Ladakh
and Hinterland Economies in Relation to the Nation State.
In
1974, as a second year Sociology student
at Miranda House, Delhi, I accompanied my relatives,(Malayalis, who were living
and working in Quwait) to Kashmir, as they needed someone who would help them
in their journey in North India, as they did not have any Hindi. We got off the train, at Jammu,
were surrounded by loud haranguing coolies, and then got into the bus for
Srinagar. A double rainbow, like an arc in the sky greeted us at Srinagar,
known to Malayalis through the
philosopher and mystic, Adi Sankara’s travels from Kaladi in Kerala. The taxi
driver taking us about, was confronted
with a speeding driver, to whom he shouted “Tu Jammu se AAya hai?” to which my
relatives wanted a translation from me, for the
mutual hostility it raised in both the drivers. Invectives too have a
Sociological explanation, steeped in history.
We lived for a week, in an ostentatious newly constructed
houseboat, smelling of pine, which the
owner said had cost him a lakh to build. And then we went to Pahalgam, and
leaving my relatives, at the base of the hill, I started to climb the glacier
at Sonamarg. I climbed only a little way, but the euphoria that filled my head
was the most amazing experience. I was summoned back by my cousin to join the
group. I am grateful to have that experience which has always stood by me as
the real mystical experience of the beauty of the world. It was on that visit,
we saw trucks with jubilant foreigners, going up the mountains, and the taxi
driver said “They are going to Ladakh”. The Shangri-La of Tibetan culture had
just been made accessible.
Ladakh
has been known as a travel entrepot for many centuries as it was on the Silk
Route, on which tea and gold were also exchanged with precious jewels. Today,
it is of strategic importance since it hosts an astronomy laboratory, and
invites upto 50,000 tourists a year. Leh had 44 hotels in 2010, and Kargil is a
battle site, which has seen many sacrifices. The stakes of the Nation State in Ladakh are huge, with regard to the
intrusions of the Chinese and the Pakistanis, which are frequent. The Airforce
on August 20th 2013, landed
its Super Hercules transport aircraft C-130J-30, at the world’s highest
airstrip at Daulat Beg Oldie in Ladakh, which the Government representatives say can carry 100 passengers,
and can fuel helicopters, additionally,
during relief work during natural
or human made disasters or war. When we
look at Ladakh today, we know that its integration into the Nation State is the
way in which politicians see its significance in the survival strategies of
modernism. How can civilians avert war?
If
state tourism is one prong, so is the work of intellectuals. By integrating
with the communities they study, the Sociologist links up in interdisciplinary
frameworks, where knowledge production becomes connected to familiarity with
terrain. The assimilation of others, new
comers, into the society being studied,
becomes possible, because of the assumption that the strangers who enter an arena, which is
both a tactile space, as well as carefully
marked in international codes of surveillance and possession, (and
counter claims based on previous acts of aggression), will become the index of its belonging to the
Nation state. Ladakh has a long and interesting history, which goes back to the
Neolithic age, and though its population was once “3 people a square mile”,
typical of herding and hunting and pastoral societies in the past. Today, we
are talking of a knowledge explosion, for all interactions are mutually
facilitating, where experiencing Ladakh is seen to be the dream of the tourist.
What does this say for climate change, and the carbon trail, when there are
daily flights to Ladakh from Delhi, with all the major airplane companies?
Climate
Change is now an accepted fact of post modern experience. Our life style
changes have meant that the earth has heated up considerably, and what are
called glass house emissions is matched by the over sell of nuclear energy,
whose risks to the earth have been written about considerably. Climate Change
is also part of the history of the Universe, so we have to accept that the
earth has its own momentum, irrespective of what we may or may not do. The hot
springs that dot the Ladakh landscape only prove how close the magma may be,
and why the geomorphology of the earth creates its own iridescent beauty in
landscapes such as the Ladakhi one. The people are now a diaspora in many parts
of India, and with tourism, the food habits and the dress of the local people
will have undergone tremendous change. Ladakh cannot support a population
larger than the ability of its hinterland, which remains a pastoral and
agricultural one. And it is with this question that I am most concerned with.
If
agriculture and water management are not
related to the terrain, which is desert
with a riverine ecology, the intrusion of large numbers of people, such as us,
is both a hindrance as well as a benefit to the local people. Communities in
movement, such as bands of intellectuals
or hordes of soldiers bring with them the merchandise of their needs, which the
State has to support in order to provide or to generate the acceptability of
such integrational policies and drives.
In
2010, when there was a flash flood from a cloudburst, the Nation watched in
horror while mudslides took over the landscape, and while no tourist was
reported killed, the local community had many deaths. One of the problems of
tracking climate change is the shift away from patterns of the seasons. This
obviously affects the expectation of the people regarding the traditional
enclaves they thought to be their own. It affects not just agricultural
production, but also the ritual calendar. If it is accompanied by a sense of
acceptance of fate or destiny, where individuals and communities enter the
dread space of not knowing what will happen next, with a measure of equanimity,
then normlessness may not arise. Ladakh with its Buddhist predominance has for
long been associated with the meditational aspect of life and work as
coexisting. However, with the new lifestyles which are a result of the osmosis
between tourists and local population, the difficulties which the young face
can only be imagined. Cuisines which have centred around barley and yak butter are
replaced with the volatility of tourist demands. Interestingly, Tibetan
influenced food, the simple noodle soup called Thukpa has become the star
element in multinational star cuisines in the capital city of Delhi. Ornaments
associated with the Ladakhis which have been the context of trade relations
with the Chinese and with the Europeans for millennia are now back in the
ethnic market as objects to be desired. Pashmina remains the elusive wool that
is the brand mark of the luxury market. The Nation State will covet the metals
of the mountains, and the Ladakhis will fear the industrialising motif of the
greed for metals, which make every mountain national property, unless peoples’
movements communicate that right to life and organic farming are the post modern
valuables of the 21st century.
Given
the complex maze of ruralism and the tribes in
co-existence, which makes middle class tourists lust for fragmentary
experience of traditionalism, it is the job of the sociologists to protect the
rights of farmers and pastoralists. When change is rapid, and the assimilation
of the young happens in diverse ways in the new age fraternitites of tourism
and trade and modern education, we need to accept the non-judgementality of the
Social Sciences as its first axiom. The morality or amorality of political
parties is a case in point. When Kashmir is sought to be trifurcated according
to religion, then the secular constitution is
the measuring rod by which the army’s presence or even President’s Rule
is imposed. What does this say for personal freedom? How do we notate the ways
in which the Chinese and Pakistani presence is omnipresent if newsreaders of
Headlines Today are to be understood? As the former Air Vice Marshal said, words to the effect, “Do we take into our cognizance
our own actions on the border when reporting news?” Land which was appropriated
during the merger of the autonomous
princely states with Independent India, still remain as occupied territories
today, and the said governments continue to infiltrate into Indian territory,
to the amazement of those who believe in the Peace process. These are
representations of use value for millennia, when we presume that the emotions
of feudal communities of warriors are new, we have to remember that over two centuries
Tibetan rule in the medieval period was replaced by Muslim, and Muslim, by the
Secular in the case of Ladakh. Given that Tibet has been colonised by the
Chinese, the Tibetan influence in Ladakh for millennia is now replaced with the
idea of the Indian Citizen, and that is why we as intellectuals have
congregated sporadically in Leh for more
than two decades to prove that Indians have the right to free mobility in the
Nation. Dards and Mon, Muslims, Buddhists, Moravian Sects of Christians,
Hindus, Secular representatives of the modern state are all embodiments of the
relationship between past and present. The dialogue of religions is one of the
important aspects of religious co-existence. The photographic archive for
Ladakh, by Benoy Behl has been well
utilised by the Nation State, and the general public, including their frequent
publication by The Hindu and the Frontline, in Chennai, with its archaeological
and contemporary focus, to show that India is
relitiously multi faceted.
The
interest value that the Rimpoches and monastery art has, is further underlined
with the upsurge of interest in Buddhism by the middle class /elite, a variety
of deep interest in meditational practise and transcendence, while living in
the world and financially contributing to the maintenance in Budd very
different from the Ambedkarite one. Art historians, like Behl have understood
that architecture and art forms represent the joy of aesthetics, as well as the
political connotations of art production, not just enjoyment. Gerhard Wulf, of
the Getty Foundation in Florence, gave a six month course in School of Arts and Aesthetics JNU in Winter Semester, 2013, on the process by
which maps may be read from the 11th to 16th century as a process by which
one understand the Silk and Pepper Routes
linking Europe, Asia and Americas, as not just trade routes, but a way
by which we understand ambassadorial gifts from the kings and nobility and
traders to one another in different geographical locations. Mapmaking, as much
as gift giving, were often the unintended consequence too of war and looting,
which linked China, India, Africa with Europe and what was called the New
World. Through this, textiles, motifs, architecture, objects of daily use and
veneration, passing through the well known traders’ routes by land and sea,
would be permeated by the cultures of the people who made and used them. The
most beautiful of these objects would survive war and destruction, and be
protected in the museums of the wealthy. Clearly, the destruction of the
Bamiyan Buddhas by the Taliban, and the destruction of the Iraqi Museum in
Baghdad, by the Americans is a case in point.
Ladakh needs it Archaeologists, and hopefully a new intelligentsia will
arise in this Mountainous district which will represent its own people, whether
monks or laypeople in the conservation of its culture.
SECMOL, a voluntary organisation which safeguards the
interests of herder families and farmers’ children is a case in point. The
founders, Sonam Wanchuk and Becky Norman wanted to work with children who were
conventionally thought to be drop outs,
as they had failed class 10 or 12 in the regular schooling system, and were
integrated in an alternative discourse that prioritised vocational skills such
as farming, solar energy, recycling, crafts, language learning and proficiency,
accounting, tourism, cooking and so on. The twenty year successes of the
institution have created a buoyant space of reintegration into intellectual and
entrepreneurial spaces, which has made SECMOL(Students for environmental and
cultural movements of Ladakh) a household name in Ladakh. In the 1990s they
started Operation Hope, which Sonam Wangchuk saw as an essential need within
Ladakhi society, to rewrite text books which would then contextualise the specific
learning needs of the children he and
his team worked with. Educationists who specialised in the writing of science
and social science text books were called in from Hoshangabad (Eklavya) and
from the larger subcontinental networks in South India, including Kerala
(KSSP).
Kerala,
in a comparitive framework, was able to safeguard its cultural landscape by the
efforts of the Nairs to revive their traditional arts and skills. However, with
regard to architecture, it can only be said that both Communism and the Gulf
Diaspora had no interest in the past, as objects of beauty. Specially now, with
rapid social change, and loss of skills, Agriculture and its allied production
of textiles (the famous cottons known to the Romans) and pottery have declined,
but revivalism of this traditional craft in Andhra Pradesh, by Dastkar has been
interesting for sociologists to study. Today, traditional objects are very much
in demand and Design Schools all over the country as Government institutions
are only too anxious to reproduce the materials which the five thousand year
civilisation of India represents. This civilisation, the Indus civilisation is
known as the Indo Gangetic civilisation, and is of course a myth which is
useful for the state to dispense with, since India is much larger than its
Aryanised depiction. However, it has remained useful for purposes that M.N.
Srinivas called “Sanskritic Hinduism” a Pan Hinduism, which allowed Kashmiri
Pundits and Bengali Brahmins to eat meat, and for Nairs to represent themselves
as Kshatriyas, or for Syrian Christians to present themselves as apostasied
brahmans from the 1st century, depicting in each case as adaptive to
this process. Tibetan influenced Buddhists do the same in Ladakh.
However,
the Dravidian South has been extremely clear that its process of mythification
of the past also goes back five thousand years, and so the essential process of
bridge building of languages and culture has been left to the local
communities, and to the emissaries of the nation state during the peaceful
intermissions when societies wish to promote the dialogic incentive that allows
them to live and reproduce. Keralites have never imagined that all of them will
return at the same time, but today, when two generations of Diaspora living and
working in India, and also in the many Gulf countries, America, UK, Canada,
Australia have returned, the post modern
convenience-flat residences built for them in the suburbs of the formerly quiet
cities of Trivandrum, Cochin and Ernakulam have not only brought about rapid
urbanisation, so that 60 percent of Kerala is now traffic-jam urbanised, but
the effects on agriculture have been huge. This means that agricultural labour has become manual labour
for production of these new high rise extensions, and the rural belts are now
self conscious entrepots of agriculture,
dealing with pepper, rice,
spices, and other such commodities for a new market, without a working
class population to really support it. Climate change as experienced by the
Malayali farmer, who still believes that agriculture is an occupation, and does
not classify it as a hobby, is dependent upon traditional artisan and slave
castes.
Specialists
in this conference will be able to guage how food grown for the family is
different from food grown for the market, how family labour is different from
recruited and hired labour, and the debates around the morality of farming
itself, which includes questions about what is grown and for whom. This would
extend from market gardening such as apples, apricots, melons and water melons,
saffron and botanical herb plantations,
to illicit poppy cultivation. In
a visit to Takmachik, which has been earmarked as an Organic Village for
Tourist purposes, the apricot growers have received a commercial offer from a
well known Swami dealing in ayurvedic products to sell their lower grade
apricots at five rupees a kilo, and the request is for twenty thousand
kilogrammes. The Tata company also requests sale of first grade apricots, price
not stated, which will be transported, as easily damaged goods by their scouts
to Delhi and Mumbai. The farmers are perplexed by the offers, but are happy
that they can avail of the opportunities which labelling their remote village
as “organic farming” gives to them. Cultural shows are also part of the
package, as tourists will be entertained by the residents according to season
and festival. (feldwork interviews, courtesy Tashi Lundup, September 2015)
When
people live in the zone of a very young mountain range (in geological terms) do
they accept that they are living in a zone of imminent danger? One may ask the
same question of people living in the city of Delhi where it is dangerous to
cross a road. The task of the Sociologist studying consumerist societies and
subsistence societies remains the same, what are the risks, and how do people
come to terms with their life choices? Margaret Mead in her book New Lives for Old examines the way in
which the Manus people of the Admiralties developed a sense of their own
incorporation into the American world view. Imposition by the State, in terms
of its various hegemonies, is the way by which it unfolds its future plans, and
sometimes the intellectual plays the part of the professional harbinger of
violent social transformation. Adaptation is the key to survival is the basic
rule of life. The protection of
traditionally impoverished communities, technically called subsistence
societies, (which might on the other hand have a wealth of knowledge, useful to
the changed circumstances of a disaster prone world) is as much part of the
Sociologist’s self appointed tasks, as is value neutrality.
In
The Visiting Moon, the protagonist says,
“How
tired the earth must be of our constant presence, how much it must yearn to go
back to the days of innocence, when nothing was, but just swirling dust. A time
it must have been when no emotions rent the earth, when motes of dust gathered
and swelled and separated and settled again, when there were no symbols to be
deciphered, and no wars to be evaded. And then there must have come the rain,
for centuries, imagine, rain, just falling till there was nothing but rain. Of
course the earth is burdened and wishes to shrug us off. “ ( Visvanathan 2001:120)
The
passivity of people to cloud bursts, and unseasonal rain is a result of their
conditioning in cultural terms. Japanese witnesses to the earthquakes and
Tsunami said much the same thing, when asked about fortitude as a cultural
trait of their people. “We are trained to accept the possibility of earthquakes
as part of early rearing practises.”
Today,
the State might well be sending in intellectuals to Ladakh, to prove that moon
country is essentially a habitat, as metaphor at least. Density of floating
populations and the time and seasons of its presence is probably the need of
the hour for analyses, since in places like Nepal, Goa and Kerala, there have
been acute problems of how to tackle garbage, or tourist accommodation.
Climate
change has brought in a new occupation in the last two decades, in Ladakh, yet
we know that farming is related to tourism in very specific ways, for organic
foods are the key index to the discerning customer of what is most desirable in
the exotica of travel. In Kerala, the state provides agriculture several kinds
of support: rice lands may not be sold for construction, organic farming is
supported, terrace gardening and intensive gardening will be given every
possible support. Agricultural societies are the spine of the tourist industry,
including dependent artisanal and fishing and sea related activities receiving
the same kind of assurance of state attention. In mountain regions, the problem
that Chhering Tandup has always asserted is that of movement of goods. How do
we ascertain that the farm produce from Leh reaches its metropolitan outlets,
such as Chandigarh and Delhi?
There
is a problem here. As many as the trucks that arrive in Leh, the greater the
degree of pollution. The greater the loss of the natural habitat, and the
extent of damage will be difficult to assess. If geologists say that whatever
glacial damage or melt is due to activities that occurred 7 million years ago,
then we may rest assured that the sending in of trucks to Leh from Chandigarh
and Delhi would mean the erosion of these very new and constantly developing
mountains faster than 7 years.
What
industrialisation can mean is that local consumption of food and beverages is
replaced by alcohol and drug abuse, which is always blamed on migrant labour,
or on tourists. The work of a new generation of scholars, such as Sumera Shafi
and Tashi Lundup for Leh show how increased wealth from tourism has brought
about substantial changes in world view
of the youth.
Why agricultural practise in the surrounding
villages of Leh is extremely interesting is because it is new, and instinctive,
since with the planting of trees by the Army precipitation is conclusive. a
symptom of new world policies. The soil is alluvial and very rich. Interior colonialism, including constantly,
the emphatic presence of the Army, since
60 percent of the army is stationed here, is not seen to be a cultural
colonialism. Protection from China, and assimilation into China is not desired
by Ladakhis. Unlike Kashmir, where the Army is deeply resented for it’s very
visible coercive arm, Ladakhis have a
tolerant and supportive relation to the presence of the Indian army of which
they too are a part. Employment in the Army is a definitive occupation for
Ladakhis.
Agriculture
sustains the Army, whether it is apricots, potatoes, beans, asparagus, grapes,
apples, tomatoes or leeks. Tourism and the Army are two of the stable
institutions of the Ladakh region. Kashmiri merchants now face the inherent
space of competition from Ladakhi craftspeople and merchants. That pashmina is
manufactured in Leh was in doubt, until a new generation of scholars from Jammu
University brought to collective attention the presence of local boutiques and
pashmina wool curing factory. Surely, climate change is part of the way in
which new processes are brought into focus with regard to the dangers and
losses that climate change present, where equally, new avenues present
themselves. The pashmina sheep died after the 2011 cloud burst because of the
loss of pastoral grounds. Yet, the supply of Pashmina did not abate according
to the manager of the factory, because the supply of wool continued to come
from other areas in Ladakh, who was very confident that he could get his
sources come what may. (Interview
courtesy Tstenzin and Tashi, September 2013)
This
is the curious aspect of Agriculture and related artisan activities: whatever
the nature of loss, the beneficence continues. How do we deal with
redistribution of goods is what industrial systems have not dealt with. The
industrial imagination is so bereft of the sense of the future, that they do
not have the way of dealing with the bonus of nature. Crop destruction is part
of capitalism, by letting grains to rot, the industrial system makes sure that
prices are inflated. By buying up from the farmer without ensuring
redistribution, it leaves the farmer with cost price, and a rupee’s profit on
every kilo, while ensuring that granaries burst and the prime minister and the
Reserve Bank congratulate the farmers. Surplus crops means a stable economy,
since post office and SBI keep the peasant earnings in sync with subsistence
agriculture which is generally against Conspicuous Consumption. However, the
capitalists look to conspicuous consumption for an active market, and the
circulation of money, so they do all they can to disrupt the basic socialist (a constitutional term) practise of the
Indian economy, which is in the very nature of social relations. Since no redistribution takes place, after
goods are cornered by the Government the food rots. Establishment social scientists believe that
two and a half acres is impractical and that industrialised farming to feed the
billions is possible only after the farmers are dispossessed, brought to the
city to build smart cities which do not include them. Here they are kept in
poverty, below the minimum wage, as the contractors subtract the costs of
bringing them to the city. The Leh district farmers have shown that farming is
enjoyable and that they eat well and have enough for others, if the Army is not
the only buyer. In Tiruvannamalai, Tamil Nadu pilgrimage and tourism has been
supported through the interlinkage of local cafes with the rural markets of the
hinterland hill stations in the Nilgiris.
Sociologists do not have a solution for
climate change. They cannot tell the victims of flood that this has nothing to
do with good governance or bad, or with ritual purity, or Allah’s grace, or
Siva’s wrath. This has to do with geological timings of catastrophes, which
does not match human or historical time. While Leh survived the flash flood,
it’s town and village councils have a lot to do with the rehabilitation
measures. Its autonomous hill councils’ functioning helped the villagers
because of the level of trust, and the close and personal regulation of water
in the villages helped for further development of its agriculture techniques.
Each family sends a representative in turn to sleep by the village pond to
control water utilization and possible theft at night. (interviews courtesy Harjit Singh, Tashi
Lundup, September 2013)
There is a lot that we can learn from the
Ladakh experience of organisation and technique, made possible too from the
lessons which the local intelligentsia brings to us through intimacy and
translation. Such a grass roots intelligentsia is yet to develop in Kashmir to reckon with its own needs. Painful though
this period is, the velocity of distress has its anodyne, the creation of
institutional dialogue, which is community inclusive, rather than separatist.
Just as Ahmedabad burned in 2002, without any administrative attention, and Delhi
too, during the Sikh genocide, both of
which were humanly created disasters, three days, after the 2014 September
floods, the people in Kashmir waited for
the Administration and for Government help, including the Army. The Government
said, “We can do nothing.” . (interview with Councillor Shafi, September 2015) Why was that? Should they not be accountable
for what they do or do not do? People’s governance and people’s autonomy must
mean that villages and towns must have an immediately recognisable task force
to generate support during disasters. It must also mean that the State and the
World Bank, is implicated in the disasters, (which called Natural are usually
exaggerated by human culpability,) when it supports dam construction, against the wishes of the
local people. They must work with the
resource materials garnered by the local intelligentsia, recognise local
expertise for its ability to warn capitalism and capitalists of its implication
in these massive disasters in seismic zones.
Fault becomes allocated when there are
tribunals of enquiry. However, in the case of large scale development, the
Gandhians like Rajinder Singh constantly assert that poverty alleviation is not
possible with mass scale destruction of people’s livelihoods. Rather than
flight from the State, the struggle against interior colonialisms has been
protracted. The alternative view to
modernism, is post modernism, which has its freedom to choice, and to
resistance of oppression. The so called subsistence societies of pre-modern
contexts made sure that it’s people were fed, and provided for in times of
stress. Central Rule often excludes the
domination of those societies which are intrinsically, self sustaining. James C Scott writes that “I emphasise the
term political order to avoid conveying the mistaken impression
that outside the realm of the state lay mere disorder. Depending on the
location and date, such units might range from nuclear families to segmentary
lineages, bilateral kindreds, hamlets, larger villages, towns and their
immediate hinterlands, and confederations of such towns. Confederations appear
to constitute the most complex level of integration that had any stability at
all.” (Scott 2010:36)
In Federal societies, the States are
each given autonomy regarding the
choices they make about those decisions pertaining to local communities. Kerala
for instance has a Fisheries Ministry, and also supports organic farming as a
specific instance of this motivation. When certain States are oil rich or
mineral rich, then they become the colonized space of political
intentions. “State power, in this
conception, is the state’s monopoly of coercive force that must, in principle,
be fully projected to the very edge of it’s territory, where it meets, again in
principle, another sovereign power, projecting it’s command to it’s own
adjacent frontier. ….As a practical matter, most nation-states have tried,
insofar as they had the means, to give substance to this vision, establishing
armed border posts, moving loyal populations to the frontier and relocating or
driving away ‘disloyal’ populations, clearing frontier lands for sedentary
agriculture, building roads to the borders, and registering hitherto fugitive
peoples. ( ibid 11) Quite often, Scott argues, the populations at the borders
are culturally syncretistic, and they are then forced to conform with the
homogeneity of the political order in the plains. “Where they could, however,
all states in the region have tried to bring such peoples under their routine
administration, to encourage and more rarely, to insist upon linguistic,
cultural, and religious alignment with the majority population at the state
core.” (ibid 12)
When there is a dramatic contrast
between subsistence societies, located in proximity to market towns, with the
industrializing motif of traditional development politics, which aggrandizes
and hierarchises, we find that local communities survive through varieties of
camaflouge. Tradition persists in customs of food, dress and ritual, but there
is a segmental aspect, so the coding in of plural forms of identity are
implicit. People become home in many different cultures simultaneously. They
take on the colours of their environment, merging effortlessly into the work
world, and into the recreational structures of multiple societies. This multi
causality is represented through coincidental forms of association and
unionization both at work, and in leisure, so whether it is the club or the
association, individuals know how to fit in the rural milieu as well as the urban
one. This is not oscillation but a dialectic. In transition societies this is
made possible by the dual languages which are learnt, but when
industrialization is complete, then these skills of language and technique are lost. It is this which makes
people truly homeless.
In this last part of the paper, I will discuss
the plea from Prof Bharat Jhunjhoonwala, on behalf of the villagers of Chamoli,
where the World Bank is making its loan available, against the wishes of the
people, for damming the Ganga, for purposes of electricity generation for the
cities.
The
game, for the manipulations between
agriculturists and the colonial state in the formative years of sedentarisation
of agriculture in British ruled India continues. The rules are not laid down by
the colonists, but by the way in which the people demarcate their own borders
and territories.
Naturally, therefore,
most of the actions of the players in the “game” were largely predictable since
the players had trained each other over a long period of time. Not only were
the actions of the players anticipated, but each contestant had prepared
himself (most of these players were men) psychically for the outcome as well. (Irschick 1994:46)
To
be represented in Kashmir, by the village councils of Ladakh is a task in
itself, requiring the notation of religion, race, locality, occupation,
community and its common subjectivities. In other parts of the Himalayas, the
people orient themselves to petitions, law court cases and their hope in
citizenship. With the recent floods in Kashmir, the equation between the people
and the Centre will change, primarily because the devastation is so huge that
the orientations will be to everyday survival. The balance of power rests with
the ability to withstand neglect and philanthrophy, both of which are deemed to
be ways of hierarchizing the free. Why India is substantially free inspite of
it’s poverty and it’s corruption is because land held in agriculture is on an
average two and a half acres, and the
industrialising state would love to club it together to facilitate the growing
of gmt products under the guise that the farmer with small landholdings is an
anomaly.
Traditional
small acreage and production of bumper crops annually is substantially different from Pakistan,
where twenty two families controlled the country through their agricultural
landlordship. The damming of the Indus
was for industrial purposes and the travails of Pakistan have come from
protracted militarisation, tribal revolt and non-democratic practise regarding
the fate of peasants and local communities. The gap between the rich and the
poor has led to substantial distress, which includes the mobilisation of
religious fundamentalists to repress freedom of citizens.
TK
Oommen’s work “From Mobilisation to Institutionalisation” showed the success of
the land distribution Act in the 1950s to be partially successful since the
land given away was usually rocky. In
contrast, what the farmers in the environment of Leh have shown however, is
that the resilience that they have as farmers with small landholdings, has
depended on their hard work in tilling and watering in tightly regulated
circumstances. The village councils have a say in how the water is allocated
around the clock. In Palakkad, which became known as the rice belt of Kerala,
the water from the local small dam, Mallapuram Dam becomes readily available to
farmers in the winter months, not so in the summer, when the primary objective
is to provide drinking water to a fast expanding city. The fluctuations of
production are obvious to farmers, whose one, two or three crops of paddy are
dependent on irrigation, since the ponds become neglected, and with climate
change can run dry.(Interview with Agricultural Officers,Palakkad, April 2015)
Emile
Durkheim writes, in his comparison of Communism and Socialism, that the former
has a moral principle, which abstracts private property to be a lapse of
conduct arising from selfishness and immorality, but Socialism is a functional
principle of the division of labour and practical economic interests.
The two problems are
entirely different. On one side, you set out to judge the moral value of wealth
in the abstract, and deny it; on the other, one asks whether a kind of commerce
and industry harmonizes with the conditions of existence of the peoples
practising it, and if it is normal or unhealthy. Thus while communism concerns
itself only accessorily with so-called economic arrangements and modifies them
only to the degree necessary to place them in
keeping with its principle (the abolition of individual ownership),
socialism, inversely, touches private property the degree required to change it
so that it may harmonize with the
economic arrangement – the essential objects of its demands. (Durkheim
1962:73)
Socialism
is inherent in what Marcel Mauss showed to be forms of tribalism, or more
generally the collective life of
communities. However, in the case of the “Seasonal Variations Among the Eskimo”
or the pastoral practises of the Nuer in the 1930s, as studied by Evans
Pritchard, we do have interesting views of how social exchange takes place
during nomadism, and when people congregate during winter, in the first case,
and heavy rains in the second. Hunting and fishing are typical activities
during nomadism, and with seasonal shifts, there is a dependence on local
activities which are centred around storage and rituals. In the Ladakh region,
the storage of fruit and tubers and the dried meats allow people to engage in a
very sustained ceremonial and ritual life when the borders and roads shut down.
The effervescence of collective life is more than evident. Climate change has
to take into account increased melting of glaciers as the way in which the
Spring may come earlier, but the long term effects on local habitation are yet
to be understood. People do not live in fear of the future, they adapt to the
present, and in a democratic system, agriculturists should be protected not
left to the vagaries of industrial imaginations, which nullify them by the
habit of four hundred years. Coexistence of the agricultural and industrial
worlds is provided by the Constitution, which has its Gandhian undertones in
citizen rights.
I provide a
summary of the plea to the World Bank, from Prof Jhunjhuwala who with
other signatories, has claimed that the continual damming of the Ganga will
influence the fate of the Himalayas in general. They write to the Executive
Secretary of the Inspection Panel of the World Bank, that the Pipalkoti project
will change their lives because the “joys of a free flowing river” cannot be
estimated. Further, the river does not flow past boulders in the case of
damming, and will lose its medicinal and therapeutic qualities. According to
the petitioners, the people living in Chamoli district, on the banks of the Alaknanda
Ganga will not have access to fish and sand, as resources for their livelihood.
The Cheer Pheasant, an endangered bird will go extinct. The release of water at
odd times during the day for generation of electricity will affect the lives of
people who belong to a riverine civilisation and are dependent on nature for
their livelihood. Houses which are near
the dam develop cracks because of the force of construction and water flow in
the tunnels and pipes. Accumulation of silt affects the lives of communities
who are dependent on the river such as fishers and pastoralists. The collection
of silt can affect the social and religious life of people who can no longer
bathe or pray, or collect water. The aquatic life, both plants and animals
becomes disturbed. Very often, the rivers run dry. The dust from construction
pollutes every thing. Workers live in terrible conditions. Disease becomes
rampant. Women and children lose their
freedoms. The earthquakes further damage the hollowed out mountains, causing
landslides and death. The 2013 floods in Uttarakhand were a consequence of
ravaged hillsides for short term gains, in a seismic zone. Water sources are
drying up, rivers are degraded to the point of becoming extinct. Heat from
construction sends up the indexes of global warming. The increase in
populations due to construction and deforestation leads to the mass loss of
habitat for animal populations which begin to wander causing threat, in turn,
to local communities and habitats. Worst of all, there is silence on the part
of bureaucrats, and the people are kept out of information and discussion.
(Jhunjhunwala 2013, petititon to World Bank)
As
the contents of the letter show, the real questions we need to ask are about
the management of our rivers as commons. The Indus is dammed substantially in
Pakistan, where it flows in India, it has become both a ritual site for Hindus
asserting identity politics, as well as for the urbane leisured class who looks
forward to playing golf in the highest reaches of the Himalayas. (fieldwork
interviews, courtesy Suresh Kumar, September 2013) How do we understand these
cultural uses? Do we have a say in the right to life, and the right to
traditional grazing grounds. As Scientists and Social Scientists, may we
presume that people’s liberties are of the most importance, and by writing
about them we delay their extinction or forced assimilation.
In
a fieldwork based study organised by Renoj Theyyam, in September 2013, Gergen,
Susan, Nasreen, Konchak, Vishwa, Sandeep, Tashi, Revant, Ramesh, Amit and Morup
visited Sabu Village on the outskirts of Leh, which had been damaged by the
cloud burst in 2011. One of the farmers, George, had worked for the Army and
also for All India Radio and his memory was of severe winters upto 1974, where
the temperature went to minus 30 and 34. Since 1990 there were no more cold
winters, and if the mercury went below 20 or 22 degrees minus, it was only for
two or three days. The temperature averaged minus 10 degrees or 20 degrees Centigrade. Earlier there was lots of
snowfall. There would be one or one and a half degrees of snow. It would remain
in the fields until end March after which it would melt. Today, the snowfall is
five inches, and the next day it would melt. Rainfall patterns too had changed.
Rain does fall, though it is a high altitude desert. The normal rainfall in
summer time was one or two hours during July and August, and occasionally heavy
rainfall, which today is proving to be a national calamity as in 2011 and 2013.
While the Army and National Government responded in 2011, yet in 2015 it did
not act, leaving it to the Autonomous Hill Council. As the tourism Minister,
Shafi Lasu told me in an interview on 5th September 2015,
The problem with climate
change and unseasonal rain is that there is vast destruction and loss. In the
2011 floods many people came to see and we got a lot of attention.
Rehabilitation was so quick. The Council has no money, the Relief has to come
from the State and the Centre. It can only co-ordinate. However, the people
too, are not ready to adapt, to make the changes required to survive climate
change. I was in charge of Sharah village in Nei. In Phulktse, there was a
small quantum of flood. One of the houses was partially damaged. The question
to the victim was “How many times has your house been damaged?” I told him to
shift or allow us to dig a channel. The man said, “I have only this field.”
After a few days, it was totally flooded out, and the house swept away. I told
him “We will allot you land on the other side, with the permission of the
Sarpanch and the Councillor. Under the Indra Awaz yojana, you will receive
75,000 rupees, and while you are waiting for it, we will allot you 50,000
rupees from the Council.”
The Border people need
to be secure, only then can the country be prosperous. With the 2015 floods
which were much worse than the 2011
floods, there was no attention from the medical fraternity or from the
Government, though it was widespread, covering all of Ladakh. Deaths were few,
but the losses to farmers were huge. There has to be some accounting,
particularly since the people make so many sacrifices. The UPA opened a route
to the Pangong area. A policy was initiated PWDS 12, where the Border people
get tents, shoes, repairs of houses, feed banks for cattle donkeys, goats in
ice locked areas.
The border is osmotic
for the Chinese, because they treat it like that. They allow people to cross
from either side, which the Indian army does not. The Indian army regulates
border crossing. In winter, the Chinese cross the Pangong Lake on ice with
their herds, and they take over lands and settle there.
As
George and his wife Odzin experienced, in the cloud burst of 2011, the winters
are changing rapidly. Mild winter is followed by a severe Spring. Since the last
ten years, February and March gets very cold till May. Spring has become cold
and year dry. In the Flood Year of 2011, the snow did not melt till 23rd
of June. Then suddenly, it was very hot. The water melted rapidly. On 23rd
of June, their septic tank was empty. Septic tank lies 9 feet below ground.
Normally, in March, it gets warm, and the ice slowly melts, and there is good
water for irrigation. After 23rd of June , it becomes hot, and the
water comes for irrigation. After 23rd June, that year, two septic
tanks below 10 feet were full, and there was excess water. Too much water
inundated, but crops were not destroyed. The underground tanks absorbed the
water. With the help of the motor, the water was pumped out. On 5th
of August 2011, a thunderbolt never seen before was heard, lightening was so
bright, a needle could be found. The flood came from the Manali road side. At
two minutes to midnight, the was KHddddd, strong wind, loud noise, water
falling through the chimney. Peter came into the garden to collect a container
and was knee deep in water. Behind the house, the tourist resort he runs was
swallowed up in a river of water, and the two Nepali guards were drowned. In
1969, there was a cloud burst in Nimu, and in 1974 in Piang village. In this
cloud burst, the Government felt no responsibility for commercial aspect of
people’s losses. They aided in removing the silt, and gave a lakh of rupees as
compensation.
Peter
believes that the cloud burst is an aspect of climate change because of the
green house effect. He strongly feels that the traditional nalla allowed the water to flow away, but now the
nallas are all blocked and filthy. Encroachment, and the use of nalla by
tourist and migrants for bathing, spitting and defaecating, as well as throwing
garbage has hugely damaged the environment. The nallas are no longer used for
drinking, and people use underground water or spring water for domestic
purposes. With the flood of 2011, the nallas
were destroyed, but Government gave money to repair them, and installed
hand pumps for local use. Inspite of Sabu having been adopted by former
President Abdul Kalam, no help was received. There is a huge amount of water
that naturally flows into the Indus without causing harm. During years of the
flood, the excess water does not drain off, causing immense loss.
Informants
in Ladakh often talk about the chorspon, which is a unique source of water
management. March, April and May are the growing season, and it is also the
time of scarce water. In the traditional system each family would send a
representative to guard the water at night and to operate the channels, so
stealing water was not common, because of the tightly regulated system of water
use. Four people were chosen from the village, and each is sent out to each house
and their duty is to tell the members on which day the water will come to the
field. In the 1970s, according to Peter, there was a problem in the peak season
from May to the 21st of June. Those growing vegetables had a
difficult time. The vegetables grown in Leh are cabbage, cauliflower, peas,
potatoes, radish and carrot. Peter used to supply the army with potatoes,
wheat, barley and peas. He no longer grows vegetables for sale, as it is
consumed in the house and the rest house he runs. Leh market is to slow for
him, kilo by kilo is not possible, so he works with an agent who give him half
the cost, and keeps the rest. Climate change has not affected his income, as
the resort is functional, and guests keep coming in. Cows have enough fodder,
but because of the floods, grazing has become difficult, so the cows stay in
and are fed dry grass. He pursues the
same occupation as his parents. In this village, Sabu, the crop pattern has not
changed. Zho are used for ploughing. For threshing, the cattle are tied with
rocks, and go in circles, taking 15 to 20 days. If a threshing machine were
used, then it would take a few hours. He does use a tractor for ploughing. He
has stopped planting trees every year, for the poplars have become diseased. He
does not want to introduce new plants, and he does not encourage NGOs. He wants
fencing by trees to be provided by the forest department, and as for six feet
of debris brought by the floods, he does not know how to dispose of it.
Stenzin
Doma, aged 80 describes climate change as fluctuation in weather, where autumn
has now become very cold, and harvesting takes place. She says that earlier, in
winter, the leaves would shed from the boughs, but now they stay on, and the
snow is only ½ feet on the ground. In the earlier times, everyone would go for
grazing their sheep, cows, yaks and goats, but now, because children go to
school, they do not. She has one cow, and one ox. In the summer they take them
where there is water. Thirty or forty years ago, they would graze their cattle in
summer in another part of the Nubra and in Shok. For her climate change is
perceptible, as it is currently very hot weather, and winters too are warm.
Earlier water was more than sufficient, but now, due to divergence of water, it
is less, in Spring and Autumn, but there is more water in winter. Because there
are these changes, there is a lot more fighting for water. Earlier, there was
no fighting. With the Sorpon, there is equal distribution. People sleep near
the water to protect it from theft. While there is an increase in material
comfort, with technological innovations, there is a lack of mental comfort.
After the (2011) floods, the government is rebuilding the channels and ponds.
There has never been a problem with fodder in Sabu village, as there is a lot
of alfa alfa and grasses. Since there is a lot of house construction, the
materials come from outside, so education and jobs are important, and salaries
are essential.
Tsering
Chonzum (age 60) says that in the old days they only grew palak, but now there
is ‘everything”. Hot weather now, so more things grow, seedlings are sometimes
brought from Lahaul Spiti and other places. Rainfall is very scanty, but now
the rain falls regularly and very heavily in the summer months. In hot weather,
water is more, because “ice” melts. Glacier is there in winter, it is snow that
melts slowly. Climate change has increased village production of vegetables. In
dry weather, they are dependent on government subsidies. She has property in
Leh, and runs a guest house. She says, till five years ago, they had goats and
sheep, for wool and manure, but now she has only buffalos. The floods left
behind a lot of debris, making cultivation difficult, and the sorpon in Leh is
in deficit. In Sabu, they are buying barley and wheat husk from Eastern Ladakh
villages. Very few houses are keeping cows, since most have government jobs.
Trees are being planted substantially. Earlier, only one home had an apple
tree, but now everyone has apple trees. Saplings were brought from the western
part of Ladakh, but now they buy saplings from Ley. Previously, they ate
barley, with palak soup, but now everything is available. Wheat, rice and
noodles are plentiful in the shops. There is a rice subsidy from the
Government. Army introduced them to sweet tea. There has been an army camp in
the vicinity for thirty years. There used to be heavy snow fall in Khardulanga,
so the army used to settle in the Leh region. In Leh, they have a guest house.
Their children are guides, cooks, helpers. In Leh they have vegetables for their use, and also to
sell in the Leh market. In Sabu, they sell through their agent for fifty
percent of the whole value. After, the floods, Indians started arriving, though
earlier, their guests were mainly foreigners.
Tsering
Angchuk (age 50) says that in the hot weather, glaciers are melting. In Sabu,
there was a glacier, but what we see now, is snow. Earlier 3 ½ feet of snow
fell every winter. Because of climate change, cement and bricks are being used.
Traditionally, people wore woollen clothes through the seasons, and old people
continue to do so even now. The roof was low, houses small, and heat retained
as the buildings were made of clay and wood. Greening of the Himalayas and
global warming together are affecting Himalayas. In the last two or three
years, rainfall is more, snow is less. The downside of the streams are drying,
because they were glacier dependent. In the Spring, water is low, wheat barley,
peas, potatos, all vegetables are grown. His father had goats and sheep. Now he
has only cows. He sells potatoes to the army at Rs 22 a kg. His family was not
affected but his grazing land, fields and all his trees were washed away.
Government has been repairing, no money was received, but repairs were done.
Yangchin
Dolma (age 42) asserts that with climate change, temperatures are rising, and
sometimes go up to 37 degrees or 38 degree C. In the same season, June or July,
there can be substantial temperature variations, sometimes, very hot, and
sometimes very cold.
When
she was six or seven years old, there was a sudden change in crops, and the
family started growing potatoes, wheat, barley, mustard and rajma, beans,
lauki, brinjal, chilli, tomato. In the early days, they grew turnip, palak (
spinach) and carrot. Their income has increased. They sell vegetables and fruit
to the Leh Bazaar, and potatoes and onions to the army. They hire a jeep in
June and July every day because of the tourist season. She sets out in the
afternoon after lunch and returns at 9 pm. Her son and daughter milk the cow
and cook the food. When the floods happened, they did not know, as they were
far from the street. Main river had been diverted in to channels, and now the
main river has dried. They only knew in the morning that there had been a flash
flood, for in the night they thought it had been heavy rain.
Sonam
(age 41) describes his youth as a time
when the snow was plentiful, and ice would form when they put their foot in the
river. He would ski twenty or thirty years from Sabu to Cholamdir. The roads
were covered with ice. Temperatures have increased in the last twenty to thirty
years. There is increasing rainfall in
last five or six years. There is no continuity. It just suddenly falls. After
the cloud burst, there is trauma and fear. When the flood came, they ran away
in the jeep. The neighbours could not run, and half their family members and
the house were washed away. For water, they are dependent on the snow. This
winter, the snow was good, more than expected. Due to the sorpon, he gets
water, even if, he is far away form water. In the Spring there is scarcity of
water. For the drinking water, Government is making a pond, from which pipes
will take water to the houses. The Council advises the PWD. In the flood, he
loses Zho and Buffalos. He borrows his neighbours Zho for ploughing. There are
120 Zho in Sabuk village. His wife sends his children to the school and helps
him four days during the harvesting season. When he was young they had goats
and sheep, and they took them for grazing to the mountains. They got milk, wool
for Ladakhi garments, but now they buy from the markets. His mother weaves, and
so does his wife. Men also weave the chali or goat’s wool blankets. He sells
potatoes to the army for Rs 15 a kg, it was difficult to earn much. Earlier, it
was 30 or 35 rupees per kilo, but now everyone sells cheaply. Fertile land
makes for excellent Sabu potatos. Other villagers are coming to Sabu for seeds.
Since his forefathers’ time, potatoes have been grown in Sabu, but with climate
change, apples, other fruit and vegetables have come in.
Zahoor
(24) says that his mother’s sister was
washed away, his cousin sister died, her mother died. After the flood, there
was heavy rainfall in mid July. In May there is scarcity of water, because the
glaciers melt slowly. Ladakh council came immediately to help them, when there
was a cloud burst. They had all fled to the hills, and none of them had
footwear. Tents were put up. Food was cooked with the help of volunteers. Life
returned to normal after twenty five days, wetlands returned to normalcy, those
who lost houses are only recovering their properties now. The family grows
potatos, capsicums, cucumbers, gourds and melons, cabbage, cauliflower, turnip,
onion. When there is too much rain, they stay home, the plants are not
affected. There are four sapons in Sabu, so there is no shortage of water. They
had sheep and goats then years ago, thirty two, or forty two. They kept them
for manure and wool for winter clothing and chali, for making rope. They bought
meat when needed from market. Earlier they bought sampa, but now they buy bread
and maggi. In the village there is self sufficienty upto summer and autumn.
Soaps and cloth are purchased from Leh. They go thrice a week by bus. Parents
sell potatoes, onions, carrots at Leh market.
Dolka
(30) says that there are less bukharis in use now, and more electrical light
with solar panel. She had come from Phiang village six years ago, because there
was a scarcity of water there. In Sabu, because of sorpon, there is enough water.
In Sabu, they pay upto 30,000 or 40,000 rupees for monitoring the water. The
pond is filled twice a year. Every fourteen days, water comes to her field. In
the winter, government supplies taps, but only handpumps and spring water is
actually available. Water does not freeze now. Because of increased use of
handpump the spring is drying up. Tomato, potato, cabbage, cauliflower,
mustard, brinjlas, wheat are easily cultivated. Those who have green houses
grow vegetables in winter. They have social forestry in the village, but they
are drying so no one is looking after them. Not much impact. She was in the
house during the flood, went out in the morning.
From
all the accounts above, it is clear that Spring and Summer bring a paucity of
water. To counter this, Dr Gergen had innovated with a traditional method of
creating a bund high up in the mountains, and blocking off the water, so that
it would freeze in winter, and gradually melt to allow the water to channel
into the fields in Spring. Sonam Wangchuk, with the help of the local monastery
in Phiang village, well known for its drought and desert conditions has put in
place the ice stupa, an artificial glacier, which saw success on March 5th
2015, though it had many obstacles in its path. The students of SECMOL, were supportive,
and helped Sonam Wangchuk to put the paraphernalia in process. In February,
having found that the underground pipes had cracked because of the cold, they
began the digging of trenches once more, in severe weather, but the water did
flow through the pipes, and emerged as a fountain, which froze on contact with
the air. When March came the ice stupa melted gradually, providing water to the
fields. The plan is now to introduce six ice stupas in 2016. From the melted
ice, in Spring 2015, the SECMOL students planted 5300 saplings of which 5000
survived. The
future
plans for Phiang, known for desert conditions, and occasional violent flooding
of rivulets, is a solar township, the
nucleus of which is a University. The optism of the Ladakh people lie in their
ability to safeguard their legacy, through community and political processes,
while turning to India for administrative responses.
Acknowledgements:
Cherring Tandup, Tashi Lundup, Morup, Sumera
Shafi, Suresh Babu, Renoj Theyyan, Harjit Singh, Devinder Singh, Becky Norman, Sonam Wangchuk,
Rinchen Dolkar, Nikki Stanzin Yangsit, SECMOL students and the entire student team
from Jammu University, for their hospitality and kindness and friendship, many
thanks! Also my family and friends, for the support at all times.
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