Translating History and Making the Ladakhi Commons

One’s waste, another’s right: translating history and making the Ladakhi commons by Arjun Sharma and Kunal Bharat Introduction It was a crisp, typically breathless March morning, at 3600 meters above sea level, in the Indian Himalayan region of Ladakh. While trying to keep his fingers from going numb, one of the authors was busy deciphering fraying cadastral maps, drawn over a century ago, during the British colonisation of India. In many ways, the state of the maps reflects the state of their home: the office of the superintendent of the Leh archives. Like the maps, the archive itself seems to be coming apart at its concrete seams. Despite its shambolic state, the archive is a busy place. People shuttle in and out of its doors throughout the day. Some come to consult the revenue records from the early twentieth century, to prove that their ancestors resided and held land in these villages; this is required for everything from getting an identification card, to availing government subsidies and services. Others pore over the maps to check the location of fields and streams, to support the purchase and sale of lands, or to settle disputes. On this day though, there walked in someone you usually do not encounter here: a Buddhist monk. As luck would have it, he was a senior monk of the Phyang village monastery - our research site. After a short, animated conversation in Ladakhi, the archivist retrieved a threadbare file from the steel cabinet and laid it on the table. He selected the relevant page and started translating the contents from Urdu to Ladakhi. The monk looked pleased. Not being able to contain his curiosity, the author inquired about the matter. The monk explained that the previous day there had been a demonstration by the villagers of Phey, which lies downstream from Phyang. The villagers were protesting the drawing of water from the glacier fed stream used to irrigate both villages’ fields, for a highly publicised project by a local NGO. The NGO, with encouragement from the Phyang monastery, has used this water to create two artificial glaciers, currently located in a barren area in the Phyang village on the monastery’s land. The water from these “glaciers” is being used to irrigate a small tree plantation. By consulting the century 1. old Riwaz - I - Abpashi, which documents the customary water sharing arrangements of each village in Ladakh, the monk is trying to establish that the monastery is only using water which is within its rights. Furthermore, he is trying to claim that the monastery is drawing only “waste” water that is not used for irrigation. History is an increasingly important device for scholars of the commons1. Depending on their methodological persuasion, scholars may use historical materials to reconstruct trajectories of institutions, to explain why common property regimes persevere or fail, or to foreground the present conflicts over rights and access to commons2. In both approaches, two actors are usually silent. First, historical material: records, maps, accounts, and other artefacts, remain passive. Their agency is limited only to their role as a proverbial tablet of clay on which historical facts, events, and ideas stamp an impression. This impression is then lifted and recast in the present by the researcher. Second, while the researcher discovers, classifies and analyses historical material, the human actors central to the governance of commons are not accorded the benefit of the same ability, or agency. By using concepts from Latour’s (2005) Actor Network Theory (ANT), the objective of this paper is to examine the associations between assemblages of human, and non-human actors, such as the monk, archive, historical records, NGO, villagers, and of course, the resources themselves. We demonstrate how such assemblages translate3 the concept of “waste” to justify rights and access over commons in the Phyang village, and how this translation is part of an on-going process that unfolds across space and time, from the colonial era beginning in Ladakh in 1843, to the present. 1 The interest in historical methods for researching the commons is evidenced by the recent special edition in the International Journal of the Commons on this subject (Peman and Te Moor 2016) 2 A comparison and critique of competing methodological approaches to history in the commons can be found in Johnson (2004), Hall et al (2014) and Mosse (1997) 3 We use the concept of translation in its political, geometric and semiotic senses (Arild and Nielsen 2016). The political meaning refers to the act of translation involved in strategically interpreting meanings to persuade others, or to legitimize an individual’s or group’s position. The geometric meaning refers to the movement of meaning and actors across time and space. In this study, these actors include historical materials such as revenue records, official reports and cadastral maps. Finally, the semiotic meaning relates to how certain concepts morph as they travel across different assemblages and times, as explored in our analysis of how the concept of “waste” is translated at different times. 2. To understand the translation of colonial ideology into policies governing property rights and land use, prior to 1908, we have relied on revenue records and cadastral maps available at the Leh archive, in addition to reports, official correspondence, first-hand accounts, and secondary research. We also use Geographic Information Systems (GIS) software: ArcGIS, to compare information collected from satellite imagery, and field surveys, to examine the impact of colonial classification on current land use practices in the Phyang village. To document the on- going negotiations over access to land and water resources, we rely on unstructured interviews, surveys, first hand observation, and analysis of print, and internet media. We will begin by describing the ecological characteristics of the Phyang village, and the governance of its common property resources. Following this, we will discuss the colonial era debates between the Benthamite Utilitarians, and legal scholars from the comparative historical school, examining how historical contingencies drove the translation of these debates, into land settlement policies. Once this context is established, we will describe the further translation of policies developed in Punjab, to Jammu and Kashmir, and subsequently, their application to the village of Phyang. Specifically, we will discuss how the concept of “waste” was translated in the documentation of property rights, and customs governing the management of common grazing ground, and irrigation systems in Ladakh. After describing these two cycles of translation, we will bring the analysis forward to the present era and discuss two cases of conflict: one pertaining to the allocation of uncultivated land amongst the Muslim community in Phyang, and another discussing the appropriation of water by the monastery for the construction of artificial glaciers. Again, both these cases will emphasise how colonial conceptions of waste are being translated in the present negotiations over the commons. Phyang : ecology and resource management practices The village of Phyang is located sixteen kilometres from Leh, one of the two administrative capitals of Ladakh, and the most important commercial centre of the region. Phyang has a population of approximately 2213 people living in 350 households4, making it one of the most 4 Total population figures were obtained from the medical centre in Phyang. The number of households is based on our own survey conducted in 2016. In 2017 we conducted a more detailed survey, therefore it is possible that this figure might vary 3. densely populated villages in the Leh district. Roughly 30% of the population is Muslim, while the majority identify themselves as Buddhist. Figure 1: Location of Phyang valley in Jammu and Kashmir Figure 2: Aerial photograph of Phyang valley and the disputed Thang area. 4. Figure 3: Watershed map of the Phyang valley The ecological characteristics of Phyang are typical of many villages in Ladakh, especially those abutting the Leh valley. The village is arrayed along the eastern and western banks of a stream that emanates from five glaciers located on top of the Ladakh range. The watershed formed by this stream extends till the Indus river to the south, where the village of Phey is located (see figure 3). The southernmost border of Phyang is marked by a national highway and an ancient trading route. This highway connects the capital of Srinagar located in the state of Kashmir, to 5. the two commercial centres of Ladakh: Leh and Kargil. From the highway, the village extends 11 kilometres to its northernmost point at the base of the Lasser mo pass, which connects the Leh to the Nubra valley in the north. The altitude difference between the northern and southern boundaries of the village ranges between 3500 to 4900 meters. This difference in altitude divides the village into distinct agro-ecological zones. Phyang has only one agricultural season, which runs from around the beginning of May, to the end of August. Primary crops include Barley, Wheat, Mustard, Alfalfa (for fodder), Potatoes, Peas and Buckwheat. These are grown on prepared terraces typical in mountain agriculture. Additionally, most households have green houses and kitchen gardens where they grow a variety of vegetables. Land is increasingly being used to grow Poplar and Willow trees, which provide timber for fuel and construction. Timber also fetches high prices in the market and is becoming a popular cash crop in Ladakh. Being a high-altitude, cold desert region, agriculture in Phyang is completely dependent on irrigation from the glacier fed stream that bisects the village. There are a total of 18 yuras (main feeder channels), connected to an intricate network of sub channels that irrigate Phyang’s fields (see figure 4). Figure 4 shows two additional channels (19 & 20), which irrigate fields of the downstream village of Phey.

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