A networked approach to the origins of forestry education in India, 1855-1885

The history of forestry of British India is one of the most frequently discussed topics in the environmental and scientific history of South Asia. Historians have been particularly interested in finding the origins of forestry education, science, management schemes and laws in India. The need to pinpoint the origins of forestry became important when self-identified subaltern historians of India in the 1980s and 1990s offered a strong critique of the detrimental social and ecological effects of state forestry policies. Locating the origins of forestry mattered to them because by finding the root cause" in this case British capitalism and colonial domination" one could then undo some of the damage to society and nature caused by exploitive forestry laws and science. A variety of scholars have continued this interpretation. Most recently, Ravi Rajan argues that there was 'nothing unique' about the development of Indian forestry" the Indian Forest Service directly imported 'coercive' models of German and French forestry laws, science and management practices into India that disposed people of lands. A counter argument to these perspectives comes from the works of Richard Grove, Gregory Barton and others who argue that, on the contrary, the science and practice of state forestry arose in an imperial, Indian context when Europeans witnessed ecological destruction and created laws, scientific technique and management programs in India to stop the degradation caused by exploitive forms of colonialism and capitalism. A variety of competing interpretations exist on the origins and meanings of forestry in India.