NCERT Book Class 9 Social Science (History) Chapter 4 Forest Society and Colonialism

SECTION II

LIVELIHOODS, ECONOMIES AND SOCIETIES
In Section II we will shift our focus to the study of livelihoods and economies. We
LIVELIHOODS, ECONOMIES AND SOCIETIES

will look at how the lives of forest dwellers and pastoralists changed in the modern
world and how they played a part in shaping these changes.

All too often in looking at the emergence of the modern world, we only focus on
factories and cities, on the industrial and agricultural sectors which supply the market.
But we forget that there are other economies outside these sectors, other people too
who matter to the nation. To modern eyes, the lives of pastoralists and forest dwellers,
the shifting cultivators and food gatherers often seem to be stuck in the past. It is as
if their lives are not important when we study the emergence of the contemporary
world. The chapters in Section II will suggest that we need to know about their
lives, see how they organise their world and operate their economies. These
communities are very much part of the modern world we live in today. They are
not simply survivors from a bygone era.

Chapter IV will take you into the forest and tell you about the variety of ways the
Forest Society and Colonialism
forests were used by communities living within them. It will show how in the
nineteenth century the growth of industries and urban centres, ships and railways,
created a new demand on the forests for timber and other forest products. New
demands led to new rules of forest use, new ways of organising the forest. You will
see how colonial control was established over the forests, how forest areas were
mapped, trees were classified, and plantations were developed. All these developments
affected the lives of those local communities who used forest resources. They were
forced to operate within new systems and reorganise their lives. But they also rebelled
against the rules and persuaded the state to change its policies. The chapter will give
you an idea of the history of such developments in India and Indonesia.
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