Seminar on The Nambor Forests and Doyang Tengani Peasant Struggles in Assam'

Hello Readers,

Dr. Arupjyoti Saikia
Assistant Professor in History at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences,
IIT, Guwahati and Visiting Faculty, CISED

will be presenting a seminar on

'Whose Land is it? The Nambor Forests and Doyang Tengani Peasant Struggles in Assam'

at 3.30 PM on Tuesday, 26th June, 2007

at

ISEC Seminar Hall

All are welcome

Here is the abstract

Since June 2002 peasants in an upper Assam district have remained firmly on a path of political hostility with the state administration. When they took to the streets in 2002, in the wake of eviction carried out by the forest department, they had only one goal and thought it would be difficult to achieve. They demanded that the forest reserves which they had already reclaimed for agricultural expansion be declared as agricultural land.

In 2007 they were still on a path of confrontation but hopeful that they will achieve their goal. During this short period they made substantial progress in their political negotiation with the state government. They had not only more friends and foes but also learned how to sustain this friendship as well as cope up with the enmity of the foes. They formed their organisation and continued with their protest against the state.

Years of struggle had culminated in the newly formed Krishak Mukti Sangrami Samiti and succeeded in bringing radicalism to the peasant protests. This forum, with its ostensible left leaning, also incorporated issues of various environmental complexities of the region. The state conceded on principle, though the reality might be different, to one major demand of the protesting peasants, in admitting that this forested areas was no more a forested area.

Protests mixed with varied forms of governmental approach towards the wasteland remained in the forefront of the state politics since the end of colonial rule. The peasant movement also illustrates the fact that the contested right over the forestlands did not end with the colonial rule. More recently, as various environmental legislation and legal barriers had redefined the power of the state in terms of its right to forests and wasteland, we could see the re-emergence of new forms of peasant protests in various parts of the state.

This paper while narrating the political struggle of the peasants of Assam also explores the historical dimension of the competition between the agrarian frontier and forests since the colonial times and locates the present movement in the larger social history of this competing boundary.

***

Tea/ Coffee will be served before the Seminar

Dr.V.Anil Kumar
Seminar Coordinator and Professor
Centre for Decentralisation and Development
Institute for Social and Economic Change,
Nagarabhavi PO, Bangalore - 560 072

Phone: 080-23215468; 23215519; 23215592 Extn.417
Fax: 080-23217008
E-mail: seminarcoordinator@isec.ac.in

You can visit ISEC online at http://www.isec.ac.in/
Dr. V Anil KumarSeminar Coordinator