DOI Artikel:
Prasad, Archana: The political ecology of swidden cultivation: the survival strategies of the Baigas in the central provinces of India, 1860-1890
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.49004#0221
THE POLITICAL ECOLOGY OF SWIDDEN
CULTIVATION
THE SURVIVAL STRATEGIES OF THE BAIGAS IN THE
CENTRAL PROVINCES OF INDIA, 1 860-1890
By
Archana Prasad
This essay focuses on the survival strategies
and the cultivation methods of a group of
swidden cultivators, the Baigas in the Central
Provinces of India. It attempts to outline
their changing lifestyles during three decades
from 1860 to 1890. Presently known as Mad-
hya Pradesh, these Provinces covered the
heart of middle India, the Baigas occupying
its north-eastern portion. The Baiga area was
densely forested and hilly with large tracts of
laterite soil that were conducive to swidden-
ing. I argue that swidden cultivation, bewar,
a viable form of cultivation only if the
seasonal rhythm between cultivation, hunting
and gathering practises could be maintained.
This was imperative if the Baiga subsistence
system was to maintain and reproduce itself
in the ecological conditions that characterized
the Maikal Range, the area of the Baiga com-
munity. The seasonal rhythm, known as
dhaiya, had enormous social and political im-
plications for Baiga society; these could not
be separated from the community’s responses
to its environment. In effect these relation-
ships were instrumental in reproducing the
habitual responses that were essential for the
reproduction of the Baiga system of cultiva-
tion.
One of the first methods of studying shift-
ing cultivation was suggested by Harold
C. Conklin in Hanunoo Agriculture. Accord-
ing to him shifting cultivation - a dominant
mode of cultivation in hilly forested areas -
could be studied in two ways: as an economic
practice for economic interests, or as a more
traditional year round community wide sanc-
tioned way of life. The first was classified as a
“partial system”, the second as an “integral
system” (i.e. self contained and independent
system). Integral systems were “ideal” struc-
tures of shifting cultivation that had under-
gone no acculturation with other systems,
and were therefore fully adapted to their sur-
roundings (Conklin 1957). Conklin con-
tended that in order to make a holistic study
of the economy and society of such cultiva-
tion types the following factors need to be
taken into account: a) the cropping patterns,
b) crop-fallow time ratio, c) associations and
successions, d) tools and techniques, e) dis-
persal of swiddens, f) treatment of soils, g)
regional flora of land cleared, and h) climatic
conditions (Conklin 1957, 3). Distinguishing
the system from peasant cultivation he said:
“In Philippines as elsewhere the study of
swidden cultivation (in time and space) -
more than sedentary field agriculture is nec-
essarily a study of farming practices over ex-
tended periods of continuous and significant
environmental change” (Conklin 1957, 145).
CULTIVATION
THE SURVIVAL STRATEGIES OF THE BAIGAS IN THE
CENTRAL PROVINCES OF INDIA, 1 860-1890
By
Archana Prasad
This essay focuses on the survival strategies
and the cultivation methods of a group of
swidden cultivators, the Baigas in the Central
Provinces of India. It attempts to outline
their changing lifestyles during three decades
from 1860 to 1890. Presently known as Mad-
hya Pradesh, these Provinces covered the
heart of middle India, the Baigas occupying
its north-eastern portion. The Baiga area was
densely forested and hilly with large tracts of
laterite soil that were conducive to swidden-
ing. I argue that swidden cultivation, bewar,
a viable form of cultivation only if the
seasonal rhythm between cultivation, hunting
and gathering practises could be maintained.
This was imperative if the Baiga subsistence
system was to maintain and reproduce itself
in the ecological conditions that characterized
the Maikal Range, the area of the Baiga com-
munity. The seasonal rhythm, known as
dhaiya, had enormous social and political im-
plications for Baiga society; these could not
be separated from the community’s responses
to its environment. In effect these relation-
ships were instrumental in reproducing the
habitual responses that were essential for the
reproduction of the Baiga system of cultiva-
tion.
One of the first methods of studying shift-
ing cultivation was suggested by Harold
C. Conklin in Hanunoo Agriculture. Accord-
ing to him shifting cultivation - a dominant
mode of cultivation in hilly forested areas -
could be studied in two ways: as an economic
practice for economic interests, or as a more
traditional year round community wide sanc-
tioned way of life. The first was classified as a
“partial system”, the second as an “integral
system” (i.e. self contained and independent
system). Integral systems were “ideal” struc-
tures of shifting cultivation that had under-
gone no acculturation with other systems,
and were therefore fully adapted to their sur-
roundings (Conklin 1957). Conklin con-
tended that in order to make a holistic study
of the economy and society of such cultiva-
tion types the following factors need to be
taken into account: a) the cropping patterns,
b) crop-fallow time ratio, c) associations and
successions, d) tools and techniques, e) dis-
persal of swiddens, f) treatment of soils, g)
regional flora of land cleared, and h) climatic
conditions (Conklin 1957, 3). Distinguishing
the system from peasant cultivation he said:
“In Philippines as elsewhere the study of
swidden cultivation (in time and space) -
more than sedentary field agriculture is nec-
essarily a study of farming practices over ex-
tended periods of continuous and significant
environmental change” (Conklin 1957, 145).