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indigenous land use
patterns foods: 1) rice 2) milk products export crops: 1) tea 2) rubber 3) pepper
legacy of colonialism:
left- and right-hand driving! | ||
| India has a very large percentage of its population living in poverty and yet it is also highly interconnected to the world economy! A country in which 700 million people live in rural areas. In which 80 percent of the landholdings are small farms. In which 300 million people are illiterate. A 100 years after Gandhi broke taboos by cleaning his own latrines, the Bhangis caste remain the lowest in a system of graded inequality, untouchables even among untouchables! The Bhangis are condemned by hereditary caste roles to their lowly occupation: cleaning the municipal latrines of the larger cities in India, in some cases removing the shit with their bare hands. They endure serious healthy problems -- death by drowning must number among the most horrific -- as well as abuse, dire poverty, and social exclusion. [Source: New Internationalist, November 2000] Also read about the resource struggle of the Kols in Badama, India, against the Indian forestry department. | ||||
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Optional: 1) Take a trip to India, Nepal, and Southeast Asia. 2) Listen to a report on Pakistan's M2 highway, a six-lane highway running from Lahore to Islamabad. 3) View the video, Passage to India -- which deals with British colonial rule in India; the relationship of British administrators and Indian elites (Muslim and Hindu); a British women's "adventure" into a "exotic" culture with all its dangerous consequences for those who dare to venture beyond their respective cultural boundaries.. 4) Parts of South Asia still have various forms of slavery. Learn about contemporary forms of slavery. 5) Read Mari Marcel Thekaekara, Endless Filth: The Saga of the Bhangis. Books for Change, 2000. 6) What is a grasshopper: pest, pet, or appetizers? All three, depending on the culture! | ||||
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Pepper and the Spice Trade Vasco Da Gama came to India in search of pepper and other spices 500 years ago. The Arabs and the East India Company traded it later. Black pepper, one of India's prized spices, flourishes in the tropical climes of the southern state of Kerala. India produces one-third of the world trade in pepper. Over 125,000 tones are produced each year in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Brazil, and Vietnam. Spices are warehoused for up to eight years before reaching grocery shelves! | ||||
