CHAPTER: 1

INTRODUTION

Literature Review:

In modem India the ecological transformation in the last two centuries has
been striking. Unfortunately, the historiography of modern India has ignored this
history.However; this neglect of the study of the ecological basis of society by
historians is not universal. The Annals historians like Marc Bloch, FernandBrandel
have studied the importance of nature in human history. 1Ecological factors appear in
their studies largely as constraining forces.2 They do not see human interaction with
nature as possible cause of ecological change, a theme which is of central concern to
the environmental historians in the United States. Environmental history as a distinct
field has emerged in America in the 1970s.3

In this situation the role of colonialism in deforestation has been well brought
out in a book edited by John F.Richards and Richard P. Tucker. This collection of
articles explores the causes of deforestation and its consequences in the continents of
Asia, Africa, Europe and America. Deforestation is seen mainly in terms of the
interaction between globally dominant western capital and regional markets
responding to the opportunities for profit. Commercial exploitation of timber,
plantation industry, etc., are found to be the main factors of deforestation. However,
there is only one essay in this volume on India which covers deforestation in the U.P.
hills and Assam. In this article Richard Tucker tends to assume that the Forest
Department conserved forest and exploited them only scientifically while people
damaged forests. He has based his argument on the depressed condition of the civil
forests without examining the appropriate causes of deterioration were not the
reserves over exploited for commerce while the increasing population was compelled

1 Ferdinand Braudel, The Mediterranean and theMediterranean World in the Age of Philip II 1949,
London,(republished inEnglish, 1972).
2 David Arnold and RamachandraGuha, Introduction: Themes andIssues in the Environmental
History of South Asia(eds.) Nature, Culture and Imperialism: Essays on the EnvironmentalHistory
of South Asia,Delhi, 1995, p.6.
3 For a review of the writings on environmental history in Americasee D. Worster, History as Natural
History: An. Essay onTheory and Method, Pacific Historical Review, vol.LIII, 1(1984), pp 1-19; R.
White, American Environmental History: TheDevelopment of a New Historical Field, Pacific
Historical Review,Vol LIV,3 (1985) pp. 297-335; D. Worster (ed.) The Ends ofthe Earth:
Perspective on Modern Environmental History, Cambridge,1988.

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to meet their expanding demand from a contracting area of civil forests? Tucker
uncritically accepts the conservation rhetoric of the foresters. In the following
chapters I have tried to examine the nature of such rhetoric.4

In India the ecological aspect has been largely ignored in historical writings.
Ramachandra Guhaand and MadhavGadgil have attempted to bridge this gap by
proposing a perspective for the study of ecological history of India. They start by
proposing a general theory of ecological history which discusses the levels of anxiety
and exaggeration in different modes of resource use. It is followed by an ecological
interpretation of pre-modern Indian history. Finally the book narrates the disturbance
caused by the colonial interference in the ecological basis of Indian society. Forests
were appropriated by the state which intensified competeting claims on the commons
and gave rise to popular confrontation and social conflicts.5 No doubt such a broad
interpretation of Indian history would be problematic without detailed regional
studies. The authors themselves agree that "ultimately, the ecological history of India
must be constructed around detailed regional studies, sharply bounded in time and
space".6

Ramachandra Guha's The Unquiet Woods in this sense is a important

contribution. In this pioneering work he discusses the evolution of colonial forestry
and social and environmental disturbance caused by it in the Uttarakhand region. This
state interference gave rise to conflicts. He discusses with graphic detail the protest
movements in defense of forest rights and establishes the connection between the
early protests and the Chipko movement.7 While this book gives a interesting account
of social protests some of the ecological consequences ofcolonial forestry are not fully
explored. Thus while Guha noted the importance of'factors like railway expansion,
world wars, for deforestation,8 the contribution of these factors, and others like arable
expansion, was not fully examined. The shift in the nature of deforestation from the
early colonial period to the later colonial period is also not fully explored. While he

4 Tucker, The British Empire and India's Forest Resources: The Timberlands of Assam and Kumaun,
1914-1950, in Ibid., pp. 91-111.
5 Gadgil and Guha, This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India, New Delhi,1992 (reprint
1993 and 2013)
6 Ibid,p.,6 .
7 Guha, The Unquiet Woods: Ecological Change and Peasant Resistance in the Himalaya, Delhi,
1989.
8 Ibid.,pp. 37-8; 48.

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indicates that mixed forests were converted into conifers,9 he neither fully develops
the argument nor effectively examines its consequences.

A recent collection of essays on environmental history of South Asia covers a

wide range of points: colonial polices towards forests, pastures, harnessing of water
resources, the problem of air pollution.10Chetan Singh in his essay in this volume
shows how in Mughal north India ecological diversity continued various groups other
than the agrarian society. Increased utilization in urban centers led to the shortage of
forest produces like fuel wood, fodder, timber etc.This in the long term had the
potential of transforming the ecology. In an excellent article Gadgil and Prabhakar
trace the ecological change in the Nilgiri Hills in last two centuries with the help of
maps drawn at different times during this period.They have shown how a relatively
isolated area with localized resource flow was transformed into a well connected
region with outside links and resource flow to amuch larger domain. Atluri Murali has
shown how commercial forestry transformedthe ecological basis of the society in
Andhra. Jacques Pouchepadass show the British considered shifting cultivation
undesirable and restricted it. Neeladri Bhattacharya traces the changing patterns of
pastoralism in Punjab under colonialrule. He examines social perceptions about
nomadic pastoralists and shows how colonial notion of property led to nomadic
pastoralists being classified as vagrants and criminals. David Hardiman examines how
the system of small dam for irrigation disintegrated in the Sahyadris under colonial
rule. The large irrigation system created by the colonial state in the Indus basin could
not ensure proper allotment and resourceful use of water due to local socio-cultural
constraints argues David Gilmartin. Environmental effects of large irrigation systems,
like water logging, salinity and diseases, etc. are argued in an interesting article by
Elizabeth Whitcombe. Peter Reeves shows how colonial intervention in fishery which
shifted control from landholders and fishers to lessees badly affected inland
fisheries.M.R. Anderson shows how control of air pollution in Calcutta opened the
way for strong interference and coercion by the colonial state. Mark Poffenberger
accounts for the resurgence of community control of forest resources in West Bengal
in recent times. This volume which covers a wide range of concerns opens up many
areas for research in environmental history. However many other topics like,

9 Ibid., p., 59.

10 Arnold and Guha, op. cit.

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demographic change, arable expansion, soil erosion, change in soil
productivity,drought, famine and climatic change, deforestation, changing vegetation
composition, etc. are left out. The study of environmental history of modern India
remains partial without a study of depleting forest cover which is surprisingly missing
from this volume. Declining forest cover was the most visible and important
consequence of colonial forestry. The impact of deforestation was wide ranging. It
affected rainfall, climate, soil fertility, etc. And it led to droughts,famines, floods, etc.
Deforestation affects a much larger area than the one in which it takes place.
Ecological disturbances caused by deforestation were further complex by deliberate
attempts to change vegetation composition. The study of long term consequences of
this change, many of which are yet to be realized, is difficult and poses a challenge to
historians, but at least a beginning can be made by studying the nature of
deforestation and change in vegetation composition.The present study is an effort in
this direction. This study seeks to explore all dimensions of colonial forestry.

Area of Study and its Historical Background:

The area of this study is U.P., situated in Northern part of India and
surrounded by Tibet and Nepal in the North, Madhya Pradesh in the South, Haryana,
Delhi and Rajasthan in the West and Bihar in the East.The area now known as Uttar
Pradesh hasundergone several different definitions, classification and territorial
demarcations from ancient time. It is bound the scope of our research to trace the
history of Uttar Pradesh as a region through antiquity. Yet it is worthwhile to
recognize that the geographical space occupied by present day UP was, through the
course of history, made up of multiple regions or cultural zones which today lie
submerged within it.11The Buddhist text,AngutttaraNikaya, mentions the existence of
sixteen Mahajanapadasor states, ascribed by historians to the period seventh to fifth
centuries BC. Out of these, seven lay in the territory formed by present day-UP,
namely Kuru(Uttarakhand), MatsyaSurasena(Braj), Kosal(Awadh),
Panchala(Northern Awadh), Mallas(Northern Bhojpur), Vatsa(Western Bhojpur), and
Kashi(Eastern Bhojpur). Many of these Mahajanapadaswere monarchies, with rulers
who established their Kingdoms around capital cities, which acted as focal points

11 Bernard S. Cohn, Regions Subjective and Objective: Their Relation to the Study of Modern Indian
History and Societyin B.S. Cohn (ed.), An Anthropologist Among the Historians and other Essays,
Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1987.

4
where religious, political, economic and military activities came to be concentrated.
Many such capital cities around which successive regional kingdoms came to be
established-Hastinapur, Kanauj, Kausambhi, Mathura, Prayag, Ayodhya, Kashi, and
Mirath-were located within the boundaries of present day UP. In the seventh century
A.D., Harsh Vardhana established a vast kingdom with the city of Kanauj as its
center, with territories extending to the greater part of northern India. Subsequently,
many regional kingdoms and dynasties such the Prathihars 12came to be centered here.
The early medieval periodsaw the emergence and growth of many of the urban
centers which feature on the map of present day UP. Many of these cities evolved as
political centers, pilgrim sites or trading marts, sometimes as a combination of all
three.13A few of them developed into local and regional Muslim Kingdoms, for
example, the Kingdom of Jaunpur, which arose in the fourteenth century. Under the
Mughal emperors, who were able to establish Pan-Indian political authority, UP and
its surrounding areas were constituted into the four Subahs (Provinces) of Delhi
(Harayana, Mewat, Uttarakhand and Rohilkand), Agra (Braj and Bundelkhand),
Awadh (Central Districts) and Allahabad (Bhojpur and Banghelkhan). 14IrfanHabib’s
Atlas of Mughal India makes it possible for the first time, to get detailed quantitative
information on the areas and revenues for each of the Subhas and Sarkars (Districts),
which constituted the Mughal Empire. For instance, we learn that the Subah of
Allahabad consisted of 34,613 square miles, while those of Awadh and Agra 26,463
square miles and 46,417 square miles respectively.15

At this point in our discussion we could perhaps pause and take cognizance of
the fact that, until the coming of the British in the mid eighteenth century, United
provinces discrimination not possess a common structure of history. Different Kings,
rulers, governors and chieftains, had over the course of history, controlled different

12 SurendranathMajumdarShastriCunningham’s Ancient Geography of India, Chukerverty, Chatterjee

and Co. Ltd., Calcutta, 1924; NundoLalDey, The Geographical Dictionary of Ancient and Medieval
India, Luzac, London, 1927, second ed.; F.R. Allchin, The Archaeology of Early Historic South
Asia: The Emergence of Cities and States, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995; and
Niharranjan Ray (general ed.), A Source Book of Indian Civilization, Orient Longman, New Delhi,
2000.
13 Narayan Gupta, Urbanism in India, in A. Rahman (ed)., History of Indian Science, Technology and
Culture, Vol. III, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 2000, pp. 359-79.
14 K.K. Trivedi, Agra: Economic and Political Profile of a Mughal Suba, 1580-1707, Ravish
Publishers, Pune, 1998.
15IrfaanHabib, An Atlas of the Mughal Empire, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1982.

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Parts of its territories, which were themselves distinct regions; the hill areas of
Uttarakhand or Uttaranchal; the distinct Braj-speaking zone around Mathura; the
Bundelkhand region with Jhansi as its center, Rohilkhand consisting of areas around
Rampur and Moradabad; Awadh with Lucknow as its cultural center; and finally
Poorvanchal, made up of Bhojpuri-speaking eastern parts with Benaras and Allahabad
as its main centers. Different linguistic affiliations and dialectics demarcated the
cultural boundaries of their regions.16The beginning of British interference in the
affairs of UP, which they then called Upper India from their location in Calcutta,
changed the situation completely. It inaugurated a process of conquest and merger,
which changed the political geography of Northern Indian.

Following the Battle of Buxar in 1764, the British made Awadh a buffer state
between the East India Company territories and those of the Marathas. 17 Then, in
1773, Kora and Allahabad were sold to the Nawab of Awadh under the Treaty of
Allahabad. In the same year Rohilkhand was conquered by Awadh with active British
military aid and Banaras, Ghazipur and Mirzapur were ceded to the British in return.
Then in 1801 ten districts under the Nawab of Awadh (the ceded districts) were taken
over by the company Allahabad, Fatehpur, Kanpur, Azamgarh, Gorakhpur Bareilly,
Moradabad, Bijnaur, Badaun and Shahjanpur. In 1801 several central and western
districts including Etawah, Mainpuri, Etah together with the parts of north-western
regions namely Kumaon and Meerut were annexed; and in 1803, following the defeat
of Marathas, the British brought Bundelkhand under their direct control. In 1816
Garhwal and Dehradun were annexed as a result of the treaty of Sangauli with the
King of Nepal. In 1840 and 1853 respectively, Jalaun, Hamirpur and Jhansi suffered
the same outcome. In 1856 the Kingdom of Awadh itself was annexed, precipitating
the outbreak of the Revolt of 1857. However, after the establishment of East India
Company supremacy over Gangatic region, in 1833 the Bengal Presidency of the
Company was divided into two parts, between the two one was Presidency of Agra
came into the existence in 1836 the area of Agra namely known as NWPand placed
under a Lieutenant Governor by the Company. In 1877, the two provinces of Agra
and Oudh (Oudh was occupied by the Company, in 1858) were placed under one
Colonial administrator of the British Crown; he was called Lieutenant Governor of the

16 GyaneshKudaisya, , Constructing the ‘Heartland’: Uttar Pradesh in India’s Body-Politic, Journal

of South Asian Studies (ns), Vol. XXX, No. 2, August 2002.
17 The Imperial Gazetteer of India, Vol. XXIV, Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1908, pp. 146-61.

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North-Western Provinces and Chief Commissioner of Oudh. In 1902 the name was
changed to United Provinces of Agra and Oudh with Lieutenant Governor of the
United Provinces of Agra and Oudh as administrator;18 in 1921 Lieutenant
Governorship was elevated to Governorship and the name of the province was
changed into United Provinces of British India. In 1935, the name was shortened into
United Provinces.

Physical Features

TНЕ United Provinces of Agra and Awadh (U.P.), which embrace the central
region of Northern India, comprise three distinct natural divisions19 whose physical
features are briefly outlined below:

(1) The Himalayan Tract is traversed by three ranges, the snow-clad peaks of which
feed the Jumna,the Ganges, the Ramganga and the Sarda. The Rapti and the Gandak
rise in Nepal. Completely bereft to vegetation,the uppermost reaches of the Himalayas
are best described as snow deserts. Lower down they support little else than
arcticvegetation. Tree growth begins to appear from an elevation of
12,000ftdownwards, the most valuable forests of Oaks and conifers being practically
confined to altitudes below 10,000 feet. The foothills and more particularly the sub-
montane tract are covered with the finest forest of Sal (Shorearobusta) and other
valuable species. The detritus deposit at the foot of the hills is known as the bhabar,
waterless tract which tails down to the tarai abutting the Gangetic alluvium. Hill
streams which disappearin the vast porousmass of debris known as the bhabar
reappear in the tarai characterizing it as moist and malarias. Both bhabar and tarai
supportvaluable forestsand are rich in animal life. The climate
variesfromarctictemperaturesin the Himalayanzone to the oppressivemoistheat in the
tarai. Rainfall is plentiful.

(2) The Gangetic Basin lies like a trough between the Himalayas in the north and the
Central India Plateau in the south. The sub-recentalluvium expected at 6000 to
15,000ftdeep gives this tractits characteristic flat appearance, high fertility, and

18 Imperial Gazetteer of India, Provincial Series, United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, Vol.I, Usha
Jain, New Delhi, 1984,pp.1-2, see appendix I.
19 M.D.Chaturvedi, The Development of Forestry as the Handmaid of Agriculture in the United
Provinces, Empire Forestry Review, vol.26, No.1(June 1947),pp.61-69

8
maximum density of population. The older doab lands between the Jumnaand the
Ganges, which bore the brunt of early Aryan colonization, have been impoverished by

9
having been continuously under the plough and consequently are less productive than
soils of more recent origin to the east of the Ramganga. The western region, more
particularly in its lowerlatitudes, is geologically older, has less rainfall, and is,
therefore, drier than the eastern districts. Studded with numerous historical cities
along the banks of navigable rivers, the Gangetic Basin is the melting pot of manya
civilization, the modality of which gives this region the importance it enjoys. The
climateis characterizedby well-definedseasons,viz., winter,summer, and rains,with
continental extremesof temperature. The bulk of the rainfallis confinedto the rainy
season, which lasts from1 5th June to 15th October.

(3) The Central India Plateau coversa rough,brokenand picturesquecountryto the

south of the Jumna. The rugged spurs of the Vindhyas and Kaimurs terrace down
from an elevation of about 3000 feet in awkward steps to about 1000 feet. The
regionis traversedby numerous streams,the chiefamongwhichfromwest to east are the
Betwa, the Dhasan, the Ken, the Tons, and the Son. With the exception of rich
alluvium deposits in the valleys, the soil derived from the hard infertile rocks of
achaean and Vindhyan origins generally poor. The climate resembles that of the
Gangetic Basin with the modification that the summer is longer and hotter and the
rains more pleasant.

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