THE ECOLOGICAL HORRORS COMMITTED TOWARDS NORTHEAST INDIA BY THE COLONIAL POWERS

The Northeast India, famously known as the Seven Sisters, has always been the most culturally extravagant and nature-opulent region that has adorned Bharata since the beginning of civilization itself…..

In this article, we will try to explore the hidden story that has been kept from us all…

it is a tale of exploitation and violation done to these sacred and beautiful lands by the British. This story is merely a page within the endless book counting the wrongdoings of the British. All these stories have been kept from you due to the influence of mainstream propaganda that favors the British and calls Bharata the land of snake charmers and uncivilized people… while nothing can be more untrue.

The British and many other exploitative colonial powers wanted to wet their beaks in the financial opulence of these lands from the early colonial periods. For the scope of this article, we will be discussing the prestige economy and how the endemic species and natural biodiversity of these lands were pillaged by these colonial forces.

In this article, I would like to give a brief record of the many small yet profitable items that were extracted by the British in these pristine lands. We will try not to track the trade of macro resources such as limestone, wood, etc. Although the savagery done to grab these resources is sorrowful, what is more sorrowful is the mass murder of animals orchestrated by the colonial powers. This includes, but isn’t limited to, the killing of thousands of birds of cultural, religious, and ethnozoological importance such as the hornbill. The feathers of this bird were shipped to the inhumane lands of Europe to adorn the hats of ladies or whomever could pay for such luxurious items. During these times, Georgian and Victorian fashions demanded copious amounts of such feathers… The colorful birds of our sacred lands were killed to obtain these feathers, all in the name of fashion.

Yet it would be a mistake to think that the exploitation of animals stopped at the killing and skinning of birds. Even larger animals couldn’t escape the near-endless greed of the British. Mighty Indian elephants from the northeastern parts of India were hunted mercilessly for their Indian ivory (which is rarer than African ivory). The products made out of this ivory once again adorned the grand mansions and palaces all over Europe (and some to this date flaunt these symbols as if they stand as something more than a testament to the brutality of their ‘civilized ways’).

Another mystical beast that suffered due to the eternal greed of the colonial overlords was the one-horned rhino. It is mostly indigenous to the Kaziranga range in Assam and some parts of modern-day Uttar Pradesh as well. The horn of the one-horned rhino is considered to have healing properties according to the ancient traditional Chinese medicinal system. Hence, this endangered and endemic species was mercilessly hunted for its fibrous horn. The colonial powers took these horns from the local populations by luring them with money and asking them to hunt more of this majestic beast. Hence, we can conclusively say that the endangerment of the one-horned rhino is courtesy of the colonial powers.

Another thing to be noted is the prevalence of the hunting culture amongst the officers within the larger colonial framework. For the tribes, these lands were sacred and treated as such. They took from the forest what was essential for survival and never practiced over-exploitation for the sake of monetary gain. Hence, we need to point out that the local populations were not harming the ecosystems and the environment in the same way the colonial powers were.

A term has come under the contemporary eye of the modern scientific community: “Biopiracy and Bioprospecting.” The colonial forces engaged in the malpractice of biopiracy by stealing the indigenous knowledge of the tribal (native) communities and stealing centuries-old knowledge. A fine example of this stands in agarwood and indigenous tea from Arunachal Pradesh. By growing a specific fungus on the wood of this tree, perfumes and resins can be created. This was once again exploited by the British for their biological yield.

Entire books can be written marking the extortion-like trade and how the colonial powers often exploited the people and the nature of the region. The locals were allegedly forced to pay taxes in the form of antlers, horns, and animal carcasses.

The purpose of this brief account is to quantify the unquantifiable exploits and horrors of the colonial powers and how, in many ways, they exploited not just the people but tried to reshape the socio-cultural and socio-economic harmony while also deeply scarring the humane nature–human connect of the Northeast.