Colonialism and coffee plantations: Decline of environment and tribals in Madras Presidency during the nineteenth century

Abstract

This article attempts to analyse how the colonial project of establishing coffee plantations disturbed the self-subsistent traditional tribal system, damaged the ecology, and resulted in environmental decline in the Shervaroy hills of Madras Presidency during the nineteenth century. The thrust of the argument is that the colonial administration was least concerned about the tribal peopleÌs customary rights over forest resources, and their traditional administrative and judicial systems. The British administration, which disregarded the tribal system, not only encouraged the British planters but even condoned their patently illegal activities. In other words, the means adopted to set up coffee plantations in the hills/forests to favour the British planters led to the disintegration of the age old tribal socio-cultural system and their forest-oriented economy. It concludes that in the process of commercialisation, the colonial policy refused to accord due importance to ecology and environment as well as to the sustainable livelihood of the tribal communities. Instead, its only concern was with the British planters establishing coffee estates during the nineteenth century.