WRITE A SHORT NOTE ON PLANTATION OWNERS , SHIFTING CULTIVATION?
Plantation owners- In order to meet the growing European needs , vast patches of forests were cleared to set up tea, coffee and rubber plantations. These areas were given to European planters at cheap rates, who employed large number of displaced pastoralists and nomadic tribes as wrokers.Plantation owners made big profits, making the workers work for long hours and at low wages. Due to the new forest laws, the workers could not even protest as this was their sole means of earning a livelihood.
Shifting Cultivation- Shifting cultivation or Sweden agriculture was the traditional agricultural practise in many parts of Asia, Africa and South America. In shifting cultivation, parts of a forest or land is cleared ,cut and burnt and is left unused for a period of time till it restores its natural fertility.
The colonial foresters did not favor this system and banned it as it made it difficult for the government to calculate taxes. They felt that land which was used for cultivation every few years could not grow trees for railway timber. The forest officials saw in it the danger of fire being spread and also that no trees could grow on this kind of land. As a result, shifting cultivators were forcibly displaced from their homes in the forests. Some had to change occupations, while some resisted through large and small rebellions
Shifting Cultivation- Shifting cultivation or Sweden agriculture was the traditional agricultural practise in many parts of Asia, Africa and South America. In shifting cultivation, parts of a forest or land is cleared ,cut and burnt and is left unused for a period of time till it restores its natural fertility.
The colonial foresters did not favor this system and banned it as it made it difficult for the government to calculate taxes. They felt that land which was used for cultivation every few years could not grow trees for railway timber. The forest officials saw in it the danger of fire being spread and also that no trees could grow on this kind of land. As a result, shifting cultivators were forcibly displaced from their homes in the forests. Some had to change occupations, while some resisted through large and small rebellions