Tarak Chandra Das (1898-1964) was a pioneering Indian anthropologist during the formative period of the discipline who conducted an intensive study on the dynamic relationship between productive technology and natural environment as early as 1937.
The field study of Das was published in the prestigious international journal Anthropos under the title ‘Some notes on the economic and agricultural life of a little known tribe on the eastern frontier of India’ (Das, 1937:440-449). In his paper Das dealt with the relationship between the variation in technology of agricultural practices with the natural environment and the socioeconomic consequences of this variation within the same tribe. The name of the tribe is Chiru, who like the Purums belonged to the old Kuki group of tribes of the north-east India. At the time of Das’ field work during 1931-34, the Chiru population was 1272 and they lived in 11 villages, 9 of which were situated on the top of the hills and 2 were on the plains of the Manipur valley. Here Das first established the importance of agriculture particularly shifting hill cultivation among the Chirus despite the presence of hunting, fishing and gathering which were found to be subsidiary occupations among them. According to Das: Agriculture forms the basis of Chiru economic life. All other activities, whether social, religious, or economic are directly or indirectly connected with this important food-producing work. Economic activities like hunting, fishing, rearing of domestic animals and trading are all subservient to agriculture’ (Das, 1937:441). But how did he substantiate his claims made in the above statement? Without going into quantification, Das adopted the Ethnographic Methodology to prove his argument. First, he described the methods and situations under which the Chirus engage them in fishing, hunting-gathering, domestication of animals and trading. Second, he then described in brief the different rites and rituals connected with Jhum cultivation and the role of traditional village officials in those communal festivals. The evidences put forward by Das revealed how the natural environment and the socio-religious practices of the tribe have made shifting hill cultivation as the main economic foundation of the tribe. Das then proceeded further to look into the sociological implications of this cultural ecological scenario of the Chiru society. In the words of Das: Chiru society is composed of agriculturists only. As already shown, hunting, fishing and trading have not grown into independent occupations, but are practised along with agriculture and is subordinated to its interest. Thus, these avocations have failed to produce special socio-economic groups. The traces of stratifications found among them cannot be attributed to economic pursuits. (Ibid 1937: 443). A careful reading of the paper reveals that the economic life of the Chirus which Das constructed is not a simple description of the methods of shifting hill cultivation and the associated religious rituals and rites. Neither it is an ethnographic report for the search of borrowed culture traits from the neighbouring tribes and Hinduised populations nor was it an attempt to put the Chirus in the classical scheme of social evolution. The ethnography of Das on the other hand is a penetrating analysis of the various socio-cultural dimensions of shifting hill cultivation in an environmental framework and the slow changes that had been taking place at the time of observation. Take for example, Das’ method of dealing with an apparently simple ethnographic observation. He recorded that majority.
of the Chiru villages possess only 20-30 households and the biggest village did not contain more than 40 households. But what are the reasons and consequences of Chiru village size in terms of the households? It is better to quote Das: The Chirus do not renew the fertility of an exhausted patch of land by means of fertilisers. It is left to nature which by accumulating the mould for years together makes it again fit for another period of cultivation. The effects of discarding exhausted patches of land are many and far-reaching. It has led to scattering of villages at considerable distance from one another. It puts a limit to the growth of population in each village…. Increase of population leads to establishment of new villages in order to relieve pressure on land. This type of cultivation does not help in the accumulation of wealth in individual hands and consequent growth of rank. On the other hand it has bred an extreme democratic spirit in their social and political life (Ibid 1937: 445). The most interesting aspect of Das’s work on the Chirus is about the changes that took place in their socio-political life due to migration of some sections of the tribe from the hills to the edge of the Imphal valley. Das’ observations can be called pioneering in terms of its analytical strength. According to him a shift from Jhum cultivation on the hills to wet rice cultivation on the edge of the valley is not only a techno-economic affair but it also entailed a whole gamut of socio-political changes in the life of the Chirus. That is why he began his observation by contrasting the ownership pattern of Jhum land with that of the plains land. While the Jhum land was not owned by any individual family but under the control of the village authority, the plains land could be owned by an individual family for which a rent had to be paid to a supra-local political authority. Since wet rice cultivation with the plough could be carried out in the plains, the crop output was higher and a section of the Chirus (though small in number during the time of Das’ field work) was found to have been adopting the plainsland cultivation. This shift has had immense socio-political consequences for the community. The analysis forwarded by Das deserves to be quoted in his inimitable words: So long we had been dealing with Jhum-land only. Besides this there is another kind of land which is gradually coming into prominence in Chiru economic life. This is the land at the feet of the hills where ploughcultivation is possible… The village community has no authority over the disposal of this type of land and it does not hold itself in any way responsible for its fortune. On the other hand it is a source of danger to the authority of the village community. The bachelors’ house, marriage by service, equal right of every individual over the village jhum-land, and setting up of new houses soon after marriage, are institutions directed to the same end, namely undermining the influence of the family and setting up the village community as the only body to which one may look for help and succour. But the new type of land will set up the family over the village community and place the house-father above all (Das, 137:446).