During the course of the nineteenth century, when the British colonizers ventured into the mountains, one finds the exhaustive description of the mountain landscape. From the scattered references about the main mode of livelihood we find that hillstations were dotted with small hamlets with limited cultivation being carried out, owing to the unevenness of the terrain and limitation of sophisticated technique for leveling the land. Thomas Munro observed in the 19th century about the Ooty region:

“A few hamlets inhabited by the Bargaras, an agricultural race, are scattered on the face of the hills. The cultivated fields, running up the hills to the very top, have a beautiful effect; but the cultivation is thinly spread and probably does not cover one-tenth of the ground.”

Agricultural community lived alongside the forest tribes as much in Ooty as in other mountain regions of pre-colonial India. Notwithstanding the spatial separation between the field and forest, these various occupational groups had relationship of interdependence and symbiosis.

In the pre-colonial times, the resource-wise diversification between different castes and social groups had, to an extent, avoided any conflict between these groups. For instance, in the hill range of Western Ghats of Maharashtra the Kunbis had the monopoly of hunting wild animals, while the Gavlis maintained livestocks and use of fodder and grazing resources.

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Similarly, in the Nilgiris, Todas reputed to be the aborigines of the area, were the pastoralists and nomads. They also practised some amount of shifting cultivation. Badagas were the agriculturists of the area who primarily engaged in tillage and cultivation. Kotars, Kurumbas and Irulas were the menial service class.

In Darjeeling region, Lepchas were the forest dwellers, Bhutias were largely the traders and Nepalese were the agriculturists. This mutual sharing of resources also contributed to a harmonious life.

Tension and Conflicts

Tourism development and other economic activities, in particular in the hills, such as tea industry affected the lifestyle of the indigenous community. British enthusiasm and assertive display of their technological and bureaucratic superiority, eroded the traditional lifestyle of the local hill habitat.

Local environment of the hills was modified to suit the needs of the European elite. Space was modified for the development of metropolitan forms of amusement for the urbane Europeans. Reserved forests and plantations were encouraged as the imperatives of the colonial state.

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In the process, the traditional village community, with its common property rights on the collective holding of the lands and the common pasturage was pushed into background. Easy access of the village community of the Kumoun region, the Lepchas of Sikkim and Darjeeling area or the Todas of Nilgiris was restricted. Large scale felling of the forests led to the marginalisation of these hill communities. The colonial instrusion disturbed the traditional lifestyle of the hill people centred around their sacred groves and divine herbs. Lepchas, the forest dwellers, and the born medicine men with their extensive knowledge about the Himalayan herbs and flora and fauna were severed from their traditional forest habitat by the developmental pressures of the colonial state.

The benefits of these economic enterprises such as tourism and plantations did not reach out to these billmen in terms of both quality and quantity. These paharies (hillmen), as the British distinguished them from the plains people, were absorbed into these economic enterprises lower down the ladder. They were largely employed as bearers, khidmatgars, peons, pony riders, rickshaw pullers, etc. which did not provide them with the decent source of livelihood.

More direct advantages accruing from these mountain resorts as they emerged as tourist destination, were appropriated by the outsiders. Either the British tea planters or the European hoteliers reaped wholesome profits which their club culture contacts enabled them to acquire. These club culture contacts were continued with other Indians from the plains replacing the Europeans.