Amitav Ghosh - Bon Bibi Legend
Amitav Ghosh - Bon Bibi Legend
Amitav Ghosh - Bon Bibi Legend
Peasant Autonomy
India: struggle for land, water and forest rebuilding village culture
According to Ghosh uses "the Bon Bibi legend the power of fiction to create and define a
relationship between human beings and the natural world. Nowhere does a term
equivalent to 'Nature' figure in the legend of Bon Bibi, yet nowhere is its consciousness
absent.
(..) Take for instance the belief that the wild parts of the forest are the domain of
Dokkhin Rai: the corollary of this is the idea that to leave signs of human penetration is
to invite retribution from the demon. So powerful is this prohibition that villagers will
not urinate, defecate or spit while collecting honey or firewood. And let there be no
doubt that the fear of the demon's wrath is far more effective than secular antilittering
laws for in the order of preventive sanctions, a municipal fine can scarcely be counted
the equal of the prospect of death by agency of storms and floods, tigers and crocodiles."
Exclusion
"In the 19th century, the generally accepted view among academically trained European
foresters was that the presence of people was always a threat and never an asset to
forests: it was thought that where woodlands survived it was despite rather than because
of the people who lived in and around them.
(..) Although the Forest Department has now been subsumed under the Ministry of
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Forests and Environment, it continues to wield a nearimperial authority over its vast
dominions: this is indeed a veritable inland empire, whose authority weighs upon a
hundred million people and on none more heavily than those who live in the vicinity of
national parks and wildlife sanctuaries.
(..) In effect, over many decades, there has been a kind of 'ethnic cleansing' of India's
forests: indigenous groups have been evicted or marginalised and hotel chains and urban
tourists have moved in.
(..) The Forest Department is no different from any other arm of government, in that
some of its officers are idealistic and competent while others are corrupt and inefficient.
But it so happens that the Forest Department holds sway in areas where there is little
oversight, which means, unfortunately, that there is often greater scope for the abuse of
bureaucratic power.
(..) The consequences of this exclusivist approach have been harmful not just for the
'ecosystem people' but also for the very environment it sought to protect."
About the Forest Rights Act Ghosh writes: "Modest though these proposals are, the Act
has been stalled by a coalition that includes the forest bureaucracy, some members of
Parliament and a few wellintentioned conservationists whose experience and idealism are
beyond question. This group has turned the Forest Rights Bill into an issue where the
state must choose between 'tigers and tribals'. (..) Their proposals for the rectification of
the situation are, in effect, of a paramilitary nature."
"(..) While political disempowerment may have been more the rule then the exception in
Asia and Africa of the late 20th century, it would be a mistake to imagine that this will
continue forever. Soon refugees displaced by forest reserves will learn to organise; many
will join those who have already taken to arms; others will form vote blocs and elect
representatives who will carry their grievances to Parliament."
(Photo C: Bri Vos)
Mangrove forest.
(Photo D: V. Malik from New Delhi and Pune,
India)
(Photo E: Anirban Biswas)
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2/1/2017 Amitav Ghosh Bon Bibi Legend
(Photo F: V. Malik from New Delhi and
Pune, India)
The Bon Bibi deity.
(Photo G: Frances Voon)
(Photo B: Joiseyshowaa)
Sunset at Sundarbans.
Read more: 'Wild Fictions', 7 page article from Amitav Ghosh in Word, 7 photos; 400 KB.
Go to next page: Mother Earth a new future for small farners; documentary
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