Against Ecological Romanticism: Verrier Elwin and the Making of an Anti-Modern Tribal Identity

140 Pages·2003·14.199 MB·English

by  Archana Prasad

Against Ecological Romanticism
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Against Ecological
Romanticism
Verrier Elwin and the Making of
an Anti-Modern Tribal Identity
Archana Prasad
~
Three Essays
C 0 L L I C T I Y I
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May 2003
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copyright CThree Essays, 2003
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Pb 81-88789-02-X
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For the activists who are battling
the twin threats of liberalisation and Hindutva
•
in the hope of a better future.
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Contents
Preface
Ecological Romanticism and Environmental History:
The Contemporary Relevance of Verrier Elwin xiii
One
Adivasis as Swadeshis: Unpacking the Myth of the
"Original Inhabitant" in Gondwana 1
Two
The Baiga and its Eco-Logic Reinterpreting Verrier Elwin's
Cultural Ecology in Central India 35
Three
Paving the Way for Hindutva: The Tragic Tale of the
'Ii'ansformation of Elwin's Romanticism 73
Afterword
Looking Beyond Ecological Romanticism 107
Select Bibliography 111
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Acknowledgements
The essays in this book have been written over a period of six or seven
years; the first of them was written in 1995 as part of an effort to revise my
Ph.D. thesis. Their final form, however, emerges from my long conceptual
journey, which has been a result of the contributions of many colleagues
and comrades. The perspective promoted by this book is a result of the
co-operation of many movements, and the people I met, during repeated
field visits in Central India, all of whom are impossible to acknowledge
here. In particular, I would like to thank Neeladri Bhattacharya and Shereen
Ratnagar, who have continuously commented on and discussed this work
since its inception. A lot of this work is a result of the generous encourage
ment of Ramachandra Guba, who has also been kind enough to give
references to important sources on which some of these essays are based.
Bela Malik, Mahesh Rangarajan, Nandini Sundar, K. Sivaramakrishnan,
William Storey, Dhirendra Dangwal, the late Shailendra Shaily, and Rohan
D'Souza have either commented on or discussed this work and made
important contributions to it over the years. I also thank Asha Mishra,
Gautam Bandopadhyay, Sunil bhai, lllina Sen and Lakhan Singh for making
fieldwork both comfortable and a learning experience.
These essays would not have been revised in this form had Asad
Zaidi and Nalini Taneja not introduced me to this series and prodded me
to finally put them together as a book. Finally, I would like to thank Dinesh
Abrol for his continuous support, encouragement and significant intellec
tual contribution to this venture.
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Citations
The first essay, ''.6.divasis as Swadeshis" draws large part of its content from
an already published essay "Military Conflicts and Forests in Gondwana",
Environment and History, Volume 5, Number3, 1999, Cambridge. It also
draws from unpublished material and sources.
The second essay, "The Baiga and its Eco-Logic" is a revised version
of an article that was earlier published in Studies in History. The reference
for that article is 'The Baiga: Survival Strategies and Local Economy in
Colonial Central Provinces', Studies in History, December 1998, Delhi.
The third essay, "Paving the Way for Hindutva" is an enlarged version
of the essay, 'Communalism and Tribal Welfare in Madhya Pradesh', Alpjan,
Volume I, Number I, October-December 2000. However, large parts of its
material are drawn from additional research done by me on this theme
during post-doctoral work.
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