For the Indigenous Economy, the Forest Is Life
Heading through farms and forests on a winter morning for a community meeting, Jharkhand, India. Photo by Mithilesh Kumar
Philip Kujur
O
ur early ancestors left behind a far-reaching worldview and an idea of diversity to live in coexistence with nature. This worldview impels each Indigenous person to internalize traditions, customs, culture, and language of the community and also to preserve, broaden, and enrich the same. By doing so, we not only ensure self-reliance and sustained development of the community, but more importantly, we take the responsibility to impart that worldview to the larger community and future generations. Today, the biggest challenge for Indigenous Peoples all over the world is the unrelenting assault on Indigenous lifeways and resources in the name of national interests and development by governments and capitalist forces. For Indigenous Peoples, resistance is ingrained in our struggle for survival. Our ancestors put in place some binding practices on the collection and usage of forest produce. Without these practices, forests would look like merely a resource for eking out a living. An Indigenous person’s identity right from birth is linked with the Gotra (lineage or totem) of the family. It is the obligation of the person to protect that particular tree, plant, creeper, or animal. In no circumstances may one cause any harm to it. Another significant aspect of the Indigenous life is festivals and ceremonies. In each season of the year, nature is worshiped in various forms of deities. In these ceremonies we thank nature, as it ensures food security throughout the year and provides a spiritual home. This practice ensures that forest produce and animals are not consumed during the flowering or breeding time. These rituals also remind the community not to use any resource beyond their need, ensuring that the economy of the community stays robust without destroying nature. Some festivals are performed within a community, and some are performed collectively involving all Tribes. One example is the Sarhul festival, in which the Sal tree is
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worshipped. Communities are prohibited to use any fruit, flower, or leaf that grows during the summer season until the Sarhul is performed; by the time the Sarhul is over, the flowering/breeding time would also be over. The Sendra (hunting) ceremony is performed once a year just before the Sarhul. In Sendra, all the youth of the community, led by the community teacher, go into the forest for a week. Besides hunting, the group learns from the teacher all the behavioral and customary wisdom passed down through generations. They also learn how to identify medicinal herbs, how to prepare traditional medicines, and how not to over-extract the resource. During the Sendra, the youth take a vow to stay faithful, responsible, and committed to the community and to their ancestors. The method by which medicinal herbs are collected is another example of Indigenous Peoples’ protection of nature, and in turn, our own economic stability. In order to collect an herb in the forest, some communities have ordained that the person collecting must be naked at the time of extracting the material, otherwise the medicine would not work. This belief is enforced upon the people simply to restrict overuse of the product. The person extracting the herb would like to do it quickly before someone sees him or her, and therefore would not be able to extract too much of it beyond the need. The idea of diversity and equality as passed on to us from our early ancestors does not contain the concept of Shubh-Labh (“luck and profit,” as is prevalent in Hindu culture), nor does it give importance to weights and measures. However, we need to employ some calculations in order to present ways of transaction in the Indigenous milieu to the non-Indigenous world. In the economics of an average 5-6 member Indigenous household here in eastern and central India, 65 percent of our share in well being comes from forest produce alone. India’s forests support the life of humans, animals, and other living beings by providing fruits, flowers, roots, grass, honey, herbs, and medicines, among many other things. The economy and trade of Indigenous communities are intrinsically linked to forests and forest produce (see sidebar).
