SHIFTING CULTIVATION - THE LAST BREATH: The Story of a Great Betrayal (From the East India Company to the British Raj and Free India)

This book is an excellent work of nonfiction.

Non-fictions are born with enemies, and throughout their lives, they fight with their special adversaries. It challenges many existing notions and tries to silence the rhetoric that has fogged the intellectual minds in India and around the world. It shows how shifting cultivation issues were created by revenue officials of East India Company after 1765 and were pursued by the British Raj officials, especially the forest officials led by Dietrich Brandis, and sadly, they continued even after India's independence.

You will find that at least two time periods in independent India have come when this problem could have been solved. But we missed the bus. It shows how the tribals suffered from a great betrayal by the rulers, right from the East India Company to the British Raj and Free India. The British could never understand the tribals except on a few occasions, but then some villain of history always stood in between. It contains good details about tribal revolts and tells you that initial revolts were led by non-tribals.

It shows how the researchers have used the causes of shifting cultivation as a cultural bogey and drawn shocking inferences. It demolished all such findings and showed a clearly lit path in the jungle of intellectual but unreal darkness. The book exposes the eco-history writers who have blamed only forest officials and revenue officials' roles, were never examined. There are many aspects of history that this book covers.

It takes you on a captivating journey through India's eco-political history and the tussle among the British that exceeded the Whig era till 1947 from East India Company days.