Commons to Capital

Abstract

The tribal and ecological history of India has been the history of forced transformation of the natural commons into private property engineered under both the colonial and post colonial state policy. In the following period of structural adjustment programme during and after the 1990s the state has opened the public domain for privatisation by the trans–national corporations and Indian small and large companies. Natural commons is being treated as capital. For the indigenous peoples, privatisation of natural commons is not only loss of livelihood but the disintegration of their communal life, their egalitarian culture and bio–centric world outlook. Disintegration of natural commons also leads to shrinking of knowledge commons, the knowledge of taming the animal kingdom, the medicinal values of vegetation and the climate.

For the women in the forest–based society natural commons has been the storehouse of their natural and ritual knowledge, a bastion of their economy and, more importantly, a source of their power and status. Loss of commons leads to the growth of patriarchy.

Disappearing commons prompts the community to internalise the dominant notion of privatisation of livelihood resources leading to the disintegration of many a traditional institution that strengthens the commons and the communal mode of production. The destruction of the old commons of natural resources and communal labour is bringing forth a new commons of labour market and natural resource bank for capital to exploit and rich to enjoy while the commoners suffer.