Chapter 4 Forest Society and colonialism

(i) Shifting Cultivators: European foresters regarded shifting cultivation practice as harmful for the forests. They felt that the land which was used for cultivation every few years could not grow trees for railway timber. When a forest was burnt, there was the added danger of the flames spreading and burning valuable timber. Shifting cultivation also made it harder for the government to calculate taxes. Therefore, the government decided to ban shifting cultivation. As a result, many shifting cultivators were forcibly displaced from their homes in the forests.

(ii) Nomadic and Pastoralist Communities: When the forest department took control of the forests, many people lost out in many ways. With the coming of the British, however, trade was completely regulated by the government. In the process, many pastoralists and nomadic communities like Korava, Karacha and Yerukula of the Madras Presidency lost their livelihoods. Some began to be called as ‘criminal tribes’ and were forced to work instead in factories, mines and plantations under government supervision.

(iii) Firms trading in timber/forest produce: The British government gave many large European trading firms the sole right to trade in forest products in particular areas. Grazing and hunting by the local people were restricted.

(iv) Plantation owners: Large areas of natural forests were cleared to make way for tea, coffee, and rubber plantations to meet Europe’s growing need for these commodities. The colonial government took over the forests and gave vast areas to European planters at cheap rates. These areas were enclosed and cleared of forests, and planted with tea or coffee.

(v) Kings/British officials engaged in hunting: The new forest laws changed the lives of forest dwellers in many ways. Before the forest laws, many people who lived in or near forest areas had survived by hunting. The forest laws deprived people of their customary rights to hunt; hunting of big game became a sport. In India, hunting of tigers and other animals had been part of the culture of the court and nobility for centuries.

Java is a famous rice producing island in Indonesia. Earlier, it was covered mostly with forests. The colonial power in Java was the Dutch, and there were many similarities in the laws for forest control in Java and Bastar.
1. Strict laws were made in both the places to prohibit hunting and grazing.
2. The Dutch enacted forest laws in Java restricting villagers’ access to forests.
3. Villagers were punished for grazing cattle in young stands, transporting wood without a permit, or travelling on forest roads with horse carts or cattle.
4. In India, hunting and grazing were prohibited and the British government took over the forests giving no rights to the people to access forests resources.
5. Many pastoralists and nomadic communities like Korava, Karacha and Yerukula of the Madras Presidency lost their livelihoods and were forced to work in mines and factories.

(i) Railways: In nineteenth century the growth of industries and railways, a new demand for timber and other forest products was created. Railways were essential for colonial trade and for the movement of imperial troops. To run locomotives, wood was needed as fuel, and to lay railway lines sleepers were essential to hold the tracks together. From 1860s, the railways’ network expanded rapidly. As the railway tracks spread throughout India, a larger and larger number of trees were felled. Forests around the railway tracks fast started disappearing.

(ii) Ship-building: By the early nineteenth century, oak forests in England were disappearing. This created a problem of timber supply to the Royal Navy. Hence, search parties were sent to explore the forest resources of India. Within a decade, trees were being felled on a massive scale and vast quantities of timber were being exported from India.

(iii) Agricultural Expansion: In colonial period, cultivation expanded rapidly for a variety of reasons. First, the British directly encouraged the production of commercial crops. Second, in the early nineteenth century, the colonial state thought that forests were unproductive. They were considered to be wilderness that had to be brought under cultivation, so that the land could yield agricultural products and revenue, and enhance the income of the state. So between 1880 and 1920, cultivated area rose by 6.7 million hectares.

(iv) Commercial Farming: The British directly encouraged the production of commercial crops like jute, sugar, wheat and cotton. The demand for these crops increased in the nineteenth century Europe where food grains were needed to feed the growing urban population and raw materials were required for industrial productions.

(v) Tea/Coffee Plantations: Large areas of natural forests were cleared to make way for tea, coffee, and rubber plantations to meet Europe’s growing need for these commodities. The colonial government took over the forests, and gave vast areas to European planters at cheap rates. These areas were enclosed and cleared of forests, and planted with tea or coffee.

(vi) Adivasis and other peasant-users: Adivasis were hired by the forest department to cut trees, and make smooth planks which would serve as sleepers for the railways. At the same time, they were not allowed to cut trees to make their own houses.

1. The Allies would not have been successful in the First World War and the Second World War if they had not been able to exploit the resources and people of their colonies.
2. Both the World Wars had a devastating effect on the forests of India, Indonesia and elsewhere.
3. In India, working plans were abandoned during the War and the forest department cut freely to meet British war needs. In Java, just before the Japanese occupied the region, the Dutch followed ‘a scorched earth’ policy, destroying sawmills and burning huge piles of giant teak logs so that they would not fall into Japanese hands.
4. The Japanese then exploited the forests recklessly for their own war industries forcing forest villagers to cut down forests. Many villagers used this opportunity to expand cultivation in the forest.
5. After the war, it was difficult for the Indonesia Forest Service to get this land back. As in India, people’s need for agricultural land has brought them into conflict with the forests department’s desire to control the land and exclude people from it.