Colonial constructions of 'agrarian fields' and 'forests' in the Kolli Hills

Abstract

Forest histories have more often than not remained aloof from more broad-based economic histories of agrarian communities. As a result, narratives of the forest economy have focused almost entirely on the process offorest settlement. This article focuses on regional processes of territorialisation associated with revenue and forest settlement in the context of the Kolli Hills. It is argued that the colonial state's usurpation of land created a false dichotomy betweenforests and fields that did not exist locally. Hence, the impact of colonialism on forest- dependent communities is understood within the wider purview of the land question in the Kolli Hills, both in the past and the present.