Rajatar: Chintaguda, Becoming Socio-Ecological Processes in a Village in Northern Andhra Pradesh
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Rajatar: Chintaguda, Becoming Socio-ecological Processes in a Village in Northern Andhra Pradesh by Lakshman Kalasapudi A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies of The University of Manitoba in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts Department of Anthropology University of Manitoba Winnipeg, Canada Copyright © 2015 by Lakshman Kalasapudi Abstract Starting from the overall Revitalizing Small Millets in South Asia (RESMISA) project objective and question, how to increase millet production and consumption, I will use the same to enter Chintaguda and understand how that can be accomplished in the village. As millets do not occupy a significant aspect of the lives of people in Chintaguda, I essentially sought to understand the general decision-making logics that operate therein. This objective will help me understand which factors and their interactions influence activities around socio-ecological engagements. I aim to devise a framework to comprehend these logics and the complexities found in Chintaguda by using social theories. These will help me stitch together a narrative for Chintaguda that will contextualize the people’s relationship to millets. This study will show the various ways people can and do relate to millets. Recognition & Remembering At every single stage of this learning process, I have received some form of support from my friends and elders who are strewn across many physical and discursive positions around the world. Because our writing is a formation of ecological interactions (Pandian 2015), each interaction especially on the human level becomes extremely significant. My friends have helped me be grounded, sane, and got me through the worst parts of this process. Suri who was my first friend in Chintaguda and helped me find a good place to go to the toilet. Joga who took me seriously and taught me Savara. Sesi who not only washed my clothes and cleaned the house but also offered witty quips. Jammayya who lead me through the thickets of the forests and shouldered some of heavier items I could not. Lakshmi who cooked many meals for me and always laughed at whatever I said. Narayana who told me secrets, joked around with me and took me to Allthi. Minnarao for letting me stay in his house and giving me rides when I needed them. Mat who kept me sane in Winnipeg during the months leading up to the research phase. Heba who took real care of me by feeding me and encouraging me to complete my thesis more than any person in my life. Katharina who kept me intellectually and philosophically stimulated with laughter in moments of stagnation. Friends in Chintaguda number more than I can qualify but they are in no particular order: Suhasini, Lakshman, Murali, Sundari, Ammadamma, Kasamma, Kamala, Revathi, Ramesh, Sambamurthy Anna, Usha, Sumburu, Chalapathi, Saraswati, Balu, Chinna Suri, Jayanthi Akka, Varalakshmi, and many more. Friends from New York – Manav, Chaitanya, Amarnath, Ava, Nasim, Alaine, Xander – have continually encouraged me to finish my thesis, which has greatly strengthened my resolve. I am equally indebted to my elders whose guidance, encouragement, and words in general have shaped my trajectory. This project started out under the supervision of Derek Johnson, who has given me unlimited freedom in pursuing whichever direction of inquiry I please. Professor Johnson has given me thoughtful and measured commentary such that I can clarify my research objectives and argument. I am also grateful for the stipend he provided me through the International Development & Research Centre’s Revitalizing Small Millets in South Asia project, which supported this research financially. The path to Chintaguda was initially facilitated by Sanyasi Rao of WASSAN. Bhudevi Akka and Kailash Anna introduced me to Chintaguda and took care of me like one of their own while I was doing my research. In Chintaguda, Gopalanna helped me in all and any aspects of daily living as well as giving me broad overviews of life in Chintaguda. Bapanna, Chinnammi and Subhadramma Yuyung fed me too many times to count and always looked out for my wellbeing, making sure I was eating enough. Jaggarao Anna and Sumbaramma Yayang were especially receptive to me and took me around the hills and showed me innovative and novel things. Binjayya Anna came to my porch to tell me stories many a night, which helped me understand the village better. Udumuluraju Anna and Bhudevi Atta were the first people to invite me over for dinner and always wanted to sit on a mat and talk as the darkness fell. Kovvari Anna and Bugalamma Atta took a lot of time to talk to me and made sure I would stay in touch after I left. Lastly, Varalahamma Yuyung and late Rajulu Thatha who treated me like their own son. And there are many more: Bhudamma, Pedda Appalswamy, Jammamma, Dudhamma, Jan Appalswamy, Chilakamma, Lakshmi Yayang, Tavitamma, Bogesh Anna, Harischandrudu Anna, Bhudamma, Neelakantu Thatha, Anjali Thatha, Sanai Anna, Sitamma, Jammamma Yuyung, Adamma Yuyung, Balraj Anna, Tavitamma, Jayalakshmi Yayang, Meena Akka, Lakshman, and many more. My sister and brother-in-law, Bharati and Ajar Kochar have asked me critical and insightful questions that prodded me in directions I would not have previously considered. Many, many family members in India and the USA have helped me throughout this entire process. Just to name and recognize a select few: the Pemmaraju joint family and Eswari Penta & Giri Jagarapu. Taking a note from my maternal grandfather’s acknowledgements in his book, Gandheya Charitam, I want to first list and remember (to the extent possible) my ancestors: my father’s maternal grandparents, Ayyagari Narayanamurthy and Venkataratnam, my mother’s maternal grandparents, Allu Appalaswamy and Ammanamma, my father’s paternal grandparents, Kalasapudi Subbarao and Sarada, my mother’s paternal grandparents, Vangapandu Appalanaidu and Kurmamma, my paternal grandfather, Kalasapudi Rajanna, and my maternal grandparents, Vangapandu Lakshmi Naidu or Thathayya and Arundhati Devi or Ammamma. I need recognize my paternal grandmother or Bamma, Kalasapudi Mahalakshmi, who has raised me since I was little and taught me the Telugu and culture without which I would not have been able to conduct this research. Finally, I wish I recognize my parents, Kalasapudi Srinivasa Rao and Vasundhara Devi not only for their support but for their “dynamic coupling”, very much a “repetition with difference” (Ingold 2011: 60), resulting in life for me and my ideas. In addition to lifelong the values, skills, and philosophies they have instilled in me, our conversations about rural India, development, food, caste, agriculture, and more have helped me tremendously in this project. Dedication To everyone in “Chintaguda”* who supported my endeavors *Chintaguda and all names used in this document are pseudonyms to protect the identities of those people I have researched with. Table of Contents 1 1 Introduction 3 Chintaguda 5 IDRC Project 7 Milieu 9 Objective & Argument 12 Proceeding Pages 2 14 Approach 14 Millets: the Science & the Social 21 Development Programs 26 The Setting 31 Being “With People” 37 The Secret of Strength 39 Attempts to Abide 3 49 Engagements of Everyday Life 49 Mediated Meshwork as Medium 51 Reworking Pani 56 Animals, Cooking & Tools 63 Aesthetics, Emotions & Bodies 67 Caste: Fields of “Enabling Constraints” 84 Into the Fields 89 Weaving Threads, Developing Texture 4 93 Dialectical Infusions 93 From Post-structuralism to Dialectics 96 Becoming an Instituted Activity 99 A Brief Review of Smallholder Agriculture 103 Cash Crops of Forest & Field 109 Entangled in Loans 113 ‘Rithmetic, Roofs, Road & Reservoir 116 Social Capital & Cultural Reproduction 123 Gendered Activities through Capital 129 Capital in Motion 5 132 Why We Need “And” 132 Development as Machine 135 Recalibrations in Capital Circulations 141 Violations 147 Productions & Logics 6 150 Dark Nooks & Distant Memories 150 Finding Millets 151 A Straightforward Narrative 155 A Matter of Taste 160 Intervention & Incorporation 167 Cultural Logics 169 Millets in the Meshwork 7 172 Chintaguda Saagu 172 Place 174 Theory 178 Learnings 181 Abiding 185 Glossary 186 References 194 Appendices List of Tables & Figures Tables 15 Table 1: Nutrient Composition of Select Grains 15 Table 2: Mineral & Vitamin Composition of Select Grains Figures 2 Figure 1: Rajatar tree 26 Figure 2: Location of Srikakulam 64 Figure 3: Leaf aesthetic 121 Figure 4: Imagine the water 145 Figure 5: Exchange value & use value 155 Figure 6: Dust & cobwebs 162 Figure 7: Field of finger millet Chapter 1 Introduction Whenever I used to check my email in Chintaguda, I would go to the daakojagbar1 and sit in the company of the rajatar trees and its flower petals. The rajatar is a beautiful, bare tree that produces small white or red flowers. In petals of five that come out from each other, the flowers are delicately attached to the tree. Somehow, it always seemed to me that there were more flowers on the ground around the tree than the tree itself. The trees are bare, angular, and generally smaller than other trees. With a lack of large leaves and a minimal branch structure, the rajatar flowers are always in prominent display from the tree. On closer inspection, the flowers have a pleasant and subtle smell. Like Rajamma, who you will meet later, I have decided to place the tree in my title just like that. Becoming as a term, particularly as a way of thinking was much like the rajatar to me in Chintaguda. I found it littered across the literature and streams of thought that created a meshwork in my mind. While I stayed in Chintaguda, there was a daakojagbar in my mind: a place where authors like Butler and Ingold and Gidwani and Ramamurthy and Shah and Kohn would sit amongst the wrinkles of my brain and discuss. Inevitably, these discussions were about their theories, their ideas, their commentaries on the human condition.2 Becoming helped me understand some of the nuances of change.