Claims on the commons: Political power and natural resources in pre-colonial India

Indian Economic and Social History Review

Volumn 39, Issue 2-3 SPEC. ISS., 2002, Pages 181-196

  Guha, Sumit ^a  

^a BROWN UNIVERSITY   (United States)

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EID: 2442483808     PISSN: 00194646     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1177/001946460203900204     Document Type: Review

References (59)

1. Earlier versions of this paper were presented at Cornell University and the Yale University Program in Agrarian Studies. It has benefited from the comments and criticisms offered at each of these sessions. Some of these themes have also been discussed in an earlier paper, 'Economic Rents and Natural Resources: Commons and Conflicts in Premodern India', in Arun Agrawal and K. Sivaramakrishnan, eds, Agrarian Environments: Resources, Representations and Rule in India, Durham and London, 2000, pp. 132-46.
2. See, for instance, Dharma Kumar 'A Note on the Term "Land Control"', and 'Private Property in Asia? The case of Medieval South India', both reprinted in Kumar, Colonialism, Property and the State, Delhi, 1998, pp. 119-70.
3. See, for instance, Dharma Kumar 'A Note on the Term "Land Control"', and 'Private Property in Asia? The case of Medieval South India', both reprinted in Kumar, Colonialism, Property and the State, Delhi, 1998, pp. 119-70.
4. Maurice F. Strong, 'Foreword' to Dharam Ghai and Jessica M. Vivian, Grassroots Environmental Action: People's Participation in Sustainable Development, London, 1992, p. xiv.
5. Garrett Hardin, 'The Tragedy of the Commons', Science, New Series, Vol. 162, No. 3859 (13 December 1968), pp. 1243-48.
6. Beryl L. Crowe, 'The Tragedy of the Commons Revisited', Science, New Series, Vol. 166, No. 3909 (28 November 1969), pp. 1103-07.
7. Elinor Ostrom, 'Collective Action and the Tragedy of the Commons', reprint in Garret Hardin and John A. Baden, eds, Managing the Commons, San Francisco, 1977, pp. 176-80.
8. Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons, Cambridge, 1990, and (with C. Dustin Becker) 'Human Ecology and Resource Sustainability: The Importance of Institutional Diversity' (in Special Section on Sustainability Issues), Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Vol. 26, 1995, pp. 113-33.
9. Elinor Ostrom, Governing the Commons, Cambridge, 1990, and (with C. Dustin Becker) 'Human Ecology and Resource Sustainability: The Importance of Institutional Diversity' (in Special Section on Sustainability Issues), Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics, Vol. 26, 1995, pp. 113-33.
10. Vandana Shiva, Ecology and the Politics of Survival, New Delhi, 1991, p. 14.
11. Approach Paper to the Ninth Five Year Plan 1997-2002, New Delhi, 1997, pp. 65-66.
12. Ghai and Vivian, 'Introduction', in Grassroots Environmental Action, p. 12.
13. See Sumit Guha, 'The Population History of South Asia from the First to the Twentieth Century: An Exploration', in Guha, Health and Population in South Asia from the Earliest Times to the Present, New Delhi, 2001, pp. 25-31.
14. Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, This Fissured Land, Delhi, 1992, pp. 94-95.
15. M.M. Gadgil and K.C. Malhotra, 'Ecology of a Pastoral Caste: The Gavli Dhangar of Peninsular India', Human Ecology, Vol. 10, 1982, pp. 107-43.
16. Government of Bombay, Report of the Bombay Forest Commission, 1887, Vol. 2, pp. 84-85.
17. Ibid., p. 308
18. Ibid., p. 47
19. V.G. Khobrekar and S.S. Shinde, Konkanchya Itihasanchi Sadhanen 1692-1828, Bombay, 1971, p. 110.
20. Alexander Gibson, Forest Reports of the Bombay Presidency for the years 1856-7 to 1859-60, Bombay, 1861, Report for 1856-57, p. 4.
21. Report on the Forest Administration in the Bombay Presidency 1921-22, p. 34.
22. Gadgil and Guha, This Fissured Land, pp. 94-95.
23. T.N. Atre, Gaon Gada (first published 1915) reprint, Pune, 1989, p. 50.
24. This was a proverbial resource for destitute women: see A. Manwaring, Marathi Proverbs (1898) reprint, Delhi, 1991, Proverb No. 1071.
25. William H. Sykes, 'On the Land Tenures of the Dekhan', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, Vol. II, 1835, pp. 226-28; Atre, Gaon-Gada, p. 50.
26. William H. Sykes, 'On the Land Tenures of the Dekhan', Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain, Vol. II, 1835, pp. 226-28; Atre, Gaon-Gada, p. 50.
27. Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, Ecology and Equity: The Use and Abuse of Nature in Contemporary India, London, 1995.
28. Gadgil and Guha, This Fissured Land, pp. 92, 104.
29. V.P. Subrahmanyam, 'Water Balances in the Tropical Monsoon Climates of the Indian Region', in V.S. Datye, J. Diddee, S.R. Jog and C. Patil, eds, Explorations in the Tropics, Pune, n.d., pp. 26-38
30. W.H. Sykes, 'Special Report', p. 254.
31. Ajay M. Shastri, Yadava Insriptions from Ambe Jogai, Hoshiarpur, 1972, p. 10.
32. Thomas Coats, 'Account of the Present State of the Township of Lony', in Transactions of the Literary Society of Bombay, Vol. III, 1823, pp. 237-38.
33. Ibid., p. 243.
34. Ibid., p. 234.
35. When Dabadghao and Shankarnarayan wanted to assess the productivity of managed grasslands in India, many of the meadows they found managed by the Forest Department were such old kurans. They also form the basis of several wildlife preserves of the present day. P.M. Dabadghao and K.A. Shankarnarayan, The Grass Cover of India, New Delhi, 1973.
36. Vishvanath K. Rajvade, comp. and ed., Marathyanchya Itihasanchi Sadhane - Khand Dahava, Pune, 1909, pp. 449, 473.
37. Dattatreya Vishnu Apte, Chandrachud Daftar, Pune, 1920, Part 1, p. 55.
38. Rajvade, Sadhane-Khand Dahava, pp. 453-54.
39. Govind Sakharam Sardesai, ed., Selections from the Peshwa Daftar, 46 vols, Bombay, 1931-35, Vol. 30, p. 129.
40. R.V. Oturkar, Peshvekalin Samajik va Arthik Patravyavahara, Pune, 1950, p. 7.
41. 'Forest Report of the Bombay Presidency 1863-4', p. 102, printed in Forest Reports of the Bombay Presidency 1860-61 to 1867-8, Bombay, 1869.
42. G.C. Vad et. al., eds, Selections from the Satara Raja and Peshwa's Diaries, 9 Parts, Pune, 1903-11 (henceforth SSRPD), Pt. III, Vol. 1, p. 282.
43. Ibid., pp. 298-99.
44. For a listing of such holdings among the gentry of Kolhapur kingdom, see the inventories in Khanderav Gaikwad, ed., Karvir Sardarchya Kaifiyati, Kolhapur, 1971, pp. 84, 96, and passim.
45. Rajvade, Sadhane-Khand Dahava, p. 458.
46. SSRPD, Pt. VII, Vol. 2, pp. 317-18.
47. Ibid., Pt. III, Vol. 1, p. 251.
48. Grass Cover of India, p. 187.
49. Ibid., p. 111.
50. H.H. Mann, Land and Labour in a Deccan Village - I, Bombay, 1917, p. 83.
51. Maharashtra Government Archives, Pune (henceforth Pune Archives), Chitnisi rumal 57, Pudke 3, docs. 30122 and 30169.
52. Coats, 'Lony', p. 172.
53. Ibid., p. 213.
54. Pune Archives, Chitnisi Rumal 36, Pudke 1, doc. 18870.
55. Ibid., Shahu Daftar Rumal 8, Pudke 4, doc. 8996; another example is Rumal 8, Pudke 5, doc. 9724.
56. Ibid., Pudke 4, doc. 8945.
57. Ibid., Pudke 4, doc. 8909; Pudke 5, doc. 9739.
58. Ibid., Pudke 4, doc. 8845.
59. SSRPD, Pt. VI, Vol. 2, pp. 256-58.