Sliding down hills: some reflections on the thirty years of change in a Himalayan village
Background:
Alan Macfarlane, a famous
anthropologist, first observed one of the gurung villages near Pokhara named
‘Thak’ in 1968 and later in 1986 with more frequent visits in subsequent years.
His book ‘Resources and Population: A study of the Gurungs of Central Nepal’
was published in 1976 as a part of his PhD thesis based on his most intensive
longitudinal study for a year in a small village. Later on, he wrote the
article ‘Sliding down hills…..’ in European Bulletin for Himalayan
Research in 2002 after his striking observations of the changes in the same
village. This review is made to critically analyze Macfarlane’s impressions or
study results along with some responses made by some outstanding scholars on
the same article.
Author’s observation in 1968-69:
While stayed for more than one
year in a single village, the author identified that the village was culturally
rich with strong cultural traditions, rituals, singing and dancing programs
including rodi. People were working commonly in many occasions including
ghola and nogora groupings, for memorial service for the dead,
and so on. People used to have a reasonable or we can say the balanced diet
which includes the food items such as meat, milk, rice, maize, etc. As the
retired personnel used to come back to the village to spend their retired life,
lots of money was coming into the village.
The road condition was bad and
rough; people had to walk to go Pokhara. There was no school in the village
except the night school, no shops and government office, no health post, no
radios and TV for communication and had a bad water supply. This shows how
pathetic was the condition in the village.
However, the author claims, in
nutshell, that the village was rich in ethnic culture having adequate food
supply. He found the villagers self-confident in the village as nobody wanted
to migrate to Pokhara at that time though the physical infrastructures were
poor.
Despite this fact, the author had
predicted in his book ‘Resources and Population’ that population growth
would be higher, and famine and disease prevalence would be common for the
village in future. He was pessimistic and had predicted mass hardship and
little development of any kind, but the situation was more complex as many
successful gurungs were in the town.
Author’s observation of changes in the village after thirty years
When Macfarlane visited the Thak
village several times starting from 1986 to 2001, he was regularly following up
his earlier work including more detailed photography and video filming. He
observed rapid and drastic changes in the village in social, cultural, economic
and ecological aspects. One of the amazing observations was that his prediction
of famine and disease prevalence in the village in distant future was not
fulfilled. The population was almost doubled but nearly half of it migrated to
Pokhara and other areas. With the outmigration of many youths to new countries
from East Asia to Gulf, combined with the internal outmigration, Thak became a
virtual village having its members to all over the world. This had instrumental
role in diminishing social and cultural life in Thak village with less frequent
rituals and singing/dancing programs. As people increasingly inclined to stay
in Pokhara and other locations, the wealth did not come into the village. There
were no other ways of wealth except abroad job.
He had also hypothesized (but did
not match) that the village population would increase so intensely that the
ecological balance would be diminished by massive use of forest resources.
While the land productivity was decreased with lesser availability of manures
and fertilizers driven by the lesser livestock in the village, forest area had
increased surprisingly beyond his prediction. Unlike his prediction, the forest
related catastrophe did not happen. Decrease in land productivity is attributed
to leaching effect on monsoon rains and less manure available (already stated),
while cheap grains from terai and India largely discouraging the local farmers
to grow crops.
Macfarlane observed improvement
in amenities in some ways as the junior school was established, water tank
ensured constant water supply, road to the village improved, health post and
school improved. But, the basic agricultural and craft techniques as described
in previous book were still being used.
People were poorer than before
which was evident in material culture and demonstrated by changes in diet as
carbohydrates dominated. The villagers depended more on grain-based foods and
less on meat and milk perhaps because of ruining livestock farming. The author
mentions, since mid-1990s, villagers were abnormally thin with no reserve fat
meaning that malnutrition prevailed though did not reach up to famine level.
The land value was falling in the village and decline in returns on labor
resulted in decrease in income. The author compares the value of the labors
during 1968 and that of after 30 years to give evidence of the decrease in
labor value.
The author mentions the growing
number of gurung households in Pokhara and the associated changes in cultural
trends as that was shifted from village to town. Important to note here, the
author highlights the degeneration of many cultural traditions within few years
which was maintained by the community for several thousand years in the village
but the same was replicated among town dwellers.
With the observation of the village in thirty years, having traces of optimism, Macfarlane tends to be pessimistic again as was in 1969 for the situation in the village but for the different reasons.
Brief look into the reviews of other scholars:
Locating Resources and
Population: Ben Campbell
Ben Campbell found the book Resources
and Population awe-inspiring and its conclusion deeply disturbing though
the book had a good impact on policy makers and scholars, the narrative of the
book helped to generate foreign aid in family planning and environment
conservation sectors. As he mentions, ecological consequences of population
growth in Thak village was interpreted by Macfarlane which spoke of no forest
by the year 2000 being silent in number of issues. Campbell criticizes
Macfarlane’s attempts to picturize the whole Nepal through a single village story.
Macfarlane points out that the development activities in hills remain
under-invested and was peripheralized in relation to growth in urban areas.
Campbell questions on the validity and efficacy of rural development approaches
including the impact of extension services of Lumle research centers as the
village growth was stalled. He also presumes the positive impact of
agricultural extension services and organizations such as ACAP and community
forestry programs could be the reason for forest addition in the village.
Campbell criticizes Macfarlane for being locally focused and undermining the
regional narrative of human ecological destiny taking the village as an
example.
Referring to
the book Resources and Population, Ben Campbell criticizes Macfarlane for
not considering the importance of human cognition and its adaptive management
with the changes in surroundings and changes in practices of resource use to
avoid disasters. Likewise, Macfarlane’s first book highlighted the rural
population growth as a major consequence while the revised village story shows
urban growth as a new externality. Campbell criticizes both the narratives as
they overshadow the presence of the people who simply follow the trend the
larger group adopt.
Campbell sees
the fate of rural communities still precarious, but the political and
institutional contexts changed dramatically. The review suggest that empirical
studies need to be set in terms of the multi-sited realities of the people’s
communities to know the changed contexts. Ben Campbell further emphasizes that
more bureaucratized forms of committee memberships, territorialized identities
and static user groups formed by many development and conservation agencies are
much different when compared with the community described by Macfarlane.
However, he thinks the story of Thak village indeed provide ideas on
interventions in Nepal’s rural communities.
Micro versus Macro studies: Kul B. Luitel
Kul describes the article not
pleasant for reading as the scenario moved from bad to worse as explained in
the article. The critic, being an economist, blames lack of genuine development
efforts as the cause of underdevelopment in third world instead of giving
credit to ‘Malthusian Checks’. So, he took the predictive failure of the author
as a normal case. He believes this piece of article provided striking message
to planners, policy makers and politicians that they are failed measurably
though they were having attractive slogans of Back to Village Initiative. He is
convinced that the paper truly describes the plight of Nepalese poor village
inhabitants. However, Kul criticizes the paper for its relatively lower scope
as the story tells only about a single village as a micro-entity. The critic
suggests macro-level study is required to identify appropriate provisions to
improve downward trend.
Sliding, shifting and re-drawing boundaries: Ernestine McHugh
Ernestine identifies Macfarlane’s
article rightly mentioned the problems of rural villages in Nepal, quoting
example from one gurung village Tebas where he stayed earlier. He finds
greater hope and optimism in Pokhara and a kind of multi-dimensional solidarity
there, which is similar with the scenarios described by Alan Macfarlane. He further provides example of Torr
village as the village was operating as a hub of international tourism meaning
that the prospects of the village seem to be good. He basically highlights the
importance of connectivity of local communities with outside world keeping
local solidarity and dignity intact.
The contradictions of rural transformation in Nepal: David Seddon
With relatively well-described
data, David Seddon points out the possibility that the transformation in nearby
villages could be affected from the rapidly growing urban culture. However,
situation in Thak was entirely different. He thinks the story of Thak village
does not have wider domain and what the author wants to prove from this village
story is unclear or can not be generalized. Mentioning the changes happening
recently in Nepal, David prescribes that Thak’s apparent decline should be
looked as the social and economic transformation experienced by the people of
Thak in a wider perspective of rural transformation and regional development.
Progressive sub-ordination of the
small local communities whether in developed or developing countries and
progressive decline of the hill village whether in Alps or in Himalayas – both
have a great deal to do with the flow and movement of people as well as capital
and commodities. David looked this scenario as a standard feature in developing
rural areas (also discussed by Lenin in Russia). But, Macfarlane writes ‘was
not possible to predict in 1969’.
In areas near to Pokhara, hill
villages involved in a process which combined integration (incorporation) with
peripheralization meaning that villagers began to invest in the town first and
move to the town. David doubts about the accuracy of Macfarlane’s observations
as he mentioned that the most intensive longitudinal study of a single
Himalayan community ever made. David claims that Macfarlane reported some
comparative signs without having proper data or any baseline information. He
also criticizes Macfarlane for not considering dalit communities in his
study. David hopes to have a detailed ethnographic study in near future to draw
some concrete conclusions.
An overall analysis:
Alan Macfarlane presents the
comprehensive story of a gurung village through detailed longitudinal study. As
described by other scholars, Macfarlane’s story provides a good source of
information and key messages to the policy makers. However, some questions
arise in terms of its wider applicability. Does this story is similar in every
rural villages, or in every gurung villages, or in any village near to a big
growing city like Pokhara? My answer would be ‘No’.
Firstly, several villages like
Thak exist in Nepal having similar kind of situations. However, apparent
changes are seen because of differential development initiatives in those
places. For instance, a village near to a newly built highway could be
potentially benefitted by the road network and will have tendency to grow
rapidly. While, a village far from the main highways could take more time to
grow or diminishes in long run. It would have been great if the Thak village
was compared with other few villages having similar and different situations.
Thirty years itself is a long time and the result of the comparative analysis
would have valuable implications.
Secondly, the progress of such
villages in Nepal is largely dependent on the initiatives of political leaders.
Of course, the majority youths are in abroad job which indicates that the
country has been benefitted by the remittances. This provides the opportunity
to enhance development processes in the villages like Thak with better
availability of money. However, the budget allocation to the locations is
highly dependent on political lobbying at national and regional level. Did the
village have such local leaders who could take part in such lobbying and bring
budgets to the village? This is an important point Macfarlane missed in his
study to analyze the political inclinations of development efforts at that
time.
As mentioned by David Seddon,
there is chances that the migrant youths who took loan to go to foreign land
for job would payback the money at their village. This would eventually bring a
good pace in the economic activities. Like Ernestine described the village having
high prospect due to tourism industry, it could be a similar kind of key idea
that could radically change the Thak village. Again, the result could be
interesting and surprising to the author like Macfarlane beyond their
predication who comes to visit the places in many years.
Macfarlane is still pessimistic
on the fortune of the Thak village. However, the conclusion could go futile
because of recent transformations. Government is prioritizing village
development, local businesses are rejuvenating, commercial farming is boosting,
and peri-urban vegetable farming is also growing in many places due to
concerted efforts from development partners. Aid agencies are prioritizing
marginal rural villages in their support programs. Of course, the people are
inclined towards the big cities but again they will face multiple problems in
the cities as they cannot adapt to the urban culture. This can again bring back
the people into their ancestral village or the birthplace. Further, the author
mentioned that Thak support committees are being established in the cities
which means that the people migrated from Thak village have strong inclination
towards their original home. These situations can bring a positive change in
near future. Then, why the author needs to be pessimistic?
Again, the question is – does the Thak village story resemble with the stories of other villages. I would say ‘No’. But, unless we have precise data, we cannot compare it with other rural communities. Nepal’s villages are distinct and so do the potential of accelerated development. It can be concluded that the story of Thak village provides an opportunity to know the actual condition of the villages alike but its generalization for regional and national recommendation may not be worthwhile without having further detailed study. The detail description of the village by the author is awesome, however, it seems limitations are with what the conclusions he has drawn.
**********
Comments
Post a Comment