FOREST SOCIETY AND COLONIALISM

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Introduction

• Although we live in a technologically advanced world, we still use wood for a lot of purposes.
• Trees still prove to be one of the most important resource to humans.
• Trees not only provide food, but wood for shelter, wood for furniture, paper and we can’t forget that they also purify air for us. 
• Humans have been cutting down trees for centuries which has led to a lot of changes on earth. The most noticeable changes are global warming and climate change.
• India’s forests resources were exploited a lot during the British Raj and in this chapter, we are going to study how.

Declining Forest Cover in India

Why clean Forests?

• Deforestation is not only prevalent in the modern world, felling of trees has been done since humans got to know about agriculture.
• It has its roots in the past – even before the  British came to India. Perhaps it started with the onset of the Indus Valley Civilization.  
• British only made it organized.
• The rate of deforestation increased too. The needs of British were fulfilled by the forest resources of India, Indonesia and its other colonies.. 
• What were the needs that led to the widespread exploitation of forest resources.

Deforestation for Cultivation

• As population increases, the first need that presents itself is the need for food and that is when people resort to clear forests in order to make land for cultivation. 
• The British settled in India and the rate of deforestation increased. 
• During the 17th and 18th centuries, the population of Europe exploded, to feed their people, British needed to export Sugar, wheat, barley etc.
• British also wanted India to be the primary supplier of raw cotton to keep their textile industries running. 
• Because of these reasons, they encouraged cultivation. And as a result, the British supported the clearing of the forests. 
• The British thought that the forests were useless and they needed to cut down more forests in order to increase income of the state.

Deforestation for Timber

• There was a severe shortage of Oak forests in England in the 19th century.
• And the Royal Navy was in a need  for timber to build battleships to gain an upper hand in naval battles against any other European Country. 
• And so, they chose to plunder from India’s forest resources, from 1820 to 1830 and after that, they started growing a vast number of trees and exported the timbers to England in a frenzy.
• Timber is not only used in Naval Ships, but in building houses and furniture as well. India stood as a good source of raw materials for the British to meet their needs.

Deforestation for Railways

• The colonial government started establishing railways in India after 1850 (for their benefit). The forests were cut down due to these reason: 
• Steam engine was used in trains which required some fuel and wood was being used as fuel.
• Sleepers were laid in between the railway tracks and wooden planks were used to do that.
• Contractors were hired and they started cutting trees indiscriminately. 

Growing Cash Crops

• There was a huge demand for traditional crops like sugar or cotton, England also saw a rise in demand of tea, coffee and rubber.
• These are cash crops, which are grown for their commercial value, not for the use of the one who grows them. 
• The British saw an opportunity in India and their planters started buying land in cheap rates so that they could use it to grow cash crops. 
• In this process, more and more forests were cleared from India.

Role of Dietrich Brandis

• The British realized that the indiscriminate deforestation will be disastrous for Indian forests.
• They also had this opinion that the usage of forest products by the locals would contribute in the decrease in forest cover. 
• The British government invited a German botanist, Dietrich Brandis to devise a plan and a system that would help the British continue to exploit the Indian Forest resources and they don’t have to fear the disappearing forest cover.
• Brandis introduced the Indian forest service in 1864, then formulated the Forest law in 1865.
• Imperial Forest Research Institute was set up at Dehradun in 1906 so that Scientific forestry can be taught to people.
• Brandis became the Inspector General of Forests. 
• Forest Law was passed in 1865.
• In 1878, Forest Act was passed, and the colonial government took the ownership of the forests and its resources. 
• In 1906, under Dietrich’s leadership, the Imperial Forest  Research Institute was established. 
• The institute taught scientific forestry there. 
• The Forest Act divided forests into three categories:
  • Reserved Forests – were the best forests, villagers were not allowed to enter in these forests.
  • Protected Forests – Villagers could enter these forests but they required permission to do so.
  • Village Forests – They were near the villages and villagers were allowed to use the resources provided by the forests.

Forest Act and Suffering of People

• After the Forest Act was passed, Scientific Forestry started, and forests were being filled with only one or two kinds of trees. The villagers used various resources provided by the forests but obtaining the same materials after the forest act became a big problem.
• People took fruits and tubers from the forest to eat.  They used woods and herbs for agricultural and medicinal purposes respectively. They used gourds, leaves, roots, seeds for so many different purposes. 
• But the British had mainly commercial interest. So, they planted trees like oaks which were otherwise valuable but of little use for the villagers. 
• The Forest Act was later made stricter. They restricted the movements of the villagers even in the village category forest as well. So, the villagers had to enter the forests illegally. The day-to-day lives of the villagers became hard.  

Ban on Shifting Cultivation

• People practiced shifting cultivation whereby a part of the forest was burnt and when the monsoon came, the people planted seeds into the ashes. The crops were harvested in October-November. Usually, the land is used twice for cultivation. 
• After the usage of the land for two years, it was left for the forest to recapture. 
• The European foresters thought that this process of cultivation was bad for the forest. Once again – they were not thinking about the betterment of the environment. They had economic plans in mind. They thought that shifting cultivation would make the soil unable to grow trees that were perfect for making timbers. Along with that, there was a fear of environmental degradation. 
• So, they banned shifting cultivation. 
• The result – displacement of the people living in the forest. They also had to look for other means of livelihood. Some forest communities tried to resist as well. 

Ban on Hunting

• British knew it very well, how to destroy livelihood of people.
• They banned the hunting of deer or patridge, which were a source of food for the village people. 
• But ironically. They encouraged the hunting and killing of wild animals like Tigers.
• Due to this, the number of people hunting tigers increased and that resulted in a gradual decrease in the number of tigers in India. 
• Even Indian Rajas supported them in hunting the tigers. 

New Ways of Livelihood

• Since the forest dwellers could not cultivate their land anymore, they started trading in forest products. 
• This sort of enterprise was nothing new to India. The Adivasis traded with nomadic groups such as the Banjaras.
• Outsider Europeans, on the other hand, were given exclusive rights to trade in the forest by the British. The nomadic groups were forced to abandon their way of life.
• The Europeans hired Santhals from Assam, Oraons from Jharkhand, and Gonds from Chhattisgarh to work in the tea plantations. But the wages were too low and the working conditions were bad.

Rebellions

• In many parts of India, and across the world, forest communities rebelled against the changes that were being imposed on them. 
• The leaders of these movements against the British like Siddhu and Kanu in the Santhal Parganas, Birsa Munda of Chotanagpur or Alluri Sitarama Raju of Andhra Pradesh are still remembered today in songs and stories. 
• We will now discuss in detail one such rebellion which took place in the kingdom of Bastar in 1910.

People of Bastar

• Bastar is located in the southern part of Chhattisgarh. 
• The first initiative against the Forest Act was taken by the Dhurwas of the Kanger Forest.
• In 1905, the new law of Forest Act implemented by the British reserved two-third of the forests.
• The tribals resorted to revolts in order to show opposition to this.
• The British sent troops to suppress the rebellion but it took them three months do deal with it.
• This resulted in small victory of the people of Bastar as the reserved area was reduced to half of what was agreed in 1910.

Kalangs of Java

• The woodcutters or the kalangs of Java are expert woodcutters. 
• They were so valuable that in 1755, when the Mataram Kingdom of Indonesia Split, 6000 Kalang families were equally divided between the two kingdoms.
• Without the help of the kalangs, obtaining teak from the forests was impossible, the king’s needed teak to build their palaces. 
• When the Dutch began to take control over Indonesia, they wanted to make the Kalangs work under them.
• The kalangs resisted this by attacking the Dutch fort in Joana in 1770, but they were suppressed by the Dutch.

Dutch Scientific Forestry

• It became essential in the 19th century to control territory and not only the people.
• The Dutch enacted the Forest Laws in Java, restricting the villagers from using the forests. 
• Now wood could only be cut for special purposes, like making river boats or constructing houses.
• Villagers were punished for grazing cattle in young stands, transporting wood without a permit, or travelling on forest roads with horse carts or cattle.

Blandongdiensten System

• In 1882, about 280,000 sleepers were exported from Java.
• This required a large amount of labour to cut the trees, transport the logs and make sleepers.
• First, the Dutch imposed rent on the land being cultivated in the forest and then exempted some villages from these taxes if they agreed to collectively work to provide free labour and buffalos for cutting and transporting timber. 
• This system is known as Blandongdiensten system. 
• Later they started to pay some wages to these villages instead of exemption from taxes. 

Saminists

• In 1890, Surontiko Samin of the Randublatung village, a teak forest village, challenged the state. 
• He said that the state hasn’t created the wind, water, land and wood, so the state can’t claim ownership of them. 
• A movement followed this and about 3000 people joined Samin. 
• The Samin’s son-in-laws helped in organising the movement. 
• The Saminists laid on their lands when the Dutch officers arrived to survey the land. 
• They also refused to pay taxes or fines or labour.

War and Deforestation

• The first and second world war had great impacts on forests worldwide. 
• In India, the Forest Department cut trees freely to meet the British war needs. 
• In Java, the Dutch followed the ‘Scorched Earth’ policy. They burnt down the saw mills, they set ablaze, large pile of teak log so that they don’t fall into Japanese hands.
• The Japanese exploited forests for their own war needs and forced villagers to cut down trees.
• The villagers used this opportunity to expand cultivation in the forest areas.
• In Indonesia, after the war, it was hard to get the land back for the Forest Department. 
• In India, people’s need for agricultural land has brought them into conflicts with Forest Department. 

New Development in Forests

• Since 1980s, Governments Across the continents of Africa and Asia have started to encourage scientific forestry.
• This has resulted in many conflicts.
• Conservation of forests rather than collecting timber has become a more important goal.
• Across India, from Mizoram to Kerala, dense forests have survived only because villages protected them in sacred groves known as sarnas, devarakudu, kan, rai, etc.
• Some villages have been patrolling their own forests, with each household taking it in turns, instead of leaving it to the forest guards.