Page 81 - Changing Living Spaces

Living Spaces of Ethnic Groups and their Relationship with the Ecological Environment

and the state’s economy is based primarily on subsistence farming. About
75 percent of Assam’s 31 million inhabitants are engaged in agriculture
and related activities (Government of Assam 2016), which are still car-
ried out with traditional implements. Apart from state subsidies or gov-
ernment loans, the flow of capital into the peasant economy is far below
the national average (Saikia 2016, 327). The Green Revolution, the flag-
ship programme of the Indian government in the 1960s and 1970s, has
not covered this region. Compared to the agrarian situation in western
states such as Punjab and Haryana, where the peasant economy has im-
proved over the decades, the situation in Assam has deteriorated in the
twentieth century.
However, studies on the current economic backwardness and agricul-
tural stagnation in Assam attribute the underdevelopment of the agri-
cultural sector to the lack of scientific knowledge among farmers and
the traditional socio-economic institutional complex (Das 1984; Phukan
1990). While the security situation in Assam has improved over the years
and the state domestic product (SDP) has been steadily increasing since
the 2000s, the agricultural sector continues to grow at a snail’s pace
(Government of Assam 2017).
How did local farmers in a multi-ethnic society in the Brahmaputra
Valley sustain themselves through subsistence agriculture? How can the
peasant economy be sustained without the capital input of the public sec-
tor? These are the research questions posed in this study. The background
of the state’s economic problems is examined in this chapter from the
perspective of the ecological environment. The unique environment of
the Brahmaputra floodplain could help local people sustain subsistence
agriculture without using modern technologies such as groundwater irri-
gation or high-yielding varieties (HYV). In this context, it is important to
focus on the relationship between ethnic groups in the region and the lo-
cal environment in which they live. Ethnic groups originating from dif-
ferent homelands have different cultural backgrounds and diverse knowl-
edge and skills regarding the use of natural resources for their livelihoods.
Here, the author examines the living spaces of different ethnic groups in
the Brahmaputra Valley, the geographic patterns of their living spaces,
and their everyday practices related to local resources. The characteristics
of peasant agriculture in the multi-ethnic society of Assam are discussed
using micro-observations from different regions of the state.

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