Would appreciate any references. My current research is entering into this domain. Colonial Rule in India had its impact on every facet of life. Perhaps, genuine people's movements for protecting their livelihood through forest production and exploitation of the environment through traditional methods got branded as political revolt and suppressed by the colonial rulers. If there is anyone who has researched into people's movements from an environmental angle in India between 1857-1947, please provide some inputs.
I don't study this field actually but I sometimes use Google & Scholar. So, here is one way to find out more: search for ["environmental movement" colonial india] and similar terms in scholar.google.com to find, for example, the paper linked below.
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=4435988
Try checking the internet archive https://archive.org/details/texts for historical India census data. Every 10 years, data on population (including migration) are published at taluk, district, and state level. The state level data is based on aggregating taluk level data. For years prior to 1991, census information is only available as printed books. I am not sure if census prior to 1951 covered migration details or not, because I have not seen the books. But, from 1981 onwards migration details are available for each taluk in India.
check this link for example: http://censusindia.gov.in/Census_And_You/migrations.aspx .
There were several movements by people as the British colonized Indian forests: you will find references in Highlands of Central India by Capt Forsythe (felling of forests in Central India prior to nationalization); the Rajasthani tribe (I forget the name, but the same people who pressed poaching charges against the Indian actor, Salman Khan) who fought to protect their acacia forests; etc, etc. Thre was also a movement among the tribes in the Maikal range, in fact a full fledged revolt against the British.
The development of colonial forestry in India had a considerable influence in the subsequent development of environmental and conservation movements in India. Some publications that are relevant here come to mind:
Books:
S. Ravi Rajan, Modernizing Nature. Forestry and Imperial Eco-Development 1800-1950
Gregory A. Barton, Empire Forestry and the Origins of Environmentalism
Chapter:
Richard P. Tucker, The depletion of India's Forests under British Imperialism: Planters, Foresters, and Peasants in Assam and Kerala, In: Donald Worster (ed.), The Ends of the Earth. Perspectives on Modern Environmental History (Cambdige University Press, 1988), pp. 118-140.
I have published an article that explores the link between Indian and Scottish forestry that might be relevant to your interest:
Jan Oosthoek, “Worlds Apart? The Scottish Forestry Tradition and the Development of Forestry in India”, Journal of Irish and Scottish Studies, Vol 3 (2010) issue 1, 69-82.
You can download a copy from my profile on this site.
There is in fact a substantial literature on the colonial impact on conservation and environmentalism in India and these publications will give you some pointers to this literature.
I hope this is helpful.
Dear Jan, very useful and thank you. With your permission, I will down load your paper please.
@ Peter: Dear Peter, perhaps you did not intend it, but the suggestions you made took me over 100 years of colonial history and I have vowed to keep that flame of interest glowing. Thanks indeed.
Dear Srinivasan, please feel free to download my paper. It is freely available from my profile on RG.
I would like to suggest to have a closer look at Mahaved Govind Ranade's Essays on Indian Economics (1906), for instance, and other Indian economists of the independent movement. They analyze the European economic writings in their applicability to the Indian case. This comprises the Indian structures for free trade, industrialized production and exploitation of natural resources. The last point is an important one, when approaching environmental history: Ranade expresses a resistance to believe European economists (Smith, Malthus, Mill, Ricardo etc) that natural boundaries can be removed or shifted easily by economic activity. This point can be made stronger in regard to your question. There was not only a kind of grass-root movement (which you can fine everywhere in the world, where peasants consider their habitat to be endangered) but a highly reflected approach to sustainability, economic responsibility and global political questions in a (still) colonized world.
Dear Helge Wendt,
Thank you indeed. I have also been going through KM Panikkar and RC Dutt. I will dig into Ranade now. Thanks once again.
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