The
Indian Thar is a hot desert and ranks among the few deserts of the world that
have had a long and populous human history of settlement. This sustained human
settlement has been made possible by unique attributes of the complex of eco
systems and their natural endowments that make the natural setting of Thar.
Equally ingenious and resilient have been life practices of different
communities, mobile and sedentary, who have displayed remarkable forbearance
and endurance in populating the region. Different varieties of pastoralism practiced
by semi nomadic communities complemented with subsistence oriented rainfed
farming have been core elements in constituting, settling and sustaining human
history of this region.
The
changes over the past few decades beckon us to understand experiences of modern
transformation of pastoral Thar especially since the last quarter of the 20th
century with the coming of IGNP in north-west Thar. Ideologically propped up by
Jawaharlal Nehru as the 'kingpin' of State planning for developing the desert,
the IGNP was started with generous loans from the World Bank and a favourable
policy framework enabled by the Indus Water Treaty of 1960 between Indian and
Pakistan under the watchful gaze of the World Bank. The main components are the 445 km long lined canal
running parallel to the Indo-Pak border,
nine branches, seven lift schemes and twenty-one direct distributaries apart
from 8187 km.
of minor canal network. The state claims to have opened more than ten lakh
hectares of area for irrigation and provide drinking water to more than 3500 towns
and villages. IGNP is a gigantic settlement and irrigation project that is
supposed to benefit more than 2 million people. So far so good!
Most
of development strategies and precepts that have informed the making of ‘modern
development’ in Thar region argue that pastoralism as a resource use system must
/ should / would be done away with, transformed into sedentary husbandry integrated
with dairy industry and in a subsidiary position to the meta- narrative on agro
industrial farming. It could be said that this development thinking is rooted
in perspectives on maximizing private economic profit derived from irrigated
farming as the prescribed dominant land use system. Surplus gained from this
agricultural enterprise, it is argued, would then feed the diversification into
non-farm enterprises and to the making of agro industrial complexes. The
dominant assumptions of this economic thinking against pastoralism influenced
formulation of apathetic development policy and tardy implementation of development
schemes and programmes relating to livestock rearing.
It
would not be inappropriate to reiterate that sustainable modern development
does not mean economic transformation alone but is better and more fully
understood as well- being incorporating dimensions of human and ecological
well- being. In keeping with this perspective pastoral way of life is more suited,
better rooted historically and ecologically among communities in north-west
Thar as compared to ‘modern development’
that is a recent undertaking primarily orchestrated by state, increasingly
controlled by market, imposed from above
and benefitting only a few.
The
culture of pastoralism as it developed and sustained itself over long periods
of human history in Thar has been adaptive in sharing an interface with
subsistence based agriculture and had evolved elaborate customary practices to
use and regenerate collective natural endowments of water and fodder. The
social organization of this pastoralism consisted of reciprocal ties among
communities for utilization of scarce natural resources, adoption of rustic
lifestyles that had ability to survive in the long periods of harshness and
bloom in the brief spells of abundance. The sway of pastoral way is evident in
the dexterous everyday work ethic of rearing animals to aesthetic pursuits of
exquisite creations of music and rustic textiles and other crafts. The embedded
pastoral landscapes of wide limitless horizons and sprawling sandy plains
interspersed with grasslands form a backdrop to growth of musical traditions of
sufiyana qalam that celebrate pluralism of human existence and are marked by a
heightened ecological sensibility. These life-sustaining practices that
illumined the material and symbolic world weave the complex of cultures of
pastoralism. The unique contribution of this culture has been notions of
abundance and well- being by perfecting frugal lifestyles in a resource scarce
region. 
This
is not a romanticist reinstating. There is need to specifically engage with issues
relating to complex ‘culture’ of pastoralism and ‘modern development’ to ask
meaningful questions regarding integration and adaptation of the culture of
pastoralism in the emerging geography of built environments, roads
crisscrossing canal networks and agricultural fields. Far from
assuming that contemporary pastoralism is in an inevitable crisis and
should/would give way to agro industrial complexes in the rapid on-going
transformation, the role of pastoralism needs to be understood keeping
in view the historically evolved human ecology of the region and a realistic
assessment of possibilities and limits of ‘modern development’ for a
sustainable future of Thar. This is quite in order given the high environmental
costs, increased economic disparity, intensification of private resource use that
characterize the nature of transformations brought in these regions with ‘modern
development’. The sordid tale of grass
root realities of colonisation of desert grasslands and water sources - the
common property resources - has led to marginalisation of pastoralists and
created a political economy of natural resource use that has set in conditions
for greater pauperization of poor allotees, stifled collective initiative,
intensified resource use and control by private property and greater
penetration of market and tightened the hold of soulless institutions of the
state.
These
questionings are emboldened by several studies elsewhere in world that have
highlighted the critical importance of pastoralism in its contribution to
sustain natural economy that makes possible and acts as an environmental
cushion for the fast urbanizing world. Extensive land use systems need to be
promoted and regenerated with reference to arid and super arid regions like the
one under discussion. In a world that is increasingly becoming intolerant, plagued with xenophobic conflict, unbridled consumerism,
heightened and often cut throat individualism, and social stress, the deep
message inherent in this popular pastoral culture of sufiyana qalam is
coterminous with wisdom, love, peace, and dignity of all life.
There is
sense in learning from this remarkably resilient and frugal way of life. It may
hold insights and cues for transition to a sustainable world.
Read Related Stories:
http://rahulghai.blogspot.in/2015/12/ignp-canal-in-rajasthan-experiences-of.html
http://rahulghai.blogspot.in/2015/12/pastoralism-in-thar-ignp-and.html
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