Forest People Quotes

“to the Pygmy it is one of the most important differences between the people of the forest and the people of the village that the latter do not know “how to walk”. Walking, to the Pygmy, means being able to run swiftly and silently, without slipping, tripping, or falling. Every day he depends for his food on his ability to “walk,” and more than once his life will be saved by the same ability, when he has to run from a charging buffalo or creep away unnoticed from a sleeping leopard.”
― Colin Turnbull

“The attitude toward the forest people forms an important caveat to Ashoka's espousal of the principle of nonviolence. The fact that the warning to the forest people appears in an inscription that deals with the evils of warfare and the replacement of the goal of military victory by that of dhammic victory suggests that the armed insur- gency of the forest people posed a major political challenge to the Maurya state, one that could not be ignored even by an otherwise pacifist emperor. The king who repents on the devastation of war, declares that he has abjured it, and urges his successors to do like- wise, brandishes his power in front of the forest people and warns them to fall in line if they want to avoid his wrath.”
― Upinder Singh, Political Violence in Ancient India