Session 7: State, Community, and Natural Resources: South Asian Perspectives on Environmental Change: Sponsored by the South Asia Council

Organizer: Douglas E. Haynes, Dartmouth College

Chair and Discussant: K. Sivaramakrishnan, University of Washington

Keywords: environment, community, South Asia, twentieth century.

This panel of scholars and environmentalists invited from South Asia explores the impact of state policies and actions on local environments in the twentieth century and the responses of communities (and actors within communities) to widespread environmental change. The panelists will examine diverse pressures on natural resources, including flood control measures adopted in eastern India by colonial rulers and Indian nationalists before 1950, the legal regime regulating the use of resources in post-independence governments in India and Bangladesh, and resettlement policies in the context of ethnic conflict in Sri Lanka. The panel will also explore the efforts of local communities to cope with, participate in, and resist processes of environmental change. A major subject in all the papers will be conflict over the environment. Each of the papers will highlight specific aspects of contradiction in approaches to the environment, from issues of gender to tribal warfare and the effect of ethnic strife on ecological security. The panel has been organized and sponsored by the South Asia Council to encourage a dialogue between specialists working on environmental issues in South Asia and academics interested in these issues in North America. It will include participants from Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and India. K. Sivaramakrishnan of the University of Washington will serve as discussant.

Environmental History of Tamil Nadu: State, Law and the Decline of Forest and Tribals, 1950–2000

Velayutham Saravanan, Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS) Hyderabad

This article attempts to analyze state government policies on forests and their impact on the environment and tribals in Tamil Nadu during the second half of the twentieth century (1950–2000) from the perspective of environmental history. It also analyses the contradictory policies framed by the state to conserve forest resources. On the one hand, the state has enacted several forest acts and rules and imposed restrictions on tribals and other forest-dwellers whose economy is associated with the forests. On the other hand, forest land was diverted to promote various development activities and to encourage the commercialization of forest resources. The paper addresses the nature and impact of these development initiatives on the tribal economy and society and on the forest environment. It will discuss the extent to which the state has encroached upon forest resources for various development purposes as well as the consequences of the tribal displacement which resulted from state policies. It also tries to capture the role of different departments of the state administration in protecting forest resources and the connections between the state administration and politicians/contractors in exploiting the forests. In short, this paper will contribute to understanding government policies and their implications for the environment and for tribals in Tamil Nadu since independence.

The Role of Women in Environmental Conservation: Examples from Bangladesh

Shahnaz Huq-Hussain, University of Dhaka, Bangladesh

Women in Bangladesh have always been active in protecting their environment through traditional practices. Although often overlooked by policymakers, their roles have been important in nature conservation. The folk culture of the country offers a good collection of proverbs, idioms, phrases etc. based on the notion of environmental conservation. For example the proverbs of "Khana" that have been used widely throughout the South Asian region were developed by a woman named "Khona"—a famous personality in the mythical stories of this region. Her legendary proverbs that date from over three hundred years ago have been used by the people of Bangladesh, India, and Sri Lanka for generations. Many of these proverbs include nature and environmental protection. Such phrases through interpersonal communication channels were active in creating awareness for environmental protection in rural Bangladesh. Having such a rich tradition, village women are not only the silent managers of their natural resources but are active in protecting biodiversity through their age-old traditional knowledge and practices. They possess intense ecological insights drawn from their culture and their productive and maintenance roles. They are able to offer ecological insights that are deeper and richer than the technocratic recipes of international experts or the responses of men in their own societies.

Nationalist Perspective on Floods: A Case Study of North Bihar

Praveen Singh, Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies in Environment and Development, ISEC Campus, Bangalore

Many scholars argue that colonial intervention (in the form of flood and revenue policies) in flood control have aggravated flood situations, changed the nature of floods, and irreversibly changed the agro-ecology of regions. While this is true, the role of local actors should not be underestimated. This paper examines the role of zamindars, indigenous elites, other interest groups, and sections of the nationalist leadership in the large-scale competitive construction of embankments in North Bihar and the impact of this on floods. The period of study is 1930 to 1960 when most of the present-day embankments were erected in North Bihar. The paper discusses the case of the Tiljuga river embankments (where two big zamindaries were engaged in a ‘competitive construction’ of embankments), Gogra river embankments (which became a matter of contention between the two provincial governments of Bihar and United Provinces in the 1930s) and the Kosi embankments (which were built by the independent Indian government). Ironically, the post-1920s period was a period when strong opinion was gaining ground within the colonial irrigation bureaucracy against embankments. Despite such opinion, embankments emerged supported by the nationalist argument that the colonial state was not investing enough in infrastructure development that would help the growth of Indian agriculture. The paper ends with a discussion on the proposed dam on the river Kosi, which never got made, and the reasons for embanking this river instead.

The Impact of the Ethnic Conflict-Related Displacement on Human-Centred Environment in Sri Lanka

R. A. Ariyaratne, Regional Centre for Strategic Studies, Colombo

Recent social science research is increasingly focusing on the ‘people-environment’ nexus with stress on its potential for reconciling as well as fuelling social conflict. Consequently ‘human-centred environment’ has come to the fore of academic inquiry, linking environment and (in)security of local communities spread across the globe, with ‘livelihood loss’ as the ‘missing link.’

Human flight following armed conflict provides instructive examples of the link between social stability and the environment. Both displacement and resettlement are ‘totalizing experiences’ impacting on the individual/community and environment alike. The need to pay greater attention to the human-environment balance has become painfully evident in Sri Lanka’s faltering efforts to resettle nearly half a million of her displaced persons in the northeast of the country.

However, as elsewhere, the state’s foremost concern has been to restore political order and portray the situation as normal and under control. This is where the international community could play a vital role, by initiating preventive action before the existing scant local resources dwindle further, local host communities’ capacity for philanthropy become overstretched, and citizenry in general despair of the stalemated ceasefire.

The basic insights needed to pursue this objective will form the central theme of this paper. The writer feels that his familiarity with the subject area will enable him to make a comprehensive empirical study of the topic.