Page 90 - Understanding NCERT Histroy 09th

2.2 How did Forest Rules Affect Cultivation?

l Shifting cultivation was banned by the Colonial government as it was harmful for forests

— forest fire could spread and new plants could not grow.
Goyal Brothers Prakashan
l Shifting cultivation was practised in many parts of Asia, Africa and South America. It

had different names in different regions — Lading (SE Asia), Milpa (Central America),
China (Sri Lanka). It is known by different names in India — podu, jhum, penda, bewar,
etc.
l In shifting or swidden agriculture, parts of forest are cut and burnt in rotation. Seeds
are sown in the ashes in June – July and crop is harvested in October — November.

2.3 Who Could Hunt?

l The customary practice of hunting was banned by the new forest laws, those who were

caught were punished – thus hunting deer, partridges and other small animals — as well
as fishing in the forest were banned.
l On the other hand hunting of big games – tigers etc. — became a sport. The British

considered large wild animals as signs of a primitive and savage society ; killing dangerous
wild animals would civilise India.

l The Colonial government gave rewards for killing tigers, wolves and other wild animals

because they posed a threat to nearby cultivators.
l Over 80,000 tigers, 150,000 leopards and 200,000 wolves were killed during 1875-1925.
Maharaja of Sarguja alone shot 1157 tigers and 2,000 leopards up to 1957.

Source C (Page no. 88)
Baigas are a forest community of Central India. In 1892, after their shifting cultivation was
stopped, they petitioned to the government: ‘We daily starve, having had no foodgrain in our
possession. The only wealth we possess is our axe. We have no clothes to cover our body with,
but we pass cold nights by the fireside. We are now dying for want of food. We cannot go
elsewhere. What fault have we done that the government does not take care of us? Prisoners
are supplied with ample food in jail. A cultivator of the grass is not deprived of his holding,
but the government does not give us our right who have lived here for generations past.’
Verrier Elwin (1939), cited in Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, This Fissured Land:
An Ecological History of India.

2.4 New Trades, New Employments and New Services
l While forest people lost their rights and were hardpressed, new trade in forest products

was regulated by the Colonial government.
l Many European trading firms were given the sole right to trade.

l Many pastoralist and nomadic communities like Korava, Karacha and Yerukula of Madras

Presidency lost their livelihoods. Some of them were branded as ‘Criminal tribes’, and
had to work in factories, mines and plantations, under the supervision of government.
l In Assam, tea plantations hired Santhals and Oraons from Jharkhand and Gonds from
Chhattisgarh. Their conditions of work were miserable and wages were too low.

History Class IX H-81