Forest Traders

A Socio-Economic Study of the Hill Pandaram

Brian Morris

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781000324396
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Economía
• Subtopic: Teoría económica

The first ethnographic study of a community with structured trading relationships, the nomadic forest community of the Hill Pandarm.

1
Historical Perspectives

In this chapter I attempt to set the historical scene. After some speculative remarks on the early history of the subcontinent I discuss the nature of the caste system, particular reference being made to the status of the agrestic or bonded serfs. My main argument is that the caste system, far from being one of 'idyllic mutuality' which provided 'security' for the low castes, was actually based on coercive integration. Thus the cultural environment experienced by those communities living within the Ghat forests, to which I then turn, can be characterized as exploitative and hostile. In describing these forest communities, I stress the importance of the trading links between the forest tribes and the wider society. My argument is that the forest communities have not, within historical times at least, been 'isolates' from the wider Hindu culture. I end the chapter by outlining the nature of Hill Pandaram society as it was in the early decades of the present century.

i. THE CASTE SYSTEM

According to early Sanskrit texts, at the beginning of the Christian era Southern India was covered by extensive and almost impenetrable forests, particularly along the Western Ghat mountains. At this time the Southern half of the peninsula, Tamilagam, or Tamil realm, consisted of three kingdoms, those of the Pandya, Chola and Chera, though parts of the country were ruled by petty chieftains who were either independent or bound by allegiance to one or other of these kingdoms. The extent of these respective kingdoms varied in different epochs, but at the time of Periphas (first century AD) Pandya kingdom comprised not only a greater part of modern Madurai and Tinnevelly districts, but also extended beyond the Western Ghats to include a part of the old state of Travancore. The various 'tribal' communities making up these kingdoms were numerous, but they were evidently integrated into a highly developed political system, the administrative capital of Pandya being at Madurai. Though the boundaries of these kingdoms were in a continual state of flux, the culture of the Tamils attained a very high level, especially in literature, and it is from the classical poetry of the Sangam period (from the second century BC) that our knowledge of the social conditions of these times is derived. Essentially we have at this time a complex agrarian civilization (Sastri 1966, 1972). What is also clear, however, from these early Tamil texts is that caste divisions were recognized, and untouchability practised, even from the earliest times (Subrahamanian, 1966). Though the caste system may perhaps have been less rigid two thousand years ago, it is nonetheless worth stressing that its principal features were already established then. The relationship of the earlier forest communities to this social system, as it developed and expanded along with increases in population, apparently took two forms. Either the hunter-gatherers were forcibly integrated into the caste system as bonded serfs, or they took refuge (or remained) as marginal forest communities (Blandford 1901 and Pillai 1932: 395). But whatever the early history of South India may have been, at the beginning of the nineteenth century the low-caste (Nichajati) communities of Travancore comprised two main categories – both of which had marginal status with respect to Hindu society. The first consisted of those communities who have been described as 'strangers within the gates' of the village, namely the agricultural serfs.¹ The second comprised those communities who were later designated as 'hill tribes'. I shall discuss each of these categories in turn.

In discussions of caste anthropologists tend to waver ambiguously between two quite different conceptions –using it both as a synonym for the Indian socio-cultural system and as an indicator of its ritual (ideological) dimension only. Thus it is quite common for writers to speak of caste as a system of'idyllic mutuality' (Wiser, 1936) in which the low castes derived a measure of security from the caste rules. They had 'privileges', the right to subsistence in return for their labour. From the literature, however, it is evident that a form of'slavery' or bonded servitude² was an integral part of the caste system. The relationship of this system to what has come to be known as the jajmani system is, however, far from clear. Some writers treat them as separate systems (e.g. Kolenda 1963: 21 and Meillassoux 1973) while others treat all relationships of an economic nature as a single system, and jajmani relationships so defined are taken to be the 'economic aspect' of the caste system (Beidelman, 1959). Equally unclear is the degree to which market exchanges intruded into these two economic patterns. But in order to counter the impressions given by some writers on caste (Dumont 1970:105 and Leach 1960) a paragraph may be devoted to illustrating the social conditions of those tribal communities who formed an integral part of the village economy. The position of these bonded serfs, it must be said at the outset, could hardly be described as one of economic security, for they were not only bound in servitude to their masters but hampered by severe economic and social restrictions. An extract from an early historical source will suffice. It comes from a letter by Jacobus Visscher, who resided at Cochin from 1717-23, almost a hundred years before the British administration or the native states abolished 'slavery'. He wrote of the Pulayas, a tribal community of Kerala.

The Pullcahs are born slaves. Every Zamindar, prince or wealthy Nayar has a certain number of them whose children are also born into slavery. But as these creatures form a peculiar and numerous caste, they have certain privileges granted them which serve their maintenance so that none may perish from want. Their masters are not bound to give them daily nourishment but in Malabar they have the right of building and planting and wage-earning [but] always taking care under risk of punishment to appear before him at his summons. Their masters have power to put them to death, without being called to account, or, if they please to sell them. (Letter X Menon 1929/2: 14)

The validity of such writings may be questioned as historical documents, but unfortunately we have litde else to go on. However, Visscher's observations seem to be accepted by most Indian historians and are echoed by other reports of the conditions in South India at the beginning of the nineteenth century (Du Bois 1905: 360-65 and Ward and Conner 1863: 140-41). These sources indicate that the bonded serfs suffered severe economic and social disabilities – they were not allowed to live within the village environs or build permanent huts; they were bound as agricultural labourers to the land on which they were bom and could be sold by the proprietor; they were not allowed to walk freely on the public roads or use public wells because they were considered intrinsically defiling. Moreover, it is worth stressing that such pollution rules were evidently maintained by harsh physical coercion, and that, for a part of the year, they had to revert to food gathering in nearby forests and begging in order to subsist (Menon 1933/3: 380-81, 485). Thus the fate of those tribal communities which were drawn into the caste system seems clear: they were enslaved by the expanding agricultural communities and given an important economic niche in this essentially 'feudal' system.

The fact that contemporary Harijans are a grossly exploited class in no way entitles us to gloss over the degradation, poverty, and the lack of fundamental freedoms which their forefathers experienced under the 'traditional' social organization. As a class system caste was essentially exploitative, as the excellent studies by Aiyappan on such ex-untouchable communities as the Nayadi and Paniyan indicate (1937, 1973).

ii. THE FOREST TRIBES

Thus about the middle of last century those marginal communities which had not become agrestic serfs or nomadic castes in the plains area were to be found in the forested hills of the Ghats, which had to some extent become, as Hunter puts it, 'the refuge of a whole series of broken tribes' (1886: 54). From the early literature it is clear that the economic conditions of these communities was extremely varied. The majority, it seems, were shifting agriculturalists, though some had taken to wetland cultivation, but a small number of communities were still largely food-gathering. It would be wrong, however, to think of these hill forests as having been previously uninhabited, for the early Tamil poets indicate that the forests of the Western Ghats (the Kurinci region) were inhabited from the earliest times by tribal communities who had important trading contacts with their agricultural neighbours (see, for instance, Dikshitar 1939: 283-5). It is also evident that the early Tamil kingdoms had important and well-developed trading relations overseas, especially with the Romans, with whom they traded living animals. External trade also included important forest products such as sandalwood, ivory, pepper, ginger, cardamom and myrobalam – all of which are mentioned as being exported from the Malabar coast (Sastri 1966: 335, see also Rawlinson 1926). As the forests came under the jurisdiction of the Tamil kingdoms or under the control of semi-independent chieftains, from ancient times 'royalties' were levied on such forest products as cardamom, bamboos, ivory, honey and wax (Menon 1924, 1933). Furthermore hunting expeditions into the forests by the Raja or by members of the dominant Nayar caste seem to have been regular events, and on such occasions the services of the hill people would no doubt have been requisitioned. Such facts (in addition to the importance of Achencoil and Sabarimala forest temples as pilgrim centres) make it extremely unlikely that during historical times those communities who lived within the forests – whether hunter-gatherers gatherers or swidden cultivators – would have escaped the influence and dominance of the surrounding agriculturalists. And such dominance would not have been that of peripheral cultivators, but would have met the requirements of a preindustrial state and a highly developed civilization. Yet many writers on the hill tribes of Southern India speak of these people as 'social isolates' or 'aboriginals', the implication being that they are autochthons of the forests, historically without contact with the plains people. Ehrenfels, for instance, considers the Kadar to have been 'isolated in their forests' for a long period, and so protected from the influence of the plains culture. In fact he holds that the advent of forest contractors at the turn of the century radically altered the basis of the Kadan economy from subsistence food-gathering to the collection of forest products for barter (1952: 47-8). This perspective seems to me misleading; there is ample evidence, as I have suggested, that there were external trading contacts from the earliest times. The letters of Visscher, the writings of the Abbé DuBois, and the economic survey of the Travancore and Cochin states made by Ward and Conner at the beginning of the nineteenth century, all indicate the importance of trading links between the hills and the plains. What is significant about these contacts, and this is brought home particularly in the latter survey (Ward and Conner 1863:138-9) are two factors. Firstly, the hill tribes were considered to 'belong', or to have allegiance, to individual states or petty chieftains, and the exploitation of the forest resources was organized through individual merchants or 'renters'. Secondly, these forest products formed an important revenue item for the respective kingdoms.³ Some 78 per cent of the revenue of the state of Pandalam, between Travancore and the Pandya Kingdom, was derived from temple offerings and the sale of hill produce (Ward and Conner 1863: 102). Even as late as 1913 the sale (of collecting rights) of minor forest product provided some 25 per cent (Rs. 24,616) of the total revenue of the Tinnevelly district. It is probable that the main collectors of this forest produce were such shifting cultivators as the Kannikar and Muthuvan. Nevertheless the three main communities of the Western Ghats who were still food-gatherers at the end of the nineteenth century – the Kadar, Paliyan and Hill Pandaram – seem to have been equally enmeshed in trading functions.

In the context of South India the distinction between the forest tribes and the agricultural serfs is not absolute. There is almost a graduation of economic modes with, at the one extreme, the agricultural serfs incorporated economically into the village economy, and at the other, in prehistoric times at least, the food-gathering cultures. Although these serfs, along with such polluting castes as the Nayadi, certainly eked out a living by collecting forest produce for barter or trade (a century or more ago much of the plains area was still under forest) they were, nevertheless, in almost daily contact with the caste communities of the plains. On the other hand, the forest tribes though they were more remote were also integrated into the wider economy through the sale of forest products. The Kannikar, Urali and Muthuvan were typical of shifting cultivators in this category.

Today the Kannikar are settled agriculturalists or wage labourers. A century ago they⁴ were shifting agriculturalists who supplemented their livelihood by collecting wild foods and the trading of forest products. Though living in the forest, often at some distance from any village community, they were treated little better than the agricultural serfs, being equally susceptible to the aggressive exploitation of the dominant castes and government agents. The missionary Mateer recorded that they were compelled to collect a certain quantity of wax, honey and firewood for the temples without remuneration, and to carry cardamom from the hill forests, and 'if they hid themselves, as was natural, their women were caught and beaten (and) all sorts of indignities were perpetrated' against them (1883: 78). Thurston likewise noted that a jenmi (landlord) or his agent at harvest time would take a share of the agricultural produce of these cultivators, and could call on them at any time to collect the valuable forest products (1906: 446). But he noted also that once each year a group ofKannikars visited the Maharaja at Trivandrum taking with them gifts of honey and civet (1909/3: 164), Ehrenfels likewise mentions that the Kadar took jungle produce to the Cochin Raja each year (1952: 17). The annual fleeting visit, usually at the time of the Onam festival, seems to have functioned mainly to symbolize the allegiance of a given hill tribe to a particular sovereign or chieftain. But what is remarkable, given the stringent pollution rules in operation in Southern India at this time, is the fact that members of such low caste communities were allowed to attend the court and have an audience with the Maharaja. It suggests that as a result of the relative social isolation of the forest communities, they were not considered polluting. Despised, ridiculed and exploited though they rruy,have been over the centuries, they seem nevertheless to have been regarded by the dominant castes as superior in ritual terms to the agrestic serfs. Many writers in fact mention this point. Francis, for instance, writes that the Paliyans of the Palni Hills 'carried no pollution' (1914: 105), while Thurston noted that the Kannikars 'do not belong to the polluting classes', and that the Pulayas, Kuravars and Vedans – all low-caste agricultural labourers – were not allowed to approach them (1909/3:168). Thus it could be argued that those tribal communities which lived in the forest were, in a ritual sense, outside the caste system. Nevertheless, although such tribes as the Paliyans and Kahnikars may not have been considered polluting by the dominant eastes, ethnographic accounts' do indicate that the fo rest tribes, in an intercultural setting, were affected by the ideology of the wider society.

In the above discussion I have focused largely on such shifting cultivators as the Kannikar – tribal communities whose economy included not only subsistence food-gathering but a varying amount of external trade, I now turn specifically to the hunter-gatherer communities; it is important to stress that although all the forest communities were linked to the wider culture through barter exchanges, the hunter-gatherers interacted with the plains culture differently from the others. Whereas the swidden cultivators could more easily be coerced by the agents of the forest contractors into collecting the essential products, such non-cultivating tribes as the Kadar and Hill Pandaram were able to some extent to maintain their independence. This again is mentioned in the literature. For instance an early writer on the Kadar, quoted by Menon (1933/3: 594) observed that 'these peculiar people could never be frightened into doing anything and that when any harsh words are used, they .simply move away from one place to another, One forest to them is as good as another'. It seems probable therefore that in the past century it was the swidden cultivators who were the principal collectors of marketable forest produce. Such communities could be more easily contacted and controlled by the agents of the dominant castes. But the generalized hostility which the food gathering communities as well as the swidden cultivators must have experienced, and the antipathetic and uncharitable attitude towards them of the dominant castes, seem to have had the consequence that the forest people became characterized as shy and retiring. They are frequently described as 'shrinking from contact with the outside world', and as being of a 'timid' and 'shy' nature⁵ (AbbéDuBois 1905: 378). Far from being a feature of tribal culture, as some writers suggest, such shyness and timidity was a function of the intercultural setting; when they moved into the village or plains environment the tribal communities became subjected to harassment and ridicule, and became temporarily incorporated in the system of institutionalized inequality there.

The attempt to avoid contact with the agricultural peoples of the plains, while at the same time maintaining trading relations to satisfy their own needs, probably gave rise to the institution of silent barter. Examples of 'silent trade' have wide ethnographic reterence (see, for instance, Grierson 1903: 41-54) and it was probably...