"Military Conflict and Forests in Central Provinces, India: Gonds and the Gondwana Region in Pre-colonial History"

Prasad, Archana. “Military Conflict and Forests in Central Provinces, India: Gonds and the Gondwana Region in Pre-colonial History.” Environment and History 5, no. 3 (Oct, 1999): 361–375. doi:10.3197/096734099779568290. In this article Prasad counters the proposition that pre-colonial, caste-based, natural resource management regimes were superior, in terms of stability and coherence, to colonial regimes. By engaging with the English sources of the Gondwana region, she shows how the question of ‘stability’ ignores the unequal and oppressive character of pre-colonial societies. This is borne out by the history of the Gondwana, where the social and political marginalisation of the Gonds was a result of the changing nature of zamidari power and the creation of private property rights in early colonial India. All rights reserved. © 1999 The White Horse Press