Village Communities and Land Tenures in Western India Under Colonial Rule

Village Communities and Land Tenures in Western India Under Colonial Rule

By- Brahma Nand (ed.)

The two documents Report on the Village Communities of the Deccan by R.N. Gooddine (1852) and Character of Land Tenures and System of Survey and Settlement in the Bombay Presidency by J. Moneteath (1914) presented in this volume explore the nature of village communities and land tenures under British rule in western India. The portrayal of village communities in the existing writings as static and unchanging institutions and as tax-gathering tools for the state or redistributive agencies of social surplus is extremely inadequate and unsatisfactory for the correct understanding of the functioning of these institutions.

Originating in deep antiquity, they have to be seen as a complex and dynamic ensemble of social relations. Unlike Russian obschina, Indian village communities were not premised upon the principles of egalitarianism but arose to cope with the competing and conflicting claims of various groups and classes to the social surplus.

Village communities were grounded in the hierarchical foundations of the rural societies and tried to institutionalize the existing social disparities. They began to crumble under the impetus of market economy and the increasing intervention of the colonial state when the process of class polarization went beyond this institutionalized limit. Also, the continuous restructuring of social relationships reflected in the changing tenurial patterns accumulating by slow degrees resulted in the long-run in ultimately dislocating the existing social structure. The historical records show that the central contention of the neo-imperialist writings regarding the fundamental continuity between the pre-colonial and colonial social structure is not sustainable.

Brahma Nand has worked for more than quarter of a century on the problems relating to the agrarian economy and society in western India under colonial rule.

ISBN  978-81-7304-820-3    2009   250p.   Rs.750/ pounds 45

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Tribal Crop-Livestock Systems in South-East India

Tribal Crop-Livestock Systems in South-East India

Das Kornel

The book, Tribal Crop-Livestock Systems in South-East India, as the title implies describes the related practices followed in undivided Koraput district, in Orissa. There are 51 different communities who live here. They survive largely on marginal farming and animal husbandry.

The study covers communities living in different territories, hills and plains, some very primitive and some slightly advanced. The tribal groups studied are Bhattra, Kondh, Bondo, Dongria Kondh, Koya, Sabara, Bodo Poraja, Sano Poraja and Bhumia. A short enthnographic note and agriculture practices of each of these tribes has also been included. The magico-religious rites associated with agriculture, as well as the tribal cooperative agriculture labour, where still it exists, have been described.

The tribal crop-livestock farming system has been classified and described under sections, such as Backyard Farming System, Life Support Crop Farming System, Scarcity Period and Food Resources, Famine Saviour Plant System, Slash and Burn (Podu) Cultivation System and Mixed Species Animal Husbandry System. The successful intensive agriculture system
followed by Kondh under rain fed condition and the vegetable grower Mali under limited land and irrigation facilities have been described. The understanding of the existing system can be utilized to build sustainable food production system for those who are in a transitional stage of development.

The author has tried to present the book, as a practical manual through many interesting photographs and sketches and changes observed during the last three decades in agriculture and animal husbandry in the area has been documented carefully.

Das Kornel, presently Programme Coordinator to Indo-Swiss NRM Project in Orissa, had served for ten years as DANIDA Advisor for Integrated Livestock Development Project, working in tribal villages of Koraput district in Orissa.

ISBN  81-7304-668-9    2009   288p.   Rs.725/ pounds 45

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