Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 From the archaeology of mind to the archaeology of matter
- 2 Subsistence and predation at the margins of cultivation
- 3 State formation in the highland forests 1350–1800
- 4 The peoples of the Sahyadri under Marathas and British
- 5 The central Indian forest from Mughal suzerainty to British control
- 6 The central Indian forest under early British rule
- 7 Identities and aspiration – not noble savage but savage noble
- 8 The high colonial period and after – new patterns of authority and power
- 9 From sanctuaries to safeguards: policies and politics in twentieth-century India
- Conclusion
- Afterword
- Bibliography
- Index
Conclusion
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 November 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Glossary
- List of abbreviations
- Introduction
- 1 From the archaeology of mind to the archaeology of matter
- 2 Subsistence and predation at the margins of cultivation
- 3 State formation in the highland forests 1350–1800
- 4 The peoples of the Sahyadri under Marathas and British
- 5 The central Indian forest from Mughal suzerainty to British control
- 6 The central Indian forest under early British rule
- 7 Identities and aspiration – not noble savage but savage noble
- 8 The high colonial period and after – new patterns of authority and power
- 9 From sanctuaries to safeguards: policies and politics in twentieth-century India
- Conclusion
- Afterword
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
This book commenced with a critique of the twin concepts of relic forests and relic populations – both seen as mementoes of a time before history, an epoch of either (sadly) lost innocence or (happily) superseded savagery. I have striven to show that forests of varying but always significant extent long co–existed alongside, and among, the cleared lands of peasant settlement, and forest peoples existed as specialists in the optimal use of this niche. They exploited its plants and animals both for consumption and for trade, and thereby modified its size and composition. Woodland – especially the thorny secondary growth that came after human interference – was also a political and military resource. It was both a base and a refuge. Dispossessed elites and aspirant rulers both needed to use it as such, and to secure the support of its denizens. Control over and knowledge of this strategic domain was thus a tradeable resource in the regional political arena. The mobility, resourcefulness and weapon skills of the hunter were easily turned to military ends. Thus the forest folk were early integrated into the regional political economies that periodically linked up to form imperial systems in South Asia. Integration is, of course, not the same as assimilation; in fact specialisation requires difference – and such differences become in turn organising principles in inter-community relations.
All these changes did not leave the woodland communities unaffected.
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- Environment and Ethnicity in India, 1200–1991 , pp. 199 - 201Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1999