question_answer

  What were the similarities between colonial management of the forests in Bastar and Java?

Answer:

                  Forest management of Bastar in India was in the hands of the British and in Java it was in the hands of the Dutch. (i) The similarities between these two are as follows The Dutch, like the British, wanted timber to build ships and to make sleepers for railway tracks. (ii) Both the British and the Dutch enacted forest laws to control the forests and put restrictions on the customary rights of the local people. They were prevented from entering the forests, they could not graze cattle or cut wood or take forest produce without permission. (iii) The British and the Dutch introduced scientific forestry. Both the governments banned shifting cultivation. (iv) Some villagers in Bastar were allowed to stay in the forests on the condition that their people would provide free labour for the Forest Department in cutting and transportation of trees and protecting the forests from fire. Similarly in Java, the Dutch imposed rents on the cultivated land in the forests and then exempted some villages if they collectively provided free labour and buffaloes for cutting and transporting timber. This system was known as the 'Blandongdiensten System'. (v) When the exploitation by the British in Bastar and the Dutch in Java became too much, the forest communities in Bastar and Java revolted under Gunda Dhur and Surontiko Samin respectively. Both the revolts were crushed by the colonial powers.