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This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India
Using a general theory of ecological history, the authors provide a fresh interpretation of India's history, including an ecological account of the caste system and a sociological analysis of resource use. Madhav Gadgil, a professor of ecological sciences, and Ramachandra Guha, a professor of
sociology, present in this volume a collaborative perspective on the subcontinent which is rare, pathbreaking, and long overdue.
sociology, present in this volume a collaborative perspective on the subcontinent which is rare, pathbreaking, and long overdue.
288 pages, Paperback
First published October 1, 1992
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358 people want to read
About the author
Madhav Gadgil
25 books5 followersMadhav Gadgil (born 1942 Pune) is an Indian ecologist.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
July 1, 2014
This book is written by two legends: Madhav Gadgil, an eminent ecologist (he established the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bangalore; headed the ‘Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel’), and the famous historian Ramachandra Guha (author of the bestseller India after Gandhi; few people know that his specialization is environmental history; he did his doctoral thesis on the Chipko Movement).
They present an ecological understanding of the Indian subcontinent’s history. While the book is full of passionate prose, and demonstrates in-depth study and scholarship, the authors also acknowledge that the study cannot be definitive, and that in time, it might be proved to be wrong. But it is obvious that the questions they attempt to answer are ones which have been largely ignored by historians, and are of primary importance to understand history.
Peppered with numerable, and little-known, examples, the authors have put together a great book. A must read for anyone interested in India.
They present an ecological understanding of the Indian subcontinent’s history. While the book is full of passionate prose, and demonstrates in-depth study and scholarship, the authors also acknowledge that the study cannot be definitive, and that in time, it might be proved to be wrong. But it is obvious that the questions they attempt to answer are ones which have been largely ignored by historians, and are of primary importance to understand history.
Peppered with numerable, and little-known, examples, the authors have put together a great book. A must read for anyone interested in India.
June 29, 2012
This is one of my favorite books in that it integrates Marxist modes of production analysis, an environmental theme, and Indian history all into one. This book was helpful to understand the caste system from a materialist perspective as well as understand how the commons were converted to private landholdings in India as well as shedding light on obscure periods of Indian history. A truly great collaboration between environmental scientist Madhav Gadhil and historian Ramachandra Guha (who, as I remember, co-authored this book but is not given credit on this site).
August 29, 2018
By Group G-11: Gauri Menon, Chetan Gusain, Ditipriya Bose, Maulik Ruparel, Kari Srinu, Madhumitha C.
Department: M.Tech REEM (2018-19)
Course: Introduction to Sustainable Development NRE_165
#TeriSAS
This book is written by two legends: Madhav Gadgiland Ramachandra Guha. Madhav Gadgil is an eminent ecologist who established the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bangalore and headed the ‘Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel’. He is Professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Ramachandra Guha is a famous historian, author of the bestseller India after Gandhi and did his doctoral thesis on the Chipko Movement. He is a Professorial Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi . Ecologist Madhav Gadgil and historian Ramachandra Guha offer fresh perspectives both on the ecological history of India and on theoretical issues of interest to environmental historians regardless of geographical specialization. They present an ecological understanding of the Indian subcontinent’s history. It examines 'prudent' (sustainable) and 'profligate' (unsustainable) use of natural resources, and their effects. The book is an outcome of a socio-ecological analysis of the modes of resource use introduced to India by the British, and explore popular resistance to state environmental policies in both the colonial and post-colonial periods.
A broad interpretation of Indian history would be problematic without detailed regional studies. The authors themselves agree that "ultimately, the ecological history of India must be constructed around detailed regional studies, sharply bounded in time and space". The book has been divided into three parts: introducing the concept of "modes of resource use", explaining ecological events in the history of India and examining ecologically important events during, and just after, British rule, respectively.
Part I presents the theoretical framework for the study. As mentioned earlier, the book uses the concept of ‘modes of resource use’ in the first part, to explain history, as opposed to the Marxist concept of ‘modes of production’. It examines the several forms of restraint on resource use reported from human societies. The book begins to discuss the aspects of technology, economy, social organization, ideology, and the ecological impact of gathering, nomadic pastoralism, settled cultivation, and industry. It then reviews the characteristic forms of social conflict between and within different modes. Apart from massive bursts of social conflict, the encounter between the different modes also signals, along with an increased rate of ecological destruction. The conflict between different modes of resource use is, at the most basic level, a struggle for control over productive resources. However, it is perpetually accompanied by an ideological debate legitimizing the claims of the various modes. The forms of intra-modal conflict presented, and the ways in which they are resolved, reveal the interlinkages between modes of production and their corresponding modes of resource use. Nomadic pastoralism is best treated as being integrated with the peasant mode of resource use. It occupied a special position within its own ecological zone.
Part II uses this theory to present an original analysis of pre-colonial Indian history. It also presents an ecological interpretation of the origins and persistence of the caste system. Agricultural-pastoral people spread over the Indian subcontinent in many phases. Hunting-gathering, along with shifting cultivation, dominated all the moister tracts of this region. The pattern of resource use became grounded in a continual march of agriculture and pastoralism over territory held by food gatherers. The highest concentration of agricultural-pastoral populations was along the Gangetic plains. Buddhism and Jainism did not succeed in destroying the social hierarchy of Indian society then. The eight centuries from 500 bc to ad 300, which followed the colonization of the fertile lands of northern India, appear to have been characterized by the availability of large surpluses of agricultural production for activities outside food production. Elephant forests and hunting preserves began to be controlled by the state which was a new form of territorial control over living resources. Protection to cattle has undoubtedly been significant in influencing the practices of mixed agriculture and animal husbandry, which are so characteristic of India. Indian subcontinent experienced a major resource crunch between the fourth to tenth centuries of the Christian era. Caste society had developed an elaborate system of the diversified use of living resources that greatly decreased inter-caste competition, and frequently assured that a single caste group had monopoly over the use of any specific resource from a given locale. Different caste populations traditionally moderated or largely removed inter-caste competition through diversifications in resource use and territorial exclusion. The interpretation of the caste system as a form of ecological adaptation may be employed to show the two different paths by which conflicts between different modes of resource use are resolved: path of extermination and path of selective incorporation. The geographical diversity of the Indian subcontinent and the productivity of hilly and forested areas enabled the continuance of hunting-gathering and shifting agriculture in large expanses where the plough could not penetrate.
Part III explores the new modes of resource use introduced by the British, which have continued to operate, with modifications, after Independence in 1947. The authors also describe how these new modes of resource gave rise to new conflicts and how the British colonial rule established a crucial watershed in the ecological history of India. The three characteristics of the industrial mode of resource use presented are important to a proper understanding of the ecological encounter between India and Britain. The most tangible outcome of colonialism is related to the colonizer’s global control of resources. the inevitable clashes when traditional users of the forests were excluded from them in the name of British interests. The Indian Forest Act of 1865 was authorized to facilitate the acquisition of those forest areas that were earmarked for railway supplies. The Indian Forest Act of 1878 was a comprehensive piece of legislation, which attempted to obliterate centuries of customary use by rural populations all over India. The strategic value of India’s forests was forcefully highlighted during the World Wars. The priorities of colonial forestry were essentially commercial in nature. Forest management was easily the most significant element in the state takeover of natural resources, which had earlier acted as a buffer for the peasant household. The book further explores some of the evidences on conflicts over forest and pasture in colonial India. It reviews the major dimensions of such conflicts by addressing the genesis, the geographical spread, and the different forms in which protest manifested itself. The new laws restricted small-scale hunting by tribals and they facilitated more organized shikar expeditions by the British. The disruption of the delicate balance between humans and forests has resulted to a sharp fall in the jhum (shifting) cycle. The most sustained opposition to state forest management was to be found in the Himalayan districts of present-day Uttar Pradesh. The experience of Jaunsar Bawar showed the struggle between villagers and colonial forest management. Contemporary movements asserting local claims over forest resources have repeated earlier movements in terms of their geographical spread, in the nature of their participation, and in the strategies and ideology of protest. The national movement had thrown up two alternative scenarios for the reconstruction of Indian economy and society. One vision was associated with Mahatma Gandhi. Whatever the anomalies in his thought and practice, it is clear that in the path of economic development eventually charted by the Indian nation, the Mahatma’s ideals were made redundant with a quite alarming rapidity. As a nationalist leader who had spent many years in British prisons, Jawaharlal Nehru’s attitude toward the West was an ambivalent one. The four stages in the industrial orientation of Indian forestry are elaborated. The continuity between colonial and post-colonial forestry regimes is most clearly manifest in the system of ownership. There is a whole complex of processes that result to resource exhaustion in the case of Indian forestry. The forestry practices introduced by the British and continued thereafter are neither scientific nor conservation-oriented. Forests were appropriated by the state which intensified competing claims on the commons and gave rise to popular resistance and social conflicts. A preliminary mapping of the conflicts over living resources in independent India, has been carried out in the book. It starts by addressing the conflicts between the state and hunter-gatherers, shifting cultivators, settled cultivators, and artisans. It then explores a conflict which is the consequence not of intensive forest use but its obverse. It refers to the massive network of wildlife sanctuaries, almost all of which have been established after 1947. The integration of tribals into a capitalist system of wage labour has generated its own set of conflicts. Despite successful struggles for wage increases, tribals continue to get only an infinitesimal share of the gains from commercial forestry. The pressures of demographic expansion and ecological decline have forced many forest-dependent communities to look for alternative modes of subsistence. With respect to both the hardware and software of forest resource use, the post-colonial period is marked by change and continuity.In the final chapter, the book addresses the lessons that can be drawn from the two processes of eco-cultural change most extensively studied by historians—the European ‘miracle’ of successful industrialization and the imposition of Neo-Europes in the ‘New World’. While the British ruled India, they discouraged Indians from taking up resource-processing and transport on the basis of modern technology, and with access to fossil fuel and other modern energy sources. The on-going struggle between the peasant and industrial modes of resource use in India has come in two stages: colonial and postcolonial. The debate around the forest in India, and the environment debate more generally, are firmly rooted in questions of production and use. It is early to say whether these debates will lead in a new mode of resource use and a new belief system to hold the society together.
In India the ecological aspect has been largely ignored in historical writings. Ramachandra Guha and Madhav Gadgil have attempted to bridge this gap by proposing a perspective for the study of ecological history of India. The literature flow of the book follows the logical sequence of a research paper The book is full of passionate prose, and demonstrates in-depth study and scholarship. However, the authors also acknowledge that the study cannot be definitive, and that in time, it might be proved to be wrong. But it is obvious that the questions they attempt to answer are ones which have been largely ignored by historians, and are of primary importance to understand history. In general, this book reports new data along with new interpretations of old data, and, most importantly, it shows a new and alternative framework for understanding Indian society and history. In conclusion it may be said that, the authors have brought forward a great book with numerable, and little-known, examples and is a must read for anyone interested in exploring the history of India from the ecological perspective.
Department: M.Tech REEM (2018-19)
Course: Introduction to Sustainable Development NRE_165
#TeriSAS
This book is written by two legends: Madhav Gadgiland Ramachandra Guha. Madhav Gadgil is an eminent ecologist who established the Centre for Ecological Sciences, IISc, Bangalore and headed the ‘Western Ghats Ecology Expert Panel’. He is Professor at the Centre for Ecological Sciences at the Indian Institute of Science in Bangalore. Ramachandra Guha is a famous historian, author of the bestseller India after Gandhi and did his doctoral thesis on the Chipko Movement. He is a Professorial Fellow at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library in New Delhi . Ecologist Madhav Gadgil and historian Ramachandra Guha offer fresh perspectives both on the ecological history of India and on theoretical issues of interest to environmental historians regardless of geographical specialization. They present an ecological understanding of the Indian subcontinent’s history. It examines 'prudent' (sustainable) and 'profligate' (unsustainable) use of natural resources, and their effects. The book is an outcome of a socio-ecological analysis of the modes of resource use introduced to India by the British, and explore popular resistance to state environmental policies in both the colonial and post-colonial periods.
A broad interpretation of Indian history would be problematic without detailed regional studies. The authors themselves agree that "ultimately, the ecological history of India must be constructed around detailed regional studies, sharply bounded in time and space". The book has been divided into three parts: introducing the concept of "modes of resource use", explaining ecological events in the history of India and examining ecologically important events during, and just after, British rule, respectively.
Part I presents the theoretical framework for the study. As mentioned earlier, the book uses the concept of ‘modes of resource use’ in the first part, to explain history, as opposed to the Marxist concept of ‘modes of production’. It examines the several forms of restraint on resource use reported from human societies. The book begins to discuss the aspects of technology, economy, social organization, ideology, and the ecological impact of gathering, nomadic pastoralism, settled cultivation, and industry. It then reviews the characteristic forms of social conflict between and within different modes. Apart from massive bursts of social conflict, the encounter between the different modes also signals, along with an increased rate of ecological destruction. The conflict between different modes of resource use is, at the most basic level, a struggle for control over productive resources. However, it is perpetually accompanied by an ideological debate legitimizing the claims of the various modes. The forms of intra-modal conflict presented, and the ways in which they are resolved, reveal the interlinkages between modes of production and their corresponding modes of resource use. Nomadic pastoralism is best treated as being integrated with the peasant mode of resource use. It occupied a special position within its own ecological zone.
Part II uses this theory to present an original analysis of pre-colonial Indian history. It also presents an ecological interpretation of the origins and persistence of the caste system. Agricultural-pastoral people spread over the Indian subcontinent in many phases. Hunting-gathering, along with shifting cultivation, dominated all the moister tracts of this region. The pattern of resource use became grounded in a continual march of agriculture and pastoralism over territory held by food gatherers. The highest concentration of agricultural-pastoral populations was along the Gangetic plains. Buddhism and Jainism did not succeed in destroying the social hierarchy of Indian society then. The eight centuries from 500 bc to ad 300, which followed the colonization of the fertile lands of northern India, appear to have been characterized by the availability of large surpluses of agricultural production for activities outside food production. Elephant forests and hunting preserves began to be controlled by the state which was a new form of territorial control over living resources. Protection to cattle has undoubtedly been significant in influencing the practices of mixed agriculture and animal husbandry, which are so characteristic of India. Indian subcontinent experienced a major resource crunch between the fourth to tenth centuries of the Christian era. Caste society had developed an elaborate system of the diversified use of living resources that greatly decreased inter-caste competition, and frequently assured that a single caste group had monopoly over the use of any specific resource from a given locale. Different caste populations traditionally moderated or largely removed inter-caste competition through diversifications in resource use and territorial exclusion. The interpretation of the caste system as a form of ecological adaptation may be employed to show the two different paths by which conflicts between different modes of resource use are resolved: path of extermination and path of selective incorporation. The geographical diversity of the Indian subcontinent and the productivity of hilly and forested areas enabled the continuance of hunting-gathering and shifting agriculture in large expanses where the plough could not penetrate.
Part III explores the new modes of resource use introduced by the British, which have continued to operate, with modifications, after Independence in 1947. The authors also describe how these new modes of resource gave rise to new conflicts and how the British colonial rule established a crucial watershed in the ecological history of India. The three characteristics of the industrial mode of resource use presented are important to a proper understanding of the ecological encounter between India and Britain. The most tangible outcome of colonialism is related to the colonizer’s global control of resources. the inevitable clashes when traditional users of the forests were excluded from them in the name of British interests. The Indian Forest Act of 1865 was authorized to facilitate the acquisition of those forest areas that were earmarked for railway supplies. The Indian Forest Act of 1878 was a comprehensive piece of legislation, which attempted to obliterate centuries of customary use by rural populations all over India. The strategic value of India’s forests was forcefully highlighted during the World Wars. The priorities of colonial forestry were essentially commercial in nature. Forest management was easily the most significant element in the state takeover of natural resources, which had earlier acted as a buffer for the peasant household. The book further explores some of the evidences on conflicts over forest and pasture in colonial India. It reviews the major dimensions of such conflicts by addressing the genesis, the geographical spread, and the different forms in which protest manifested itself. The new laws restricted small-scale hunting by tribals and they facilitated more organized shikar expeditions by the British. The disruption of the delicate balance between humans and forests has resulted to a sharp fall in the jhum (shifting) cycle. The most sustained opposition to state forest management was to be found in the Himalayan districts of present-day Uttar Pradesh. The experience of Jaunsar Bawar showed the struggle between villagers and colonial forest management. Contemporary movements asserting local claims over forest resources have repeated earlier movements in terms of their geographical spread, in the nature of their participation, and in the strategies and ideology of protest. The national movement had thrown up two alternative scenarios for the reconstruction of Indian economy and society. One vision was associated with Mahatma Gandhi. Whatever the anomalies in his thought and practice, it is clear that in the path of economic development eventually charted by the Indian nation, the Mahatma’s ideals were made redundant with a quite alarming rapidity. As a nationalist leader who had spent many years in British prisons, Jawaharlal Nehru’s attitude toward the West was an ambivalent one. The four stages in the industrial orientation of Indian forestry are elaborated. The continuity between colonial and post-colonial forestry regimes is most clearly manifest in the system of ownership. There is a whole complex of processes that result to resource exhaustion in the case of Indian forestry. The forestry practices introduced by the British and continued thereafter are neither scientific nor conservation-oriented. Forests were appropriated by the state which intensified competing claims on the commons and gave rise to popular resistance and social conflicts. A preliminary mapping of the conflicts over living resources in independent India, has been carried out in the book. It starts by addressing the conflicts between the state and hunter-gatherers, shifting cultivators, settled cultivators, and artisans. It then explores a conflict which is the consequence not of intensive forest use but its obverse. It refers to the massive network of wildlife sanctuaries, almost all of which have been established after 1947. The integration of tribals into a capitalist system of wage labour has generated its own set of conflicts. Despite successful struggles for wage increases, tribals continue to get only an infinitesimal share of the gains from commercial forestry. The pressures of demographic expansion and ecological decline have forced many forest-dependent communities to look for alternative modes of subsistence. With respect to both the hardware and software of forest resource use, the post-colonial period is marked by change and continuity.In the final chapter, the book addresses the lessons that can be drawn from the two processes of eco-cultural change most extensively studied by historians—the European ‘miracle’ of successful industrialization and the imposition of Neo-Europes in the ‘New World’. While the British ruled India, they discouraged Indians from taking up resource-processing and transport on the basis of modern technology, and with access to fossil fuel and other modern energy sources. The on-going struggle between the peasant and industrial modes of resource use in India has come in two stages: colonial and postcolonial. The debate around the forest in India, and the environment debate more generally, are firmly rooted in questions of production and use. It is early to say whether these debates will lead in a new mode of resource use and a new belief system to hold the society together.
In India the ecological aspect has been largely ignored in historical writings. Ramachandra Guha and Madhav Gadgil have attempted to bridge this gap by proposing a perspective for the study of ecological history of India. The literature flow of the book follows the logical sequence of a research paper The book is full of passionate prose, and demonstrates in-depth study and scholarship. However, the authors also acknowledge that the study cannot be definitive, and that in time, it might be proved to be wrong. But it is obvious that the questions they attempt to answer are ones which have been largely ignored by historians, and are of primary importance to understand history. In general, this book reports new data along with new interpretations of old data, and, most importantly, it shows a new and alternative framework for understanding Indian society and history. In conclusion it may be said that, the authors have brought forward a great book with numerable, and little-known, examples and is a must read for anyone interested in exploring the history of India from the ecological perspective.
August 30, 2018
Group G 2: Arnima Jain, Bedika Borah, Dipti S., George Jeevan Roy
Course: Introduction to Sustainable Development
Department: M.A. Sustainable Development Practice (2018-19)
College: TERI School of Advanced Studies
This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India by Madhav Gadgil and Ramchandra Guha focuses about the changing history in the use of forest resources and practices over time and the conflicts between the invaders and the local village folk to preserve the forest. The book has three parts: A theory of ecological history, towards a cultural ecology of pre modern India and the third part, ecological change and social conflict in modern India.
In the first section, it has been analysed that the resource use has changed over time as the human society progressed from hunting and gathering through pastoralism, agriculture and finally through industrialization. They say that the five interrelated processes occur - firstly, the intensity of resource use is increasing; secondly there has been an increase in the levels of resource flows; thirdly, there is an integration of more and more areas into a political/ economic systems; fourthly, increase in population density and social stratification cause inequality of access to natural resources and lastly, the rates of ecological change and ecological disturbances are intensified.
In the Indian context, out of the four modes of resource use (i.e. gathering, nomadic pastoralism settled cultivation and industry) the authors consider nomadic pastoralism to be an integral mode associated with the peasant mode of resource use. In addition to five processes described in this section, the author highlights another dimension, which has an important bearing on ecological history- namely population density. The gatherers had ensured low intensities of resource consumption as well as low population densities. The pastoral also maintained a low population density; because they inhabited arid and unproductive regions- thereby a natural check prevailed on them. However, in contrast to the above two categories, the agricultural societies maintained high population densities and substantially intensified resource consumption. The authors conclude by stating that the industrial society underwent demographic transition i.e. the population density grew quite rapidly in the initial stages whereas it slowed down during the last century and has stabilised. They have reduced the number of children whereas they have ensured that these children lead a quality life with heavy resource consumption. Hence, it is seen that industrial societies have stabilised their populations while maintaining a high per- capita resource consumption.
Part two of the book shows that with passage of time Indian society further prospered from hunting gathering to agrarian pastoral people. This led to large scale colonization of fertile tracts of Gangetic plains. The new territorial land setup and surplus production also helped in the development of the concept of 'control by the state. It is during this time cattle became so important part of the society, which remains true even today. From fourth century Indian subcontinent faces severe resource crunch. Caste society then developed an elaborate system in which sharing of resources was diversified. This largely removed competition. The interpretation of caste system as a form of ecological adaptation may be employed to show the two different paths by which conflicts between different modes of resource use are resolved: path of extermination and path of selective incorporation. The hilly areas of the subcontinent where plough couldn't penetrate survived with primitive methods like hunting-gathering, shifting cultivation etc. One can also see less penetration of caste system in these areas.
Part three of the book focus upon the control of natural resources and change in the economic values of the products after the Britishers invasion. The technological advancement led to a major change in the economic values. The three major changes which were noted down during the European period in India were how the subsistence agriculture changed into commercial trade, cohesiveness amongst the local people became vey less and they became their own masters and lastly the change in the hardware resource use was equally dramatic as the change in software. These three characteristics of the industrial mode of resource use reflect the encounter between India and Britain which was an ecological encounter. The areas rich in woods were being cut down at tremendous rate for the expansion of railways. The Indian Forest Act of 1865 was formulated to regulate this practice. Forestry practices of those practiced by Baden Powell led to the end of village level conservation system. On the other hand, Dietrich Brandis recommended introducing conservationist strategy Germany had. Peasants began to alienate themselves from the state but forest management acted as an important element in the state takeover of natural resources which removed the buffer for peasants.
Chapter five, the fight for the forest focuses upon the conflicts over forest and pasture lands. There was a decline in hunting and gathering which was practiced in India almost by all tribes. The new laws facilitated organised shikars by Britishers instead of small scale hunting by tribal. Shifting or jhum cultivation was also considered as unproductive and non- remunerative form of agriculture by Britishers. Though in Maratha Kingdom they had to allow the continuance even after disfavour. The tribes across the country protested the discontinuation of slash and burn agriculture. The case study of Jaunsar Bawar shows the haste relationship between villagers and colonial forest management. This chapter also shows that peasants are largely composed of illiterates and they were not able to stand against invaders while settled cultivators were able to retain themselves from state forest policies to some extent. Hindu peasants were more successful in using the resources and strategies like petitions and litigations. Movements regarding the claim for forests by local people were short lived and unsuccessful, but they left a legacy which is still going on today.
The sixth chapter talks about the two versions of progress during pre and post independence period. The two versions were laid by Gandhi and the modernisers. Forest policies have been talked about during both these periods. Stages have been discussed which ranges from traditional methods used during pre independence period to exploiting the forest to industrialisation of forest policy. The balanced sheet of the same has been prepared. The British introduced the traditional thumb rules and so did the importance and problems of science and technology. This became a much prevalent idea amongst the citizens. The seventh chapter lays down some conflicts amongst the people of the time. They were between hunter gatherers and rhe state, settled cultivators and the state, village societies, cultivators and nomads, artisans and the state, labours and contractors and wildlife and villagers. The post congress period have also been portrayed along with exploitation after indo-china war and the chipko movement. The last chapter has shown ways to resolve conflict mentioned in the previous chapter. It has also shown an ecological perspective of pre-industrial and industrial cultures in India.
Course: Introduction to Sustainable Development
Department: M.A. Sustainable Development Practice (2018-19)
College: TERI School of Advanced Studies
This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India by Madhav Gadgil and Ramchandra Guha focuses about the changing history in the use of forest resources and practices over time and the conflicts between the invaders and the local village folk to preserve the forest. The book has three parts: A theory of ecological history, towards a cultural ecology of pre modern India and the third part, ecological change and social conflict in modern India.
In the first section, it has been analysed that the resource use has changed over time as the human society progressed from hunting and gathering through pastoralism, agriculture and finally through industrialization. They say that the five interrelated processes occur - firstly, the intensity of resource use is increasing; secondly there has been an increase in the levels of resource flows; thirdly, there is an integration of more and more areas into a political/ economic systems; fourthly, increase in population density and social stratification cause inequality of access to natural resources and lastly, the rates of ecological change and ecological disturbances are intensified.
In the Indian context, out of the four modes of resource use (i.e. gathering, nomadic pastoralism settled cultivation and industry) the authors consider nomadic pastoralism to be an integral mode associated with the peasant mode of resource use. In addition to five processes described in this section, the author highlights another dimension, which has an important bearing on ecological history- namely population density. The gatherers had ensured low intensities of resource consumption as well as low population densities. The pastoral also maintained a low population density; because they inhabited arid and unproductive regions- thereby a natural check prevailed on them. However, in contrast to the above two categories, the agricultural societies maintained high population densities and substantially intensified resource consumption. The authors conclude by stating that the industrial society underwent demographic transition i.e. the population density grew quite rapidly in the initial stages whereas it slowed down during the last century and has stabilised. They have reduced the number of children whereas they have ensured that these children lead a quality life with heavy resource consumption. Hence, it is seen that industrial societies have stabilised their populations while maintaining a high per- capita resource consumption.
Part two of the book shows that with passage of time Indian society further prospered from hunting gathering to agrarian pastoral people. This led to large scale colonization of fertile tracts of Gangetic plains. The new territorial land setup and surplus production also helped in the development of the concept of 'control by the state. It is during this time cattle became so important part of the society, which remains true even today. From fourth century Indian subcontinent faces severe resource crunch. Caste society then developed an elaborate system in which sharing of resources was diversified. This largely removed competition. The interpretation of caste system as a form of ecological adaptation may be employed to show the two different paths by which conflicts between different modes of resource use are resolved: path of extermination and path of selective incorporation. The hilly areas of the subcontinent where plough couldn't penetrate survived with primitive methods like hunting-gathering, shifting cultivation etc. One can also see less penetration of caste system in these areas.
Part three of the book focus upon the control of natural resources and change in the economic values of the products after the Britishers invasion. The technological advancement led to a major change in the economic values. The three major changes which were noted down during the European period in India were how the subsistence agriculture changed into commercial trade, cohesiveness amongst the local people became vey less and they became their own masters and lastly the change in the hardware resource use was equally dramatic as the change in software. These three characteristics of the industrial mode of resource use reflect the encounter between India and Britain which was an ecological encounter. The areas rich in woods were being cut down at tremendous rate for the expansion of railways. The Indian Forest Act of 1865 was formulated to regulate this practice. Forestry practices of those practiced by Baden Powell led to the end of village level conservation system. On the other hand, Dietrich Brandis recommended introducing conservationist strategy Germany had. Peasants began to alienate themselves from the state but forest management acted as an important element in the state takeover of natural resources which removed the buffer for peasants.
Chapter five, the fight for the forest focuses upon the conflicts over forest and pasture lands. There was a decline in hunting and gathering which was practiced in India almost by all tribes. The new laws facilitated organised shikars by Britishers instead of small scale hunting by tribal. Shifting or jhum cultivation was also considered as unproductive and non- remunerative form of agriculture by Britishers. Though in Maratha Kingdom they had to allow the continuance even after disfavour. The tribes across the country protested the discontinuation of slash and burn agriculture. The case study of Jaunsar Bawar shows the haste relationship between villagers and colonial forest management. This chapter also shows that peasants are largely composed of illiterates and they were not able to stand against invaders while settled cultivators were able to retain themselves from state forest policies to some extent. Hindu peasants were more successful in using the resources and strategies like petitions and litigations. Movements regarding the claim for forests by local people were short lived and unsuccessful, but they left a legacy which is still going on today.
The sixth chapter talks about the two versions of progress during pre and post independence period. The two versions were laid by Gandhi and the modernisers. Forest policies have been talked about during both these periods. Stages have been discussed which ranges from traditional methods used during pre independence period to exploiting the forest to industrialisation of forest policy. The balanced sheet of the same has been prepared. The British introduced the traditional thumb rules and so did the importance and problems of science and technology. This became a much prevalent idea amongst the citizens. The seventh chapter lays down some conflicts amongst the people of the time. They were between hunter gatherers and rhe state, settled cultivators and the state, village societies, cultivators and nomads, artisans and the state, labours and contractors and wildlife and villagers. The post congress period have also been portrayed along with exploitation after indo-china war and the chipko movement. The last chapter has shown ways to resolve conflict mentioned in the previous chapter. It has also shown an ecological perspective of pre-industrial and industrial cultures in India.
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December 12, 2023Excellent book summarizing the ecological history of the land from pre-historic time to the present. Very thoughtful analysis on how the people on the fringes (tribals, small peasants and others) are getting exploited by the state machinery to satisfy the interests of capitalist industries. You will be able to understand the real reason for Naxalite movements. The book also touches upon the wildlife - peasant conflicts. This one is a must read book.
July 23, 2010
An interesting take on a subject I knew nothing about. Brings alive the transformation of the Indian landscape and its ecological challenges.
June 25, 2013
Excellent summary. Good amount of repetition, may be just to reiterate some of the points!
May 2, 2020
This book is ground breaking in providing comprehensive ecological history of the sub continent. Anthropology gets tied into narrative, expanding on the subject matter. This perhaps makes the book most enjoyable as we read migration of people, tribes and large communities over centuries and the ecological impact of them.
This is a unique book for sure in the way data is collated and presented in a way that a layman like me can consume. We get a fresh look at Caste systems and colonization through the lens of ecological history. That's intriguing.
This is a unique book for sure in the way data is collated and presented in a way that a layman like me can consume. We get a fresh look at Caste systems and colonization through the lens of ecological history. That's intriguing.
August 27, 2023
This is a classic text in Indian environment studies, and I am glad I finally got around to reading and finishing it. The authors tell a remarkably engaging story of India’s ecosystem from ancient times until the late 1980s. The first section can get difficult to read, as this propounds a theory of ecological history. I would’ve finished this book years ago had I taken seriously a friend’s advice to skip the first part and begin with the second and third sections (which tell the actual history). Overall, a memorable read.
April 26, 2024
Madhav Gadgil is a a man of reknown in India in the environmental field . But , I suspect, he’s already committed to against one identified enemy - the forest department.
That’s not a fair way to start . Commit yourself only after you have examined your arguments. I say, don’t commit yourself and then marshal the arguments. It’s the wrong way forward . But as Madhav Gadgil has a bit of erudition on his side- better than his largely emotional forest service counterparts- he gets an extra star 😊😊😊
That’s not a fair way to start . Commit yourself only after you have examined your arguments. I say, don’t commit yourself and then marshal the arguments. It’s the wrong way forward . But as Madhav Gadgil has a bit of erudition on his side- better than his largely emotional forest service counterparts- he gets an extra star 😊😊😊
October 3, 2024
An insightful book for people in the forestry sector, focusing on forest conservation and regeneration. It delves into the policy shifts, albeit minimal, from the British colonial period to post-Independence India, highlighting key case studies. The discussion on social forestry challenges conventional views and raises important questions about seed selection and its ecological impact. A significant part of the book emphasizes the exploitative practices during the British era, which played a major role in degrading India’s forests.
August 29, 2018
Best book to read if you want to understand socio-ecological systems in India. Both authors are very reputed in their field & it is reflected in quality of content. Sometimes you may not agree with their comparison with mythological figures & caste hierarchy but its a interesting perspective towards looking at history from ecological point of view. It was pleasure to read & you would get lot of knowledge by reading this.
December 28, 2024
neech spaces
May 9, 2016
Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha brings the ecological history of India with the ecological impact of industrialization and insensitive use of natural resources by the society. Good book
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