Production cycles and decline in traditional iron smelting in the Maidan, southern India, c. 1750-1950: An environmental history perspective

Environment and History

Volumn 15, Issue 2, 2009, Pages 163-197

  Sivramkrishna, Sashi ^a  

^a Foundation to Aid Industrial Recovery   (India)

Author keywords

Charcoal; Colonial india; Deforestation; Forest policy; Iron smelting; Pre colonial india

Indexed keywords

CHARCOAL; COLONIALISM; DEFORESTATION; ECOLOGICAL APPROACH; ENVIRONMENTAL HISTORY; FOREST RESOURCE; INDUSTRIAL PRODUCTION; IRON; PRODUCTIVITY; SMELTING; TECHNOLOGY POLICY;

INDIA;

EID: 72749128100     PISSN: 09673407     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.3197/096734009X437963     Document Type: Review

References (119)

1. VibhaTripathi, 'Iron Technology in India: Survival of an Ancient Tradition', in Tradition and Innovation in the History of Iron Making: An Indo-European Perspective, ed. Girija Pande and Jan af Geijerstam (Nainital: Pahar Parikarma, 2002), 225-236
2. 3 (= 1 x 1 x 1 m or 3'x3'x3' block) of wet wood weighs nearly 750 kg.
3. Helmut Foil, 'Defects in Crystals', University of Kiel, Faculty of Engineering, http: //www.tf.uni-kiel.de/matwis/amat/def-en/index.html, mentions that the copper: charcoal ratio is about I:20. Also on affects of copper smelting on forests,
4. see J.R. Mcneill, 'Woods and Warfare in Environmental History', Environmental History, 9, 3(2004): 388-410.
5. M.W. Flinn, ' Abraham Darby and the Coke-Smelting Process ', Economica, New Series, 26, 101 (1959): 54-59
6. M Kato, D.M. DeMarini, A.B. Carvalho, M.A.V. Rego, A.V. Andrade, A.S.V Bonfim and D. Loomis, 'World at work: Charcoal producing industries in northeastern Brazil', Occupational and Environmental Medicine 62 (2005): 128-132
7. Kannada is the language of Karnataka State, India.
8. Later known as Francis Hamilton but also referred to as Francis Buchanan-Hamilton.
9. Francis Buchanan, A Journey from Madras through the Countries of Mysore, Cañara, and Malabar, Volumes 1-3 (New Delhi: Asian Educational Services, 1999).
10. B.L. Rice, The Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, (Mysore: Government Press, 1897)
11. and C. Hayavadana Rao, The Mysore Gazetteer, Vol.4, (Mysore: Government Press, 1929).
12. V.S. Sambasiva Iyer, 'Report on Prospecting Work in Parts of the Chitaldroog and Tumkur District during the Field Season 1896-99', Mysore Geological Department Records, II (1898-9): 105-7; and
13. V.S. Sambasiva Iyer, 'Notes on Economic Mineral Products of the Chitaldrug and Tumkur district, during the Field Season of 1896-99', Mysore Geological Department Records III (1900-01).
14. Buchanan, A Journey, Vol.1, 170-176 The process employed for iron-smelting was quite the same everywhere Buchanan went.
15. A Journey Ibid., 175-177
16. Information on species used is compiled from Buchanan, A Journey, Vol.2, 36,
17. and Rice, The Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, 421.
18. Buchanan, Journey, Vol.1, 2, 3;
19. Rice, Mysore Gazetter', 1897;
20. Rao, 'Mysore Gazetteer', 1930;
21. Iyer, 'Report on Prospecting Work', 1898-9; and Iyer, 'Notes on Economic Minerals', 1900-1901
22. AU details in this section are from Buchanan, A Journey, Vol.2, 16, 19, 40.
23. Manjul Bajaj, 'An Examination of the Potential for Natural Regeneration with Community Participation', in Selected Readings from Wastelands Newson Forests, (New Delhi: Society for Promotion of Wastelands Development, 2006);
24. and H. Bharath Kumar, 'Smuggling of Timber goes Unchecked in Chitradurga', The Hindu, April 22, 2005.
25. On U.S. deforestation, see for instance, Alfred Philip Muntz, 'Forests and Iron: The Charcoal Iron Industry of the new Jersey Highlands', Geografiska Annaler, 42:4(1960): 315-323;
26. Michael Bell, 'The Face of Connecticut, People, Geology, and the Land, State Geological and Natural History Survey of Connecticut', State Geological And Natural History Survey Of Connecticut, 110 (1985);
27. Doug Ottke, 'An Environment History of the 19th Century Marquette Iron Range', M.S. Thesis (University of North Dakota: 1999) ;
28. and in England, see, for instance: The Nature Conservancy, The Colonial Iron Ore Industry, http://www.lastgreatplaces.org/berkshire/history/art6162. html. On the effects of copper smelting on forests
29. see J.R. Mcneill,"Woods and Warfarein Environmental History', Environmental History, 9, 3 (2004): 388-410.
30. l8 Oswego Heritage Council, Oswego Iron Smelting Research, http://home.europa.com/~heritage/ironintro.html.
31. Phillip de Barros, 'Bassar: A Quantified, Chronologically Controlled, Regional Approach to a Traditional Iron production Centre in West Africa', Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, 56, 2 (1986): 148-174
32. Elizabeth Crittenden, Environmental Impact of Iron Smelting in the Bassar Region of Togo: A Deforestation Problem in Precolonial West Africa, http://www.american.edu/TED/togo.htm#rl, 1997.
33. Candice L. Goucher, 'Iron is Iron 'til it is Rust: Trade and Ecology in the Decline of West African Iron-Smelting', The Journal of African History, 22, 2 (1981): 179-189
34. Jack D. Ives and Bruno Messerli, The Himalayan Dilemma.-Reconciling Development and Conservation, (London: Routledge, 1989).
35. Michael Williams, 'Dark Ages and Dark Areas: Global Deforestation in the Deep Past', Journal of Historical Geography, 26, 1 (2000): 28-46.
36. Robert Miller, 'Elephants, Ivory and Charcoal: An Ecological Perspective', Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research, 264 (1986): 29-43.
37. Rao, Mysore Gazetteer, 1930, p. 213.
38. Buchanan, A Journey, Vol.1, 173, 180.
39. Buchanan, A Journey, Vol.1, 177, 180 and Vol.3, 424.
40. Also, Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, 267.
41. Recall this species is not used for charcoal-making.
42. These comments are fromBuchanan, A Journey, Vol.2,15, 24, 55, 44. Note that dupada is not used for charcoal-making. Also refer to Map 2 for locations.
43. Buchanan, A Journey, Vol.3, 560.
44. Siddalinga Swamy, Agrarian Relations in Mysore: 1799 - 1881, (Bangalore: Nationbuilders Book-Sellers, 1997).
45. Buchanan, A Journey, Vol.2, 4.
46. Charcoal-makers use weeds overgrown on farmers' fields. This sustains the entire charcoal industry of the region today. I will discuss this point later in the paper.
47. Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 1, 555-556
48. Khist is an instalment of the annual assessment paid by holders at stated times, patta is a title deed granted by the Government. See Swamy, Agrarian Relations, 126, 127, 59-62, 64.
49. Morris D. Morris, 'Towards aReinterpretation of Nineteenth-Century Indian Economic History', Journal of Economic History, 23, 4 (1963): 606-618
50. Rao, The Mysore Gazetteer, Vol.4, 191.
51. Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 1, 477.
52. J.M. Campbell, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol.XXI, Belgaum (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1894), 233.
53. Buchanan, A Journey, Vol.1, 391.
54. A Journey 37,
55. Buchanan, A Journey, Vol.2, 18, 40.
56. Rao, Mysore Gazetteer, Vol.4, 188-189
57. J.M. Campbell, Gazetteer... Belgaum, 53fn.
58. P. Agarwal, 'Did you Know?', http://www.infinityfoundation.com/mandala/t- dy/-dy-Q15-frameset.htm
59. See Benjamin Weil, 'Conservation, Exploitation, and Cultural Change in The Indian Forest Service, 1875-1927 ', Environmental History, 11, 2 (2006) : 319-343, for an account on the principles guiding the Forest Acts.
60. M.S. Krishnan, 'Iron Ore, Iron and Steel', Bulletin of the Geological Survey of India, Series A: Economic Geology, 9 (1954): 71.
61. M. Rangarajan, Fencing the Forest: Conservation and Ecological Change in India's Provinces 1860-1914, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press), 2002.
62. Rangarajan, Fencing the Forest, 55.
63. Pallavi Das, 'Hugh Cleghorn and Forest Conservancy in India', Environment and History 11 (2005): 55-82.
64. Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, 172.
65. Iyer, 'Report on Prospecting', 104, states that the average output of a smelter was 7 tons/year, total output would have been ∼ 800 tons/year.
66. Rangarajan, Fencing the Forest, 65, 88.
67. Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, 160.
68. Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2 Ibid., 11.
69. See Appendix for reports from across the Maidan.
70. See Krishnan, 'Iron Ore', 68. Traditional iron smelting in 1916 in the Central Provinces was about 4500 tons/year.
71. See P.P. Pillai, Iron and Steel Production in India, Económica,7 (1923): 55-66. In 1931 iron smelting continued in the Eastern Ghat (Bastar) region.
72. See L. A. Cammiade, 'Iron Smelting by Kois, a Jungle Tribe in the Eastern Ghats of India', Man, 31 (1931): 66-67 Iron smelting is even today carried out by the Agaria tribes in the Bastar region in the erstwhile Central Provinces. This is probably the last region remaining in India where traditional iron smelting can be found.
73. Iyer, 'Report on Prospecting', 108.
74. Report on Prospecting Ibid., 108.
75. Karnataka State Archives, The Mysore Gazette, S.No. 185, No.6, February 9, 1889.
76. Iyer, 'Report on Prospecting', 104 and 'Notes on Economic Minerals', 244.
77. Iyer, 'Report on Prospecting', 110.
78. In economics, 'opportunity cost' is defined in terms of cost of the next best alternative foregone.
79. John E. Brush, "The Iron and Steel Industry in India', Geographical Review, 42, 1 (1952): 39, and 'Working Plan for Supply of Fuel and Charcoal to Mysore Iron & Steel Works', Forest Files Mysore.
80. For an interesting technical account on the metallurgy of Indian steel (wootz) see, T.R. Anantharamu, P.T. Craddock, K. Nagesh Rao, late S.R.N. Murthy and M.L. Wayman, 'Crucible Steel of Gattihosahalli, Chitradurga District, Karnataka, southern India', Journal of the Historical Metallurgical Society, 33, 1 (1999): 13-25.
81. Artisans in colonial history have been a subject of attention in historical studies. See, for example, Tirthankar Roy, ' Home Market and the Artisans in Colonial India: A Study of Brass-ware', Modern Asian Studies, 30, 2 (1996) 357-85.
82. However, the study does not raise any concern for the environmental consequences of copper smelting. Krishnan, 'Iron Ore' also fails to examine the possible impact of iron smelting on local forests, even though he extensively discusses the huge amounts of iron and steel produced for various applications. He does mention that iron-making in the nineteenth century faced a crisis because 'forests were disappearing'. However, he does not mention the contribution of iron smelting to the crisis of dwindling forests.
83. Rangarajan, Fencing the Forest, 29.
84. RamachandraGuha, 'The Prehistory of Community Forestry in India', Environmental History, 6, 2 (2001): 231-238
85. D.P. Agarwal, 'Did you Know?'
86. Ibid., 31.
87. See McNeill, 'Woods and Warfare', 388-410, for an excellent account of how forests have played an important role in warfare and politics.
88. Krishnan, 'Iron Ore', 66.
89. Maheswar P. Joshi, 'Some Aspects of Ironworking in Antiquity vis-à-vis Central Himalaya', in Tradition and Innovation in the History of Iron Making: An Indo-European Perspective, ed. Girija Pande and Jan af Geijerstam (Nainital: Pahar Parikarma, 2002), 47-59, p.53.
90. Ishrat Alam, 'Iron Manufacturers in Golconda in the 17th Century', in Tradition and Innovation in the History of Iron Making: An Indo-European Perspective, ed. Girija Pande and Jan af Geijerstam (Nainital: Pahar Parikarma, 2002), 98-111.
91. Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, 209.
92. See Notes 17 and 19 above.
93. This notion may be more relevant to activities like cattle grazing, collection of non timber forest produce, and collection of firewood for domestic consumption. However, even for these activities, the Gydda Cavila, according to Buchanan, collected a fee.
94. The use of forest resources is also limited to 'agriculture' and the 'village economy'. The commercial use of forest resources in pre-colonial India needs further investigations. For instance, the sandalwood trade was controlled directly by the monarch.
95. Madhav Gadgil and Ramachandra Guha, This Fissured Land: An Ecological History of India, (New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2000).
96. Ibid., 39.
97. Apart from wood, water is also crucial in the manufacture of charcoal. Often, charcoal works are found on river banks, especially where timber could be transported along the river from the forest.
98. R.E. Enthoven, Kanára District Gazetteer, (Bombay: Central Government Press, 1883), 262. Sahyadris refer to Western Ghats.
99. I was accompanied by Mahadev R. Nayak on my field visits. It was during our innumerable discussions that the idea for this paper developed. Mahadev provided many interesting insights into possible developments in the area, and also conducted many of our discussions at the places we visited. I am also grateful to the many people we met during our field visits for their comments and help in locating smelting sites.
100. We traced three sites near Channarayadurga, one each at Yelladakere, Chikkabaylikere and Doddabaylikere. In the case of Doddabaylikere apart from one field, we were told the village itself was built on a smelting site. Here we could see debris embedded in the village streets. At Yelladekere, local people were unaware of any iron smelting sites. We were quite sure there must be some site in the village where debris could be found. The locals said they would check with an old man of the village and we should come back after a few days. When we did, they were more excited than us. There was indeed a site ... and it was exactly like what we had described. Buchanan was right after all.
101. See Tripathi, 'Iron Technology in India', 233, and A.K. Vaish et al., 'Iron Making in Ancient India - A Critical Assessment', in Tradition and Innovation in the History of Iron Making: An Indo-European Perspective, ed. Girija Pande and Jan af Geijerstam (Nainital: Pahar Parikarma, 2002), 237-249
102. For a general overview of the Kyoto Protocol and its implications, refer United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change website, www.unfccc.int.
103. J.M. Campbell, Gazetteer of the Bombay Presidency, Vol.XXII, Dharwar (Bombay: Government Central Press, 1884), 787, 25, 382, 740, 494, 541.
104. J.M. Campbell, Gazetteer ...Belgaum, 108-9, 52-53
105. Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, 533, 527, 524, 510.
106. Iyer, 'Notes on Economic Mineral Products', Tabular Statement-I.
107. C. Hayavadana Rao, The Mysore Gazetteer, Vol.5, (Mysore: Government Press, 1930), 1356.
108. Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, 172, 158.
109. Rao, Mysore Gazetteer, Vol.5, 383, 422.
110. Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, 258, 267, 209.
111. Rao, Mysore Gazetteer, Vol.5, 565.
112. Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, 483, 421.
113. Iyer, 'Notes on Economic Mineral Products', Tabular Statement-1.
114. Rao, Mysore Gazetteer, Vol.5, 1207.
115. Rice, Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2, 33, 37.
116. Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2 Ibid., 118.
117. Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2 Ibid., 338.
118. Mysore Gazetteer, Part 2 Ibid., 410.
119. Karnataka State Archives, Proceedings of the Government of Mysore, R.5113-Ft.818-6 dated 3 Nov 1919.