A new book examines the gap between nature in the laboratory and diverse landscapes

My curiosity to know the horizons of modern social life led to the Koitor forest dwellers in Bastar, to the Kuttia Khonds in Phulbani, and to the Kharias in Mayurbhanj, Odisha. I observed the inappropriateness of the theory and practice of the “informant”, time-bound interviews, structured questionnaires, thematic-focused group discussions, and other similar tools of data collection. These were “intrusions” into the social life of people by the anthropologists who are positioned as privileged observers.

From the very beginning of discussions on the environment and ecological crisis, the term “nature” has been used to refer to atoms, molecules, physical laws on the one hand; as well to living beings such as dogs, tigers, birds, elephants, and natural landscapes, on the other.

While in the US, New Zealand, and South America the distinction between the indigenous people and the alien outsiders has been easy to make, in India it has not been so easy. There have been several waves of culturally diverse people coming from different parts of the world, intermingling over several generations and belonging equally to the place. For this reason, the parameter of the historically and chronologically “first” or culturally “original” does not hold for India.

However, there are similarities in the way colonisers...

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