldwell) natural drainage. There was little or no waterlogging and irrigation
1820—1838 Definitive reconstruction, extension (Cotton) did not complicate the natural endemicity or periodic epidemics
1840 Further expansion of malaria in this region. Upcountry, however, where the abortive
scheme of the Kurnool canal was constructed by private enterprise,
Kistna, Godave7y Deltas the heavy black cotton soil proved, predictably, prone to water-
1830 Reconstruction, extension of existing works logging, and an intensification of malaria added to the costs of
the scheme, bought by government to relieve the shareholders
Madras Irrigation System, by 1846 within a decade of its opening.
3
Number of major works 36
Capital outlay (including repairs) P.s 6,000,000 II. North: The United Provinces and Punjab
Annual irrigated area c. 781,306 acres As with its first works in Madras, the government acquired a large
Percentage total gross profit! outlay 69.5 part of the investment in the Jumna canals free of cost. The
7 works > 100 revenue was, as predicted, substantial and in the north entered
6 works 50—1 00
10 works 20—50 -
‘Report on the Madras Irrigation Company’s Canal to the end 1881’, in
India, Public Works Department, Irrigation Proceedings, July 1882, 13—14.
242 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Environmental Costs ofIrrigation 243
Table 3 than twice the mileage and from three to four times the capacity.
Public Irrigation Works, Jumna Canals 1820—46 For two-thirds of their course, through low-lying country, the
main canals were necessarily constructed at a high level to ensure
Jumna Canals gravitational flow. Costs, much in excess of the sanctioned es
I. West timates, were cut where possible. The new canals followed the old
1358 AD Initial works completed and tortuous Mughal alignment wherever practicable, which led
Restoration and extension rapidly to problems ofsilting and erosion, and therefore water-loss.
c. 1568 (Akbar)
Lining, even of a fraction of the mileage, was prohibitive, and
Mid-l7th century (Shahjehan) Extension to Delhi
seepage from the high-level sections went unchecked. The respon
1780 (Zabita Khan Rohilla) Restoration
sibility for the construction and maintenance of distributaries was
1807 First survey, East India Company made the responsibility of the zamindars: there was no system to
1817 (Moira) Restoration sanctioned it, and much abuse. The result was a greatly compromised efficien
1820 First line opened: 185 miles cy and the ominous appearance of persistent waterlogging along
1825 Second, branch line, opened the central and lower reaches of both the western and eastern
1830 Extensions systems reported on at length from the early 1 840s.
The financial results, however, inspired confidence: that the
II. East faults in alignment could be corrected and the problems of dis
Mid-l7th century (Shahjehan) Initial works tribution solved by replacing the zamindars’ control by public
1780 (Rohilla) Restoration administration. The revised irrigation policy was implemented in
1807 First survey, East India Company the Ganges Canal, an entirely new work, opened in 1854: 900
1830 First line opened miles in length—more than twice the combined mileage of the
Extensions J umna canals, with no private watercourses and the first of the
great canals to be financed by loan capital, on the government’s
Jumna System, by 1846 confident estimate that the deficit would be converted into a
West East comfortable surplus within ten years of the canal’s opening. P.T.
445 Cautley, its great engineer, was himself confident that the prob
Mileage
lems of the terrain could be conquered: the watercourses crisscross
Command area (acres) 800,000 c. 300,000
ing the upper reaches, the poorly drained basins of the middle and
Capital outlay (Rs) 1,200,000 c. 2,000,000
especially the lower reaches of the western doab, where his meticu
Net return/outlay (per cent) 119 63 lous survey preparatory to the construction of the Kanpur and
Etawah branches had demarcated large tracts of waterlogged and
under two heads of account: the direct water-rate, collected by the saline land.
Canal department, and the indirect increment to the land revenue With the accession of Crown government in 1857—8, the
from the enhanced value of irrigated land. But unlike the barrages Company’s irrigation policy was systematized. Public works were
of the Madras deltas, the Jumna canals were a great departure from accounted as non-remunerative and remunerative, respectively:
precedent: a huge expansion of the ruined Mughal systems, more strict rules were drawn up for the regulation of expenditure.

I
244 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Environmental Costs ofIrrigation 245
Table 4 investment on the Ganges Canal in 1874, twenty years after its
Imperial Irrigation, 1858—99 opening, was a mere 3 per cent. Cautley’s skill had not been
Systematization ofPoliry: Classification ofPublic Works
sufficient to solve the problems of alignment in the central and
Heads ofAccount lower reaches where silting, seepage and waterlogging com
pounded the natural disadvantages of drainage and already neces
I. State Works. Non-Remunerative sitated extensive remodelling in excess of estimated costs. Gov
Barracks, law courts, schools, dispensaries, etc. ernment, however, defended its policy: ‘irrigation might not neces
sarily pay quickly, but that was not to be expected. people have
II. Works of Internal Improvement: Remunerative
. .

to be educated in the use of water . there was no doubt that

. .

Including ‘all engineering operations directed to the agricultural irrigation would pay’. But by 1876—7 the return on all irrigation
wants of the community’
works came to a net 4 per cent; of the forty-four ‘remunerative
Programme of Works, 1868—99 works’ only seven—the ‘ancient restorations’—showed, in Lord
Projected command area = ‘Half France + All Italy’ Salisbury’s words, ‘the desirable result of a clean balance-sheet’.
I NWP Lower Ganges canal opened 1877 The government pressed on with the expansion of irrigation,
Upper Ganges canal remodelling its expectations undimmed by the realities of its account books
Ban Doab canals and the accumulating reports of ‘deleterious effects’ in the low-
II Punjab
lying reaches of all systems so far constructed. By 1900—1 the
III Sind Conversion of Inundation (Seasonal) Canals
to Perennial System return on the whole system had reached the minimum 7 per cent.
From 1901—3 the Irrigation Commission met to advise on policy
Capital outlay sanctioned, 1869—80 for what was to be the last chapter in British India’s irrigation
£ 30,000,000 Repayable over 10 years history. The Commission recommended a stricter definition of
criteria: it devised a stricter, mathematical method of estimating
‘State works’, according to Richard Strachey, the author of the value of irrigation: it proposed a strictly limited programme
the rules, were not expected to be remunerative: here ‘prudence of further works. (See Table 5)
will dictate the necessity for economy in such expenditure’. But
the government’s obligation for the construction of Table 5
works of internal improvement is essentially based on the idea of their Indian Irrigation Commission: Public Irrigation, 1900—1901
being profitable in a pecuniary point of view . . to the Government
.

Total cultivated area (acres) 226,000,000

and community, as partners. If it cannot reasonably be predicted that Total irrigated area (acres) 44,000,000
such a work will be profitable in this sense, it should not be undertaken.
By public works 19,100,000
An ambitious programme of works, inspired by the grandeur Total return on capital outlay (per cent) 7.1
of the Ganges Canal, was launched on the expectation that ex
penditure on projects could be strictly controlled according to this Official belief in ‘protective’ works was waning: the costs
clearly enunciated policy. But the prospect of the remunerativeness reclaiming what was at best marginal land indifferently deterred
of the new systems proved an illusion. The annual return on such investment. Profitability took on an even greater significance.
 I
246 Nature, Culture, Imperialism I The Environmental Costs ofIrrigation 247
Punjab was fast becoming the irrigation province par excellence: should be solicited in establishing the patterns characteristic of the
‘canals .. may not protect against famine’, Sir Thomas Higham,
.
Ganges—Jumna Doab.
chief irrigation engineer for Punjab had told the Irrigation Com This westward migration leaves behind obsolescent and ul
mission, ‘but they may give an enormous return on your money’. timately obsolete channels, ‘dead’ rivers, or riverains, in low-lying
From 1901 irrigation investment was concentrated on Punjab’s tracts which form series of shallow basins, great and small. These
huge irrigable margin, and on those schemes elsewhere which jhils, as they are known in Hindustani, are most conspicuous in
might be expected to produce results comparable to Punjab’s: the the central and lower reaches of the doabs, where the gradient is
Sukkur barrage in Sind, and in UP the Sarda Canal. barely one foot per mile, and the surface drainage therefore slug
gish and, in the case of jhils, non-existent.
Principal Irrigation Works: Environmental Costs
II. Rainfall
The costs imposed by physical conditions of climate and terrain Rainfall is characterized by extreme seasonal variation, the curve
were not only financial but also environmental: but the environ of annual precipitation being markedly skewed, with maximum
mental costs of waterlogging, salinity and malaria, while docu rainfall in the third quarter. For these months, precipitation fre
mented in detail, were never satisfactorily entered in the irrigation quently exceeds runoff; the risk of prolonged pooling is increased
accounts. An outline of the essential features of the semi-arid by restricted surface drainage, with waterlogging where drainage
environment of the subcontinent makes clear why such costs were is impeded, especially in and around jhils. Excessive monsoon
inevitably incurred. rainfall, irregularly distributed through the third quarter, as re
corded roughly one year in every five, increases the risk.
I. Geomorphology
The alluvium of the Ganges—Jumna and upper Indus Doab has III. Temperature
been formed by the gradual shift of the upper reaches of the rivers Extreme seasonal variation characterizes the annual temperature
from east to west. Wilhelmy has demonstrated the principle in a curve, with maximum values recorded for the second and early
4 in which he deduced the phases
remarkable study of the Indus third quarters, thus overlapping with the season of maximal
of river-shift from nineteenth and twentieth century observations, precipitation.
and from the archaeological ruins of towns located on a succession
of tributaries; these are plotted on a historical time-scale, from c. IV Soil Profile
2000 BC to 1940 AD. From these patterns, Wilhelmy derived a Semi-arid alluvium contains salts, dispersed through the profile
‘law of westward stream migration’ which governs the geomor by the annual rainfall. Pooling, where surface drainage is inade
phological events leading to the formation of doabs, the mechanics quate, increases subsoil moisture. ‘Where vertical drainage is also
determined by silting, the rate and extent of which is in turn restricted, as in long-standing jhils, by the formation of indurated
determined by climate and geology. The help of archaeologists layers by the accumulation of insoluble salts—carbonates (kankar
4 H. Wilhelmy, ‘Das Urstromtal am Ostrand der Indusebene und das
in Hindustani)—the water-table rises, subsoil moisture reaches
Sarasvati-Problem’, Zeitscbrift f Geomorphologie, N.F., Suppl.-Bd 8, 1969, saturation, and salts which cannot be washed down accumulate
pp. 76—93; cf G.S. Roonwal, ‘The Wandering
Rivers of the Punjab, India’, in greater concentrations in solution in the subsoil. In the dry
Palaeogeogvapby, Palaeoclimatology, Pakieoecology, 4, 1968, pp. 155—9. months following the rains, soil moisture is drawn up to the surface
 The Environmental Costs ofIrrigation 249
248 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
Malaria may well have been known in the subcontinent since
by capillary action with its content of salts. With the high tempera ancient times. The first modern observations in the nineteenth
tures of the later first and the second quarters, the rate of evapora century noted that ‘malarious fevers’ were traditionally associated,
tion increases to maximum, and the soluble salts—chlorides, (reh in the semi-arid zone, with pooling of fresh water from the annual
in Hindustani)—crystalliZe on the surface. Tracts of impeded monsoon. Nineteenth-century medical opinion correctly iden
drainage thus mark the landscape like giant evaporating dishes, tified climatic determinants: high temperatures in association with
the insoluble kankar at their base and an efflorescence of white, the rains. The conventional but mistaken conclusion that the cause
powdery reh up the sides. of malaria must be ‘noxious exhalations’ from the overheated soil
The construction of high-level canals as well as all-weather saturated by rain was disproved by the discovery of the biological
roads and railway, carried necessarily on embankments, risked agents: first the parasite, plasmodium spp., by Alphonse Laveran
obstruction to surface drainage even where, in the upper reaches in Algeria in 1888, then the vector, the female anopheline mos
of the Doab, it was adequate for the annual monsoon precipita quito, as postulated by Patrick Manson in 1896, and confirmed
tion. The risk of pooling in the event of excessive rains therefore experimentally by Ronald Ross in 1899. Ross demonstrated the
intensified in these areas. In the vast low-lying reaches of the agent and the mode of transmission. Colleagues in the Malaria
central and lower Doab, embankments aggravated the effects of Survey of India provided the correlation with specific environ
the natural impediments to drainage—surface and vertical. Caut mental factors, notably S.R. Christophers and C.A. Gill in Punjab:
ley described and measured great acreages of saline-alkali marginal the critical climatic factor in transmission was not rainfall as such
land in the districts of Mainpuri and Etawah, UP, in his survey in association with maximal annual temperatures, nor pooling,
5 Severe waterlogging and salinity was
for the lower Ganges Canal. nor soil-saturation, but atmospheric humidity. By 1920 Gill had
persistently reported in these areas from the 1860s. In 1876, at established that a level of approximately 63 per cent humidity
the first official enquiry into waterlogging and salinity, Sir Edward represented a threshold, below which the vector was unlikely to
Buck described cultivation as no more than ‘a few patches of crops survive long enough, still less to proliferate on a sufficient scale,
in the salt-covered desert around them’.
6 for the infection to be transmitted.
7 The climatic characteristics
The description of districts of the Doab, (still the heartland ofthe third quarter, annually, in the semi-arid zone, the persistence
of agriculture in the north) as desert is arresting: still more so when ofhigh temperatures in conjunction with maximum precipitation,
one considers the density of its population, overwhelmingly agri drove atmospheric humidity in ‘normal’ years to well above this
cult1ral, numbering in the late-nineteenth century upwards of threshold, prolonging the longevity of anophelines and thereby
500—600 per square mile. In this cultivated desert it was not only intensifying their breeding capacity.
the soil, the groundwater beneath the soil and the crops which Tropical malaria, as described in the medical and scientific
grew on it which suffered from waterlogging and its correlate, literature of British India, had two characteristic, ‘endemic’ forms.
salinity. The people who lived on the land suffered similarly, from Benign tertian occurred in two seasonal waves. The first was low,
the diseases of waterlogging and fevers, principally malaria.
S.R. Chrisrophers, ‘Malaria in the Punjab’, Scientific Memoirs by the Officers
P.T. Cautley, Report on the Ganges Canal Worksfrom their Commencement
5 of the Medical and Sanitary Departments of the Government of India, NS, 46,
until the Opening ofthe Canal—i 854, vol. 1, (London, 1866), pp. 265—7. 1911; C.A. Gill, The Seasonal Periodicity ofMalaria and the Mechanism of the
E. Whitcombe, Agrarian Conditions in Northern India, 1, (Berkeley, 1972),
6 Epidemic Wave, (Lcndon, 1938).
Appendix 5.
250 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Environmental Costs ofIrrigation 251
in the second quarter, reaching maximum infectivity in May, and tee, consisting ofMajor Baker, Surgeon Dempster and Lieutenant
clinically mild, with no appreciable mortality. The second wave, Yule was appointed to assess conditions on the Western Jumna
which began abruptly in August and reached maximum infectivity Canal and estimate the risk of the ‘unhealthiness’ occurring in the
towards the end of September into October, was a regular cause command of the Ganges Canal, now under construction. The
of significant morbidity and mortality. The second form, malig modern epidemiology of malaria begins with this committee. The
nant tertian, consisted of a single seasonal wave, identical in form officers travelled 1400 miles through the canal tract, visiting more
to the ‘benign autumnal’ but of greater virulence. It was endemic than 300 ‘inhabited localities’. Surgeon Dempster physically ex
malaria of ‘autumnal’ incidence which was the ‘truly “Imperial” amined more than 12,000 individuals. He devised the spleen-rate
disease, the chronic relapsing malaria which saps life and energy, as the index of malarial infection, which remained in clinical use
alters mentality and leads to invalidism and poverty’. In 1936 J.A. until the introduction of the parasitaemia index in the late 1 9
0s.
4
Sinton, Director of the Malaria Survey of India, estimated the The committee concluded that the epidemic of ‘fever’ which had
annual prevalence of endemic malaria at no less than 100,000,000 occurred during and after the excessive rains of 1843 had been
with an annual mortality of 2,000,000. Incidence was highest generally more prevalent and severe in canal-irrigated districts,
where atmospheric humidity was highest: in submontane tracts, especially in villages within a half-mile of the canal, comparable
and in waterlogged areas of the plains. This ‘stable’ pattern in the to the waterlogged tracts of the Najafghar jhil near Delhi and the
incidence of malaria could be destabilized by excessive rainfall, a Jumna khadir: that spleen-rates, indicating persistent infection,
major determinant of the incidence of epidemic malaria. Here, were highest in these areas: that similar conditions were found in
too, incidence was inevitably highest in tracts waterlogged natural the central, low-lying, division of the Eastern Jumna Canal.
9
ly, or as a consequence of irrigation. Sinton estimated that an Action was taken. In the l 50s a number of works were
8
outbreak of epidemic malaria added between 250 and 500,000 to sanctioned to relieve the ‘pestiferous swamps’. Some of the more
the annual mortality.
8 tortuous stretches of the Western Jumna Canal were realigned:
Precisely where, when and how the introduction of large-scale the slope of the canal bed was regulated in the central division of
perennial irrigation, by compounding natural disadvantages of the Eastern Jumna Canal: surface drainage cuts were provided for
drainage, increased the risk of malaria, endemic and epidemic, the Najafghar jhil. But the swamps persisted, and so did the
may be demonstrated from the history of regional canal systems. wretchedness. In 1863 Yule revisited the Karnal and Delhi di
visions of the Western Jumna Canal with the Superintendent,
Western Jumna Canal Baird Smith, noting the swamps caused by the percolation ofcanal
water, and the salinity. More preventive measures were recom
By 1846, twenty-five years after its opening, the canal was still mended. ‘Line the canal’, said Baird Smith. The expense was
showing ‘excellent financial results’. But there were at the same beyond government, which sanctioned a more modest scheme for
time persistent reports of ‘unhealthiness’ apparently associated further realignment. But when, five years later, Taylor resurveyed
with the irrigation works at Karnal, not least at the barracks, and the ‘fever-tract’ of the Western Jumna Canal, he found the pre
at various localities in and to the south of that district. A commit- valence as high as in 1846. The distribution of benefits and costs,

JA Sinton, ‘What Malaria Costs India, Nationally, Socially and Eco

8 ‘
W.E. Baker, T.E. Dempster, H. Yule, Report, 1846, reprinted in Records
nomically’, Records ofthe Malaria Survey ofIndia, 5:3, 1935, pp. 226, 263—4. ofthe Malaria Survey ofIndia, 2, 1930, pp. 1—68.
252 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
physical as well as financial, continued unchanged. In 1883 it was
said of the Western Jumna Canal that ‘nowhere has irrigation been
financially more successful; but nowhere are the evils more or less
associated with a faulty system so apparent, and certainly nowhere
are the remedial conditions more complex’. The melancholy cata
logue was reiterated: drainage lines and swamps intersected by the
1 The Environmental Costs ofIrrigation
construction of siphons and aqueducts to carry the canal under
and over the torrents from the Siwaliks solved the problems of the
upper reaches. Here the Ganges Canal enhanced the natural ad
vantages of the Meerut division. But south-east from Aligarh, the
chronicle of poor drainage, waterlogging, salinity and ‘fever’ so
familiar from the Jumna systems, reappeared. By 1866, twelve
253

canals, oversaturation of the soil from seepage and uncontrolled 3 But

years after opening, sixty-six drainage cuts had been made.’
irrigation, ‘undue’ rise of groundwater levels, saline efflorescence, whenever rains were ‘more than moderate’—on average, two in
malariousness.‘10 The same remedies were proposed: realignment, every five years—waterlogging recurred, and with it malarious
surface drainage cuts, which, since water sat in them immobilized fever. Annually, from 1867 to 1870, the Sanitary Commissioner
by the slightness of the gradient, merely aggravated the swamps. reported an ‘unusual prevalence’ of fever: the area affected, the
Lining was again mooted, and even the restriction of irrigation: period of prevalence, and the intensity of attack all very greatly
neither was seriously contemplated, the former for reasons of cost, increased since the introduction of canal-irrigation, ‘this pre
the latter for its impracticality and compromising of revenue. By valence and intensity being fairly measurable by the increased
1891 the Eastern Jumna Canal, 870 miles long, now had 327 moisture of the soil, and consequently the atmosphere. by the . .

miles of drainage cuts in the central division: but the groundwater permanent rise in the spring level . which must be due to
. .

level there was still ‘dangerously high’ and fever as prevalent as canal-irrigation’. The trend persisted. Mortal ity for UP in a ‘good’
ever. The government now admitted that ‘it was doubtful if the year, in which the principal cause, the ‘fever-rate’, was low, ranged
construction of surface drains will ever materially affect the spring from 15 to 22 per mille. In years of excessive rainfall, 1885 for
level’.” From 1890—9 vital statistics were collected annually for example, mortality shot up to 38.9 per mule: the fever-rate was
villages of the four southern divisions of the Western Jumna Canal, 35.5 per mille, the highest incidence recorded in ‘tracts with the
where ‘fever mortality’ was registered as highest in Punjab, the heaviest rainfall and under the immediate influence of canals’.
12 In
province with the highest ‘fever mortality’ in British India. The Irrigation Department pointed in confidence to the 100
1900 the series was discontinued. miles of drainage cuts in the canal command area. The Sanitary
Commissioner pointed out that these were barely sufficient to
Ganges Canal carry off ‘ordinary’ rainfall and in years of extraordinary rainfall
the fever rate in the irrigated districts continued, inevitably, to top
Construction had proceeded with the example of the Jumna the province. 1894 saw an epidemic of malaria, with mortality in
Canals in view. Cautley had been confident that problems of hundreds of thousands. More drainage cuts were dug along the
terrain could be overcome by skilfull engineering. His ingenious Ganges canal: but the annual fever rates showed no change and
in 1908, another epidemic struck the province and the mortality
rate was highest in the submontane and the western-central canal-
10 E.E. Oliver, ‘Report on the Reh, Swamp and Drainage of the Western
irrigated districts. The limitations of surface drainage in such
J uinna Canal Districts’, Professional Papers on Indian Engineering, 3rd series, 1,
1883, pp. 63—87.
India, Public Works Department, Irrigation, Proceedings, July 1897. ‘ India, Public Works Department, Irrigation, Proceedings, April 1867, Ap
12 Punjab, Sanitary Commissioner, Reports, 1890—9, Appendices H, I. pendix, Irrigation: Ganges Canal.
254 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Environmental Costs of Irrigation 255
conditions were now obvious to the canal department. Official 7 The first significant successes were
of waterlogging and salinity.’
attention turned to malaria prevention, the supply of quinine and achieved by exploiting vertical drainage where practicable: in a
the spraying of ponds with kerosene oil, in so far as the budget of handful of projects, including parts of the waterlogged tract of
the Sanitary Commissioner permitted it, a few hundred rupees Mian Mir, the water-table was driven down to safe limits by
per district.’
4 tubewells, and a few thousand acres were reclaimed.
The achievements of reclamation, limited also by natural
Ban Doab Canal conditions and financial constraints, by the viability, technical
and economic, of tubewells, did not change the overall picture
The UP experience was repeated in Punjab, as physical conditions presented by canal irrigation in the Punjab at the close of the
prescribed. In Amritsar district, by 1868, a mere nine years after British period. In 1944 Sir William Stampe could truthfully
the opening of the Ban Doab Canal, waterlogging was persistently describe irrigated Punjab as the granary of India. The latest canals,
reported. By 1901 the Mian Mir subdivision had become a byword of the Ravi-Jhelum tract, operated at an aggregate discharge of
for the ill-effects of irrigation. The malaria epidemic of 1908 24,000 cusecs, commanding between three and four million acres.
ravaged Punjab, again especially the canal-irrigated tracts, notori The annual return on the capital investment ran at 20 per cent.
ously Amritsar district. In 1917 the great colonization scheme of But in the twenty years since the canals first opened, the spring-
the Triple Canal Project—Chenab, Jhelum and Lower Ban Doab level was reported to be steadily rising in many thousands of
5 By 1922 an increasing incidence of en
Canals—was opened.’ square miles, to within seven feet or so of the surface: an estimated
demic malaria was reported in the colonies, ‘a serious menace 50,000 acres were going out of cultivation annually, and on
[which] if it does not altogether nullify the good [such] schemes several hundred thousand acres more, yields were down by some
bring, at least detracts largely from them’. The clinical signs long 75 per cent.’
8
familiar in waterlogged tracts of the older canals were observed in The adverse effects were to some extent offset and disguised
the colonies: chronic malarial cachexia, retarded recovery and by a net annual increase in canal-irrigated area, by a rise in prices
repeated relapses, the adult population poverty-stricken and an sufficient to compensate for reduction in yield, and by a reduction
aemic, few children on account of high infant mortality and iow in the land-revenue demand. Nonetheless, waterlogging and sal
Dirtni rate. 16
1.
inity now accounted for at least 1,000,000 acres of former cul
The Punjab Irrigation Institute was established at Lahore in tivated land made barren by perennial irrigation.
the first decade of the twentieth century with a research division,
the chief function of which was the assessment and rectification
Sukkur (Lloyd) Barrage
NWP and Oudh, Sanitary Commissioner, Reports, 1867—70; 1885; 1894;
4
‘ The physiography of the lower Indus and its deltas in Sind has
J.C. White, ‘Report on the Outbreak of Malarial Fever in UP.. 1908’, UP,
.

been determined by the same forces of semi-arid geomorphology

Sanitary Commissioner, Report, 1909.
‘ C.A. Gill, ‘The Relationship of Canal Irrigation and Malaria’, Records of
operative in the north. Wilhelmy has also reconstructed the time-
the Malaria Survey of India, 1:3, 1929—30, pp. 417—22; S.R. Christophers, 17 B.H. Wilsdon, R. Parthasarathy, ‘A Statistical Examination of the Sen
‘Malaria in the Punjab’, sup., n. 7. sitivity of a Watertable to Rainfall and Irrigation’, Memoirs of the Punjab
16 A. Taylor, E. McKenzie, M.L. Mehta, ‘Some Irrigation Problems in the
Irrigation Research Laboratory, 1:1, 1927, pp. 1—5 1; 1:2, 1928, pp. 1—24.
Punjab’, Records ofthe Malaria Survey of India, 11, 1941, pp. 137—69. 18 Sir WE. Stampe, Planning for Plenty (Delhi, 1944).
256 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
The Environmental Costs ofIrrigation 257
9 Climatic
sequence of westward river shift for the Indus delta.’
parameters are similar to Punjab.—West UP, but with more extreme regional epidemics at intervals, associated primarily with ‘unsea
seasonal variation, lower maximum precipitation and higher max sonably heavy rainfall’.
imum temperatures.-A perennial irrigation system taking off from Covell predicted a rise in the rate of endemic malaria would
a barrage across the lower Indus at Sukkur had been put forward follow the opening of the Sukkur scheme. His prediction was
by the Government ofBombay in the 1 860s, but was rejected on confirmed. Seepage pushed up the spring level adjacent to the
grounds of projected costs outweighing predictable benefits. The main lines and distributaries, and persisted during the winter
provincial government submitted a revised scheme in 1912. After months: swamps and ponds, once dry through the winter, became
much debate the India Office refused its sanction: it saw no need perennial marshes. Old inundation canals, intersected by the new
for a very expensive remedial scheme of perennial irrigation: the canal system, were converted into a new set of riverains. Irrigation
project would not prove productive (remunerative). Sir George intensified in the rice tracts on the right bank of the Indus and,
Lloyd considered the project so desirable, on his own assessment with seepage, the subsoil water rose within a few years from a
of its protective and productive capacity, that he flouted London’s depth of three to twelve feet to the surface: the spring level also
decision, pushed the scheme through the Legislative Council in rose in the former dry-crop areas brought under the new system.
Bombay, and authorized construction to begin in 1923.20 The waterlogging of hundreds of thousands of acres was com
In 1930 five years before the opening of the barrage and the pounded by two years of unusually heavy rainfall following the
first canals, the Irrigation Department set up a research division opening of the scheme. The result was increased atmospheric
on the model of Punjab’s, to investigate groundwater conditions humidity in the second and third quarters, the crucial climatic
in the potential command area. G. Covell and J.D. Baily mean factor promoting increased transmission of malaria. In Sukkur
while surveyed every village, from 1925 to 1935, for the Malaria district, in 1935, Covell and Baily recorded spleen-rates of 80—90
’ From these investigations it emerged that the
Survey of India.
2 per cent as against 15 per cent in 1927—8: hyperendemicity per
potential command area of the Sukkur barrage was characterized sisted in Larkana and Dadu and was now a uniform finding
by great variation in annual rainfall, from less than 1 inch to 25, throughout the Sind dhouro and rice-growing tracts.
even 50 inches in different districts in different years. The in
cidence of malaria varied similarly: hyperendemic in the heavily- Sarda Canal
irrigated rice-growing tracts and riverains: the Sind dhouro, for
example, abandoned in the westward shift of the delta streams, Sarda was the last and the largest of the great British Indian canal
was ‘highly malarious’. Records showed that there had been systems to be constructed. Like the Sukkur barrage, the Sarda
19 H. Wilhelmy, ‘Indusdelta und Rann of Kutch’, Erdkunde, 22:3, 1968,
canal had its origins in a project submitted decades before, in
1871. It had met with violent opposition from the talukdars of
176—91; ‘Verschollence Stadte im Indusdelta’, Geographische Zeitschrifr 56,
1968, pp. 256—94. Oudh, on grounds set out in their petition of 1872:
20 India, Public Works Department, Irrigation, Proceedings, July 1914, 1—9;

July 1916, 21—6; June 1921, 1—2; C.L. Setalvad, Recollections and Reflections, (1) the cultivators’ need for irrigation was already met by wells since
(Bombay, 1946), pp. 333—7. groundwater was accessible;
21 G. Covell, ‘Malaria and Irrigation in India’, Journal ofthe Malaria Institute (2) there was no evidence that drought, or famine and scarcity from
of India, 6, 1946, p. 403; G. Covell, and J.D. Baily, ‘Malaria in Sind, xv’, drought, had ever been a problem in Oudla;
Records ofthe Malaria Survey ofIndia, 6:3, 1936, pp. 327—409. (3) the Sarda canal would cause deterioration in the condition of the
258 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Environmental Costs ofIrrigation 259
soil, as the Jumna and Ganges canals had done, through water- invaluable as an exercise in the historical analysis of the great
logging and salinity, and disease would follow in its train; agrarian problems of the subcontinent, and for the prediction of
(4) the canal would add to the fiscal burden, in water-rent and future risk
increment to land-revenue; t
(5) it would not pay

In 1872, fifteen years after the Mutiny, the opinions of the

talukdars demanded attention. The project, its remunerativeness
shelved. But the Irrigation Commission of
far from assured, was 22
1901—3 retrieved it, and smiled on it. A revised project was
sanctioned in 1924. In 1928 the first section of the Sarda Canal
was opened to the sound of imperial trumpets. The huge tracts
of saline-alkali waste- and semi-wasteland which today surround
the central and lower reaches of the canal have regretably vindi
cated the talukdars in their opposition. Sarda’s malaria history has
yet to be written.

Conclusion
The great lesson of British India’s irrigation history is that it
succeeded, financially and physically, where the natural order
permitted. It failed where nature so dictated—where the technical
and economic resources of government were insufficient to solve
the problems posed by the environment and the interaction of
perennial irrigation with it. Canals did not control the vagaries of
nature, but compounded them. The lesson can be learnt better in
the subcontinent than anywhere else in the world. The gigantic
canal system, still the mainstay of agricultural development, was
a gigantic experiment in the correction of nature, philanthropic
in part but heavily underwritten by the commercial principle. The
prodigious detail of its history, interpreted in the light of modern
science, provides us with the means to reconstruct the patterns of
formation and deformation in climate, rivers, soil, groundwater
and public health, over historical (not geological) time. This is

22 ]VWP, Public Works Department, Irrigation, Proceedings, December 1872,

5—9.
 Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 261
fishing methods which illuminates the ambiguities in the colonial
position on control and conservation of fisheries; and popular
Chapter Nine demands for free access to fisheries in Bengal in the early twentieth
century.
Inland Waters and Freshwater
Fisheries in Pre-Colomal India
Fisheries: Issues of Control, Access Fishing was certainly an occupation of great antiquity in India but
and Conservation in Colonial India* an adequate description of its practices, and the controls upon it
in pre-colonial times, is not readily available. In part this is because
there often seems to be in the literature dealing with fishing in
PETER REEVES earlier times a concern to identify it as an occupation of lesser
people; and in part it is because fisheries are never seen as being
ofthe same importance as agriculture on the one hand, or artisanal
manufactures on the other. So at this time it is possible only to
n the late-eighteenth and through the nineteenth century, the give a fragmentary view of the pre-colonial situation.

J British created a new regime for control over, access to, and
exploitation of, inland waters in India. This new regime was
the result of various activities: decisions about riparian rights
Fishing is referred to in the earliest Indian texts, although it
has been argued that it was the occupation of the pre-Aryan
inhabitants of India, and not an occupation which the Aryans ever
implicit in the development of British systems for the control and followed. Tarak Chandra Das wrote, in 1931, ‘Fish is mentioned
administration of land and the settlement of land revenues; the only once in the Rigveda (X.68,8) where a whole Sukta is devoted
building of irrigation works to support agriculture and other to it. But it does not indicate fish as an article of food among the
engineering works; and a range of new uses to which rivers were Rigvedic Aryas. It refers to the method of catching them with nets
put in relation to growing urban and industrial areas. and that also by peoples probably belonging to a different racial
By its very nature, this new regime affected colonial India’s stock.” From the Vajasaneyi Samhita and the Taittiriya Brahmana
freshwater fisheries. This essay looks at the ways in which these he points to the list of names of those who lived by fishing—’the
changes produced, in turn, a need for new regulatory procedures Kaivarta or Kervarta, Puanjistha, Dasa, Mainala,.. and perhaps .

which had still further effects on those fisheries and the people the Bainda and the Anda, who seem to have been some sort of
who depended on them. It attempts, firstly, to outline the nature 2 He then goes on to cite Macdonell and Keith’s Vedic
fishermen’.
ofpre-colonial fisheries in India. It then examines the way in which Index concerning the descriptions given by Sayana of the different
the grant of riparian rights to zamindars in Bengal affected the fishing methods used by these groups:
control of fisheries and, hence, access to them; the all-India debate ‘While commenting on the Taittiriya Brahmana, Sayana has attempted
in the late-nineteenth century about the need to legislate to control
I Tarak Chandra Das, ‘The cultural significance of fish
*
Research for this paper was supported by an Australian Research Council in Bengal, V’, Man
Small Grant awarded through Curtin University of Technology for 1991 and in India, XI (1931), p. 294.
2 Ibid.,
1992. p. 295.

L
262 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
r In/and Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 263
to explain the different modes of catching fish, prevalent in those days, If we can, in this way, point to the existence of fisheries and
from the various terms indicating ‘fisherman’ but the authors of the fishing peoples over a long period in India, we can also point to
‘Vedic Index’ do not regard these explanations as of much authority. evidence of the recognition of rights to fisheries and of fishing as
Thus, ‘Sayana says that Dhaivara is one who takes fish by netting a tank an occupation by local political powers up to the colonial period.
on either side, Dasa and Sauskala do so by means of a fish-hook (badisa), Pre-colonial sales of mirasi rights in south India specifically men
Baind, Kaivarta and Mainala by means of a net (jala), Margara catches tion the waters that are transferred to the purchaser.
6 Certainly,
fish in the water with his hands, Anda by putting pegs at a ford (ap the early Madras administrators freely interpreted the reference to
parently by building a sort of dam), Parnaka by putting a poisoned leaf
‘waters’ as referring to ‘fisheries’. F.W. Ellis lists ‘fisheries’ as one
on the water.’
3
of the ‘eight incidents of ownership contained in the Sanscrit text’
No reason is given for Macdonell and Keith spurning this list, on which he relied for his answer to the question ‘Is Merassy right
which certainly seems to include many of the methods that are ever sold?’.
7 And Sir Thomas Munro refers to the same list in his
used by Indian fishers. If spearing, and shooting with an arrow, discussion ofEllis’ views in his Minute ‘On the state of the country
were added—and Sunder Lal Hora finds these described, along and the condition of the people’ in 1824.8
with angling, in the Ramayana—it suggests that the classical texts Fishermen, along with other non-agriculturists, appear every
provide evidence of a well-developed fishing ‘sector’ from an early where to have been subject to the ‘tax on trades and professions’
•1
perioa onwaras. known as muhtarzfa (usually rendered into English as mohturfa or
There were, however, as Sunder Lal Hora indicates in another a variant along those lines) which was an item in the sayar income
article, Hindu concerns about fish—or certain classes of fish—as of land controllers.
9 The note in H.H. Wilson’s Glossary provides
food: an overview:
It can be safely concluded that during the period 600 BC to 200 AD,
fish was generally considered a valuable article of food among the we find elaborate rules about fish-eating. Almost all the writers on Dharmasutras
and Smritis first prohibit fish-eating in general terms and then introduce certain
Hindus, though certain species or kinds offish, for one reason or another,
were forbidden to be eaten. Among those regarded [as] suitable for exceptions to this rule and thereby allow consumption of certain kinds of fish.’:
The Smritis Man in India, XI (1931), p. 114.
eating, there was a regular gradation in quality or value . . .

use of fish as food which A. Sarada Raju, Economic Conditions in the Madras Presidency, 1800—1850
6
contain contradictory statements about the (Madras, 1941), p. 32, and the specimen deed of sale given in full in App. 11,
shows the working of the social, religious and political influences by
5
afterwards. p. 298. See also Francis W. Ellis, Papers. Relative to Mirasi Right (1818),
which taking of any kind of animal flesh became a taboo
. .

p. 47. Kathleen Gough’s description from Tanjore in the early 1 950s perhaps
illustrates what would have been the case then: ‘Adi-Dravidas’, she recorded,
Ibid., p. 295. fished in the irrigation channels for ‘minnows and small crabs . .The larger
.

‘
Sunder La! Hora, ‘Fish in the Ramayana’, Journal of the Asiatic Society of fish in the village bathing pools belonged to resident village landlords and were
Bengal. Letters, XVIII, 2 (1952), pp. 66—7, 68—9. sold by them once a year to local or migrant fishermen.’: RuralSociety in Southeast
Sunder Lal Hora, ‘Knowledge of the Ancient Hindus concerning fish’, India (Cambridge, 1981), p. 13.
Journal ofthe Asiatic Society ofBengal. Letters, XIX, 2 (1953), p. 75. Das, in the Ellis, Mirasi Righ% pp. Ixxxiii—lxxxjv, and p. 46 for the question.
fourth of his articles on ‘The cultural significance of fish in Bengal’ makes a Sir Thomas Munro, Selectionsfrom his Minutes and Other Official Writings,
8
slightly different point: ‘From the Rig Vedic time up to the Grihya Sutra period Sir A.J. Arbuthnot (ed.) (Madras, 2nd ed., 1886), p. 234.
we do meet with several references to fishing and fishermen but it is never F. Steingass, A Comprehensive Persian-English Dictionary (London, 1892),
mentioned as an article of food. But as soon as we reach the Dharmasutra period p. 1183, ‘muhtarifa’; H. Yule and A.C. Burnell, Hobson-Jobson new ed. by
264 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 265
A tax or taxes levied on trades and professions, on the artificers of a was distributed among the members of the caste according to their
village or their implements, as upon the weaver’s loom, upon tradesmen ability to contribute to the collective obligation’.’
2 ‘Whether this
and their shops and stalls, and sometimes upon houses: in some places held equally true for muhtarifa throughout India and for all of
under the Madras Presidency, it is properly a poll-tax upon artificers,
the trades and occupations covered by it remains to be seen.’
3
the taxes upon shops being termed Pandari and those on the profits of
trade Visabad but the term is used in a general way to designate the There is, however, no doubt that muhtarifa was exacted from
several personal taxes above mentioned: the designation is in a great fishermen. S.M. Edwardes, in discussing Maratha taxation, makes
measure peculiar to the provinces of the presidencies of Madras and the point that the Marathas charged muhtarifa on boats, which
Bombay, the taxes of a similar nature formerly levied in Bengal being may be a synonym for fishermen, as well as ‘palanquins, shops,
included in the general denomination of sair. oil mills and potters’ wheels’.’
4 A. Sarada Raju points out that in
the Madras Presidency, it was charged across the entire spectrum
Baden Powell makes the point that in Bengal it was understood
of ‘trades and professions’; ‘Even the meanest and poorest—fisher
as ‘a house tax, or kind of ground rent levied by the landlord, or
men, potters, dhobis, etc.—were not exempt’.’
5 These, together
a landlord community, on the non-agricultural residents in the with Baden Powell’s point about the Bengal levying of ‘parjot’ (as
village’ and was known as ‘parjot’ ‘(or in Persian “muhtarfa”)’.’° :i well as the existence within the sayar income of Bengali zamindars
Munro thought of it as a ‘tax upon income’; although he then
of income for ‘the use of the produce of water’—called jalkar—
adds, ‘In the case of labourers and other poorer oriers of the
which we will discuss in the next section) indicates that throughout
inhabitants, where it does not exceed one or two rupees, it may
pre-colonial India fishermen were subject to taxes on their occupa
be called a house rent
.
. .

tion through a variety of assessments.

Ravinder Kumar, in his study of Maharashtra in the nine
This can be illustrated briefly by reference to Bombay material
teenth century, gives an important role to muhtarifa in the social
both from the period prior to the assumption of colonial control
consciousness of the Maharashtrian community. ‘The popularity
of the ‘Continental’ territories and from shortly afterwards. The
of social values which favoured equality at the cost of progress’, existence of fishing activity itself in both the Bombay territories
he argues, ‘is best reflected in the mohturfa tax, which was levied
of the East India Company and the Maratha territories on the
on the artisan and commercial castes.’ This was because mohturfa
mainland shortly before annexation is highlighted in the following
was levied not on individuals but on caste groups; the head of the passages from the Bombay Revenue Consultations for 1810—11:
caste was told of the demand on his group and the group then
distributed this demand among the caste. This, he argues, could [1810] Letter from Judge-Magistrate and Acting Collector [of Salsette]
have led to the demand being imposed by the stronger members
Rayjnder Kumar, Western India in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1968),
12
on the weaker; ‘but in fact this never happened and the mohturfa
pp. 36—7.
For some preliminary work on this area see my paper ‘The Koli and the
W. Crooke (London, 1903, rep. 1969), P. 591, ‘moturpha’; H.H. Wilson, A British at Bombay: the structure of their relationship until the mid-nineteenth
Glossary ofJudicial and Revenue Terms, enlarged ed. by A.C. Ganguli and N.D. century’, paper read at the 9th Biennial Conference of the Asian Studies As
Basu (Calcutta, 1940), p. 556, ‘muhtarafa’. sociation of Australia, Armidale, 6—9 July 1992.
10 B.H. Baden Powell, The Land Systems of British India, 3 vols (Oxford,
S.M. Edwardes, ‘Maratha Administration’, ch. xxiii in H.H. Dodwell (ed.),
4
‘
1892), vol. I, p. 516. The Cambridge History ofindia, vol. V, British India 1 497—1858 (Delhi, reprint,
11 Munro, ‘The importance of a tax on incomes in the form of a house tax’,
1963), p. 397.
15 August 1807, Sekction p. 103. 15 Sarada Raju, Economic Conditions,
p. 5.

A I
266 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 267

reporting on a petition from Sundry Coolies [Kolis, the fishing caste of that all fishermen between the ages of 16 and 60 who lived within
the area] of Chindney desiring that the Mahrattas might be prevented 2 coss of the sea coast should be subject to a p0
11 of no more than
from molesting them while fishing in the Salsette River. To instruct the Rs 2 per head; that fishermen beyond 2 coss should pay a poll tax
Engineer Officer at Tannah [Thana] to make a chart of the river and of Re 1 per head; ‘that the Bhoees and other fishermen (many of
point out therein the limits of the [fishing] stakes. The Judge-Magistrate them cultivators ofthe soil, who never go to fish at sea, but confine
and Collector of Salsette to report whether the16 Chindney Coolies have themselves to fishing up the creeks and rivers) should, between
made any encroachments beyond their limits. the above ages, be subject to a poll tax of half a Rupee per head’.
18

[1811] From Salsette Judge-Magistrate, reporting the result of his en

quiry into the rights of the Salsette Coolies to fish near the Mahratta Change in the Nature of Jalkar: ‘Private Fisheries’ in Bengal
shore which is complained of by the Subedar of Bellapoor and Trans
mitting a chart of the river . .Secretary of Coolie Correspondence
.
In the colonial situation there were changes to the way in which
Office to intimate to the Soubhedar [sic] the impropriety of his prevent control over access to water was treated and to the position of
ing the Salsette Coolies from fishing near the Salsette Coast. To Subedar customary dues within the colonial financial structure. We can
of Belapoor [sic] relative to the obstruction while fishing which the see this illustrated in the case of colonial Bengal where British
Chindney Coolies have met with from the Mahrattas [sic]. Translation decisions on the rights to muhtarifa and jalkar produced a very
of a letter from the Subedar of Bellapore isic] asserting the right of the new situation with regard to freshwater fisheries in that Presidency.
Coolies on the continent to prevent those of Chindney from fishing As part of the arrangements under the Permanent Settlement
near their coast. From the Resident [15 April 1811] reporting he had
of 1793 in Bengal, the government—by Regulation XXVII of
applied to the Poona Government for an order on the Subedar of
Bellapore prohibiting him from molesting the Tannah Coolies. Advising
19
793
— gave ’ rights over the fisheries bounded by their ‘estate’
that the right of the Chindney Coolies to fish in the Tannah river is of (mahal) to the zamindars as part of their sayar income. Baden
too long standing to be termed an innovation. From the Resident [11 Powell explained the procedure adopted:
May 1811] transmitting answer to Subedar not to molest the Fishing As to the sayer [sic] dues, those which were in the nature of separate
Coolies belonging to the Company’s Government. Letter to be sent to taxes—excise and the like—the Government took into its own hands,
the Subedar by the Judge-Magistrate 17 Salsette.
severing them entirely from the land revenue account. Others, which
Later, in the 1 830s, in the process of simplifiing the very diverse were oppressive, as transit dues, taxes on pilgrims and the like, it gradual
situation with regard to taxes on fishermen that they found within ly abolished. Such dues of this class as represented payment for the use
of produce of land or water, the Government handed over to the
the continental territories which they gained after 1817, the Com
landowners to augment their legitimate 2
profits.
°
pany’s servants had to review the situation in various parts of the
greatly expanded Presidency. Arthur Elphinston’s recommenda
tions provide a nat summary for Ratnagiri. He recommended 18 OIOC, P/373/13, Bombay Rev. Cons., 19 March 1840, 1755, A. El

phinston, Collector Rutnageerie to J. Vibart, Revenue Commissioner, Poona,

23 November 1839, para 4.
16British Library, Oriental and India Office Collections [OJOC], Z/P/3444, 19 Bengal, An Abstract of the Regulations Enacted for the Assessment and
Bombay Revenue Consultations, Index for 1810, 1719—21. The stakes referred Realization ofthe Land Revenues in Bengal, Bihar and Orissa for the Years 1793
to are the stakes driven into the bed of the sea or river to which the nets are to 1824, inclusive (4 vols, Calcutta, 1826), vol. III, p. oc.
attached. 20 Baden-Powell, Land Systems, vol. I, p. 421; see also pp. 422, 516.
17 OIOC, Z/P13445, Bombay Rev. Cons., Index for 1811, 100, 103,753—5.

4
268 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 269
21 so
Among the dues ‘abolished’ in these moves was muhtarifa, although these appear to have remained unused until Francis Day
that fishermen were in a different situation from the outset of the used them as the basis for his ‘The Fish and Fisheries of Bengal’
Permanent Settlement. What was more, jalkar was given a quite in volume XX of Hunter’s Statistical Account ofBengal in 1877.
new meaning and power: ‘Such dues. as represented payment
. .
Writing of Dinajpur, Buchanan-Hamilton outlined the system in
for the use of produce of. water’ was, of course, jalkar. It is in
. .
general. ‘Wherever the fishery’ employed ‘regular fishermen’, he
structive, however, to see that nineteenth-century glossaries came wrote, ‘the landlord exacts a revenue’. However, he went on,
to define jalkar as ‘profits or rents derived from a fishery’ rather
22 This can be seen in Colebrook In this District the property in the fisheries (Jalkar) has in many places
than merely as ‘produce ofwater’.
been separated from that of the adjacent land, which seems to me to be
and Lambert’s comment on jalkar as early as 1804: ‘The rent of a great ioss, as it is the proprietor of the neighbouring land alone that
piscaries is obtained by occasionally drawing the fishery on the can take care either of the fish or fishermen. Even the fish in ponds
landholder’s account, after which any person may fish as a gleaner;
. .

do not always belong to the proprietor of the banks, who, of course,

or fishermen are licensed for fixed sums, or for a proportion of will never care to stock them, and who is the only person that can prevent
the produce, regulated by rates or by express agreements. In general poaching, so that probably not one-fourth of the fish is produced for
piscaries, as well as pastures and grasslands, are let in farm.’
23 use that might be by proper care. The same may be said of Bjls or
More detailed accounts were contained in Buchanan-H amil watercourses.
ton’s reports which he compiled between 1807 and 1813 when
The duties that are levied on the fishermen are in general moderate
he was engaged to make ‘a minute investigation into the history enough, and do not amount to a considerable sum. The largest
past and present, as well as the natural resources in all its branches, proprietor of whom I heard (Balaram Joti) receives oniy 2000 rupees a
of the various Districts then under the Government of Bengal’,24 year, and I believe that part of this arises from some duties he levies on
ferries. The proprietors generally let their fisheries from year to year,
21 Dharma Kumar, ‘Agrarian relations: South India’, in D. Kumar (ed.), The and the farmers (Ijaradars) sometimes employ fishermen to catch the
Cambridge Economic History of India, vol. II, c. 1757—c. 1970 (Cambridge, fish, either for wages or for a share; and sometimes levy so much money
1982), p. 369. for each man or boat employed. Thus a watercourse (Bil) in the Maldah
22 Government of India, Department of Revenue, Agriculture and Com
District pays to the proprietor 130 rupees a year. The farmer employs
merce, A Glossary of VcrnacularJudicialand Revenue Terms or Other Usefri Words fourteen men to fish with the Byana [a screen used to surround the fish
Occurring in Official Documents Relating to the Administration ofBritish India so that the fishermen could take them by hand], and these give him
(Calcutta, 1874); it does add, for Bengal: ‘Tanks, wells, and rivers in a village: one-half of the fish. They fish for nine months of the year, and each
Water rights, meaning fishing rights’. This Glossary gives similar definitions for can make about four rupees a month, out of which, however, they have
the North-Western Provinces, Central Provinces and Punjab. See also Wilson, to deduct all expenses; but these are inconsiderable, as they require no
Glossary ofJudicial and Revenue Terms, p. 354: ‘Profits or rents derived from
boat, and make the whole apparatus. The farmer therefore receives about
the water, lakes, ponds, or the like, upon a tract of country or an esrate, with
500 rupees, out of which is only to be deducted the rent, and the charge
the right of fishing, and of cultivating the bed if dry; also used laxly for a fishery
ofwatching to prevent imposition. Small traders come and purchase the
or right of fishing’.
FHT Colebrook and A. Lambert, Remarks on the Husbandry and Internal
fish, which they retail at different markets.
2
3
Commerce ofBengal (Calcutta, 1804), p. 69. These fishermen, when they fish with the trap (Onta), pay two rupees
24W.W. Hunter, A StatisticalAccountofBengah vol. XX, Fisheries and Botany a head for the season of three months. Their profit is then still greater,
of Bengal by Surgeon-Majors Day, Buchanan-Hamilton, King, and Mr Kurz
(London, 1877; rep. Delhi, 1976); Francis Day, ‘Introductoxy note’ to ‘The and fisheries of Bengal’, p. 1.
270 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 27J
and they have a remarkably good market in the manufacturing towns. descriptions that these were different in nature to jalkar within
Those who fish on the Mahananda pay twelve anas [sic] a head yearly zamindarj but, he suggested in a number of places, these ‘great
for the dry season, and the same sum, with four rupees for each boat fisheries’ were also often falling into a similar leased mode of
that is wrought by five men, if they are employed in the lush [Hilsa] operation. The ‘greatest fishing’ in the Ganges in Purniah district,
fishery. In this case, the more wealthy men furnish the boats and nets, he noted, ‘belongs to a lady, who resides at Rajmahal in Bhagalpur
and take one half of the fish, while each man pays his share of the duty. and many fishermen in this District are in her employ’ although
The profits of those who fish with nets and boats, is more considerable
25 in his report on Bhagalpur he notes that this Rajmahal fishery had
than those who use the screen and the traps. now been purchased—at an auction for arrears—by the Govern
The rental nature of jalkar to the zamindars was so important by ment and ‘farmed’ to a Muslim for Rs 1,001 per 28 annum.
the time he was writing, in fact, that Buchanan-Hamilton ex The other ‘great fishery’ Buchanan-Hamiton reports from
pressed frustration on occasions at the difficulty of getting accurate Bhagalpur was that of ‘Dihi-Mirzapur’ which ‘includes what is
information. ‘There seems to be an uncommon alarm on the called the Gangapanth, or the fishery on the Ganges and all its
subject of the fisheries’, he reported from Bhagalpur, ‘so that I creeks and branches’. Some five hundred families he reported,
could procure no satisfactory account either of the number of the paid ‘from a-half to three rupees a-year’ for rights to work this
men employed, of the nature of the tenures, of the means used, fishery.
or even of the kinds caught.. The aversion shown by the owners These people have the exclusive privilege of using the fishery of the
and managers of the fisheries proceeds, I suspect, either from Gangapanth, wherever the stream runs, but this is chiefly used in the
26 Notwithstanding
deficiencies of title or consciousness of fraud’. rainy season, and in the dry, the fish are mostly caught in the branches
these difficulties, he detailed many of these same features in de and creeks (Kol or Damas), that are stagnant, and the privileged fisher
scriptions of fisheries in Purniah (Purnea), Bhagalpur, Patna and men, if they fish there, must give one half of all they take to the renter
Shahabad districts. In all of these cases, moreover, he took pains of the fishery, and he may employ as many other people as he pleases.
to spell out, as he did in the case of Dinajpur, the change that was The 500 privileged families have 400 boats, and cannot well contain
taking place. ‘The property in the fisheries, Jalkar, has in many less than 1000 able-bodied men. The rent, a cording to some, is Rs 900;
places been separated from that of the adjacent land’, he reported; according to others, Rs 1100, and for the expcnt of collection (Saran
that is, jalkar was increasingly being separated from zamindari. It jami) the renter is allowed a deduction of Rs 125.2)
was thus becoming a financialri ght, the real profits (from produc ‘Similar customs’, he continued, existed in other fisheries. How
tion) of which went to a lessee and not a zamindar, and as a result, ever, he had to conclude, ‘as these fisheries are here also in general
access was granted only to those who paid for the 27 privilege. farmed, there is no knowing their real value, even if we had access
There was an important additional element on which Bucha to see the books of the estate, for the renter either pays a present
nan-Hamilton reported in these later sections: this was the exist (Salami) for his lease, or receives it at a trifle as a reward for his
ence of ‘great’ or ‘exclusive’ fisheries in particular hands on import services.‘30
ant stretches of the major rivers. There was an implication in his On the basis of Buchanan-Hamilton’s material, then, it is

28 Ibid., pp. 55, 70.

25 StatisticalAccoun4 pp. 25—7.
29 Ibid., p. 71.
26 Ibid., p. 69.
30 Ibid., p. 71.
27 Ibid., pp. 55, 69—71, 84, 93.
272 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 273

possible to conclude that in the first twenty years of the Permanent of the majority of the Bengal fisheries, or the pattern of leases that
Settlement, jalkar rights were recognized as part of zamindari; but had developed in these fisheries.
they were also recognized as being, in general, leased out by the This is borne out in correspondence between the Revenue
zamindar. Moreover, other river fisheries were leased in the same Department and the Board of Revenue in Bengal in 1859. The
way. Board of Revenue, in answering in the affirmative a request from
Did later modifications to the Permanent Settlement arran the Lieutenant-Governor for support for the government to levy
gements make any further difference to the position of jalkar? ‘a Tax on the Fisheries of navigable rivers, such as the Hooghly
Starting about twenty-five years after the decisions of 1793, Bengal and Ganges’, was quite clear as to the position regarding the river
governments sought to gain a share of the growing revenues of fisheries. The Board maintained that while there were ‘some par
Bengal—i.e. to circumvent the restrictions placed on their finances ticular instances’ of fishery rights on large navigable rivers being
by the’ Permanent Settlement—by looking to ‘resume’ lands ‘con given, these were exceptions:
cealed’ by the zamindars in the earlier settlement operations or the general rule is the non-existence of any declared or acknowledged
new lands created by alluvial action (which would necessarily raise rights on the part of Zemindars to levy a cess from the Julkur of such
questions of water rights and fisheries) on which it hoped to be Rivers. The Zemindars and others have in some way or other usurped
. .

’ Regulation II of 1819
able to enact a ‘sub-ryotwari settlement’.
3 the rents of many of the fisheries in the large navigable Rivers which
and Regulation III of 1828 made provision for these resumptions run by the borders or through their Estates, but the Board do not
32 Some
and the assessment of land revenues on land so acquired. consider that they can show any good title, and they see no reason why
fisheries do appear to have been acquired by government in these the State should not avail itself of these resources. Doubtless the Zemin
resumptions of alluvial lands which secured rights in the waters dars will plead prescriptive rights which in many instances they will try
33 Overall, however, these resumption
bounded by those lands. to support by documentary and other evidence; but very few of the large
procedures do not appear to have modified zamindari ownership navigable Rivers are likely to have come within the pale of the Decennial
Settlement. This, however, is a point which can be ascertained only by
31 C. Palit, Tensions in BengaiRural Society: Landlordc, Planters and Colonial regular investigation under Regulation II of 1819. Though the plea of
Rule, 1830—1860 (Calcutta, 1975), P. 28. prescription, even if made good, may confer the right of engaging for
32 F.G. Wigley (ed.), The Bengal Code, In Four Volumes (Calcutta, 4th ed., the Revenue from Julkur Mehals, it cannot give the Zemindars the right
1913), vol. I, pp. 171—84. (Hereafter Bengal Code). to hold them rent-free as they have hitherto generally done.
33 Mahbub Ullah describes the contemporary Bangladesh situation entirely
in terms of these ‘resumed mahals’; see his ‘Fishing rights, production relations, There were, the Board further reported, ‘very valuable fisheries’
and profitability: a case study of Jamuna fishermen in Bangladesh’ in in the Sundarbans, but the ‘Grantees’ of these fisheries ‘have no
T. Panayotou (ed.), Small-Scale Fisheries in Asia: SocioeconomicAnalysis andPolicy rights of fishing beyond the limits of their grants’.
34
(Ottawa, 1985), p. 212. It is worth noting, however, that Mahbub Ullah refers With respect to fisheries in other inland waters there was no
to the resumptions being on the basis of the principles in Government Order doubt in the Board’s mind as to the position of the zamindars.
341 of 12 September 1859 which, I think, indicates that the resumptions to ‘As a general rule’, the Board maintained, ‘the fishery rights in
which he refers came from the actions foreshadowed in the correspondence Beels and Jheels are vested in the Zemindars, except in regard to
between the Lieutenant-Governor and the Board in 1859 outlined below. The
early twentieth-century official report by Kiran Chandra De, ICS, reported that OIOC, P166/23, Bengal Revenue Proceedings, A 15 September 1859, 18:
fisheries ‘acquired by Government’ were settled temporarily: Report on the E.T. Trevor, Sec. Board of Revenue, Lower Provinces to Sec., Govt of Bengal,
Fisheries of Eastern Bengal andAssam (Shillong, 1910), p. 10, para 43. 344, 2 August 1859, paras 2—5.

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274 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 275
very extensive low land not situated within single Estates, but 1 870s and 1 880s, therefore, the effectiveness of the litigation
surrounded by several Estates, such as the Beels in Backergunge, which Field noted as ‘invariably’ following transgressions ofjalkar
Pubna and Rajshahye, the Government title to which can only be rights, had run into difficulties which were highlighted by the
established by suit- under Regulation II of 1819’. This view, widely-discussed ‘Meherpore Case’ in 1888. Given an opportunity
moreover, was endorsed by the Lieutenant-Governor. He asked by the Government of India to discuss the desirability of fishery
the Board, with regard to the navigable rivers, ‘to carry out the legislation in India, the Government of Bengal decided to act
39 to
measure by dividing the Fisheries into convenient sections or protect jalkar rights because it was concerned that the zamindars
blocks and inviting farming tenders for them’.36 But he underlined were alarmed at what they conceived to bc the undermining by
the fact that jalkar rights in zamindari estates were to be scru the courts of their rights and, hence, their financial position.
40
pulously guaranteed; ‘The Board will . be careful to see that
.
The problem came to the government in a memorial from the
the arrangements to be made do not affect any questions as to the zamindars’ British Indian Association. It arose from the popular
rights of Jhulkur in any other waters’.
37 conception that fish in the waters over which amindars exercised
The position of jalkar as assets at the disposal of the zamindars, their jalkar rights belongedto the zamindars, so that anyone taking
remained clear enough, therefore, the point at which the British
at those fish without permission was guilty of theft. This, it was now
Crown assumed the government of India. The new regime, more clear, was not in accordance with the Common Law view of
over, clearly intended that such a position should be maintained. property in fish which the Bengal courts followed in cases dealing
In 1883, C.D. Field, in his authoritative text on landlord-tenant with unauthorized fishing in jalkar waters.
relations in Bengal, spoke ofjalkar rights in the same terms as the The Chief Secretary of the Bengal Government, raised this as
Board and the Lieutenant-Governor in 1859: the key fisheries issue in the Presidency when he wrote to the
Government of India. He based his presentation on a memoran
Fisheries are private property, and are strictly preserved, the slightest
invasion of a julkar [sic] or right of fishery, being invariably followed dum prepared in the Judicial Department of the Bengal Govern
by a civil or criminal suit. . The Julkar or right of fishery in all large
. .
ment, ‘Notes on the Criminal Law in India affecting Julkurs’.
natural waters is regarded as a valuable property, and is usually let by Jalkar incomes, he asserted, were part of the complete assets of
the zemindar at an annual rent, which is sometimes 38 considerable. zamindari which meant, therefore, that they were connected with
the land revenue of the Presidency and hence with government
By the time Field was writing, however, important contradic
tions between the property rights created in fisheries and the legal
39
concepts of British-Indian law with regard to rights to water and OIOC, P/3449, India (Revenue and Agriculture Proceedings—Fisheries),
A January 1889, 1—9, ‘Mr Thomas’ Draft Fisheries Bill’. The Bengal material
property rights in fish were beginning to appear. Through the is no. 6: J. Ware Edgar, Ch. Sec., Bengal to Sec., Rev, and Agric., Govt of India,
8 September 1888, 4016J. The Meherpore Case of 6 June 1887 is outlined in
Ibid. Beeby’s ‘Note on the Criminal Law in India Affecting Julkars’ which is an
36 OJOC, P/66/23, Bengal Revenue Proceedings, A 15 September 1859, 19: enclosure to Edgar’s letter; the case was reported in I.L.R. 15 Cal 390.
E.H. Lushington, Offg. Sec., Govt of Bengal to Sec., Board of Revenue Lower 40 Ch. Sec., Bengal to Govt of India, 8 September 1888, para 1; this indicates
Provinces, 341, 12 September 1859, para 2. that Edgar is forwarding a memorial from the British Indian Association of
Ibid., para 3. Calcutta—the zamindars’ association—’on the subject of the existing state of
38 C.D. Field, Landholding in the Relations ofLandlord and Tenant in Various
the law relating to private fisheries’ signed, he indicated, ‘by many influential
Countries (Calcutta, 1883), pp. 54n, 707n. people’.

L
276 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 277
finances. In this way, he implied, the issue could not be construed of the Officers ofthe Government, and many of the Subordinate Courts,
as one of narrow sectional interest. ‘Ever since we came into have always believed the law to be different, and that it was a criminal
possession of the country, the exclusive rights of fishing in internal offence punishable as theft to catch fish in private waters without the
waters, technically known as julkar, has been the subject of revenue consent of the owner, or in those held in julkar lease without the consent
assessment which, in the permanent settlement of Bengal, is gen of the lessees. There can be little doubt, therefore, that the value ofjulkar
erally lumped together with other assets from the land, and not property will be seriously impaired, if not altogether destroyed, when
41 It was true, he admitted,
separately entered in the revenue roll’. the real state of the law becomes generally known, and when the mass
of the people realise that violation of julkar rights is not a criminal
that there were no records kept which made it possible to give
offence; for the people likely to commit such violations belong to the
‘even an approximate figure ofthe revenue derived by Government poorest classes, and it would be a mere waste of money to send them
from the assessment of fisheries’; but, he indicated, the Board of to the Civil Court. The result is that proprietors and lessees of julkars
Revenue believed that ‘the zemindari rental’ from jalkar was very have practically no remedy when their rights are attacked.
much more than (‘must largely exceed’) three lakhs of 42 rupees.
Against this background the Chief Secretary outlined the The zemindars are clearly entitled on equitable grounds to ask that
problem faced by the zamindars and—significantly, because he Government should provide adequate protection for property, from
which it derives a considerable revenue, and the special character of
makes such a point of mentioning them—the lessees of jalkar which has been recognised throughout the entire period of our rule in
rights. The problem derived from the legal definition of property India. The argument from expediency is equally strong. There can be
in fish. The law, on which the Bengal courts depended, took the no doubt that, when the state of the law gets generally known, there
following view of this matter: ‘The fact of fish being in a public will be constant attempts made everywhere to fish in private fisheries
river does not make the fish the property of the person who has without the consent of the owners. The landholding classes, if they find
the fishing right in such river, and nobody can be said to be in that the law does not afford them adequate protection in such cases,
possession of them, as they are ferae naturae. The right of fishing will take other means to protect rights to which they attach great value,
is not property of such a nature that a man who infringes it can and there will certainly be many cases in which violence will be used on
be said to commit criminal 43trespass.’ one or both sides if the law is left as at present.
Even fish in an enclosed tank which overflowed in times of In addition, he argued, there were conservation arguments to be
flood were held to be ferae naturae; ‘Wild fish in a bhil are not addressed: ‘unless these rights are protected, there will be a serious
the property of any person till caught, nor are fish in a creek or diminution in the fish supply owing to the wanton destruction
in an open tank made for purposes of irrigation’. The oie situation and waste of fish which will result. the promiscuous killing of
in which taking fish was theft was when they were in ‘an enclosed
. .

fish by a crowd of persons is much to be deprecated’, for while

tank. restrained of their natural liberty’ and ‘liable to be taken
. .
the benefit of the poorer classes could only be temporary, it would
at any time by the owner of the tank’. certainly be purchasë’d at the cost ofa diminution of the fish supply
‘The courts’, he went on, ‘had held this view consistently’, in the future.
but it must be acknowledged that the public generally, including most Similar problems in English fisheries, he continued, had re
cently been addressed by special legislation.
41 Ibid., para 2.
The Lieutenant Governor understands the law in England to be that
42 Ibid., para 2.
‘
Ibid., paras 3—5. This is also the source of the following two paragraphs.
every person poaching in an enclosed fishery can be summoned for an

i
278 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 279
of
offence, and is liable to a fine of 5 pounds over and above the value which may be simple or rigorous for a term not exceeding six months,
the fish taken. A fish poacher caughtflagranti delicto may be apprehended or with a fine not exceeding two hundred rupees, or both.
another
by anybody unless he escapes to the highway or the lands of Under clause 5, even to enter on to ‘land in possession of another
before arrest. In other cases he must be summoned. So, too, an angler
must be summoned. or upon private waters’ with the ‘intent’ of committing any of the
fishing in the daytime cannot be arrested, but offences in clause 3 warranted a fine of Rs 50.
Under the Larceny Act (24 & 25 Vict. cap 96, sec 25) the proprietor
his This legislation to resolve the perceived problems in ‘private
of the fishery may demand from the poacher, and, if refused, seize
fisheries’ in Bengal emerged from a wider consideration of prob
nets, implements and tackle.
lems that were seen to have arisen within artisanal fisheries in
These English moves, the Chief Secretary noted, led the Lieuten colonial India by the later nineteenth century; and it is to that
ant—Governor to recommend that similar legislation was needed debate and its outcome that we now turn.
for Bengal.
much,
Sir Steuart Bayley does not think the remedies provided need go Control and Conservation: ‘The Fisherman’s Problem’ in
except that the
if at all, beyond those provided in the English laws, Colonial India
offender
injured parry should have the aid of the police in bringing the
within
to justice. The fisheries to be protected should be all those existing Arthur McEvoy defines ‘the fisherman’s problem’ in his masterly
are private property, and all those for
the boundaries of lands which study of the California fisheries between 1850 and 1980:
which revenue is paid directly to the State.
A self-preserving fishing industry would respect the biological limits of
The Government of India—which, as we will see in the next its resource’s productivity, limiting its seasonal take to some safe mini
itself
section, procrastinated for another eight years before it found mum so as to guarantee future harvests. Fishing industries, however, do
able to legislate for the protection of Indian fisheries—agreed, not generally manage their affairs in such a rational way. This is primarily
without hesitation, to this request for criminal legislation. The because fishery stocks are ‘common property’ resources; that is, although
Protection many different individuals or firms may compete with each other for
result was Bengal Act II of 1889—The Private Fisheries
pro fish, no one of them owns the resource so as to keep others away from
Act, 1889—which received assent on 26 June 1889. This it. As a result, everyone has an incentive to keep fishing so long as there
vided, in clause 3: is any money to be made in the effort, whereas no one has an individual
right to
Any person who (a) fishes in any private waters, not having a incentive to refrain from fishing so as to conserve the stock. Every
fish therein, (b) erects, places, maintains or uses any fixed engine in pri harvester knows that if he or she leaves a fish in the water someone else
put, therein any matter
vate waters, or puts, or knowingly permits to be will get it, and the profit, instead. This is what economists call ‘the
for the purpose of catching or destroying fish without the permission fisherman’s problem’: In a competitive economy, no market mechanism
guilty
of the person to whom the right of the fishing belongs; shall be ordinarily exists to reward individual forbearance in the use of shared
not
of an offence and shall be punished for a first offence with a fine resources. 46
exceeding fifty rupees; and for a subsequent offence with imprisonment
It was just such a situation that Major Surgeon Francis Day
described in his Report on the Freshwater Fish and Fisheries oflndia
4’ OIOC,P13449 India, Revenue and Agriculture Proceedings—Fisheties
Sec.,
A January 1889, no. 6: S.W. Edgerly, Offg. Sec., Govt of India to Chief 46 Arthur F. McEvoy, The Fisherman c Problem: Ecology and Law in the
Bengal, 9 November 1888, 1715. Calfàrnia Fisheries, 1850—1980 (Cambridge, 1986), pp. 10—11.
5 Bengal Code, vol. II, pp. 993—4.

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280 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 281 -

and Burma to the Government of India in 1873. He recorded his fisheries to the people without any restrictions, experience in every part
dismay at the cwasteful destruction’ he had observed.
47 The reason of the globe, shows, always eventuates in their utter annihilation. These
for that alarming situation, he insisted, was the lack of effective ‘free industries’ would be more aptly termed ‘free poaching’ or ‘wasteful
regulation ‘of how those fisheries should have been worked’ since destruction’ and as such, I consider, strongly to be condemned, and for
the British assumption ofthe 48 administration. That lack of regula the following reasons: That numerous individuals now fritter away their
tion had allowed unbridlled competition: ‘It becomes simply a time on these fisheries instead of working at their legitimate occupations,
and whilst doing so, are permitted to poach the breeding fish and fry
scramble on the principle—”Should I not catch them, somebody
.ii,,, 49 r’ i ii i r. i as freely as they please—a license which they are not slow in availing
tie maintaineai tnat risners, as weii as tnose risning to
i . i
eise win .
.

themselves of. I assert that this is one of the chief causes of the present
feed themselves, acted in this way: decrease of animal food.. and that it is not only unfair to the fisheries,
.

At present everyone encroaches on the fishermen’s calling, who seeing but also to the legitimate fishermen, whose occupation in many places
others slaughtering breeding fish and fry, do the same: as remarked to is now a thing of the past..
me in Burra,—why should we save them if others kill them? or in the Burma [an area where leasing of fisheries had been traditional
Panjab, where they complained that their nets with I Y4 inch meshes practice] will be especially interesting as the country which has most
could not take fry, whereas such were permitted to be sold in the bazaar recently come under British rule. . . At the present time, creeks not
.

by people not fishermen.

°
5 claimed by the fishing lessees [‘Een Thoogyee’] fall to the share of the
Day’s concerns were clearly spelt out: the supply of freshwater villagers, who forthwith choke them up in all directions with small dams.
fish was decreasing everywhere and the ‘recruitment’ of future It appears, under the Burmese Government, dams were not allowed in
stock was jeopardized by the ‘wasteful destruction’ of breeding any of the main streams. In the year 1861, the fishery laws in Burma
’ He gave, as examples, developments were passed, and from this date, I believe, injuries to fisheries may be
fish and the young fish fry.
5
chiefly dated. From this period, I was informed, the practice of employ
from Madras and from Burma:
ing fixed engines in irrigated fields and water courses, untaxed, com
• .in Madras, the moturfa tax [which, he had earlier defined as ‘clearly
. menced; weirs have largely augmented, any one being allowed to take
a licence to net, either in the form of a capitation tax on the fisherman, fish any way he pleases, without payment for home consumption, whilst
or one on his implements of chasel was abolished. and
. . . many
. . no regulations were instituted for the protection of the fisheries from
leased fisheries were given up to the general public. This intended boon wasteful destruction. Irrespective of this, certain localities were set aside
has eventuated in their almost depopulation, now termed a ‘free industry’ as free fisheries. The result is, that the fish are reported to be decreasing;
and with which it is proposed ‘no interference’ should be permitted, al for, if it is for one moment considered as to what such a course inevitably
though their almost ruined state must be evident in many localities where eventuates in, surely it must be admitted that unlimited license will cause
such licence has been allowed. The absolute giving-up of freshwater unlimited waste. If persons may help themselves as they please, they will
take those captured with the least trouble, and thus breeding-fish and
Day, Report on the Freshwater Fish and Fisheries of India and Burma
7 F. fry are destroyed where they should be preserved. The people cannot be
(Calcutta, 1873), p. 48. blamed for this: fishermen will do it, whether in Europe or in India, if
52
Ibid., p. 47.
48 so permitted
Ibid., p. 55. Day was not alone, moreover, in seeing the problem in these
50 Ibid.,
p. 50. See also his ‘Introductory Note’ to ‘The fish and fisheries of terms. The Collector of South Canara, Henry Sullivan Thomas,
Bengal’ in StatisticalAccoun4 p. 18, for a similar view.
51 Day, Repor4 41—4.
pp. 52 Ibid., pp. 47—9.

A I
282 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
who like his friend Francis Day was a keen ichthyologist, had
1!:1 Inand Waters and Freshwater Fisheries
open to all, and their comparative utter annihilation is not wished
for, restrictions as to the use of fixed engines, poisoning of waters,
283

already investigated and reported a number of the problems which

Day saw in the fisheries of his district in 187O. Moreover, it was and perhaps the size of the meshes of nets employed, etc., will
indicative that when Day began the investigations (as Inspector- have to be laid down by authority, and to see them properly carried
General of Fisheries) which led to his Report, a number of district 59 Such restric
out, watchers or water-bailiffs would be necessary’.
officers spoke to him in these terms; it was as though the occasion tions and supervision raised the question of expense and hence of
of his investigation released a pent-up concern about fisheries and licences and taxes and it was these questions which ensured, despite
fishers that had not been allowed to express itself.
54 the continued pressure over the years of a pro-fishery/pro-regula
Day was convinced that this was not the necessary condition tion lobby, that there was no legislation for India as a whole for
of the Indian fisheries. He held that it was wrong to imagine that a further twenty-five years.
Indian fisheries were being conducted as they always had been: ‘I Certainly, there were very negative attitudes within the ad
believe that great and destructive innovations have been or are ministration about the importance of fisheries, the value of the
being permitted, and that the British, with the most philanthropic fisher-people and their skills, and the degree of responsibility that
intentions, have given to the people license in fishing that has been the administration should have towards both fisheries and fishers.
55 And he was
greatly abused, and is now destroying the fisheries’. For each of the Days and Thomases with their expressions of con
convinced that regulation had to be introduced: ‘future genera cern there were several officers who thought that the fisheries were
tions will have even more reason to complain than those of the of no importance and that there was nothing that needed to be
present time, if we do not revert to native precedent’.
56 done. Day’s own appointment as Inspector-General had been de
How was it best to do that? Day recommended that ‘native rided by officers in one province by dubbing him ‘Inspector
precedent’ should be ‘modified by British law, not as proposed in General of Sticldebacks’ in the ICS ‘club’ newspaper, The Pioneer,
60
57 But this introduced new (and,
India but as existing in England’. and there was a good deal of ill-feeling and reluctance to assist his
for some, unwelcome) features. English law itself had been quite enquiries among district officers.
recently introduced or amended by the Salmon Acts of 1861 and Matters went much further, however, than personal likes and
1865 and had, by this time, a range of restrictions and supervisory dislikes. A major reason for dismissing fisheries as unimportant
58 Day would have had these features in mind when he
practices. was clearly a view among officials that they were not sufficiently
wrote: ‘If it is still decided that these fisheries shall be continued remunerative to warrant attention; land revenue was the chief
source of colonial finance in the nineteenth century and subjects
53 H.S. Thomas, Report on Pisciculture in South Canara (London, 1870); which could not produce revenue on that scale were not worth
pp. 3—8 (poisoning), 13—17, 24 (fry), 28—30 (fixed
engines), 31—5 (meshes). the trouble. One Sind official put it very succinctly: ‘If the fishing
5’ See Day, Report, pp. 2—3.
Ibid., p. 44. 59 Day, Repor6
P. 48; note that he has a long discussion of his proposals for
56 Ibid.,
p. 46. legislation on PP. 85—118.
5’ Ibid., 60 The Pioneer, December 1871: pasted in cutting book in the ‘Day Library
p. 46.
58 Thomas Baker, The Laws Relating to Salmon Fisheries in Great Britain (2nd of Natural History’, Cheltenham Public Library, vol. Q658; see also P.J.P.
edn., London, 1868), PP. 1—9; cf Day, Report, p. 108. Day also cites James Whitehead and P.K. Talwar, Francis Day (1829—1889) and his Collection of
Paterson, Treatise on the Fishery Laws ofthe United Kingdom, Including the Laws Indian Fishes (Bulletin ofthe British Museum ofNaturalHistoy), HistoricalSeries,
ofAngling(1863); see Repor4 pp. 101, 107—8. 5, 1(1976), p. 47.
284 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Watersand Freshwater Fisheries 285
ceased, the people now employed therein would have to take to of legislation to give the provincial government ‘power to frame
agriculture, and, as there is abundance of land with scarcity of rules for the protection of spawn and young fish against. in . .

population, this would be an advantage rather than otherwise’.

’
6 discriminate destruction’ the Government of India held that, as
Most important as a block to legislation for control was the it was the only province pressing for legislation at the time, there
persistent argument that to take any action meant, firstly, addi 64 In 1881 when the Bombay Government
was not a sufficient case.
tional expense and, secondly, the danger ofcreating agencies which wanted ‘to provide for the preservation of Game and Fish’ [sic],
would find new ways to intrude into the people’s lives and to the Government of India ‘withheld its assent, as it doubted the
oppress them. Day recognized that this argument was present and advantage of introducing restrictions which may be irksome to,
commented directly on it: and misunderstood by, the people. The public interests involved
It appears almost ludicrous, were it not lamentable, to observe many in the preservation of birds and fish were not, in the opinion of
wellinformed officials, who, in the following reports, have given their the Government of India, sufficiently strong to warrant inter
opinions, very strongly, that it will be hard on the people if Government ference with the habits of the rural population.’
65
issue any regulations to protect their own fisheries from a threatened Similarly, a draft fisheries bill prepared by H.S. Thomas for
destruction, and that the license now permitted and so grossly abused Madras in 1883 was returned for circulation and ‘for the opinion
should be allowed to be continued in every species of poaching manner of the Board of Revenue and the Collectors of Districts’. Five years
and without limitation.
62 later the Government of India could report that ‘Nothing further
Such views, however, were very prevalent and they seem to have has been heard on the subject, however, from Madras. The Bill
been able to undermine all suggestions for legislation and greater involved a considerable amount of interference with private
regulation in the 1880s. rights, and would require large and expensive establishments to
A note prepared in the Revenue and Agriculture Department be worked effectively.’
66
of the Government of India, as background to a conference called The question of ‘intrusion’ was seen, therefore, as a question
in 1888 to consider legislation to protect freshwater fish and about licensing and taxing powers. If there was to be a regulatory
fisheries, gave an insight into the attitude of the Government of regime that required inspections and continuous supervision
India on earlier suggestions from the provinces since the time of (Day’s ‘water bailiffs’) then the question of licence fees and other
Day’s report. Except for Burma, where the government had been forms of taxation became relevant because colonial finances could
anxious to get as much as possible by auctioning leases and where not afford the additional establishment at their existing level. The
an Act wa passed in 1875, no province had a Fisheries Act. 63 introduction of such new licences and taxes, however, raised issues
When in 1879—80 the Punjab Government raised the possibility which the colonial government did not wish to raise at that time.
So there was a strong disincentive to accept the essentially conser
61 OIOC, P1695, India, Agriculture, Revenue & Commerce Proceedings— vationist arguments for control; better, it seemed to argue either
Fisheries, A October 1874, 1, Merewether, Sind to Governor in Council,
Bombay, 12 December 1873, para 11, attachment to Bombay to Govt of India, 64 Ibid., paras 10—14.
15 june 1874. 65 Ibid., para 7. Note that this reveals a split between the Commissioner of
62 Day, )?eport, p. 48. the Northern Division, G.F. Sheppard, who was in favour of legislation, and
63 OIOC, P/3219, India, Revenue andAgriculrure—Fisheries,Ajune 1888, the Conservator of Forests, Northern Circle, A.T. Shuttleworth, who claimed
prog. 5A, Revenue and Agriculture Department, ‘Proposals for protection of that protection could be effected with reserves and without special legislation.
freshwater fish and fisheries in India’, February 1888, para 15. 66 Ibid., para 9.

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286 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 287
that the fisheries were of no account or, if they were, to argue that Chief Commissioner of Assam indicated that he believed that
the most effective controls were exercised by proprietors or lessees there was a need to legislate to protect lessees of government
who stood to gain financially from them and so could be relied fisheries against poaching.
68
upon to conserve them. In the late 1880s, therefore, in a new In the light of these developments, the Government of India
round of discussion of legislation, the only form of legislation that convened a conference on freshwater fisheries on 31 March and
received an effective hearing was for legislation to protect rights 3 April 1888. It agreed, after airing considerable disagreements
in private fisheries. and reluctance on the part of some provinces to move too quickly
In 1887—8 there were signs that the provinces intended to or too widely, that Mr Thomas should draft an Indian Fisheries
move again to attempt to legislate. Both Madras and Bombay Bill which would be applicable in all provinces and which would
indicated in March 1888 that legislation was under considera certainly (a) prevent the use of dynamite or poisons in fishing; (b)
67 Madras notified the Government of India that Mr Thomas
tion. regulate fixed engines; and (c) protect stock-pools. There was no
was to be placed on special duty to draft a ‘simpler’ Bill than he unanimity, however, on the regulation of mesh size; the catching
had prepared in 1883. The fact that H.S. Thomas had become of fish by damming streams and baling out the water; and the
First Member of the Board of Revenue in Madras by 1888 may declaration by government of a right to fish in particular waters.
69
well help to account for the decision to move again on fisheries The draft Bill was ready by mid-i 888;° it was circulated for
legislation, for the proceedings of the earlier Board of Revenue provincial comment in January 1889. The Government of India’s
made it clear that local officers then were completely opposed to attitude was hardly such as to promote the draft. Its caveat that it
any idea that licence fees would become a part of fisheries ad did not ‘endorse’ the principles in the draft Bill was perhaps only
ministration. In March 1888, Bombay sent correspondence from to be expected, but its further point rather suggested that it
H.N.B. Erskine, the Commissioner in Sind, indicating that he anticipated that the provinces would want something different:
believed that there should be legislation to protect the rights of :1 ‘whatever opinion may be formed as to the applicability of Mr
lessees of Government fisheries against poaching. Correspondence Thomas’s proposals, or any part of them to the province. the . .

with the Commissioners of other Divisions, however, revealed subject is one on which the Government of India will.. be glad
.

the deep divisions that existed on the subject. Mr Sinclair, in to receive definite suggestions independently of those which are
Kolaba, deprecated ‘any recourse to legislation on the fisheries put forward in the Draft Bill’.
’ It is indicative of the situation
7
of the Regulation Provinces’ because ‘I do not think that we that the only legislation that emerged from the responses to this
possess the machinery for enforcing any fishery laws’. The Com draft Bill was the Bengal Private Fisheries Protection Act, II of
missioner of the Central Division, E.P. Robertson, on the other 1889, which was detailed in the preceding section.
hand, ended on a vehement note—in which he suggested that All-India legislation—the Indian Fisheries Act IV of 1897—
his own Collectors did not properly understand the matter, since followed eight years later It outlawed the use of dynamite and
they were lukewarm on the matter of legislation—by declaring poisons but it left with the provincial governments the tasks of
that the fact that his Division did not have a large income from
fisheries was not ‘any reason why the subject of fisheries should 68 Ibid., no. 11.
69 Ibid., prog. 12.
be any longer neglected in this Presidency’. In April 1888, the
70 QQc, P13449, India, Revenue and Agriculture—Fisheries, A January

67
1889, progs 1—2.
Ibid., progs 8 & 9.
Ibid., prog. 8.
288 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 289
making rules applicable to the province or applicable to particular ‘angling with a rod and line or with a line only in a navigable
. . .

waters and of making rules to regulate fixed engines, weirs and river’ which, it might be said, was better than nothing.)
75
the dimensions of nets; in other words, provincial governments De followed his point about the lack of public access to
had to make the choice themselves of how to impose (and pay fisheries with a more revealing observation. ‘Poaching’, he claimed,
for) such regulations. There was provision for fines for breaches was virtually unknown in Eastern Bengal: ‘But in every district of
of the rules and for the forfeiture of fixed engines and fish taken Eastern Bengal there is a custom of openly defying the lessees and
72 By 1904 Bengal, Punjab, United Provinces, Coorg and
illegally. owners of bhilc, hoars, or smaller khals, by fishing with polos and
the North-West Frontier Province had made rules under the Act; 76 In his view the people who suffered most from
other hand traps’.
Bombay, Madras, Assam, Central Provinces and Ajmer-Mewara these incursions were the fishermen: ‘The fishermen are generally
73 It would be fair to conclude that there was still consid
had not. meek and timid people, and thus are often bullied by the sturdier
erable ambiguity in colonial attitudes to the question of regulat cultivators and others’ into putting up with these ‘depredations’
ing—and conserving—inland fisheries. and into making presents of fish from their catch or selling at
‘absurdly low prices’.
77 There may be some substance in this
The Question of Free Fisheries: The Bengal Case suggestion, but it would seem to be clear from other evidence that
these defiant attacks on private fisheries had a still more serious
The effect of settlement procedures and legislation in Bengal was meaning.
to ensure that all fisheries were under the control of zamindars, Two recent studies point the way to this interpretation.
those who leased jalkar from the zamindars, or were in Govern Ranajit Guha underlines the potency—as an instrument of
ment hands and leased out. Reporting officially in 1910 on the peasant mobilization against the zamindars—of ‘rebel’ threats to
fisheries of Eastern Bengal and Assam, Kiran Chandra De made bring the poo (trap) ‘to fish in the beel, close by your village’ in
1
the point that fisheries were either in the possession of zamindars Pabna district as early as 1873: ‘The poio in its turn’, he writes,
or ‘intermediate tenure holders’ and were permanently settled, or ‘was regarded as a badge of insurgency. It gave to the movement
they were in the possession of the Government and ‘temporarily and its participants their respective folk names—”Polo Bidroha”
settled’. As a result, he argued, ‘There are no free fisheries, in which and 78“Polowallahs”. He also points to Santal use of collective
the public have right to fish without license [sicj, except the sea’.
74 fishing of this kind as a means of mobilizing for protest.
79
(It should be noted that Bengal Act II of 1889 did in fact allow Sumit Sarkar extends this discussion into the 1920s. He com
ments on a number of instances in 1922 and 1923:
72 OIOC, V/8/62, India Acts 1897—98; the Act received assent on 4 February case these fishing rights are leased out, so that public fishing in the rivers is
1897. generally not allowed.’ SouthwefI was Deputy Director of Fisheries for Bengal,
73 OIOC, P/68 33, India, Revenue and Agriculture—Fisheries, B May 1904, Bihar and Orissa.
1—14. 75 Bengal Code, vol. II, p. 994, proviso to clause 3.
K.C. De, Report, p. 10, para 43. See also T. Southwell, Notes on the Fisheries 76 De, Repor4 p. 11, para 46.
ofBengal, Bihar and Orissa in Department of Fisheries, Bengal, Bihar and Orissa, Ibid. -

Bulletin no. 4; Some Remarks on Fishery Questions in Bengal by T. Southwell 78 Ranajit Guha, Elementary Aspects ofPeasant Insurgency in Colonial India
(Calcutta, 1914), p. 7: ‘it is to be noted that the fishery rights in some cases (Delhi, 1983), pp. 127—8, also p. 229.
belong to the zamindars and in other cases to the Government. In nearly every ‘9 Ibid.,
pp. 134—5, 237.
290 Nature, Culture, Imperialism Inland Waters and Freshwater Fisheries 291
Haat- and fish-pond looting by Santals in north-west Midnapur and zamindar. In the new situation, peasants could oniy fish if they
Bankura in 1922 and 1923 however was clearly part of a broader upsurge bought the right to do so from the lessee or were employed by the
and had more to do as we shall see with rumours of a crisis in authority lessee. The nature of controls over water and fisheries—and, with
than economic distress alone . In April 1923 for instance there was
. .

violation of forest rights over an this control, the nature of rights of access to, and utilization of,
a wave of looting of fish-ponds and
miles extending from Jambori and Gopiballabhpur the fisheries—had been fundamentally altered by the Permanent
area of 200 square
(Jhargram subdivision, Midnapur) westward to Ghatsila (in Singhbhum Settlement and the legislation and regulations which flowed from
district of Bihar) and northwards through Silda and Binpur to Raipur it; but the memory of that freer period remained. (Perhaps it was
police station in Bankura district. Crowds of up to 5,000 consisting
. . particularly strong in connection with what, in Bengal, is called
of Santals as well as low caste Bengali peasants looted fish-ponds in not simply ‘freshwater’ but, ‘sweetwater’, fish!)
daylight, asserting what they felt was a natural right.
80

Sumit Sarkar’s evidence, moreover, points to the deeper meaning Conclusion

of these ‘attacks’:
Colonial rule made far-reaching changes in freshwater fisheries in
The Santal, an official reported, ‘will tell you how in his father’s time India, changes which shifted control from landholders and fishers
all jungles were free, all bandhs (ponds) open to the public . Some
. .
to lessees (who were most likely to be, because of the resources
times he is right.’ . Santals
. . in 1923 ‘believed that they were simply involved, local capitalists); denied to fishers levels of access they
carrying on an old tradition’, bringing back a ‘golden age’ when ‘all had previously had to fisheries; and seriously compromised—for
jungles were free’ . Guriasaday Dutt, the DM of Bankura, reported
. .

essentially political reasons—the real conservation needs of the

in 1923 that Santals freely admitted looting of fish ponds to be illegal, fisheries. As yet we do not have the data to measure accurately the
but ‘they considered tank-raiding might act as an inducement to zàmin
effects of these changes on the fisheries or the fishers, apart from
dars to concede their old customary rights over jungles’.
reports by officials with ‘fisheries interests’ such as Francis Day
In the Midnapur Santal rising ofApril 1923 the dispossessed Raja, Pratap and H.S. Thomas, in the nineteenth century, and T. Southwell
Dal, was rumoured to have given permission to take wood and fish in the twentieth; but there is sufficient evidence in the material
freely, and so there was a ‘genuine belief by 90 per cent of the crowd reviewed above to indicate that the problems were very real.
that they were doing nothing illegal’.
’
8 What is also clear is that the main vehicle for the colonial
On this evidence, then, it is possible to suggest that ‘pond- impact was the regime of ‘legislation’—beginning with the Bengal
looting’ was an assertion of a ‘traditional’ claim to access; a claim Regulations which enshrined the bases of the Permanent Settle
to access, that is, which pre-dates the refashioning of jalkar under ment, the later Regulations for the ‘Resumed Mahals’, through
the colonial land revenue system. In that earlier situation, the the later nineteenth-century Acts of the Indian legislature which
peasants—whether fishers, labourers or agriculturists—could fish governed the Burma and Bengal Private fisheries, and, finally, to
and, in return, pay (or have exacted from them) ‘dues’ for the the Indian Fisheries Act of 1897 (even though this applied to less
than half of the territory of British India). What this means is that
80 Sumit Sarkar, ‘The conditions and nature of subaltern militancy: Bengal
the colonial state was deeply and directly implicated in the con
from Swadeshi to Non-Co-operation, c. 1905—22’ in Ranajit Guha (ed.), Sub dition of the Indian fisheries—and of Indian fishers—by the late
altern Studies III (Delhi, 1984), p. 303. colonial period. There were direct and conscious policy decisions
81 Ibid., Pp. 303, 306—8. taken by colonial officials behind each of the situations which
292 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
affected India’s fisheries—although not always in the eventual
form which those situations assumed—decisions to give away
traditional controls as well as not to take up, when the situation Chapter Ten
warranted it, new forms of 82control.

The Co’nquest of Smoke: Legislation

and Pollution in Colonial Calcutta’

M.R. ANDERSON

n India’s recent history urban air pollution has occurred in so

I many cities, and with such intensity, that both popular dis
content and government intervention have become routine
features of public life. As the law relating to air pollution has
2 the questions of social context and technical implemen
grown,
tation have acquired greater urgency. Nowhere has this been more
true than in Calcutta, one of the most polluted cities on earth.
3
And yet, for all the scholarly and popular attention devoted to
Calcutta’s smoke in the late twentieth century, the historical di
82 Some sense of this, perhaps, is conveyed in Southwell’s very negative tone mension of the problem has gone almost entirely unexplored.
4
in his Notes on the Fisheries ofBengaL Bihar and Orissa. In the paper, published
in 914, the Deputy Director of Fisheries in the Bengal Presidency, maintained I am indebted to Catherine Bowler and Peter Brimblecombe for advice on
(p. 7) that ‘Fishing operations in Bengal are generally carried out casually and smoke abatement, and to David Arnold and Elleke Boehmer for their helpful
in the old time way, viz., intensive fishing over small areas, a method which is comments on an earlier draft of this essay.
most destructive and which is detrimental to the best interests of the fishermen 2 A. Rosencranz, S. Divan
and M.L. Noble, Environmental Law and Policy
themselves.’ But he insisted that it was not his place to bring about change. ‘The in India (Bombay, 1991), chap. 6.
particular conditions in Bengal which render the development of the inland National Environmental Engineering Research Institute, Air Quality in Ten
3
fisheries a matter of some difficulty does [sici not however preclude the pos Cities, India, 1982—1985 (Nagpur, 1988); Cf. UNEP and WHO, Urban Air
sibility, or desirability, of improving the present position but from what statis Pollution in Mega-Cities ofthe World (Oxford, 1992).
tical data is available it would seem almost certain that these freshwater fisheries W.A. Bladen and P.P. Karan, ‘Environmental pollution and its perception
4
are quite incapable of supplying the demand for fish, even if the output could in the Calcutta-Hooghlyside area’ in A.G. Noble and A.K. Dutt (eds.), Indian
be increased four-fold, and as the development of these fisheries is a question Urbanization andPlanning: Vehicles ofModernization (Delhi, 1977); P.P. Karan,
which almost wholly concerns Indian lessees, and zamindars owning the fishing ‘Changes in the environmental perception of pollution in the Calcutta-Hoogh
rights, I do not propose discussing the question further here.’ (Ibid., p. 7).’ lyside industrial strip of India’, International Journal ofEnvironmental Studies,
294 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
There is nothing new in this. Successive generations of Calcuttans
have taken the view that the city’s acrid odours and obscured
horizons are a recent problem, set against a relatively smokeless
r The Conquest of Smoke
and in 1902 the Smoke Inspector for Leeds, Frederick Grover,
was employed at great expense to survey Calcutta’s smoke and
make recommendations for its abatement.
9 Grover’s report gave
295

past. rise to the Bengal Smoke NuisancesAci-of 1905, and the subsequent
However, a much longer history of air pollution is apparent establishment ofthe Bengal Smoke Nuisances Commission, which
from earlier accounts-. By the eighteenth century, smoke was cited, carried out a systematic but selective smoke abatement programme
along with heat, dust, humidity, and noisome smells, as one of throughout the colonial period.’
0
the attendant hardships and health hazards for Europeans in Cal The political urgency of Calcutta’s smoke problem was closely
5 The city was renowned for its insalubrious air. Calcutta
cutta. bound up with the history and function of the city within the
was proudly labelled the ‘City of Palaces’ and the ‘Second City of empire of British India. The seat of government until 1911 and
the Empire’, but its architecture was obscured by thick winter the commercial capital of the subcontinent until the First World
mists while its cosmopolitan inhabitants were forced to breath a War, Calcutta housed a high proportion of the European military,
grey-brown muck. Colonial governments attended to the problem administrative and mercantile groups which made up the ruling
with a concern and level of expenditure which betrayed real anxi classes. But for all its imperial power, Calcutta was a city nestled
ety. Calcutta became one of the first cities in the world to adopt in swamps, with longstanding problems of overcrowding, disease,
—only ten years after London,
smoke nuisance legislation in 1 863
6 and extreme poverty.
’ Its rapid population increase, with over
1
and well before many European 7A
and North American cities. one million inhabitants by 1911 and over two million by 1941,
special committee was formed to investigate the problem 1879,8
in intensified problems further. In these conditions, the ethos of
urban improvement was strong. The dominant European ideology
15, 1980, pp. 185—9; P.P. Karan, ‘Public awareness of environmental problems contended that Calcutta was liveable only because the inherent
in Calcutta Metropolitan area’, National Geographicaljournalofindia, 26, 1980, dangers of an Asiatic city had been subordinated to the discipline
the Bengal Smoke
pp. 29—34; M.L. Upadhyaya, ‘The extent of application of of scientific control.’
2
Nuisances Act’ in S.L. Agarwal (ed.), Legal Control ofEnyii ronmental Pollution
But smoke raised a different problem. It highlighted that
(Delhi, 1980).
5 P. Thankappan Nair (ed.), Calcutta in the 18th Century: impressions of
Calcutta combined two radically different sets of ecological prob
, 111, 133—4, 147, 181, 221.
Travellers (Calcutta, 1984), esp. pp.
4 lems—one, the crowded streets and poor sanitation which Euro
6 The Calcutta and Howrah Smoke-Nuisances Act (Bengal Act II of 1863). peans associated with colonial Asia, and the other, the social
For comparative historical studies, see: E. Ashby and M. Anderson, The disruption and heavy pollution more familiar from European in
Politics of Clean Air (Oxford, 1981) for England generally; P. Brimblecombe, dustrialization. The combination unsettled common stereotypes,
The Big Smoke (London, 1987) for London; D.E. Grinder, ‘The battle for clean
air: the smoke problem in post-civil war America’ in MV. Melosi (ed.), Pollution 9 F. Grover, Report on the Smoke Nuisance in Calcutta (Simla, 1903).
and Reform in American Cities (Austin, 1980) on the USA; and essays in P. 10 Report of the Bengal Smoke-Nuisance Commission (hereafter RBenSNC),
Brimblecombe and C. Pfister (eds.), The Silent Countdown: Essays in European Annual Series, Calcutta, commencing in 1907.
Environmental History (Berlin, 1990) for Leiden, York, and the Ruhr basin. “D. Arnold, ‘The Indian Ocean as a disease zone 1500—1950’, South Asia,
8 Report of the Special Committee Appointed by the Government of Bengal to
14, 2 (1991); A. Bagchi, ‘Wealth and work in Calcutta 1860—1921’ in S.
Consider the Subject ofthe Smoke Nuisance and Suggest Measuresfor its Abatement, Chaudhuri (ed.), Calcutta: The Living Ciiy, vol. 1 (Delhi, 1990).
March 1880. In India Office Library and Records (hereafter IOLR), Bengal 12 This view is neatly summarized in ‘Calcutta’, Encyclepaedia Britannica
Judicial Proceedings (hereafter BenJP), 1880, pp. 335—6. ninth ed. (Edinburgh, 1888).
 r

296 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 297

causing Lord Curzon to despair that smoke ‘makes one forget that varieties of smoke elicited more comment, even though they were
3 Though, industrial smoke was not a
this is an Asiatic capital’.’ not necessarily the most prevalent or the most deleterious in their
prominent political issue among either imperialists or nationalists, effects. Some fuels emitted relatively little perceptible smoke and
it was an important focus for social conflict since it posed difficult yet produced compounds harmful to plant and animal life. 14
questions, not only about the nature of urban society and the Smoke, like any other physical phenomenon, is perceived in ways
prospects for industrialization in India, but also the role and largely determined by conditioning and cultural associations. The
responsibilities of the state in the context of environmental de extensive burning of dung and other light biomass fuels such as
gradation. Many of the features which are now axiomatic in straw and crop residues was a distinctly Indian practice, and served
environmental regulation—systematic monitoring, reliance on to mark out differences between South Asian and European tech
technical experts, technological remedies, and close collusion be nologies. François Bernier, travelling with Aurangzeb in 1665,
tween industry and bureaucracy—were consolidated under the complained that the evening meal was typically cooked over a fire
aegis of the Smoke Nuisance Acts. So, too, it was under the Acts of ‘cow and camel dung and green wood’ which produced a smoke
that new techniques for policing industrial labour and disciplining that was ‘highly offensive, and involves the atmosphere in total
the social practices of subordinate classes were introduced and 5 Bernier was not alone in finding Indian smoke repug
darkness’.’
consolidated. Through these developments the state acquired the nant. Since dung and light biomass remained popular domestic
capacity to construe and manipulate the quotidian experience of fuels in Calcutta throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth
air pollution in an industrial city. centuries, there was ample opportunity for complaint from Euro
pean quarters. On the other hand, Europeans tended to tolerate
The Incidence and Character of Smoke and even romanticize woodsmoke fm domestic fireplaces. Ben
galis were inclined to ignore dungsmoke, but like Europeans, they
Calcutta was uniquely situated to suffer from air pollution. A frequently complained of industrial coal emissions.
centre for heavy industry located close to the Bengal coal fields, Calcutta had well-established markets for wood, charcoal, and
the city was host to many types of emissions. Moreover, its topo dung before the nineteenth century, and there was a lively trade
graphical and meteorological characteristics tended to prevent the from rural areas to feed urban Dung was carefully
dissipation of smoke into the surrounding atmospheric sink. The collected, often mixed with straw or rice-husks, and then shaped
combined effect of heavy emissions and poor atmospheric clearing
bore directly upon the physical comfort of inhabitants, and many “ Cf. Peter Brimblecombe, Air Composition and Chemistry (London, 1986);
complaints were lodged. Official correspondence before 1900 re Kirk R. Smith, Biofrels, Air Pollution, and Health: A Global Review (New York,
veals major smoke inundations had become a routine feature of 1987).
Calcutta life by the late 1 870s. Before considering the social 15 When Archibald Constable translated the text in 1891, he commented
on
responses to this problem, it is necessary to consider the general the familiarity of this common experience in northern India. See François
incidence of smoke in Calcutta’s urban environment. Bernier, Travels in the Mogul Empire, 1656—1668, 2nd ed. (V.A. Smith, ed.)
The perception and incidence of smoke are difficult to treat (London, 1914), p. 368.
16 See, for instance, Nair, Calcutta in the 18th Century,
as separate issues. In general the darker and stronger-smelling p. 217. The high
price of wood relative to dung was noted in Jahingir’s day, and remained a
constant feature of the fuel marker in later centuries. See Francisco Pelsaert,
‘3 T. Raleigh (ed.), Lord Curzon in India (London, 1906), p. 269. Remonstrantie, published as Jahingir’s India (Cambridge, 1925), p. 48.

4 L
298 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest ofSmoke 299
into cakes for 7 burning.’ Dung-drying was extensive within Cal primary fuel for raising steam, since unreliable supplies and high
cutta itself: in 1848 the Municipal Commissioners recommended prices impeded coal consumption. But in February 1855 India’s
that the drying of dung for fuel be prohibited as a nuisance, though first proper railway was opened between Calcutta and the Raniganj
8 Wood seems to have
the proposal was not translated into law.’ coal fields, permitting a massive increase in the supply and dis
been preferred as a source of fuel where available, but it is possible tribution of indigenous coal. In the decades which followed, Cal
that deforestation and increased urban demand brought about a cutta was transformed into the centre of the Hooghly industrial
greater reliance on dung, straw, and other low-grade biomass fuels. corridor—an Asian equivalent of the Ruhr valley—with high
In some contexts, dung was clearly preferred over wood. Dung levels of production and correspondingly high levels of air pollu
was not only touted as one of the five sacred products of the cow, tion. With its government mint, municipal water pumps, river
it also offered the advantage of a longer cooking duration over a vessels, ocean-going ships, railway locomotives, engineering
safe flame. Nevertheless, dung was the principal fuel only for the workshops, and the growing number of jute mills and other
poor; those who could afford to do so purchased wood—and later industrial undertakings, Calcutta hosted nearly every type ofsteam
coal, coke, and gas—for domestic 19 purposes. engine then operating in South Asia.
Despite the prevale nce of bioma ss smoke throughout the Early on the British complained of the quality of Indian coal.
colonial period, it was the dense black smoke from coal which In his 1867 survey of India’s coal resources, Thomas Oldham
attracted the most attention. The use of coal as a high-grade fuel concluded that Indian coals were high in ash content and normally
was not entirely new, but it was only with the introduction of the provided only ½ to 1/3 the heat of average English coal. 21 In
steam engine that coal was used on a much larger scale. Steam Grover’s more detailed study of 1903, he found that Indian coals
engines were introduced for river navigation and modest industrial could contain from 14.8 per cent to 47 per cent ash by weight,
efforts by 1830.20 Coal did not immediately supplant wood as the depending upon the variety and 22 source. Apart from a higher ash
content and lower calorific value, Indian coals produced more
‘Z Colebrook’s early condemnation of the ‘abuse of dung employed for fuel, smoke than English coals, though a small number ofclean-burning
instead of being used as manure’ was echoed throughout the colonial period. coals were available. Generally, cheaper types ofcoal smoked more
T.H. Colebrook, Remarks on the Husbandry and Internal Commerce of Bengal and produced less heat than more expensive varieties. Since most
(London, 1806), p. 43. The argument was further endorsed by Francis
coals in India were found to produce a soft, poor-quality coke,
Buchanan. See F. Buchanan, An Account ofthe District ofPurnea in 1809—10
(V.H. Jackson, ed.) (Patna, 1928), pp. 152—5.
the possibilities for developing a supply of smokeless fuels were
18 First HalfYearly Report ofthe Commissionerfor the Improvement ofCalcutta strictly limited.
[hereafter Municipal Commission Report] (Calcutta, 1848), p. 41. In addition to biomass and coal, a third category of fuels in
19 Fuel preferences also depended on the practical and ritual uses of smoke— cluded oil and gas. The use ofvegetable oils for lighting and cooking
especially for purification, curing disease, and repelling mosquitoes. Though the was widespread in the eighteenth century and continued into the
place of smoke in popular consciousness is beyond the scope of this paper, a colonial period. 23 Coconut oil was used initially for Calcutta’s street
careful survey of domestic burning practices conducted in Calcutta in 1958
suggested that smokiness was a much less important criterion in fuel selection 1790—1830’, InIian Economic and Social Histoiy Review, 29, 1992.
than either convenience or costS National Council of Applied Economic Re 21 T. Oldham, The Coal Resources and Production ofIndia (Calcutta, 1867),

search, Domestic Fuels in India (Bombay, 1959), p. 109. p. 22.

20 M.T. Bernstein, Steamboats on the Ganges (Agra, 1960); J. Tann and J. 22 Grover, Repor4 . 41.
Aitken, ‘The diffusion of the stationary steam engine from Britain to India, Ii his survey of fuels in Purnea, Buchanan found widespread use of castor,
23
300 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 301
lighting, but was gradually replaced by kerosene and then gas. 24 In 28 Though he at
boilers used for the purpose of raising steam.
1857, the Oriental Gas Company, which extracted volatile gases tributed the greatest proportion of smoke in Calcutta to the land
from coal, contracted with the Calcutta Corporation to provide boilers contained within the jute and cotton mills, it is likely that
street lighting. Gas remained expensive, and did not see wide use domestic smoke arising from both coal and biomass still accounted
beyond street lamps, though wealthier households were able to for a very large proportion of the city’s haze. The industrial use
afford gas heating and cooking appliances after 1910.25 Petroleum of coal increased at a rapid rate until well into the twentieth
distillates appeared in the 1 880s to fuel oil-fired furnaces for raising century. The number of registered steam boilers in Calcutta
steam, but did not receive widespread use until the upper Burma reached 2039 in 1912, and 2582 in 1923. Boiler registrations
oil fields were developed after 1896. Petroleum use increased increased only slightly before peaking in 1926, and then began a
dramatically after the First World War, when internal combustion slow decline which continued throughout the Depression years.29
engines came to be used more widely in ships and factories. The increasiPg popularity of oil for raising steam reduced demand
The pattern of fuel consumption suggests that Calcutta’s air for industrial coal, though this was probably outweighed by large
pollution can be divided into three broad historical periods. In increases in the use of soft coke for domestic purposes in the
the first period, prior to 1855, domestic burning of wood, char inter-war period.
30
coal, dung, and illuminating vegetable oils was the major source The third phase was marked by the increasing use of
of smoke, though coal-burning became a more common feature petroleum fuels for internal combustion engines, particularly in
after 1820. The second period, spanning the middle decades of industry, but also in ships and automobiles. Though the internal
the nineteenth century, witnessed a large increase in coal smoke combustion engine was the industrial power plant of preference
on top of a substratum of biomass emissions. After 1855, the use by 1921,31 Calcutta industries were generally slow to switch from
of coal increased dramatically, and by 1880 the incidence of coal steam to petroleum power, perhaps due to undercapitalization.
smoke, both in boilers and for domestic use, had fundamentally The change was only effected on a very large scale with the rapid
26 The problem was par
altered Calcutta’s ambient air quality. industrialization of the 1 940s. Petroleum distillates brought new
ticularly acute near the textile mills located close to the river. 27 In types of pollutants even as the smoke of coal and biomass con
1903, Grover identified six principal sources of smoke in the tinued.
Calcutta area: (i) domestic fire-places in ‘native’ huts, (ii) steam Calcutta’s air pollution was exacerbated by its geographical
launches and ocean-going steamers, (iii) lime and brick kilns, (iv)
the manufacture of coke on the banks ofthe Hooghly, (v) furnaces 28 Grover, Repor4 p. 2. Grover estimated the total consumption of coal in
used for heating plates and metal ingots, and (vi) mill and factory Calcutta at 320 tonnes per day (p. 3), or nearly 116,800 tonnes per year. But
by 1917 the Calcutta Coal Controller estimated that domestic consumption
alone amounted to 200,000 tonnes per year. See Census ofCoal Consumption in
safflower, sesame, linseed, and mustard seed oils. Buchanan, An Account, p. 606. India During 1917 (Calcutta, 1910), p. 39.
24 M. Massey, Recollections of Calcutta for Over Half a Century (Calcutta, 29 Report of the Commission for the Inspection of Steam-Boilers and Prime
1918), P. 64. Movers, Annual Series, 1903/4—1940.
25 See figures provided in RBenSNC after 1908. 30 Speech of Mr Alec Aikman, Chair of the Bengal Coal Company, 23
26 IOLR, BenJP, March 1880.
December 1935. Microfilm 8 (3), Indian Institute Library, Oxford.
27 In reJohn Beat, Manager ofHowrah Jute Mills, Howrah Magistrate, 14 31 A.T. Weston, Facto,y Construction and Installation in Bengal (Bulletin of
August 1898, in IOLR, BenJP, July 1902. Industries and Labour, No. 14) (Calcutta, 1921), pp. 20—5.
302 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest ofSmoke 303
setting and prevailing meteorological conditions. Unlike Bombay great industrial centres of Belgium and Pennsylvania, Calcutta
or Madras, Calcutta could not count on consistent sea winds to experienced smogs intense enough to disrupt the conduct ofevery
dilute smoke. Particularly in the months from November to day business and cause real hardship for residents with respiratory
March, weeks could go by without a significant breeze. The effect problems. By 1927, when the health effects of smoke came to
of the still air was compounded by a lack of rain during these preoccupy official concern, it was estimated that the death rate
32 To make matters worse, local meteorological conditions
months. from respiratory disease tripled during especially smoky periods.
38
made Calcutta vulnerable to frequent temperature inversions Despite the severity of Calcutta’s industrial smoke, it is clear
which prevented vertical ventilation and trapped smoke in the that not everyone regarded smoke as a nuisance. For some, ‘vol
33 And like London, Calcutta suffered from
lower atmosphere. umes of thick black smoke pouring from factory chimneys’ were
recurrent fogs, which became more intense and of longer duration 39 Supporters of industry equated
signs of ‘hustle and prosperity’.
as smoke emissions increased. The fogs, which were common in smoke with prosperity and the bracing technological achievements
34 arose in part from the marshes which sur
this part of Bengal, of the Victorian age. However, the experience of winter smogs in
rounded the city. Yet the programmes ofdraining and ‘improving’ Calcutta prompted many others to complain. Early official writ
the wetlands during the nineteenth century did little to abate the ings focus on the ‘nuisance’ of smoke—its impact on the physical
35 A partial series of fog data for the period 1879 to 1894
fog. comfort of Calcutta’s residents, especially Europeans. There was
reveals that though fog was almost non-existent in the months of more at stake than just smoke. Most protests against factory smoke
May to September, it was a standard feature in the period from were accompanied by charges of untidiness, noise, vibration, ir
October to March, when the proportion of days with fog ranged regular hours, and the general disruption of neighbourhood life.
36 Fog often settled in for
between 13 per cent and 48 per cent. Memories of an older Calcutta—a centre of stately poise, con
long periods. The month of January 1884, for instance, saw cerned with administration and shipping rather than industry and
twenty-nine days of fog. Smoke aggravated the phenomenon, engineering—were invoked against rapid 40 industrialization. Be
37 And like the
mixing with fog to create thick sulphurous smogs. hind smoke nuisance lurked a deeper concern about the ap
propriateness of industrialization to Indian conditions, as well as
32 See the Alipore Observatory records in Ivleteorological Observations
a nostalgia for ‘traditional’ India that seemed to be passing away
Recorded at Six Stations in India, Annual Series, I 879—I 894. The observation
methodology and system of notation are described in Henry F. Blanford, The
before the eyes of observers.
Indian Meteorologist’s Vade-Mecum (Calcutta, 1877), pp. 58—60; see also
Meteorological Observations at St. Xavier College, Calcutta, 1868—1917 (Calcut The New Nuisance
ta, 1918).
33 S.C. Basu, ‘Fog forecasting over Calcutta and neighbourhood’, Indian Though Calcutta’s winter haze was patently a product of human
Journal ofMeteorology apd Geophysics, 3:4 (October 1952), p. 281. activity, administrators of the East India Company were initially
3 Colebrook, Remarks, p. 7.
35 See Christine Furedy, ‘From waste land to waste-not land: the role of the
fog atAlipore, Dum Dum, and Barrackpore’, Indian Journal ofMeteorology and
Salt Lakes, East Calcutta, in waste treatment and recycling, 1854—1930’ in P. Geophysics, 5:4 (October 1954), p. 352.
Sinha (ed), The Urban Experience: Calcutta (Calcutta, 1987). 38 RBenSNZ 1927, p. 4.
36 Derived from the Alipore observations in Meteorological Observations
RBenSNC, 1918—19, p. 1.
Recorded at Six Stations in India. 40 See, for instance, Sir Henry Craik, Impressions ofIndia (London, 1908),
3 IOLR, BenJP, March 1880, p. 335; see also Amal Basu, ‘Frequency of
pp. 212—14.
304 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest ofSmoke 305
inclined to treat it as a pernicious but permanent feature of the
Bengal landscape. Apart from anecdotal complaints, neither Com
pany officials nor their associates devoted serious attention to
Calcutta’s smoke before 1855. There was, however, extensive
concern for good ventilation, both in individual houses and in
the town more generally. A strong current of European medical
thought stressed the health dangers associated with miasmas—
pathogenic emanations from putrescent organic matter—said to
arise from swamps, sewers, and other unwholesome locales. Situ
ated amidst marshes and waterways, Calcutta was famous for its
unhealthy air, which was also attributed to the slovenly habits of
’ The principal concern of early nineteenth-century ad
4
natives.
ministrators was to ‘ameliorate the climate’ so as to render the seat
of government ‘a place where Englishmen, having the usual con
--

I_I1HUsT Award and Thst—das (‘ertitieat,

stitutions of their race, can live in full possession of their faculties, ( alsttta Intern,ttional E\hlhijo, 4.
42 Extensive thought was put into draining stag
and their vigour’.
nant waters and opening up streets in order to provide the city The Pioneer Thn I) Iii flnnnr mum Pn Ii
with good ventilation. Following an influential report by the Fever Paper Mills IliLi U ig inpua jiiiia UU., LU.,
Hospital Committee in 1839, the Municipal Commission was of
constituted in 1848 with a view to coordinating sanitary, com
Paper Makers and fa turing Sini H..rlcrs ( r,..
mercial, and political improvements in the urban environment. ‘ t
(iOernmc)t of hdi,,,__,..
The Commission articulated anxieties about the ventilation prob
lems in the ‘native’ district of northern Calcutta, which was be Mills RALLY. Stationery Dept. 13.. STRAND ROAD.
coming ‘thickly populated’ with a ‘class of people indifferent to
43 While
cleanliness’, posing a ‘danger to health, life, and property’.
many bustees in the native town were cleared out to provide better
ventilation into the city, the Commission continued its work of
watering the streets in the European town to minimize the ‘great
6o, henderson
1OO Clive Street, C.4LCUTTA,
Co.,
r ii i ,44
D aust.
i
aiscomrort
.
proaucea
Illustration 1. The Bally Paper Mills (an advertisement)
F.P. Strong, Extracts from the Topography and Vital Statistics of Calcutta
41

(Calcutta, 1837).
42 Marquis of Wellesley, Minute ofl6June 1803, quoted in Abridgment of

the Report ofthe Committee Appointed for the Establishment ofa Fever Hospital
(Calcutta, 1840), pp. 62, 64.
3 Municpal Commission Report, 1860, p. 42.
44 Municzal Commission Report, 1861, p. 12.
306 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 307

Thus, prior to 1855, the extensive attentions devoted to ventil

ation were concerned principally with miasmas rather than smoke.
In this context, the 1 86 Calcutta and Howrah Smoke Nuisance
Act presents itself as an innovation largely without precedent or
purpose. ‘What gave rise to the new state interventionism in the
matter of industrial smoke? Several factors were important. One
explanation lies in the relation between Calcutta—the ‘British
Metropolis in the East’
—and the industrial towns of England,
45
particularly metropolitan London which had mounted a campaign
against smoke in the 1850s. By this time Calcutta was seen as an
emblem of a more confident British Empire, and its policies had
to endure comparison with other world-class cities. Early pressures
to evolve a policy on smoke abatement arose principally among
the European administrative and mercantile groups who not only
made their lives in Calcutta, but were aware of the commercial
and political importance of the urban environment. Also, the Act
must be understood in the context of the early 1 860s which
witnessed a great expansion in criminal legislation. The new Penal
I Code and the various Police Acts signalled a maturation in the
colonial state, now increasingly prepared to intervene in the con
duct of everyday life.
But the main explanation must lie in this: that starting in
1855 with the ready availability of Raniganj coal, the city wit
nessed a sudden change in the character of its atmosphere. It was
not so much that aggregate levels of haze had increased, but rather
that the dense black smoke of industrial chimneys focused atten
tion on air quality in a new way. In these new circumstances, the
temptation to regard smoke as a fixed feature of the landscape
diminished. The new sources of smoke were clearly identifiable
and obviously a product ofhuman action. In a city where domestic
chimneys were uncommon, the smokestacks of steamships and

‘5Municipal Commission Report, 1859, p. 2.

46M.R. Anderson, ‘Public Nuisance and Private Purpose: Policed Environ
ments in British India, 1860—1947’, SOAS Law Department Working Paper
No. 1 (1992).
308 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest ofSmoke 309
factories prominently displayed their dense coal smoke against the The Act produced few prosecutions—no more than six in any
backdrop of sky. In addition to steamships, the principal culprits given year, and most years saw only one or two convictions.
50 This
were the new jute mills located near the river which were trans much is perhaps not surprising. In London, the 1853 Act becme
forming the charatter of Calcutta life with their noisy machinery effective only because Palmerston’s tenacious supervision over
and expanding labour force. The concentration of factories along came the reluctance of police and magistrates to make it stick.
’
5
the river, closely adjacent to the administrative nerve centre of The Calcutta Act was not enforced with the same enthusiasm.
India as well as the businesses and residences of the influential Though the Act was initially publicized, little effort was put into
public, raised fears of conflagration and other industrial hazards. enforcement, and the Act ‘was allowed to remain almost a dead
European industry was interfering with European (and increas letter’ until 1879.52 Prior to that time, the very few actions taken
ingly Bengali) comfort and pride. In response to these concerns, against smoke nuisance were brought by residents who could
the Municipal Commission recommended in 1860 that certain mobilize either political influence or sufficient resources to retain
jute works be moved outside of the city entirely.
47
legal counsel. In one celebrated case of 1872, Rajmohun Bose,
As things turned out, the jute mills were allowed to stay, but
who owned a house adjacent the Howrah workshops of the East
their emissions were made subject to new regulation. In January India Railway Company, brought a civil action before the High
1863, the Bengal Council promulgated the Calcutta and Howrah Court objecting to the smoke and smuts which entered his house,
Smoke-Nuisances Act, modelled on the London legislation which 53 The Court
arising from the workshop’s forges and furnaces.
48 The
Palmerston had forced through Parliament ten years before. found in favour of Bose, and ordered that the Railway abate the
Act required that any furnace employed for the operation of a
nuisance within a period of three months. The costly and slow
steam engine or used for any other purposes of trade or manufac process of litigation proved worthwhile only where a major source
ture should be constructed ‘so as to consume or burn its own. ofsmoke caused immediate and obvious damage. For more distant
smoke’. In keeping with the English legislation, the Act did not and generalized smoke, there was no remedy other than complaint.
require a furnace to consume or burn evey particle of smoke, but Public protest against smoke escalated in the winter of 1 878—
rather that the furnace employ ‘the best practicable means for 9, and following the personal intervention of Sir Ashley Eden—a
preventing or counteracting such smoke’ and that the fire be longtime Calcutta resident newly appointed as Lieutenant-Gover
carefully attended so as to burn, ‘as far as possible, all the smoke’ nor of Bengal—the government convened a special committee to
49 The Act was principally aimed at
arising from the furnace. 54 The committee concluded that
consider the smoke problem.
land-based steam engines, and did not apply to domestic fires,
locomotives, or steam vessels other than ferries. 50 Report on the Administration of Criminal Justice in the Lower Provinces of
BengaL Annual Series, 1879—1905.
7 Munictal Commission Report, 1860, p. 44. 51 With strong centraL guidance, Palmerston had been able to secure 124
48 Bengal Council Act II of 1863, based on the Smoke Nuisance Abatement convictions in one eight-month period. Ashby and Anderson, Politics of Clean
(Metropolis) Act of 1853 (16 & 17 Vict cap 128). Though a similar Act was Air, p. 18.
introduced in Bombay slightly earlier (Bombay Act VIII of 1862), Bombay’s 52 IOLR, BenJP, March 1880, Secretary, Government of Bengal to Calcutta
meteorological conditions made the matter much less pressing. Commissioner of Police, 16 March 1880.
Magistrates were empowered to order furnace inspections. Violations of 53 Rajmohun Bose v East India Railway Company, 10 Bengal Law Reporter
the Act were cognizable upon Magistrate’s orders, and a first violation carried a 241 (1872), p. 242.
maximum fine of 50 Rupees, doubling for every violation thereafter. IOLR, BenJP, 1879.
310 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 311
smoke from land-boilers had increased oniy slightly, and that the smoke. Adjacent chimneys invited comparison, and considerable
most problematic emissions arose from steam vessels which fell discrepancies in the volume and density of smoke labelled par
55 On the committee’s recom
outside the purview of the 1863 Act. ticular mills ‘dirty’. Acceptable levels of smoke were determined
mendation, the Bengal government took steps to enforce the more by comparison than by absolute emissions: managers were
Smoke Nuisance Act more rigorously, and from 1880, the sys exhorted to adopt the practices of the Alipore Jute Mill, which
tematic inspection of smoke emissions was entrusted to the Boiler kept emissions comparatively low.59 Other chimneys were found
Commission Inspector, whose primary duties related to the struc to ‘smoke intolerably without cessation the whole day’. ° The
6
56 Government con
tural integrity and safety of boiler equipment. Ganges Jute Mill failed to reduce emissions, and was repeatedly
cern peaked following serious bouts of smog, and major campaigns warned and prosecuted for smoke nuisance, with multiple con
against smoke were mounted in 1880—1, 1883, 1891—2, and victions between 1879 and 1902.61 In general, Indian managers
l898—1902. In each of these episodes, the Lieutenant-Governor were readily prosecuted after a small number of warnings while
of Bengal responded to numerous complaints with personal in European managers could except greater forbearance. Even with
tervention in the business of smoke abatement. Though the record Indian mills, prosecutions were handled casually, so the provision
of complaints is sketchy, they were lodged by both Indian and of the Act which required the fine to double on each subsequent
European residents of Calcutta, usually against a particular chim conviction was often ignored. Some of the most important pol
ney or set of chimneys rather than against the smoky city as a luters, including the mint and water-pumping stations, were
whole. government operated, and thereby exempt from prosecution.
In 1892 G.E. Marklew, a jute warehouse inspector, was ap Even where prosecutions were mounted, securing a conviction
pointed to act as a special smoke inspector on a part-time basis. could be difficult. Legally, the key enforcement problem was how
He was reappointed in 1898 on a temporary basis which was made to define whether any given furnace was burning its own smoke
permanent in 1901. Using coloured diagrams of four shades to ‘as far as practicable’ as required under the Act. Early convictions
approximate the colour of smoke, he recorded observations of were secured with ease, but the mills began to mount a more
the density and duration of chimney emissions, issued warnings vigorous defence in 1892,62 and by 1898 the magistracy was siding
to managers, and initiated prosecutions. Since the authorities firmly with mill owners. The turning point came in Emperor us
preferred to maintain a system of consultation and advice, man 63 Burn & Co. admitted that the chimney of their jute mill
Burn.
58
agers could expect multiple warnings before prosecution. A num emitted black smoke for eight to nineteen minutes in each hour,
ber of plant operators minimized smoke emissions through a but that they had taken reasonable steps to abate the smoke in using
mixture of new boilers and careful firing, thus avoiding prosecu
tions entirely. Even within a fundamentally pro-industrial mode 10LR, BenJP, February 1879, P. Donaldson, Memorandum on the preven
59
of thought it was possible to condemn ‘excessive’ emissions of tion of smoke in steam geilerators burning Indian coal, 3 February 1879.
60 IOLR, BenJP, 1879, Magistrate of
Howrah to Commissioner of the
55 IOLR, BenJP, March 1880, PP. 335—6. Burdwan District, 19 February 1879.
56 IOLR, BenJP, March 1880, Secretary, Government of Bengal to Calcutta 61 IOLR, BenJP, March 1880,
March 1892, May 1902.
Commissioner of Police, 16 March 1880. 62 The evidence of the inspectors and
permissible levels of smoke were both
IOLR, BenJP, 1880—1905. called into question in Boiler Commission v CentralJute Ivfills, Howrah District
58 Between 1898 and 1901, the Sibpur Jute Mill was warned on twelve
Magistrate, 21 May 1892 (IOLR, BenJP, July 1902).
occasions, but prosecuted only once. 63 Calcutta Magistrate, 22 May 1898, in IOLR, BenJF,
July 1902.

A
312 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 313

good quality coal and adopting firing methods recommended by soon took a direct interest in the question. There was a political
the Boiler Commission. The magistrate held that mere presence of motive here too: following the debacle of the 1899 Calcutta
smoke was insufficient to secure a conviction, and that the prosecu Corporation Act,’ smoke abatement was one of the few issues
tion would have to demonstrate that either the plant design or the which could unite the bhadralok and influential Europeans in the
firing practices fell below accepted standards. A similar result was period immediately prior to Swadeshi politics. Curzon appreciated
obtained in Emperor vs Eustace, ofCalcutta Electric Supply in 1902.64 the political significance of urban environments, and placed them
The cases established a precedent whereby a successflil prosecution on his highly authoritarian agenda. Seizing on the smoke issue
would require either evidence of negligence or expert testimony as with his celebrated decisiveness, Curzon upbraided Marklew for
to the inadequate technical parameters of the furnace. Henceforth incompetence, and sent to London for expert advice in July
1902.69 Lord Hamilton, the Secretary of State for India, replied
the burden of proof was so high as to make successful prosecution
65 Moreover, any excessive smoke resulting
‘almost impossible’. with a short memorandum on smoke abatement, cautioning that
from the use of poor quality coal or heavy firing could not give a qualified smoke inspector would be expensive.
70 But Curzon
rise to a conviction. Instead an inadequacy had to be found in the insisted, and in February 1903 Grover was employed for four
design and construction of the furnace. In effect, conviction re months at the sum of £800 plus expenses.
’ In the same month,
7
quired ‘the very highest expert knowledge’ in a context without Curzon lectured the Bengal Chamber of Commerce on the ur
trained combustion experts. Without the imminent threat of gency of reducing Calcutta’s smoke, which ‘besmirches the mid
criminal conviction, managers could easily afford to ignore the day skywith its vulgar tar brush and turns our sunsets into a murky
cajoling smoke inspector. gloom’. He further warned that this ‘insidious and growing
danger’ would surely destroy one half of the city’s amenities unless
i i ii i 72
cnecea D new iegai measures.
The Politics of Professional Policing ‘When Grover arrived, Calcutta represented something of a
From the outset, the predominantly European manufacturing smoke-inspector’s paradise: with strong government support, he
community in Calcutta opposed smoke abatement on the grounds was able to design a state of the art system for abating smoke. The
of higher costs and technical barriers. Against this, a broad mix of new Smoke Nuisance Bill, which largely adopted his recommen
the European and Bengali populace—particularly professionals, 73 provided the machinery for more intensive monitoring
dations,
administrators, and mercantile groups—had a keen interest in the 68 Chris Furedy, ‘Lord Curzon and the reform of the Calcutta Corporation,
67 Inevitably, the anti-smoke
aesthetic quality of the cityscape. 1899: A case study in imperial decision-making’, SouthAcia, 1, 1 (March 1978).
lobby had greater influence with government, so when Curzon 69 IOLR, BenJP, July 1902, Governor-General in Council to Lord George

assumed office he was battered with complaints about smoke, and Francis Hamilton, 10 July 1902.
70 Dr Theodore Thomson, Minute on Smoke Nuisance in Calcutta, August
64 Calcutta Magistrate, May 1902, in IOLR, BenJP, July 1902. 1902, in IOLR, BenJP, October 1903.
65 Grover, Repor4 p. 21. 71 IOLR, BenJP, October 1903.
66 Grover, Repor4 72 Raleigh, Lord Curzon,
p. 23. p. 269.
67 It is unclear to what extent Calcutta’s residents were aware of parallel A number of Grover’s proposals were watered down in the Bengal Legis
developments in England where the National Fog and Smoke Committee and lative Council: The fines were reduced, existing kilns were excluded from license
its successors lobbied for government action throughout the 1880s and 1890s. requirements, and a partial exclusion was introduced for ocean-going steamers.
Ashby and Anderson, Politics of Clean Air, chp. 5. Calcutta Gazette, part IV, 1905, p. 11.
314 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 315
and regulation through four key features. First, a new Commis also Ward 2 are the worst sufferers in this respect, and I can bear my
sion, composed of equal numbers of bureaucrats and industry personal testimony to the great annoyance to which the unfortunate
representatives, was to be set up to supervise the work of a per residents of this locality are constantly subjected.
76
manent inspectorate. For Grover, himselfa product of the growing The Bengali middle classes had been protesting against smoke for
74 a tech
professionalization of air pollution control in England, decades, but Curzon’s intensely autocratic approach gave pause
nically-competent and professionall y-committed Chief Inspector
for caution. The Bangavasi welcomed the prospect of reduced
was essential to the scheme’s success. This was the culmination of smoke, but warned that the Act should not be a device for ‘some
a trend, already present in the smoke abatement efforts of the 77
sort ofoppression ’. Inevitably, both European and Indian manu
1880s, to invest bureaucratic power in technical experts rather facturing interests opposed the measure, but great efforts were
than amateur colonial administrators. Second, new powers were made to secure their co-operation. Even before Grover set foot on
to be provided to prohibit the urban operation of certain in Indian shores, representatives of the Calcutta Port, the Jute Mills
dustries, including brick and lime kilns, smelting and calcing Association, and the European managing agency houses of Bird
works, iron works, and coke manufacture. Third, conviction was & Co. and Jessop & Co. were summoned for a meeting with
made to depend on observed smoke emissions rather than ques H.H. Risley, Secretary to the Government of Bengal, who made
tions of technology and firing practices. Fourth, rather than per the case for close cooperation in scientific smoke 78management.
mitting the magistracy to determine levels of permissible smoke The promise of technical expertise rather than government med
on a case by case basis, a systematic set of standards was adopted dling was held out as an incentive for managers. So too, private
for measuring the, density and duration of smoke so that a con enterprise could take comfort in the knowledge that unlike the
sistent threshold could be deployed in enforcement. Henceforth, 1863 legislation, the new Act would apply equally to government
smoke would be monitored, measured, and recorded on a daily and private smoke. The Bengal Chamber of Commerce was con
basis. sulted during the drafting stages, and was able to secure important
Once the smoke legislation was mooted, the British India concessions, most notably a massive reduction in the first convic
Association successfully pressed to extend emission standards to tion fine from Rs 1000 to Rs
75 The
steam rollers, urban railways, and miscellaneous workshops. Both the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and the Bengal Na
strong support for smoke abatement among the bhadralok was
tional Chamber of Commerce found representation on the Smoke
reflected in the speech of Nalin Behari Sircar before the Legislative Nuisance Commission, though the local government always
Council in January 1905: retained majority control through the chair. The Commission
The innumerable chimneys that have sprung up . are a constant
. .
began its work in 1906, with W. Nicholson, a Sheffield Smoke
source of considerable trouble, inconvenienc e, and mischief to the resi Inspector, employed to train a local engineer, John Robson, who
dents in their neighbourho od. In Calcutta, Wards 3 and 4 and possibly
76 Ibid.
7 See R.M. MacLeod, ‘The Alkali Acts administration 1863—84: The emer 77 Bangavasi, 16 January 1905, in Reports From Native Papers, Bengal (Cal
gence of the civil scientist’, Victorian Studies, 9, 1965, pp. 86—112; P. Brimble cutta, 1905).
combe and C. Bowler, ‘Air Pollution in York 1850—1900’ in Brimblecombe and 78 IOLR, BenJP, March 1903, Conference at the Home Office to Consider
Pfister (eds.), The Silent Countdown. the Smoke Nuisance in Calcutta, 23 February 1903.
75 Proceedings of the Bengal Legislative Council, 11 January 1905. 79 Proceedings ofthe Bengal Legislative Counci4 8 March 1905.

A.
316 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 317
subsequently served as smoke inspector until 1932. Robson ad
hered to a strong ideology of professionalism; in his twenty-five
year tenure he repeatedly stressed the importance of scientific
inquiry and innovative engineering. Perhaps more importantly,
he was committed to smoke abatement as a vocation, and clearly
took delight in the prospect of bringing real improvement to
Calcutta’s atmosphere. Robson’s enthusiasm placed his actions on
a world stage. He regularly referred to smoke abatement develop
ments abroad, and compared Calcutta with Manchester, New
York, and Glasgow. Smoke inspectors were accorded considerable
status, and after 1922 were entitled to benefits normally reserved 1. No Smoke 2. Light Grey Smoke
for more senior servants under the Civil Service Regulations.
°
8
Robson and his two assistants served a didactic as well as a police
function. The inspectorate, which was consistently understaffed
during much of the inter-war period, was not only responsible for
monitoring smoke emissions and recommending prosecutions,
but also receiving complaints, approving building designs, training
stokers, and in certain cases, designing smoke-abating devices.
The key feature of the new system—both conceptually and
practically—was the way it linked prosecution to quantified levels
of smoke. Rather than relying upon subjective perceptions of 3. Grey Smoke 4. Dark Grey Smoke
nuisance, the impact of smoke was made subject to a putatively
objective, and hence ‘scientific’ measure. For this purpose a series
of grey scales based on those developed in France by Ringelmann
was adopted (see Fig. 1). ‘When held at a distance, the density of •iiiiiiia
the Ringelmann chart could be compared by eye with the density • . _. . . . . •
of emissions from particular chimneys. Thus changing densities —.......•
• . . . ._ . . •
were observed over time, and the result could be statistically • . . . . . . •
81 Since
manipulated to arrive at an overall measurement of smoke. —........
inspectors were unable to observe all chimneys simultaneously, iiiiiiii.
they concentrated on the chimneys thought to be emitting the
5. Black Smoke 6. Dense Black Smoke
worst smoke. Of course not all smoke fit neatly on the grey
Fig. 1. Bengal Smoke Gauge.
IOLR: L1E1711106.
In order to express the resulting observation as a single figure, a conversion
system was devised so that 1 minute of scale 6 smoke was deemed equivalent to
1.81 minutes of scale 5 smoke or 2.7 minutes of scale 4 smoke.
318 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 319
scales—biomass smoke was predominantly white or yellow in He recommetided the ‘lenient scale to prevent any ill-feeling with
colour
—bu
82 t the chart did provide an index of coal burning the commencement of the Act’ but proposed that the limit be
efficiency. Later generations would point out that the Ringelmann gradually reduced as the working of furnaces improved.
86 In early
chart focused attention on visible smoke, being quite useless in 1910, Howrah laboured for days under a thick evening smoke
measuring sulphur dioxide or other invisible substances. Yet the trapped by a temperature inversion. The Commission was power
system was far more sophisticated than anything operating in less to act since no individual chimney was found to be violating
London, where Ringelmann measures were not introduced until the Ringelmann standard.
87 Two years later, the ‘unnecessarily
1956.83 liberal’ emission limits were made significantly more stringent.
88
Quantification reformulated the problem of permissible In its first few years of operation, the Commission was able
nuisance in more precise terms, but the business of standard-set to secure a dramatic decline in the observed level of dense black
ting remained political. Like the Alipore Mill twenty-five years smoke (see Table 1). Early improvements resulted from intensive
earlier, the cleaner mills were held up as examples. Over a period lobbying and consultation with managers, especially those of the
of decades, certain mills were identified as normal—carrying the Bengali-owned oil and flour mills in north Calcutta. Robson
double connotation of being both statistically predominant and lobbied for good stoking and better furnace design. After good
socially acceptable. So standards were determined not by the stoking, probably the single most important factor in reducing
absolute level of smoke which the public could bear, but rather smoke emissions from coal-burning furnaces was the construction
by what industry could achieve given its existing endowments of of well-designed chimneys. A tall chimney raised smoke above
84 In this manner certain emission levels
technology and labour. inhabited space, but more importantly, it improved burning ef
received the stamp of government approval and were placed be ficiency by increasing draught. The city experienced a small-scale
yond the realm of public questioning. After Grover surveyed architectural revolution between 1906 and 1912 as the Commis
Calcutta emissions, he opined that the mix of Bengal coal and sion ordered 207 chimneys to be heightened, and many more were
coolie labour made abatement more difficult in Calcutta, and raised voluntarily. After 1915 owners were required to submit for
suggested a maximum of ten minutes of black smoke in the hour the Commission’s approval architectural drawings for all new
—more lax than standards in some English provincial towns.85 furnaces, flues, and chimneys.
89 ‘Where it was impossible to raise
chimneys, the inspectors endeavoured to have gas, electric, or other
82 In 1914, the Commission estimated that 8,000 trade furnaces in and
smokeless furnaces installed.
around Calcutta emitted smoke of colours other than grey or black. RBenSNG
Like the Alkali Inspectors in England, the Bengal Smoke
1913—14, P. 2. Inspectors sought a close working relationship with factory owners
83 Indeed, one of the objections to Curzon’s reforms was that they were more and managers. Once the statutory rules were officially approved,
stringent than the existing London legislation, the Public Health (London) Act prosecutions became possible and there followed a brief period in
of 1891 [54 & 55 Vic ch 76].
84 The Boiler Commission had used an informal measure after 1891, initiat 86 Grover, Repor4 pp. 145—6.
ing prosecution when a chimney exceeded twelve minutes of ‘black smoke’ in 87 RBenSNC, 1909—10, p. 4.
one hour. In May 1902 the Commission proposed to reduce the level to six 88 The new rules prohibited Scale
6 smoke entirely, while the limit of scales
minutes. 4 and 5, mathematically expressed in terms of scale 6, was reduced to 2.21
85 Comparable English levels were six minutes in Bolton, twelve minutes in minutes per hour for a single furnace. RBenSNC, 1912—13, p. 1.
Oldham, and one to three minutes in Leeds. Grover, Report, p. 145. 89 Bengal Smoke-Nuisances (Amendment Act,
) 1915.
320 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 321
Table 1 change. In effect, the responsibility for smoke was neatly shifted
Smoke Observations in Calcutta and Howrah, 1898—1944
from employers to workers. As managers began to dispense pun
Year Average. Year Average Year Average ishments and warnings to their workers, they were incorporated
mm/hr mm/hr mm/hr into the state’s authority system with police—like powers. Mean
1898/9 17.00 1917 1.31 1932 0.08 while, stokers, who were required to work with the existing tech
1899/0 10.88 1918 1.29 1933 0.08 nology, became subject to docked pay, punishments, and unpre
1900/1 7.44 1919 1.27 1934 0.07 dictable sackings.
° In using the power relations of the workplace
9
1901/2 8.16 1920 1.22 1935 0.07 to its advantage, the Commission was able to mollifr owners, avoid
1906 13.10 1921 1.60 1936 0.08 courtroom confrontations, and introduce a highly coercive system
1907 3.51 1922 1.68 1937 0.08 to ensure careful stoking. This approach was employed primarily
1908 2.50 1923 1.49 1938 0.09 within factories, but also in cases of ships, launches, locomotives,
1909 2.04 1924 1.39 1939 0.10 and road-rollers. The level of industrial smoke fell dramatically as
1910 1.94 1925 1.19 1940 0.09 the number of departmental notices increased. The Commission
1911 1.85 1926 0.98 1941 0.08 was so pleased with the result that departmental notices replaced
1912 1.84 1927 0.68 1942 0.11 prosecutions entirely for the years between 1925 and 1932. When
1913 1.82 1928 0.48 1943 0.12
R. Grant replaced Robson as Chief Smoke Inspector in 1932, he
1914 1.74 1929 0.30 1944 0.12
initiated a handful of prosecutions, but continued to rely most
1915 1.66 1930 0.18 heavily on the departmental notice system. Government and capi
1916 1.40 1931 0.08
tal had reached a lasting compromise—crucial to the scheme’s
The averages for 1898—1902 based on observations of minutes of ‘black overall success—which shifted the moral and physical burdens of
smoke’ emitted from 18 chimneys. smoke abatement onto labour.
Source: BengalJudicial Proceedings, July 1902, p. 1381. After 1906, aver In contrast to the close collusion between inspectors and mill-
ages are based on Ringelmann chart observations, expressed in owners, other types of polluters were subjected to more coercive
terms of Scale 6. Source: Reports of the Bengal Smoke Nuisance
policing. An important source of smoke was the small-scale manu
Commission, 1907—44.
facture 6f coke from raw coal, frequently carried out by mobile
entrepreneurs operating on ‘waste’ land, usually at night when the
which the Commission displayed its willingness to take mill- smoke was not easily observed.
’ Often drawing on scavenged or
9
owners to court. However, with substantial industry represent stolen coal, petty coke-producers filled a key niche in’ the Calcutta
ation on the Commission, the confrontations could not last, and fuel market, providing inferior quality coke at prices within reach
after 1912, a new approach was adopted. Aiming to reduce pro of potters, blacksmiths, and domestic consumers. In July 1909 the
secutions, the Commission incorporated the owners, managers, Commission introduced rules to prohibit the making of coke
and superintendents of large undertakings into the system of
enforcement. Upon sighting excessive levels of smoke, the Inspec was a precedent for this approach. In 1879 the magistrate of Howrah
tor issued a notice to the factory manager, who would then take undertook to prosecute and fine the ‘coolie’ stokers feeding the furnaces rather
than mill owners. IOLR, BenJP, 1879, Magistrate of Howrah to Commissioner
action departmentally, levying a fine on allegedly negligent or
of the Burdwan District, 26 Februai-y 1879.
inefficient stokers. It is difficult to overstate the import of this
‘ RBenSNC, 1918—19, p. 2.
322 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 323

without ovens or special appliances within Calcutta and its sub on average, only 11 per cent of the black smoke which they bad
urbs, successfully prosecuting twenty-six offenders.
92 discharged ten years previously. By 1922, the Commission could
Systematic enforcement proved difficult since ‘the irrespon boast that despite a doubling in the number of mills since 1907,
sible class of petty shop-keepers’ who engaged in the activity were Calcutta’s air was cleaner than that in the industrial and shipping
93 After 1915, criminal liab
able to move on before being detected. centres of Europe.
ility was extended to the owner of the land on which the coke was In 1926, a Central Smoke Observatory was established atop
94 With the rise in coke prices following 1919, there was
produced. one of the highest buildings in Calcutta. Suddenly it became
a massive upturn in small-scale coke production in 1920, proces possible to survey the entire 80 square miles under the Inspect-
95 In 1921 the Com
sing as much as 70 tonnes of raw coal per day. orate’s control. Nearly every factory chimney could be seen from
mission requested intensified police efforts to arrest coke manufac the observatory at once, and the number of departmental notices
turers, and proceedings were initiated in fifty-three cases.
96 jumped from 2759 in 1925 to 4170 in 1926, and 7433 in 1927.
Over the years the Commission received complaints regarding The Observatory was fitted with a telephone to facilitate im
blacksmiths, bakeries, potteries, cooking shops, brickfields, lime mediate conversation with the offending party. The effect was
kilns, constructionworks, and iron foundries, though bythe 1930s dramatic. Henceforth, the whole of the city became subject to
most complaints were directed at domestic smoke which was surveillance during daylight hours, and stokers were made aware
beyond its jurisdiction. Locomotives and steamships caused fre that their furnaces were under constant scrutiny. ‘Engineers and
quent complaint, in part because they vented emissions at a low firemen’ admonished the Commission, ‘will not reduce smoke
altitude near residential communities, and in part because their unless they know they are constantly watched, that every offence
smaller boilers made design innovations extremely difficult. The is detected and quickly followed up’. 98 Probably no other in
inspectorate emphasized good firing for each, and relied heavily dustrial city in the world, before or since, has operated a pollution
on the departmental notice system to put pressure on stokers. After notification system so ambitiously conceived, so comprehensive
1918, a number of ships converted from coal to oil-burning in range, or so penetrating in its disciplinary effects.
boilers. The initial experiments were disastrous. In January and
February of 1920, Calcutta was deluged with the accumulated
Labour and Technology
thick, oily smoke of ocean-going vessels. The dense rain of oily
smuts produced a public outcry in the press which only subsided Smoke from steam boilers could be abated either through invest
after the Commission supervised adjustments to the burners. ment in superior technology, or through highly-skilled stoking
Despite such minor disasters, there is no reason to doubt that practices, or both. Over the years, Calcutta firms experimented
the inspectorate efforts dramatically reduced the volume and den with both labour-intensive and capital-intensive forms of abate
sity of coal smoke from Calcutta’s chimneys. Robsn’s figures ment; their choices reveal much about attitudes to technology and
indicate that by 1916 the most noxious chimneys were emitting, labour in colonial circumstances. The basic elements of smoke
abatement had been fully described in England by the middle of
92 RBenSNC, 1909—10, p. 3.
RBenSNC, 1920, p. 4.
Bengal Smoke Nuisances (Amendment) Act, 1915. 97 That this was reduced to 7.4 per cent by 1926, and 0.6 per cent in 1936
RBenSNC, December 1920, p. 3. is testimony to the inspectorate’s very real influence.
96 RBenSNC, 1921, p. 3. 98 RBenSNC, 1927,
p. 5.
324 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 325
the nineteenth century, and were first discussed in India no later while the poorest fuel was diverted to the mills. Under a general
than 1877 when the Calcutta Port Commissioners held an inquiry regime of low investment, boiler equipment was not only ineffi
99 Prior to Grover’s report, the Bengal government
into the subject. cient, it was often cracked, corroded, and highly dangerous.’°
2
received technical advice from England in 1891, 1895, 1901, and Since boilers were inadequately insulated, stokers worked in con
1 902;b00 each instance reiterated essentially the same advice, which ditions of intolerably high temperatures which militated against
’ Adequate
was also available from the Encyclopaedia Britannica.
10 careful tending of air-fuel mixtures. In these circumstances, the
boiler power, careful stoking, tall chimneys and good quality coal best strategy available to stokers, both for comfort and safety, was
were widely recommended. It was usualiy lamented that in Indian to shovel in a large amount of coal as quickly as possible, and then
conditions, efforts to reduce pollution would never match the retreat to a cooler place away from the furnace. Not surprisingly,
perfection of smoke abatement which existed in England—the this seems to be what many stokers did.
inferiority of coal, technology, and skilled labour was simply The twin factors of race and class made stokers easy objects
presumed. of abuse. Grover reflected the views of European managers when
Among mill-owners, the most frequent scapegoat for smoke he concluded that ‘the low standard of intelligence of the native
was the indolent Indian stoker. The task of the stoker was onerous: fireman’ constituted the largest obstacle to smoke abatement in
in order to burn coal with a minimum of smoke, the correct 103 He observed that the typical fireman displayed a
Calcutta.
proportions ofair and fuel had to be maintained at a high temper3- ‘stolid indifference’ and ‘passive resistance’ to the demands of
ture. Excess air would reduce the temperature of the smoke below smoke abatement. Racist prejudices aside, stokers did talce action
ignition point, while too little air would supply inadequate to defr their ridiculous working conditions. Most stokers were
amounts of oxygen to coml)ust volatile materials and unburnt classified as ‘coolie’ labour, employed at the lowest possible
carbon. Executed properly, the task of stoking involved a high 4 Training was minimal since the majority of mill-owners
wages.’°
degree of skill and mental concentration. The coal needed to be placed a low priority on technical ,education of workers.
105 The
added regularly in small quantities, and spread evenly over the working conditions exacerbated a high rate of turn-over, at
burning bed—an especially demanding exercise in India where tributable in part to the seasonal character of employment, with
the coal was not sorted by size. The stoker’s job was even more many stokers involved in agricultural pursuits. Though some
difficult where the Managing Agent of the mill also operated a stokers adopted the ways of a more settled work-force and became
colliery, since the best coal was reserved for sale on the open market highly skilled,’
06 the majority remained transient and did not have
the opportunity to develop smoke abatement expertise.
IOLR, BenJP, 1880, Vice-Chairman, Port Commissioners to Secretary,
99
102 Report of the Commission
Government of Bengal, 24 April 1880. for the Inspection of Steam-Boilers and Prime
100 See, respectively: note on smoke abatement by R. Bushby, 8 December Movers, Annual Series, 1903/4—1940.
103 Grover, Report
1891 (BenJP, January 1892); paper by Mr CurruthersThomson, Engineer to p. 44.
104 IOLR: L/E/7/1381/(File 886),
the Smoke Abatement Association, 1895 (BenJP, January 1902), letter from Memorandum on Hours and Wages in
Mssrs Hargreaves & Co of Soho Iron Works, 1901 (BenJP, July 1902), minute Jute Mills, 1926; and S.R. Deshpande, An Enquiry into Conditions ofLabour in
on smoke nuisance in Calcutta by Dr Theodore Thomson, 1902 (BenJP, July the Jute Mill Industry ofIndia (Simla, 1946).
105 0. Chakrabarty, Rethinking
1902). Working-Class History: Bengal 1890—1940
101 ‘Smoke Abatement’, Encyclopaedia Britannica, ninth ed., vol. 22 (Edin (Princeton, 1989), pp. 88—92.
106 RBenSNZ 1926,
burgh, 1888). p. 3.

a
326 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest ofSmoke 327
In March 1914 the Commission established a training pro-. improperly installed or operated, orwere ill-suited to Indian coal,
gramme for stokers, with the promise ofa certificate for those who or were simply fraudulent devices ineffective in actually changing
completed the course. Few labourers appeared for the scheme, and 9 Dozens of different devices were
combustion.
the character of 10
the Commission reduced the training fees in an unsuccessful tried. Calcutta offered particularly rich pickings for charlatan
attempt to attract more 107 interest. With European employers entrepreneurs: one mill insisted that its clean chimneys could be
reluctant to sponsor their workers, the scheme was shut down in attributed to a spriniding of newly-invented powder on the coal;
frustration after nine years. Between 1914 and 1923 only 133 however, Grover noted that the agents for the mill were also the
stokers were trainedin this way, and of these, the majority came agents for the
from boiler-rooms operated by Indians. In practice, smoke abate As early as 1879 the magistrate of Howrah suggested that
ment skiiis were imparted by Robson and his assistants during the managers would do better to concentrate on good stoking rather
thousands of on-site furnace inspections they made every year. than spending exorbitant sums on patent smoke abating ma
The reluctance of European employers to sponsor their workers chinery.” However, mill managers were hesitant to rely on stok
for training perplexed the Commission, but it was in keeping with ing, since the predominant view held, in 1891, that ‘the quality
a larger pattern among European managers who tenaciously of workmen available here is hardly capable of firing a boiler so
refused to invest in employee education. In contrast, Indian- as to reduce the volume of 12 smoke’.’ Throughout the 1 890s
operated businesses were more forthcoming with smoke abate mill-owners were counselled to seek the latest improved appliances
ment. In 1908, nearly one hundred oil and flour mills under to deal with the problem, but with small success. By 1903 the
Bengali management in northern Calcutta employed a special failure of technical solutions had frequently ‘given rise to the
engineer to abate smoke from their furnaces. The engineer’s pay opinion [among mill-owners} that nothing further can be done’
was linked to a bonus contingent on the absence of prosecutions while the benefits of good stoking were ignored since ‘too much
under the Smoke Nuisance Act. The scheme was a success, but reliance has been placed on automatic 3 devices’.” Grover sug
European managers refused to take up similar initiatives. gested that technical solutions would only be feasible once Cal
If European capital reviled workers, it was perpetually drawn cutta had developed a pool of labour power capable of managing
to the notion of an easy technical fix for smoke nuisance. The the complicated machinery. ‘What the European managers failed
market for abatement devices was well-established by the early to appreciate was that improved technology was largely useless
1 870s, and many firms imported the latest patent furnaces, fuel without more highly-skilled labour. Their fascination and trust in
beds, and fashionable gadgets from London. Some measures— machines, when combined with a refusal to support a more skilled
particularly those which increased furnace size or facilitated good workforce, consigned many early abatement efforts to failure.
draughts—were successful if tended with 08vigilance) Others were
109 IOLR, BenJP, March 1900, Secretary, Government of Bengal to
Secretary, Government of India, 12 January 1900.
107RBenSNC, 1916—17, p. 2. 110 Grover, Repor4
p. 11.
108Without skilled operators, most smoke-abating furnaces suffered from IOLR, BenJP, 1879, Magistrate ofHowrah to Commissioner ofBurdwan,
iden
clogged apertures or improper fuel loading. Though these problems were 26 February 1879.
tified as early as 1882, few changes were introdu ced in labour processes. IOLR, 112 IOLR, BenJP, January 1892, Magistrate of Howrth to Commissioner of
ment
BenJP, February 1883, President, Boiler Commission to Secretary, Govern Burdwan, 4 September 1891.
of Bengal, 28 July 1882. Grover, Repor4 p. 18.

a’
328 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
The Conquest of Smoke 329
Robson and his assistants were able to impress upon managers the period following the First World War, especially as the Smoke
importance of good stoking, but after the collapse of the stoker Nuisance Commission assumed a more didactic tone and turned
training scheme, inspectors seem to have devoted greater efforts its attentions to the well-being of the subordinate classes.
to encouraging capital-intensive methods of smoke abatement. In The link between smoke and health had been in the back
the mid-1920s a number of jute mills began to adopt more ground during the early nineteenth century when the emphasis
sophisticated technology including grit-removers, smoke washers,
fell mainly on the nuisance and discomfort smoke introduced to
and devices to pre-heat and super-heat air for combustion. urban life. In the extended writings on sanitation, drainage, and
Of course there were many instances where innovations in
improved ventilation, virtually no attention was devoted to smoke
engineering brought about spectacular improvements. For in
per se. The problem appears to have been viewed independently
stance, in 1920 a number of rice mills turned away from the
of miasmas and pathogenic landscapes. But the miasma theory
inflation-bloated price ofcoal, and began to burn rice husks, which
maintained its hold over European imaginations until well into
generated a light but copious smoke laden with soot and ash. Since
the 1 890s,”
6 and its emphasis on ventilation continued to inform
the mills operated in the predominantly European Tollygunge
later medical debates on smoke.
area, residents were quick to complain that ‘the air is filled up In 1920 the Commission endorsed the theory that smoke
with black soot which falls like drizzling rain from morning till ‘renders the system susceptible to distemper of diverse kinds’, and
4 Though the soot
night, and it has become impossible to live’.” opined that the rise in tuberculosis was ‘greatly, if not wholly due
did not transgress the Ringehnann chart standards, Robson suc to this cause’.
117 This marked a considerable shift from Lankster’s
cessfully designed a series of devices to reduce the emissions,
comprehensive report on tuberculosis, published only five years
effectively settling the problem with a purely mechanical solution.
previously, which made no mention of smoke.” 8 The Commis
But even with such technological improvements skilled operation sion devel
ped the theme further throughout the 1 920s. Noting
2
remained an essential ingredient of efficient combustion. The that one-fifth of the total death-rate in Calcutta could be attributed
‘hI.1man element’ remained ‘the last barrier to the realization of a to diseases of the breathing organs, it stressed that ‘smoke nuisance
smokeless city’.’
15
lowers the public health and renders it susceptible to other
9 In response to increasing concern for the effects of
diseases’.’
Smoke and Social ‘Improvement’ smoke on public health, the Director of Public Health for Bengal
was appointed to the Smoke Nuisance Commission in 1927. That
Though the basic techniques of smoke abatement remained
year a statistical analysis showed that the weekly death rate rose
reasonably constant, its social audience and cultural significance
from 80 to 240 during especially smoky periods.’
20 Though a link
changed dramatically over the spread of the colonial period. What
with respiratory disorders was identified as the primary causal
began as a palliative to influential Europeans successively became
factor, the Comçnission also opined that smoke had a more general
a matter of middle-class Indian concern, a check on unplanned
industrial growth, and finally a component in the state’s public 116 See, for example, ‘The City of Calcutta and its municipal constitution’,
health policy. This last feature assumed greater prominence in the Calcutta Review, 70, 1880.
117 RBenSN December 1920,
p. 4.
118 A. Lankester, Report on Tuberculosis in India
114 RBenSNC 1921, p. 3. (Simla, 1915).
119 RBenSNC 1926,
115 RBenSNC 1927, p. 10. p. 2.
120 RBenSN 1927,
p. 4.

1
A
 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conqu’st ofSmoke 331
330
grew more acute as Calcutta’s population increased in size and
effect in lowering the public vitality since it cut off ‘the sun’s
health-giving ultraviolet rays’.
121 density. ‘Collectively, in the suburbs, particularly in the cold
Toward the end of the 1 920s, as the incidence of black coal weather evenings, localities are enveloped for several hours in a
smoke from industry declined, the principal health issues arose in low-lying suffocating smoke pall, even on holidays when the mills
relation to domestic smoke. The effects of domestic smoke were stopped’.’
are 29
highlighted after a much higher death rate was noted in residential The problem of domestic smoke did not yield easily to mere
22 Even though domestic smoke lay technical solutions. The conventional remedies for domestic smoke
areas than in industrial areas.’
beyond the Commission’s legal remit, the epidemiological evid adopted in the metropole—tafler chimneys, more efficient fire
places, and a switch to smokeless fuels—were unreal in the context
ence was a convenient scientific justification to pursue what had
of Calcutta’s economic 3 circumstances.’ Some attempt was made
°
already been a longstanding irritation. In its first report, the Com
to promote coke over coal, and to encourage more efficient burning
mission noted that much of the smoke nuisance derived from
123 of biofuels, but the Commission recognised that no relief would
domestic fires, which were not covered by the Act. The problem
be obtained unless solid-fuel stoves could be replaced by appliances
was ‘aggravated by the fact that such smoke is discharged at almost
ground level, as compared with the discharges from chimneys in operated by gas or other smokeless fuels. However, such appliances
European 24 cities’.’ The most severe smoke occurred in the evening were well beyond the means of most residents. Another tactic
and early morning, when cooking activity peaked and the air was justified by health concerns was to reduce indoor air pollution.
still. At its worst, the stagnant low smoke could be so dense that Europeans commented that most Indian dwellings, whether made
distant’.’ This ‘low- of masonry or mud and straw did not normally include chimneys,
‘the street lights cannot be seen a few yards 25
lying smoke’ was regarded as ‘the most deadly’ form of smoke the smoke being allowed to percolate through a porous ceiling
after 1920.126 Observations indicated that the smoke from domes construction. The resulting accumulation of indoor smoke par
’
13
tic fires was worst where raw coal was used as the chief source of ticularly affected women who were more likely to stay inside and
27 In 1914 the Commission recommended to the government
fuel.’ work over smoky stoves. Efforts were made to introduce domestic
that the burning of raw coal in domestic fireplaces be prohibited, chimneys and new cooking devices, which had also become markers
but the proposal was politically 28 untenable.’ The inspectorate of affluence and sophistication among the Bengali middle classes.
encouraged the replacement of .coal domestic cookers with gas, After 1935 smoke inspectors began to make visits into residential
and generally urged more extensive use of gas and electricity in all areas, giving instruction in the smokeless firing of cooking stoves.
homes. But these options were available only to the tiny percentage Since the Commission had no legal power in the area of domestic
of the population able to afford such extravagances. The problem smoke, it was forced to rely more heavily on persuasion than
coercion. The strategy had little social effect, largely because the
121 RBenSNC, 1928, p. 2. increased levels of heat and air required to make cookiqg fires
122 RBenSNC, 1928, p. 7. smokeless also required more fuel. Nevertheless, the Commission
123 ]enSNC, 1906—7, p. 3.
124 ]fienSNC, 1907—8, p. 3. 129 RBenSNc 1923, p. 5.
125 RBenSNC, 1927, p. 9.
126
RBenSNE 1928, p. 7.
RBenSN 1925, p. 3. 131 See, for example, W. Crooke, Natives ofNor.thern India (London, 1907),
127 R&nSNC, 1913—14, p. 2.
p. 152.
128 RBenSNC, 1914—15, p. 2.

LI
 r
332 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 333
continued a public campaign against smoke, aiming to temper primary purpose—the reduction of smoke—their other social
criminal sanctions with public education. The Commission consequences were perhaps equally important.
mounted displays showing the effects of smoke on mortality, food The ability to control smoke emissions was a critical test for
supplies, trees, and distant localities. And in a prescient anticipation the capacity of scientific reasoning to dominate the physical world.
of later developments, it commissioned a short film on smoke It also had important implications for the way in which Indians
abatement to be shown in the Calcutta cinemas. The indifferent experienced industrialization. Environmental degradation was a
success of the campaign betrayed the limited range of its audience. ready charge against unpopular technological and economic
Though the middle classes began to adopt gas appliances more change. In regulating smoke, the state acted to head off objections
readily, the Commission made little impact on aggregate levels of to industrialization before they mushroomed into serious social
domestic smoke. protest. The result was not to stop industrialization entirely, but
merely to rein in its worst excesses. Perhaps too, this may be viewed
Pollution, Legislation, and Hegemony as another instance of the colonial state’s remarkable capacity to
anticipate and intercept pressures for radical change.
The conquest ofsmoke was a colonial enterprise. Since the colonial Approaches to smoke abatement were closely bound up with
government catered more to urban administrative and mercantile attitudes to technology and the ideological bases of colonial
elite than to manufacturing interests, it was able to regulate smoke 133 In 1883, the Bengal government, then riding the crest of
rule.
enthusiastically within the constraints of available resources. A Victorian optimism, predicted that since engineering innovations
similar trajectory was not possible in Britain, where the industrial would soon make the smoke problem obsolete, there was no
lobby frustrated smoke abatement efforts for many years. 132 An point in producing new legislation until a successful apparatus
interventionist government located in a colonial setting was less for the consumption of smoke was discovered.
134 But by 1902 it
constrained by laissez-faire doctrines than equivalent municipal was clear that Victorian technology had not provided a solution,
governments in Britain. and Calcutta was struggling under a blanket of smog which it
Although the Smoke Nuisance Commission had a profound could not throw off. In these circumstances, Curzon’s administra
impact on the burning practices and level of industrial smoke tion was inclined to adopt a more urgent idiom, with overtones
during the late colonial period, there is a temptation to overem of apocalypse:
phasize its importance. The incidence and character of smoke in
[TI he continued prevalence of the nuisance which is even more ag
Calcutta had much to do with factors which were beyond the
gravated now than it was two years ago, shows conclusively that those
inspectorate’s control. Changes in population, urban density, fuel
measures have not been sufficient. In the interest both of the comfort
prices, and socially-determined burning practices were as impor and health of the inhabitants of the city and fort and the future of
tant as the introduction ofnew technologies. By 1950 the momen Calcutta and its neighbourhood as a site of residence, it is essential that
tum of technological change had overtaken the Act. Coal-burning
steam engines were becoming obsolete, and the Act was powerless
against rising automobile pollution. And yet, while the smoke
133 See, more generally, Michael Adas, Machines as the Measure of Men:
abatement efforts in Calcutta do need to be measured against their
Science, Technology, and Ideologies of Western Dominance (Ithaca, 1989).
134 IOLR, BenJP, March 1883, Secretary, Government of Bengal to Com
132 Ashby and Anderson, The Politics of Clean Air. missioner, Burdwan, 30 March 1883.
334 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Conquest of Smoke 335
the evil should be taken in hand at once, since every year’s delay must regulation rather than public debate was never questioned. Smoke
increase the difficulties of grappling with it successfully.
135 abatement used the language of scientific administration to assert
Curzon was keenly aware that Calcutta’s melancholy murk had that given the correct mix of technological investment and ad
profound political implications that went beyond the immediate ministrative organization, the human environment could be made
complaints of respectable citizens. At stake, even if only implicitly, subject to political control. That smoke regulation in Calcutta
was the core claim of imperialist ideology: that European technol relied upon heavy doses of coercion suggests that there might be
ogy and social organization improved the quality of human life. more than a passing affinity between successful environmental
If the civilizing mission which depended on machines and in intervention and authoritarian forms of governance.
dustrial progress was discredited by the belching chimneys along
the Hooghly, then the reassertion ofEuropean superiority required
better engineering and more vigorous policing. In effect, the gov
ernment was admitting the deleterious effects of industrialization
even as it tried to abate and disguise them. Of course, European
engineers never doubted the superiority of their technology, but
the basis of their faith had to be publicly demonstrated. If the
government could successfully control the longstanding problem
of Calcutta smoke, a concrete example of the potential benefits of
state power would be available. Smoke control helped to symbol
ize, in a practical way, the authority of the state, as well as demon
strate the potential benefits of state power.
The control of smoke provided a subtle way of asserting
hegemony over social and productive life. Smoke was omnipresent
and few could object to its diminution. As the administrative
capacity to regulate smoke expanded, the frontiers of the state
made an unobtrusive but significant advance. At the same time,
the new profession of ‘combustion 136 engineering’, imparted a
technical vocabulary for apprehending and manipulating the at
mosphere. This professional cadre, operating under the banner of
scientific expertise, was able to influence everything from policing
to labour relations in the new Calcutta. Even though the allure of
purely technological solutions led to frustration among managers
and owners, the decision to treat smoke as a matter for technical

135 IOLR, India Public Proceedings, March 1902, Secretary, Government of

India to Secretary, Government of Bengal, 3 March 1902.
136 RBenSNG 1926,
p. 2.
 The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 337

that it is these factors that determine human behaviour vis-à-vis

the environment and that effective resource policy and manage
Chapter Eleven ment systems must take these realities into consideration.

The Resurgence of Community Forest The Pre-Colonial Context

Management in the Jungle Mahals of It is apparent that prior to the colonial era, western Midnapore
was covered by dense jungle tracts. ‘While patches of forests,
West Bengal particularly along river plains had been cleared for agriculture,
much of the area was wild and remote. For these reasons, the
Jungle Mahals presented an ideal escape for tribal and other groups
*
MARK POFFENBERGER fleeing from oppression. Mukerji comments that during the late
Mughal period large tracts of jungle inhabited by tribals (the
Jharkhand) extended through the entire Chotanagpur area includ
ing Birbhum and western Burdwan (see Map 1). He notes further
nternational concern over the rapid deterioration of the

J planet’s forests has drawn attention to the dramatic changes

in land cover in the tropics. Each year millions of hectares of
natural forest lands continue to be cleared. Yet, in south-west
that ‘although the Muslim Jagirdars were posted in Rajnagar in
Birbhum, it seems a large number of tribal folk remained insular
in the hilly regions’.’ This essay examines the experiences emerging
from an area known as the Jungle Mahals including the police
Bengal and some other parts of South Asia, community groups stations (thana) of Garbetta, Binpur, Gopiballavpur, Salboni,
have mobilized effectively to protect natural forests. With virtually Silda, and Jhargram in western Midnapore District (see Map 2).
no budget, relying on natural regeneration, over a million people The region was primarily populated by Santal, Bhumij, and
have participated in the establishment of effective management Mahato tribals, with some low-caste Hindus.
2
for nearly one quarter million hectares of degraded sal (Shorea In the pre-colonial period, while the Jungle Mahals were
robust-a) forests. This essay attempts to reconstruct the historical nominally under Mughal control, due to the inaccessibility of the
process through which this grassroots social movement emerged. area little attempt was made to extract revenues or exert political
Too often, national resource management policy and develop authority. The Santal and Bhumij tribal communities of forest
ment planning is based solely on an analysis of existing conditions inhabitants practised shifting (swidden) cultivation, as well as
and future need projections. Rarely is it based on a well grounded hunting and gathering forest products.
3 Wild fruits, roots, herbs
understanding of the history of environmental use patterns and
1 S. Mukerji, ‘A chapter on the tribal sources of Bengal history in the Muslim
the social, economic and political forces that shape them. I assume
period’, Bulletin ofthe Cultural Research Institute, 11, 1—2, 1975, pp. 20—4, as
*
J would like to thank a number of persons who have commented on earlier cited in Edward Duyker, Tribal Guerrillas: The Santals of West Bengal and the
drafts of this paper and provided valuable guidance in its development. Particular Naxalite Movement (Delhi, 1987), Pp. 27—8.
2 Swapan Dasgupra, ‘Adivasi politics in Midnapur, c. 1760—1924’, in Ranjit
thanks are due to Ram Guha, Minoti Kaul, Cheryl Cort, David Arnold, and
Prabir Guhathakurta. The author would also like to thank Jeff Campbell and Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies IV(Delhi, 1985), p. 102.
3 Duyker, Trial Guerrillas, p. 28.
the Ford Foundation for supporting the research.
338 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 339

Tribal Concentrations
International Boundary
State Boundary
District Boundary
Map 2. Midnapur District and Case Study Areas.

Map 1. Tribal Population Distribution in West Bengal.

J
 340 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
and the nutritious flowers and fruit pulp of the Mahua tree The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 341
provided much of the diet, making them less dependent on agri if they would guard mountain passes. Baden-Powell noted that
culture and highly mobile. Tribal villages were also actively en ‘The chief (ghatwal) was allowed to take the revenue of a hill or
gaged in trade in firewood, silk, resin, deer and buffalo horns, wax, frontier tract on the condition of maintaining a police or military
honey, bark fabrics, lac, medicines, and charcoal.
4 force (paiks), to keep the peace and prevent raids of robbers on to
Hamilton, writing in the 1 820s, notes that when the forest the plain country below’.
8
dwellers encountered the ‘least oppression’ from rulers or locally The polity of the Santal communities of south-west Bengal,
powerful groups, they fled.
5 At the same time, it seems that the and likely other tribal forest-dwelling groups, was either through
forest-dwelling communities of the Jungle Mahals could also resist community council or village chiefs. In the former case, the village
incursions into their areas. Their superior knowledge of the jungle was governed by a council of elders or panchayat whose member
and their hunting skills made them an effective guerrilla force. ship is decided annually by community members. The traditional
Pre-emptory raids on lowland groups expanding into the forest village council operates under a pargana, or council comprised of
areas also provided economic benefits. Some Bhumij communities ten to twelve village panchayats, while final authority rests with
gained the reputation as chaurs (robbers), from their aggressive the Lo Bir, or forest council, which may extend over an entire
raids into the plains. Many local rajas and zamindars preferred to district and is the final court for dispute arbitration. The annual
leave them alone and not attempt to extract taxes from them, hunt organized by the Lo Bir provides the basis for inter-village
rather than to enter into conflicts with jungle people. political organizing, conflict resolution, military organizing and
Tribal communities that maintained forest-oriented, self-suf joint decision making—as well as a source of protein. Duyker
ficient economies were best able to thwart outside political dom reports that ‘the social significance of the Lo Bir far outweighs its
ination. They alternatively protected their political autonomy and economic importance’.
9 More specifically, the Lo Bir appears to
forest resources through warfare and withdrawal. In some cases have provided a unifying mechanism among dispersed Santal
where tribal communities had grown more dependent on settled communities, both over space and time. The council provided
agriculture, local zamindars made agreements with them, giving communication channels through which information regarding
them formal land tax exemptions if they would serve as paiks social and political issues could be exchanged and a organizational
6 J.C. Price notes that ‘The aborigines of the jungle
(militiamen). body through which some consensus on tribal policies might be
lands had been granted paikan lands (free or non-karjots) by their reached. Due to the existence of this network of village and forest
Rajas for their subsistence, and they have been enjoying these lands councils, it maybe that outside political operatives, like the Jhar
on hereditary basis for long periods in lieu of their services of khandis and the Naxalites, found it easier to work among the
police duties to the jungle-Raja’.
7 To protect against chaur raids, Santal in the later half of the twentieth century.
some zamindars and local rajas made ghatwal grants to local chiefs During the pre-colonial period, and up to the present, the
‘
L.S.S. O’Malley, Bengal District Gazetteer: Bankura (Calcutta, 1911),
belief systems of the forest communities were strongly grounded
P. 124; W.W. Hunter, Statistical Account of Bengal: Vol. III (London, 1876), in the worship of nature. Religious festivals are tied to both the
P. 18. agricultural cycle and the flowering and fruiting of the forest trees.
5W. Hamilton, Eastlndia Gazetteer, vol.2,2nd edn. (London, 1828), P. 229. The Santal new year, for example, begins with the blossoming of
6 Binod Das, Civil Rebellion in the Frontier Bengal (Calcutta, 1973),
p. 48. 8 B.H. Baden-Powell, Land Systems ofBritish
J.C. Price, Notes on History ofMidnapore, vol. 1 (1876), Ps 1. India, vol. 1 (Oxford, 1892),
P. 393.
9 Duyker, Tribal Guerrillas,
P. 169.
 The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 343
342 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
tribal communities resisted, ambushing British forces and harass
the Sal tree in March. The links in tribal belief between the health ing them whenever possible. According to one British source from
of the forest, fertility, and prosperity are clear in the following the period.
lines from this Baha festival song. As soon as the harvest is gathered in they carry their grain to the tops
When the Sal trees are in leaf, of the hills, or lodge it in other fastnesses that are impregnable; so that
On the mountain, whenever they are pursued by a superior force they retire to these places,
How lovely they look, where they are quite secure, and bid defiance to any attack that can be
10
Wealth in the house.. made against them. 14
This subsistence-oriented, isolationist life of the tribal com Lcxal- zamindars also initially resisted the imposition of colonial
munities of the Jungle Mahals began to change with the emergence authority, refusing to pay their taxes, organizing their paik militias
of British colonial power in Bengal in the late eighteenth century. to resist, and falling into arrears on their taxes. In 1798 widespread
violent resistance disrupted revenue collection activities in the
Midnapur area, forcing the Company to restore lands to hereditary
Changing Forest Management During the Colonial Period
chiefs that had been put up for sale for failure to pay taxes.’
5
-In 1760 the district of Midnapore was transferred to the East India Through superior force, however, the British did gradually
Company by Mir Qasim, making it one of the first districts in succeed in extending their control in the area through the nine
1 The area comprised vast
India to be brought under British rule.’ teenth century. As this process continued, the British empowered
rracts of forest, broken oniy by patches of farmland. Hamilton a new class of zamindars to control and tax local forest com
notes that ‘these jungles were occupied by a poor miserable pro munities, encouraging them to open forest land for cultivation.
scribed race of men called Santals and the land was under
. . . ‘,
Individual villages were established under Mandali tenure which
the dominion of chieftains who had never been reduced to sub could be incorporated into the revenue collection system. The
mission by the Moghuls and who ‘never paid any regular rents for Mandal, or village chief, brought tribal labourers with him to
their lands’.’
2 convert forest to agricultural land. The zamindar financed the
During the late eighteenth century the British sent military migration of the tribal community (usually Santals), and their sub
expeditions into the Jungle Mahals in an attempt to extend their sistence until the land became productive. Some of these zamin
authority and extract land revenues. According to Richard Becher, dars were allocated huge tracts of land. For example, ‘the Pargana
an officer of the East India Company writing in 1769, ‘When the Cundar was one of the largest Zamindaries of Midnapore.. con .

English received the grant of the Dewani, their first consideration taining about 663 villages and over 130,000 bighas of land’.’6
seems to have been the raising of as large sums from the country The tribal communities of the Jungle Mahals resisted the
as could be collected to answer the pressing demands from home imposition of the tacation system through a series of armed revolts.
3 The forest chieftains and
and to defray the large expenses here’.’
4 Report from the Resident of Midnapore, 6 February 1773, cited in
W.G. Archer, The Hill ofFlutes, Love and Poetry in Tribal India: A Portrait
10 Gouripada Chatterjee, Midnapore: The Forerunner ofIndia’s Freedom Struggle
ofthe Santats (London, 1974), p. 237, cited in Duyker, Tribal Guerrillas, p. 169. (Delhi, 1986), p. 38.
11 Duyker, Tribal Guerrillas, p. 28. 15 O’Malley, Bankura,
p. 44.
16 Chatterjee, 43.
12 Ibid.,
p. 28. p.
Cited in A.K. Sur, History and Culture ofBengal(1963), pp. 176—7.
344 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 345
The first, referred to as the Chuar 7 Rebellions,’ lasted from 1767 majority of their farm lands between 1892 and 1906. Of the 120
to 1800. Tribal guerrillas were so effective that ‘even as late as Santal villages who had owned land which McAlpin surveyed, ‘35
1800, after nearly forty years of British occupation, a collector had sold their rights to pay off debts, 6 surrendered their rights,
reported that two thirds of Midnapore consisted of jungle, the 19 had their rights forcibly taken away, and for 54 the process of
8 Yet, gradually the East
greater part of which was inaccessible’.’ ° As Baden-Powell writes, ‘The Mahajan en
loss was unknown’.
2
India Company succeeded in strengthening its control, despite trenched himself in the rural economy which came to be dom
subsequent revolts by forest people, such as the Naik Revolt ’ With the elimination of tribal landowners, the
mated by him’.
2
(1806—16). By the early nineteenth century, while courts, jails, Bengali mahajan landlords and the large zamindari companies
and district police were ineffective, collection of land revenue was came to control land resources, raising rents drastically and elim
becoming a routine matter. Under the Permanent Settlement Act inating many of the forest use rights previously enjoyed by tribal
by 1866, 1369 zamindari estates had been established in Mid and low-caste communities.
napore, and given the absolute ownership of agricultural lands and The process of forest clearing for agricultural land conversion
9 In order
forest tracts as long as they paid government revenues.’ had sweeping ecological implications, especially for river systems
to meet their tax obligations, zamindars were anxious to bring in and soil conditions. Removal of the forest cover allowed torrential
tribal and peasant cultivators to clear forest land and convert it to monsoon rains to wash away the shallow top soils-, leaving an
agricultural crops. Tribal communities often lost control of their exposed laterite hard pan that made farming virtually impossible
paikan lands to zamindars and the Company, becoming tenant in many areas. Traditional forest based industries like tusar silk,
farmers. Due to the greater farming expertise of Hindu peasant indigo and endi declined dramatically, as did the population den
cultivators, tribals were often displaced by zamindars in favour of sities in Chandrakona, Ghatal and other regions of the Jungle
the former, further exacerbating their social and environmental Mahals as the forest was cleared.
22
dislocation. By the 1 860s pressure on the forests ofthe Jungle Mahals grew
Tribal and low-caste families also suffered at the hands of further as the growing railway system demanded immense quan
moneylenders ( mahajans) The diku (plains people) moneylenders
.
tities of sal logs to provide sleepers for the rail bed. The construc
who migrated into the Jungle Mahals began to displace the zamin tion and opening of the Ajay-Sainthia and Sainthia-Tinpahar
dars as sources of credit for small farmers. The mahajans were far railway lines in 1860 stimulated commercial felling, followed by
more effective than the zamindars in converting outstanding loans the construction of the main line of the Bengal-Nagpur railway
into land mortgages and then foreclosing on them when the in 1898. Commercial demand for timber accelerated forest cut
borrower failed to pay. Moneylenders often charged exorbitant ting, and raised the value of forest lands.
23 Timber merchants
interest rates of 50 per cent per year, forcing defaulters to migrate
or become tenant farmers. Dasgupta cites McALpin who reported 20 M.C. McAlpin, Report on the Condition ofthe Sonthals in the Districts of

at the time that many tribal and low-caste communities lost the Birbhum, Bankura, Midnapore and North Bala,sore (Calcutta, 1909), pp. 20—1,
3 1—3, 38—9, cited in Dasgupta, ‘Adivasi Politics’, p. 109.
21 Baden-Powell, Land Systems, I,
p. 407.
17 The British adopted the Bengali term ‘Chaur’ meaning an outlandish or 22 Midnapore District Census Report (1951),
p. LXV.
wild person, to refer to the tribal and low-caste people of the area. 23 Kailash C. Malhotra and Debal Deb, ‘History of deforestation and
18 Chatterjee, Midnapore, pp. 17—18.
regeneration/plantation in Midnapore district of West Bengal, India’, Paper
‘9 Ibid.,
p. 72. prepared for the IUFRO International Conference on ‘History of small scale
346 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 347

rushed in, even before the rail lines opened and began leasing or number were reportedly killed. Despite their defeat the HulRebel
purchasing large tracts from the Midnapur Zamindari Company lion (as it is known among the Santal) ‘profoundly influenced the
24 Leaseholders and zamindars began impos
and other zamindars. ideological development of many Santal commun ities’,28 and lives
ing strict controls an forest use by local communities as the value on in the songs and oral traditions of the tribal people of the Jungle
of the forest increased, restricting or eliminating traditional usu Mahals.
fruct rights enjoyed under the mandali land tenure system. When Toward the end of the nineteenth century many of the estates
tribals and low-caste groups appealed to the Settlement Depart of smaller landowners were absorbed by large landowners. These
ment, their complaints were usually dismissed noting that the included the British-held Midnapur Zamindari Company, the
‘encroachments of the landlords were justified by “unavoidable Jhargram Raj, and the Raja of Mayurbhanj. Throughout the later
economic circumstances” Dasgupta convincingly argues that ‘it
‘. part of the nineteenth and first halfof the twentieth century, many
was with the active connivance and supervision of the imperial forest communities in the Jungle Mahals became increasingly
bureaucracy that the destruction of the traditional jungle rights indebted to moneylenders and tax collectors, causing widespread
25 Tribal communities were charged fees to gather
was carried out’. mortgaging and loss of their agricultural lands. McAlplin writing
fuelwood or cut roofing poles. Zamindars sold lease rights for the in 1909 observed a ‘general transfer of Santhal lands to non
collection of lac and cultivation of silk. They also carried out Santhals’, noting most sales of Santhal land were due to previous
periodic searches of forest communities to detect illegally cut debts and that the land generally was sold for as little as Rs 10 per
fuelwood or timber. If forest products were found, family mem 29 A report made in 1947, reported that the average agriil
bzha.
bers would be beaten and sometimes killed. Bradely-Birt notes for tural land-holding size of tribals had decreased to 0.5 acre of owbed
Chotanagpur that new zamindars also demanded tribals to pay land and 1.2 acres of sharecropped land, noting the prqcaiioirs
taxes on mahua flowers and sometime cut down the trees and sold ° The Benga1fdai.
nature of such marginal farming operations.
3
26 As customary access to the
them for timber if they failed to pay. cy Act and the Zamindari Abolition Act of 1953 which were
forest was restricted, friction between tribal and low-caste com designed to assist tribal and disadvantaged farmers, eio have
munities and local zamindars grew. the intended effect. In some cases, the acts even cil,tated the
In response to their growing marginalization, in early 1855 eviction of sharecroppers. By the early 1 970s, many tribals and
six to seven thousand Santal tribals from Birbhum, Bankura, low-caste people in Midnapore had been redÜddd t&rIltürM
Chotanagpur, and Hazaribagh began meeting to organize resis labourers and sharecroppers. )i ru

tance. Under the messianic leadership of four Santal brothers, on ‘While the alienation of private lands’iis
16 July 1855 some ten thousand tribal rebels ‘stood their ground ment in the impoverishment of tribal
firmly and fought with bows and a kind of battle axe’ in a battle so too was the loss of cash and kind income from forest-based
27 Eventually, the revolt collapsed after half their
near Pirpaiti. activities as the forests were cleared. riting ii the mid:1 850s,
private forestry,’ Freiburg, Germany, 2—5 September 1991, P. 7.
cited in Duyker, Tribal Guerrillsis, 1’
24 Dasgupta, ‘Adivasi Politics’,
p. 113.
,

28 Duyker, Tribal Guerrillas, p. 35 h’,’I’

25 Ibid.,
p. 114. ‘ ‘

26 F.B. Bradely-Birt, Chota Nagpore: A Little-Known Province ofthe Empire 29 McAlpin, Report on the Coiidtion hSt;’-p.’34r’. i

(London, 1910), p. 4. K.S. Chattopdhyaya, Rep6W thëSsñ

30 ëf1,ai(CLcutra1 947), p35,
27 K.K. Datta, The Santal Insurrection of1855—1857(Calcutta, 1940), p. 26, cited in Dukyer, TribalGuefti&is,’i.44-” ;\t
348 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 349
Sherwill noted that nearly 20 per cent of the population of Bir 34
sharecropper s’. Despite a basic agreement on the need for land
bhum was involved in tussar silk collection, processing, weaving, reform among the fourteen member parties of the United Front
’ By the early 1970s, the weaving industry had
or marketing.
3 Government, the coalition was unable to develop effective im
declined significantly in part due to the need to import cocoons, plementation programmes for such policies. Policy implementa
which had been available in abundance in the area in the past. tion was also resisted by more conservative party members, and
Attempts by the -government to extract greater revenues and by the need to comply with bureaucratic and judicial procedures.
impose increased control over freshwater fisheries throughout the Nonetheless, the announcement of land reform plans stimulated
later half of the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuryalso widespread interest in rural areas. Depressed groups began to
restricted access of marginal communities over once common organize, particularly Santals, who met in groups bringing their
32 In response to these restrictions Santals in
property resources. traditional weapons with them and often confronting armed police
Midnapur and Bankura carried out mass loots on fish-ponds in groups. ‘Between March and May 1967, nearly one hundred
1922 and 1923. ‘In April 1923, for instance, there was a wave of incidents involving kisans [peasant farmers and agricultural la
looting of fish-ponds and violation of forest rights over an area of bourers] armed with bows and arrows, occupying land and sym
200 square miles extending from Jamboni and Gopiballabhpur bolically establishing their ownership by ploughing small parcels,
westward to Ghatsila in Singhbhum district of Bihar and north 35 The famous uprising at
were reported to the district police’.
wards through Silda to Bankura district’. Sarkar quotes an
Naxalbari in Darjeeling district took place a few months later,
. . .

official of the time who noted that the Santa! ‘will tell you how when a local CPI(M) cadre and a tribal leader named Jangal
in his father’s time all jungles were free, all bandhs (ponds) open Santhal organized over 600 tribals to attack local government
to the public, and that this action was simply “carrying on an old officials and landlords.
tradition” an attempt to bring back the “golden age” ‘)‘
The CPI(M), embarrassed by the actions of some of its mem
. . .

bers, expelled them from the party. Other disillusioned CPI(M)

Changes in the Jungle Mahals under the Populist members joined them, ultimately forming a new party, the
Government CPI(ML), generally called the Naxalites. The Naxalites rejected
the parliamentary system. and saw no alternative to an armed
A major shift in the erosion ofland control rights of disempowered
struggle and a protracted insurgency movement. The Naxalities
people in the Jungle Mahals began in 1967 when the United Front
carried their message of land reform and class struggle to the
Government was elected and announced its intention ‘to dis
poorest communities, finding their strongest support among the
tribute surplus land among the landless and halt the eviction of
Santals.
Throughout 1969 and 1970, the violence shifted to Mid
3’ W.S. Sherwill, Geographical and Statistical Report of the District of napore where Naxalite organizers were encouraging the adoption
Beerbhoom (Calcutta, 1855), p. 31, cited in Duyker, Tribal Guerrilks, p. 146. ofMaoist oriented politics, similar to those expressed in Naxalbari.
32 See Peter Reeves, ‘Inland waters and freshwater fisheries: Issues of control,
The emerging Naxalite leadership effectively enlisted the support
access and conservation in colonial India’, chapter Ix, this volume.
Ibid., p. 291, citing Sumit Sarkar, ‘The conditions and nature of subaltern
3’I
Duyker, Tribal Guerrilkc, p. 67.
militancy: Bengal from Swadeshi to Non-Cooperation, c. 1905—22’, in Ranajit
35‘What happened at Naxalbari and why?’, The Hindu 12 June 1967, cited
Guha (ed.), Subaltern Studies III (Delhi, 1984), p. 303.
in Duyer, Tribal Guerrilhzs, p. 70.
350 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 351
of disenchanted tribal people and landless labourers. The houses forest lands, they were often met with forcible resistance from
of landlords were raided and stockpiled rice redistributed, while community groups. Violent confrontations were resulting in
killings were also carried out. Some forest communities were also deaths from shooting and injuries on both sides. In Purulia district
discontented with the Forest Department and its policies of pro the situation was particularly explosive. The region had been
viding elites and contractors with low-cost resource exploitation carved out of southern Bihar in 1956 and was the poorest district
leases. ‘While forests were logged of timber trees and bamboo, in West Bengal. Many tribals from communities in the area were
villagers lost the raw materials they required for their subsistence being hired by contractors to cut fuelwood, accelerating defores
and commercial needs. According to Pritish Dasgupta, a leader of tation.
the Midnapore uprising, the Dom tribals in particularly were upset In 1970 in another corner of south-west Bengal, A.K. Baner
by the high prices contractors charged them for bamboo.
36 The jee, an Indian Forest Service officer, had been appointed chief
high prices and fuelwood scarcity experienced by potters, black silviculturist at a small forest research site at Arabari. Experiments
smiths, and other caste groups also increased antagonism towards were being conducted with sal, teak, eucalyptus and other timber
the Forest Department and those who acted as contractors for species. The trials were constantly being disrupted by villagers
them. cutting fuelwood and grazing their cattle on the experimental
Many traditional village elites and landowners fled the area and plots. The silviculturist began meeting with members of the eleven
the CPI(ML) began to institute village committees to fill the villages surrounding Arabari, thirty km to the north of Midnapur.
37 The extent of broad-based
political vacuum it had created. The officer attempted to offer the villagers a comprehensive
participation was so great that the authorities had difficulty re employment programme, to absorb them in plantation work and
establishing control, refraining from directly confronting huge inter-cropping in the plantation. In return he asked them to stop
groups of militant labourers, sharecroppers, and small-holders. grazing and cutting on the field station. Due to limited budget
Gradually, however, Naxalite leaders were rounded up, with over and employment opportunities, he later revised the arrangement,
700 captured by mid-1970. Yet, the resistance and the new political promising them a 25 per cent share of the sal timber and rights
leadership that emerged had a fundamental influence on com to all minor forest products including leaves, medicinals, fibre and
munity attitudes to private and towards public forest land. fodder grasses, mushrooms, and fruits. This agreement appealed
to the communities and local villagers ceased their grazing and
From Conflict to Compromise: Experiences of the cutting, and began protecting the forest from use by outsiders. In
West Bengal Forest Department 1972—82 1972 the first Forest Protection Committees (FPC) were born in
the villages around the Arabari forests.
In 1970 the atmosphere in south-east Bengal was tense. Poor tribal While successful examples of joint management agreements
people began rapidly cutting the shrinking sal forests as state were beginning to emerge in Arabari and Purulia during the early
authority waned in the wake of the Naxalite uprising. While the 1 970s, throughout the decade they remained isolated cases with
forest department sought police assistance to protect remaining little effect on routine forest management systems within the state.
Nonetheless, these early experiences demonstrated that opening
36 Interview with Pritish ‘Megnath’ Dasgupta, Khargram, 10 November communications with forest communities could effectively reduce
1979, reported in Duyker, Tribal Guerrillas, p. 147. conflicts between the Forest Department and forest user groups.
‘
Ibid., p. 83. Through discussions forest officers were able to identify terms for
 1 I
352 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 353
effective management partnerships. By formulating agreements In 1986, a District Forest Officer (DFO) who had experi
that responded to the economic needs of forest communities, new mented with joint management groups in Purulia in the early
incentives were created among villagers which resulted in the 1 970s, was made Conservator of Forests for the south-western
emergence of effective controls on forest exploitation. In some forests of West Bengal. His earlier experience in Purulia district
communities village men formed volunteer patrols. People who and subsequent assignments across the state had further confirmed
were found cutting green wood or grazing animals were warned his opinion that participatory management offered the best pro
by village volunteers. Repeat offenders from the participating spects for sustainable forestry. He began urging his District Forest
villages were fined, and outsiders were turned over to forestry field Officers to encourage field staff to work with forest communities.
staff. Most confrontations occurred during the first and second To accelerate the formation of local community management
year of protection, after which the restrictions and rights of the groups, the Conservator told range and beat officers that their
protecting communities were generally recognized by outsiders. performance in forming FPCs would be monitored and awards
‘Where root stock was still viable, community-based forest given to those officers who were most successful.
protection activities resulted in the rapid regeneration of degraded Through informal discussions and small group meetings, the
natural forests. Natural regrowth led to substantial increases in circle Conservator and his DFOs gradually conveyed a message to
biomass productivity and the enhanced availability of a range of field foresters that the department was committed to meaningfully
important minor forest products. The capacity ofdegraded natural involving communities in forest management. Local party and
forests to rapidly regenerate and produce fodder, fuel, fibres and panchayat leaders were also informed of the department’s new
other valuable materials appears to have been instrumental in strategy and began sending this message to communities. The
ustaining community protection activities. several dozen FPCs existing in 1985 increased to 1611 in July
The effect of these early achievements was, however, limited 1990 covering 195,000 hectares of forest land throughout Mid
to small forest tracts. Officers experimenting with joint manage napore, Bankura, and Purulia districts.
38
ment were largely working in isolation from one another. As a The expansion ofjoint management activities in West Bengal,
result the agreements were informal and geitterally had little validity particularly during the later half of the 1 980s, was facilitated by
beyond the term of the individual forest øfficer, who was usually the growth of the department’s social forestry programme. These
rotated to a new area every three years. There was little effort to programmes required foresters to negotiate formally with village
co-ordinate the terms of the agreement in one area with those groups and brought a community extension orientation into these
being offered by forest officers in other territories. Officers explor agencies for the first time.
ing new agreements with communities, however, were commun At the same time, small cultivators, landless and tribal families
icating their experiences to their superior officers and the progress found new authority as the power of landlords and contractors
they were achieving, particularly in Arabari, was attracting atten was diminished through political and legislative acts. The growing
tion. openness and flexibility of the state Forest Department, and its
In the early 1 980s, recognizing the success of Arabari and a attempts to minimize corruption, allowed field staff to gain respect
few other villagers where management agreements with forest in the eyes of the communities. The new joint management
communities were being made, some senior forest officers began initiative promoted by some senior officers urged field staff to
to encourage field staff to pursue similar negotiations in wider
areas throughout the southwestern part of the state. 38 Maihotra and Dev, ‘History of deforestation’.
354 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 355

stress the environmental problems caused by deforestation and the

benefits of sound management, rather than raising expectations
with promises of guaranteed forest employment and timber rev
enues. During this expansion period, senior officers felt the re
surrection of ‘tree consciousness’ among rural communities was Chaur Rebellion (1767-1800)
among the programme’s biggest 39 achievements.
While the officers of the West Bengal Forest Department Naik Rebellion (1 806-1 81 6)
100
(WBFD) feel justifiably pleased by community concerns over
forest degradation and the willingness of village members to mo
bilize to protect natural forests, the extraordinary increase in the
number of FPCs indicates that a receptive social climate was 80
Hul Rebellion (1855-1856)

already present prior to the initiation of programme expansion. 0

C)

Further, many communities in neighbouring Bihar and Orissa are 0

0
Decline in Forest Cover
also establishing forest management groups, without similar forest U

department programmes. While WBFD support certainly sup

ported the expansion and formalization of these organizations, the
energy driving this shift in the tenure ofpublic forest lands appears
-o0=
0

British Establish
/ Community Forest
Activism (1972-?)
0 Land Tax
to emanate front the community, the concerns of its members, I
0
Nexalite
and their shared history. The historical events 2 utlined earlier in Forest Clearning
communities in the area have mobilized for Agricultural
this essay suggest that Conversion
repeatedly over the past two hundred years to protect their resource
Tribal Land
rights from manipulation by outside groups (see Figure 1). To 20 Alicnation
that extent the emergence of community resource management Logging for
groups in part reflects another attempt by groups with low socio Railways
economic status to reclaim control over their environment. The
process of FPC formation and the extent to which it was driven
by communities concerned over environmental changes and en 1750 1800 1850 1900 1950 2000

couraged by field staff is reflected in the following case studies. 1 YEAR

Figure 1. Changes in Forest Cover and Community
Activism in Southwest Bengal
The Emergence of Forest Protection Committees in
Chingra Forest
Ten villages surround the Chingra Mouza forest in Midnapore
Udayan Bannerjee, ‘Participatory forest management in West Bengal’, in
K.C. Maihotra and Mark Poffenberger (eds.), Forest Regeneration through Com
munity Participation (West Bengal Forest Department, 1989), p. 4.
356 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 357
district in southwest Bengal, near the borders of Orissa and Bihr.
A century ago the Munda tribal community of Chinga was sur
rounded by dense Sal forest. The trees were of great girth, three
to four feet in diameter. The region was sparsely settled and there
was little pressure on the forest. Occasionally trees were felled to
construct roof frames, make ploughs and axe handles, and meet
other domestic needs: however, this had negligible effect on forest
density. The villagers collected many products from the forest.
The forest was particularly important as a source of supplementary
food.
Over the past century the original Sal forests of Chingra 0
receded. Throughout the 19 0s and 70s the Forest Department
6
leased cutting rights for this new growth to contractors who used (D

village labour to log the area. The growing rural population of the
area also found fuelwood cutting a convenient way to generate I-,
V

additional household income. During the droughts of 1981—2 the

V
monsoon rice crops failed. Desperate villagers from communities
throughout the area attacked the remaining Sal forests in great
numbers. The increasingly denuded forests were used as pasture V

lands. The cattle and goats consumed or trampled the young Sal
shoots as they emerged. The Sal was no longer able to regenerate
and the root systems began to die off. The exposed forest floor
gradually lost its top soil through water and wind erosion.
In Chingra, the local forest officer was unable to respond to c-)
the vast numbers of people and animals exploiting the 450 ha.
forest (see Map 3). By 1983 he had given up all hope of saving
the natural forest from further degeneration. In response, the forest
department decided to try to establish a small eucalyptus planta
tion on some of the degraded forest lands near Chingra village.
When the healthr saplings reached a few feet in height, however,
people from a village near Chingra began cutting them down for
fuel. Seeing this, the Chingra villagers thought they should also
benefit from the government project and cut down the remaining
trees. The local forester was further frustrated by the failure of the
plantation project.
Meanwhile, the young men of Chingra were aware of the
 I
358 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 359
deteriorating state of their environment. They had often heard
the stories from the old people about the beautiful forests that effectiveness of the protection activities being carried out by the
had once surrounded the community and the many things it club.
produced. An old Munda tribal man said ‘the forests are like People from other villages seeing the success of the Chingra
your eyes, you don’t realize their value until they are lost’. One group began thinking of protecting forests near their own com
youth named Mahadev Munda Singh was particularly disap munities. Seeing the growth of local interest in forest protection
pointed to see the failure of the eucalyptus plantation. Mahadev the local forest beat officer began holding meetings with villagers
had finished his high school studies and understood the ecological to encourage them. At each meeting he invited Mahadev and his
importance of the forest. He was also a popular boy in the village friends to talk about their activities and their hopes for forest
and was proud of his community and his tribal heritage. Because regeneration. By 1988, nine of the ten communities surrounding
his family was poor he worked as a labourer shoveling sand. One Chingra forests were protecting the forest and the Sal had reached
day in 1984 he approached the local forester and asked if he a height of 15 to 20 feet. A dense undergrowth of climbing vines,
could re-establish the small eucalyptus plantation. The forester shrubs, grasses, and small palms emerged.
responded by allocating a small amount of department funds The rapidly regenerating forest began to attract fuelwood
with which he started a nursery. His friends helped him plant cutters from the neighbouring state of Bihar. One night a band
the seedlings. He encouraged ten members of the village youth of Bihar villagers came with their axes, bicycles and bullock carts
club to join him in protecting the young trees. As the trees grew, to fell the Chingra forest. The Biharis attempting this ‘mass loot’
the youth saw the Sal trees and other plants in the forest also of the forest were soon confronted by Mahadev and his club
began to grow rapidly. members, as well as men from many of the neighbouring villages.
The group agreed that if protected, the entire forest could Mahadev said ‘we took our spears, arrows and axes and faced them
regenerate. The club asked the forester to place an additional 50 eye ball to eye ball. We talked and told them the forest was
hectares of natural Sal forest under their protection. They asked protected now and that the trees were no longer available for
for a 50 per cent share of the produce to support their activities commercial cutting’. In the end the Chingra villagers offered to
and the forester agreed. The Sal, too, began to regenerate. The give the Biharis dead twigs and sticks to meet their subsistence
group gradually began extending their protection activities to the fuelwood needs. Later the Biharis organized their own groups
entire 450 hectares of reserve forest adjoining their village. When to protect forests near their village four kilometres away from
people from surrounding communities came to cut firewood the Chingra.
boys would try to explain the need to protect the forest and how Many inter-village meetings have been held over the past three
it could better meet their needs if they would allow the forest to years to work out agreements, settle disputes, repulse outside users,
regain its health. Sometimes, when fuelwood gatherers refused to determine territorial protection responsibilities, and establish usu
cease their cutting, the boys would take the cutters’ bicycles away fruct rights among participating communities. ‘While eight villages
and impound them. They convinced their own families not to let have joined Chingra in protecting the local forests, the community
the cattle graze in the protected forest and chased away cattle from of Talgram has not co-operated. This village is comprised of
the other villages. After three months the regenerating young Sal immigrants from the state of Orissa who were brought into the
shoots had grown to four feet or more in height and were above area by a local landowner as agricultural labourers. On 18 Novem
the reach of the small cattle. Local people began to appreciate the ber 1990 a special meeting (‘convention’) was called by Mahadev
and his friends to bring all of the communities together incIudirg
 The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 361
360 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
the Orissa migrants to invite them to join the management group.
The panchayat leaders, and range and forest beat officers were also
invited. It was hoped this would result in a common under
standing regarding management priorities, a clarification of com ‘U
E) 8
munity usufruct rights, and the authorization of the community ce ‘,, o
D a) .
e
C =
> o
to use fines and physical force when necessary to protect the forest —
a)
from outside users.
The Chingra case reflects the decentralized nature of FPC 2
0
a)
ceo)O
uJ
group formation. It also illustrates the way in which village leaders a) L1
C’,
like Mahadev were able to work with field staff and other neigh (a
a)
V
bouring communities to identify forest areas for protection and
reach agreements, while turning away outsider users. It appears ca
-J
a)
C,,
0)

that the ability of local communities to take the lead in defining C)

management territories was a key to the success of the programme. •0

C C
While field staff helped facilitate this process by encouraging group C
meetings and authorizing community protection activities, fre
quently successful FPCs took the initiative in organizing themsel C-)
c-)
0 C
ves and establishing operational controls over forest access. LI

The Emergence of Forest Protection in Chandana

Chandana and Harinakuri villages are located approximately 20
kms. south of Kharagpur, in the state of West Bengal. A 2 km
C,
long dirt track off the main road leads to Chandana village after
crossing rain-fed rice fields, and passing through regenerating
forest lands. Another kilometre down the road bordering the
southern extension of the forest is Harinakuri village. The forest Cl)
lands in the Chandana area total 160 ha., which are surrounded
CC)
a)
¶a)
0 a)’,)
by Chandana and Harinakuri villages on the south, and Nidata
and Babunmara villages to the north (see Map 4). The land slopes a)”,
dc,)
gradually downward as it drains into the Kele Ghai River to the (wj o) indbieqy
north of the four villages.
Most of the villages in the area are comprised of low income
scheduled castes, tribals, and farming caste families. In Chandana
village there are 38 households half of whom are Bhumi tribals,
the rest scheduled castes including oil makers. In Harinakuri there
362 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 363
are 31 families, primarily of the Naik scheduled caste. The Naiks faced a severe shortage of fuelwood. However, as the coppice
claim to have worked as mercenaries for a local raja until ap growth emerged the forest resource supply also began to recover.
proximately one hundred years ago when they moved into this From the mid-1950s through the 1960s the WBFD exerted
forest area which was being opened for agriculture by a large control over the forests of Chandana. Throughout this period, the
landowner (zamindar). Since settling in the area, most of the ‘WBFD continued the practices of the zamindars by leasing cutting
villagers had worked as agricultural labourers and tenant farmers rights to contractors. Consequently, the Sal trees were cut every
until the state land reform programme granted them title of local ten to fifteen years, regenerating through coppice growth. The
rain-fed rice lands. Historically, these communities have had sig local field officer complained that the contractors would also often
nificant dependence on the neighbouring forest lands as a source cut the older Sal and fruit trees, a practice that was officially
of fuel, fodder, supplemental food, medicines, and fibres. banned, as these trees or standards are important for yielding seeds
According to Lokhun Sahu, a 65-year-old Chandana villager, for natural regeneration. When the forest guard or the villagers
the surrounding forest was once comprised primarily of first attempted to stop the contractors, they were threatened by armed
growth Sal trees. During the years of British rule the forest tracts guards. The contractors were also reported to have enjoyed politi
of Chandana were controlled by a zamindar named Bhuwan cal support, so the field staff and villagers could do little to stop
Chandra Pal, who lived 20 km away in Hundla, near Narayangar. them.
In part to pay his taxes to the British Raj, the Raja would peri In the early 1970s, Lokhun Sahu, our 65-year-old village
odically sell tracts of jungle to contractors for logging. After the informant, said that political organizers began visiting the com
contractor finished logging the concession area the Sal would send munity. They told the villagers that the forest was community
up coppice growth and the forest would re-establish itself. Older property. In retrospect, Lokhun felt that ‘the political leaders
trees, including Sal, Mahua, Cashews, etc. were left to act as seed misled us to gain our political support’. The villagers began cutting
and fruit sources. During the felling local villagers could purchase and selling the trees indiscriminately. According to Lokhun, no
the lops and tops for fuelwood at the rate of Rs 1—2 per cart load. control system existed and everyone cut where they pleased. The
The raja did not allow villagers to cut poles or logs, and had guards forestry field staff were helpless. They had no support from the
on duty to protect the forest against local users. Periodically, the community, and contractors often threatened them with physical
Raja would send his men into the village to see if they had hidden violence. By the early 1980s, the Sal forests were badly degraded.
poles or timber. If caught, the guards would beat anyone found In some areas, even the root systems had been extracted for
to have stolen wood, sometimes to death. fuelwood. Lokhun reported that the temperature seemed to be
During the early years after Independence, little changed in come hotter, while rainfall diminished, and the earth became drier.
forest management practice, with the zamindar continuing to He felt that the cooling breezes had ceased to blow. The villagers
control the forest of Chandana. In the early 1950s, however, the had difficulty finding wood for their spade handles, ploughs, and
zamindar abolition law was passed giving the West Bengal Forest other agricultural implements. The village ponds and wells dried
Department (WBFD) an opportunity to establish direct control up faster, making the villagers rely on the water in the river, 2 km
over the forest lands of the southwestern part of the state. Seeing away. The forest had been so thoroughly cut, that there were no
that he was about to lose control of the forest, the local zamindar standing trees outside the village proper and it is said that qne
sold off the entire forest tract to contractors who felled the area, could see all the way to the river and beyond.
leaving only a few fruit trees. For the next six months, communities In 1983 Jyoti Naik, a man from the neighbouring village of
364 Nature, Culture, Imperialism
The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 365
Harinakuri, began visiting Chandana village to discuss forest man
agement problems. Jyoti a 45-year-old, illiterate small farmer, with to twelve men who come during the night through the months
only two years of formal education, was convinced some action ofAugust through October and February through May, the slack
had to be taken to reverse the process of forest destruction. In the agricultural season. These groups are interested in cutting Sal poles
beginning, Jyoti visited each house separately in the evening to for commercial sale. ‘When outside cutting groups are active the
talk about the problem. He told the villagers of Chandana, that FPC tends to keep one man patrolling the area on two to three
if they didn’t begin protecting the forest it would degrade to a hour shifts. Other villagers are also watchful and notify the com
point where even fiielwood and leaves would no longer be avail
A-
munity if cutting groups are seen approaching the area. Oc
able. He told them they would be forest people with no forest, casionally, the FPC catches groups in the process of cutting at
nor would their children have forest resources to utilize in their which time they confiscate their axes and fine them.
adulthood. Gradually he began organizing village level meetings. Protection experiences in the neighbouring village of Harina
By 1984 a sufficient number of Chandana villagers were ready. kuri are similar. Since the FPC was first formed in 1979, Harina
They called a meeting of the neighbouring four villages to discuss kuri has worked with Chandana and Telebanga village to deter
a collaborative management programme. It was decided that each cutting groups from nearby villages in the north and east. Accord
community should take responsibility for the forest area nearest ing to Jyoti, pressure from outside villages is particularly high
to their village. The subdivision of the 160 ha. forest tract tended because many members of those communities depend on fuel-
to follow footpaths and bullock cart tracts. ‘While the Chandana wood headloading as their primary source of cash income. Often
and Harinakuri villages began actively protecting the forest tracts tribal and scheduled caste members of these villages are contracted
near their communities, the villages to the north of the forest, by high-caste families in towns and villages and at the Soluwa
Nidata and Babunmara, were less effective in controlling access Army base to cut fuelwood and timber for them. The cutting
and commercial fuelwood cutting continued. Jyoti Najk and other groups often band together to overcome local resistance. in re
village leaders have met with local political representatives from sponse, the Harinakuri FPC had to patrol in a group of eight to
the area and urged them to put pressure on the north side com ten men armed with bows and arrows and spears, when cutting
munities to begin protection activities, but Jyoti noted that the groups were active. Boys with grazing animals also watch and listen
politicians are afraid they will lose votes ifthey do so. At the present for the sound of the axe upon the tree, so that they can warn the
time a four village (Chandana, Harinakuri, Nidata, and Bamun FPC when intruders come. When this occurs the men attempt to
mara) FPC co-ordinating board exists. Jyoti Naik currently acts encircle the cutting group so that they can catch them. In the cases
as chairman. when this occurred they turned over the offenders to the Forest
The Chandana Forest Protection Committee has experienced Department guard. The cutters were later fined by the Forest
continuing problems in controlling illegal cutting by outsiders. Department.
Women from other villages come in groups of five or six every Jyoti noted that the decision to protect the degraded forest
two to three days to cut fuelwood. These women frequently come land had a significant impact on the economy of Harinakuri.
from Bhetia village across the river to the north, or from Pora and Previously, Jyoti and the other villagers had also been engaged in
Simildanga villages in the south. When Chandana villagers catch cutting fuelwood for sale. If a number of family members were
them they ask them to go elsewhere, but when necessary they chase engaged in cutting, a household might collect two to three 40 to
them away with sticks. A more serious threat are the gangs of ten 50 kilogram bundles each day. In 1979 that would generate Rs
35 to 50 per day, while at 1991 prices (Rs1 per kg) it would yield
366 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 367
three times as much. Further, fuelwood cutting and carrying could The amount of time Chandana and Harinakuri FPCs spend
be done in three or four hours in the morning, leaving time for patrolling the forest and the value of that time in terms of oppor
other work. In contrast to agricultural wage labour, which is only tunity costs are difficult to calculate. Clearly, much of the time is
available during certain times of the year, fuelwood cutting would spent during periods ofhigh threat. These fall after rice transplant
likely generate at least two to three times more wages per unit of ing is completed during the months of August through October,
time spent. Consequently, it was a considerable sacrifice for the and after the rice harvest from February to May, when there is
community to discontinue this lucrative economic activity. Based little agricultural work and few paid labour opportunities available.
on discussions with villagers in Harinakuri, it appears their de It seemed that no regimented, full-time patrolling system was
cision was partially made on the basis of their concern over the utilized, rather villagers, especially women and children, engaged
deteriorating environment and also on the recognition that the in grazing, fuelwood collection, and other forest related
activities,
1
level of exploitation was not sustainable and that they would have acted as an early warning system. ‘When news of illegal activities
to shift occupations in any case, once the forest resources were was given, men would move into the forest for protection ac
exhausted. tivities. ‘While the time involved may not be great, it appeared
The shift away from fuelwood cutting and the lost income it that many community members were available and alert to pos
entailed was softened by the land reform programme of the West sible threats, which they perceived to be significant. The villagers
Bengal Communist Party government, which transferred titles for were clearly concerned that as the poles gained value, the threat
the rain-fed rice land from the landlords to Jyoti ancF his neigh of a ‘mass loot’ by a group of outside villagers would grow. They
bours, who had acted as tenant farmers in the past. By not having note that the regeneration of the forest has had substantial en
to share their harvests with the landlord, their incomes rose. vironmental and economic benefits that will be lost temporarily
At the same time Jyoti and his neighbours decided to begin if the entire area is clear felled. The most important advantages
producing puffed rice (chira) for the local market. This involved emerging from forest regeneration has been improved ground
buying small stocks of unhusked grain (dhan), usually 20 kg at a water infiltration and slowed run-off and the increased availability
time, husking and winnowing it, and roasting it under a brush- of such non-timber forest products like tubers, mushrooms, and
wood and leaf fire. The operation involves three men working fibre materials. Finally, the FPC members noted that the re-estab
from 4 a.m. until 5 p.m. Usually they can process 20 kg of rice lishment of standing forest near their village has allowed a large
grain worth Rs 60, into 10 kg of chira worth Rs 240. This means population ofbirds to nest in the area which are important in
the hourly income per man from chira-making is approximately controlling insect pests which attack their rice crop. They also felt
Ps 4.60 per hour, or Ps 60 per 13-hour day. This is approximately the forest had a beneficial effect in cleaning the air of disease. They
three times the official minimum daily wage received by agricul noted that when the forest was degraded the incidence of disease
tural labourers (Ps 24.85 per day). It may also approximate the also increased and they associate a healthy environment with a
income generated by fuelwood headloaders if they have sufficient good standing forest.
forest resources to exploit. ‘While Jyoti and his neighbours have Despite their success in protecting at least one hundred of the
been successful in finding an alternative, and at least as lucrative one hundred and sixty hectares of disturbed natural Sal forest
a source of income as fuelwood cutting, many neighbours have adjoining their villages, they continue to be confronted by threats
notbeen so fortunate and must suffer the lost income or continue from other villages in the area which depend on fuelwood cutting
to exploit the forest in defiance of their neighbours. for a substantial source of their income. The tribal and scheduled
368 Nature, Culture, Imperialism The Resurgence of Community Forest Management 369
caste people who illegally exploit these forests are driven by eco communities to protect forest resources and its willingness to
nomic necessity and encouraged by local and urban higher income empower them apparently coincided with a growing desire among
and caste groups. Until all communities neighbouring the forest these communities to take environmental action. Finally, because
can be effectively brought into the joint management programme the West Bengal programme did not require complex registration
and their economic needs met, these emerging local management and budgetary allocations processes for communities to take ac
systems will remain threatened and their sustainability in question. tion, but rather presented communities with a straightforward
opportunity (protect the local forest and enjoy the benefits), it was
Conclusion easier for communities to mobilize. As each community began
protection activities it influenced the behaviour of neighbouring
The case of the Jungle Mahals indicates that the emergence of new villages. Villages were forced to negotiate and discuss management
community forest management- systems in south-west Bengal is issues and needs with one another, without necessarily waiting for
grounded historically in tribal and peasant resistance movements. the Forest Department to take action. It is this community based
In many parts of rural India, pockets of disempowered people have ‘chain reaction’ or catalytic effect that is apparently a driving force
repeatedly organized to struggle for their survival as their resource behind the rapid emergence of localized access controls on state
base is increasingly captured by local elites, moneylenders, tax forest lands in southwest Bengal. It is likely that similar com
collectors, and the state. In the past, each time the movement was munity concerns over environmental degradation in other parts
crushed or collapsed, after some time it would re-emerge. The of India could provide effective support for joint management
people of the Jungle Mahals represent a classic case. programmes if initiated by state Forest Departments.
In sciuth-west Bengal, grass roots leadership was effective in Yet, this most recent insurgency of the disadvantaged, while
mobilizing the communities’ commitment to forest protection. gaining increasing support from the forest department, remains
The emergence of tribal and schedule caste leaders who could threatened by both traditional vested interests as well as by neigh
accomplish this under the populist government is a testimony to bouring communities of poor, disempowered peoples. The ‘mass
the broader socio-political changes which have occurred in the loots’ experienced by or osing an ongoing threat to West Bengal’s
state over the past twenty years. Community members clearly are forest protection committees is driven by the same poverty and
concerned about environmental degradation in their area and are desperation, that led to mass loots and attacks on zamindars and
willing and able to take action to respond to the challenge. That the state in the past. In essence, while a growing political awareness
they were encouraged by a supportive WBFD programme and of injustice and the concern over the environment leads some
helpful field staff definitely facilitated this process. communities to reassert control over forests, the ext eme poverty
1
To the extent that the West Bengal Forest Department has of their neighbours may ultimately undermine and destroy the
moved more quickly and more successfully than other depart movement.
ments involved with similar efforts, several explanations have been
cited. There is little doubt that the socio-political context in the
state has encouraged populist programmes and a responsiveness
to forest community needs. A new generation of community
leaders from small farming, agricultural labour, and tribal back
grounds has emerged. Further, the department’s appeal to tribal