Volume 17, No. 1, 2020
Power Knowledge and Environmental Resources: A Study of the Marginalisation of the Tribal Communities of Chota Nagpur
Bashabi Gupta
Abstract
This paper looks at the way power and knowledge structures that seek to control use of environmental resources evolved in the colonial and post colonial period in Chota Nagpur region. The basic idea is to find out how particular knowledge systems based on newly developed scientific rationale in the western world came into being. It also seeks to understand how this knowledge was transformed into forms of governance. The concern is with interconnections between power and knowledge regimes that regulate access and utility rights of the tribal communities over natural resources. Land is the basic resource possessed by these communities, which is also the basic requirement for industrialisation. Progressively, as the access of the tribal communities to natural resources was curtailed occupational options were reduced thereby creating conditions of marginalisation. The paper uses theoretical constructs and data sources to situate the study bringing out the intertwined nature of power and colonial institutions. The continuance of the colonial laws in the post independence era and their impact stands forth in the details of industrialisation in Chota Nagpur and nationalisation of the Minor Forest Products trade. The final part of the paper traces the recent efforts of the government to create effective interventions. The paper concludes that marginalisation is a process and not an event. It is a process that has been in operation in its most virulent form in the last 150 years. The paper thus investigates the processes through which the tribal communities have been pushed to the edges of survival through the power knowledge nexus. This paper is divided into four sections I. Systems of Knowledge and Structures of Power II. Land Laws and the Tribal Community in Chota Nagpur III. Control of Forests and Marginalisation of Tribals in Chota Nagpur IV. Industrialisation and Marginalisation of the Tribal Communities in Chota Nagpur
Pages: 512-532
Keywords: The paper concludes that marginalisation is a process and not an event.