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ENERGY AND
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CENTER ON GLOBAL ENERGY POLICY SERIES

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Jason Bordoff, series editor
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JOHANNES URPELAINEN
ENERGY AND
ENVIRONMENT
IN INDIA
The Politics of a Chronic Crisis
Columbia University Press / New York

Columbia University Press
Publishers Since 1893
New York Chichester, West Sussex
cup . columbia . edu
Copyright © 2023 Columbia University Press
All rights reserved
Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Urpelainen, Johannes, author.
Title: Energy and environment in India : the politics of a chronic crisis /
Johannes Urpelainen.
Description: New York : Columbia University Press, [2023] |
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2022040008 (print) | LCCN 2022040009 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780231194808 (hardback) | ISBN 9780231194815 (trade paperback) |
ISBN 9780231551021 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Environmental policy— India. | Energy policy— India. |
India— Environmental conditions.
Classification: LCC HC440.E5 U77 2023 (print) | LCC HC440.E5 (ebook) |
DDC 338.954—dc23/eng/20230118
LC record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2022040008
LC ebook record available at https:// lccn . loc . gov / 2022040009
Printed in the United States of America
Cover design: Noah Arlow
Cover image: Getty Images

Introduction 1
1 Foundations and History 15
2 Economic Growth and Environmental Degradation 41
3 Governance and Policy 101
4 Flexing Muscle in Global Environmental Politics 149
5 The Future of Energy and Environment in India 171
Notes 185
Bibliography 197
Index 209
CONTENTS

ENERGY AND
ENVIRONMENT IN INDIA

INTRODUCTION
I
n the twenty- first century India will play a pivotal role in global energy
markets and in protecting or destroying the global environment. India
has significant, if perhaps uncertain, potential for economic growth in
the medium run, and its huge population continues to grow. As a result,
India drives some of the most important trends in the global energy econ-
omy. As the country grows larger and wealthier, Indians buy more televi-
sions, computers, cars, air conditioners, and flights. These consumer choices
shape demand for coal, oil, and natural gas— all fossil fuels that cause cli-
mate change— and natural resources.
But India’s story is not just one of rapid growth. It is also one of persis-
tent poverty, inequality, and environmental degradation. In 2019, when
Americans already worried about robots and artificial intelligence replac-
ing human workers, large swaths of India struggled with intermittent power.
In some of the poorer states, such as Uttar Pradesh (population 200 mil-
lion) and Bihar (population 100 million), villagers with electricity at home
faced five to ten hours of power outages on a daily basis.
1
At the same time, India’s air pollution problems have already grown
worse than those in China. When President Obama visited New Delhi in

INTRODUCTION
2
January 2015, the media wrote about his losing six hours of his expected
lifespan during the three- day visit.
2
The flashy headlines focused on a short
visit by the president of the United States, but Delhiites have to deal with
this problem every day. In fact, over a million premature deaths in India
can be attributed to air pollution every year.
3
This book tells the story of energy and environment in India. It not only
reviews the evolving state of the natural environment and the dynamic pat-
terns of energy and resource use but also offers a new perspective on the
massive challenges that India faces in the coming decades. These challenges
converge around securing a supply of abundant and affordable energy to fuel
economic growth without uncontrollable, irreversible environmental deg-
radation. The book focuses on energy as the lynchpin of India’s most severe
environmental crises: air pollution, groundwater depletion, and climate
change.
All three crises threaten India’s future. In each crisis, the production and
consumption of energy plays a central role in turning a once beautiful coun-
try into a parched and smoggy dystopia. Although the crises are only a few
decades old, they have rapidly become chronic in nature. They are widely
recognized by experts, and their crushing impact on Indians is clear. And
yet an unfortunate combination of public apathy and institutional dysfunc-
tion has made solutions elusive.
This book is intended for anyone interested in understanding India’s
energy and environment in the past, present, and future. It can be used as
(1) a reference book for relevant facts, (2) a textbook for supervised or inde-
pendent learning, and (3) a scholarly volume that aims to summarize, syn-
thesize, and interpret existing material for an academic audience. The book
covers both India’s domestic energy and environment and India’s role in
global energy and environmental politics. Indeed, while domestic concerns
tend to dominate over international diplomacy, the two are intertwined and
must be considered in tandem. For example, at a time of climate disrup-
tion caused by greenhouse gas emissions, India, alongside other major econ-
omies, faces growing pressure to reduce its reliance on fossil fuels. These
pressures give rise to domestic debate about India’s role in global climate
action and pathways to a more sustainable future.

INTRODUCTION
3
While my primary goal is to synthesize existing material, I also attempt
to explain India’s challenges in energy and environment. Once described
as a “flailing state,”
4
India faces a number of governance challenges that have
made existing energy and environmental policy rather ineffective in deal-
ing with the country’s worsening environmental problems. In particular,
the implementation of key laws, policies, and regulations across India’s
twenty- nine states remains plagued by administrative ineffectiveness. A mix
of resource scarcity, weak incentives, corruption, and political opportun-
ism has paralyzed the Indian frontline bureaucracy. From public transit
planning to renewable energy finance, institutional deficiencies prevent
India from realizing its full potential.
Because of these institutional failures, India has become a captive society
in which the wealthy and the privileged find their own solutions to deal
with energy shortages and the most salient consequences of environmental
degradation. Wealthy Indians look for their own solutions to secure a reli-
able supply of energy and mitigate the worst effects of air pollution, ground-
water scarcity, and extreme weather caused by climate change.
India’s huge fleet of diesel generators— from small domestic engines to
massive industrial power sources— not only reflects a failure of power sec-
tor governance but also contributes to it. When consumers can find a pri-
vate, if perhaps expensive, solution to a government failure, their interest
in systematic solutions through government policy is diminished. Pollut-
ing and expensive, diesel generators supply industry with power during out-
ages. Groundwater pumps, though necessary for irrigation, contribute to
alarming rates of groundwater depletion. Private electric pumps reach
deeper and deeper to extract scarce groundwater resources in cities with-
out municipal supply. Air purifiers and air conditioners protect the Indian
middle class— in plain English, the wealthy— from air pollution and heat
waves caused by climate change. These devices keep wealthy Indians’ homes
and offices free of the deadly smog and extreme heat that literally kill those
working outside.
India’s energy and environmental problems remain unaddressed partly
because the middle class, which has the wherewithal and knowledge to con-
tribute solutions, focuses on a relentless search for private solutions that

INTRODUCTION
4
exclude the poor and the marginalized. The prevalence of these private solu-
tions reduces political pressure to act, as powerful people leave the state’s
public service system behind. The poor and the marginalized continue to
suffer, but they also lack the political clout and mobilization capacity to
force the government’s hand. The pressures to reform Indian institutions
that govern energy and environment are still weak, as the most powerful
victims of environmental degradation have found private solutions that pro-
tect them from harm, while leaving the vast majority of the population
vulnerable.
The good news for India, and the world, is that much can be done to
solve these problems. Although India is among the most vulnerable and
ecologically fragile countries, it is important to remember that only a few
decades ago, industrialized countries grappled with equally serious energy
and environmental issues. From renewable energy to electric vehicles, new
technologies provide solutions to India’s problems. As India becomes
wealthier, more urban, and more educated, the opportunity for an environ-
mental awakening emerges. Government, private sector, and civil society
can and should take advantage of this opportunity to make India a sustain-
able society, ready to face the trials and tribulations of the twenty- first
century.
GLOBAL ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT:
THE SHIFTING CENTER OF GRAVITY
India’s ascent in global energy markets and as a player in global environ-
mental politics has been a long time coming. The two critical determinants
of economic clout, and therefore potential for environmental degradation,
are population and income per capita. While India’s population has grown
rapidly for a long time, rapid income growth is a more recent phenomenon.
India’s population reached half a billion— second only to China— as
early as in 1966.
5
At that time, India’s GDP per capita, measured in 2010
constant dollars, stood at US$320. Meanwhile, China’s had barely reached

INTRODUCTION
5
US$200. But as we move forward to the year 1990, China’s GDP per capita
had grown to US$730, while India languished at US$540. China almost
quadrupled its GDP per capita in twenty- four years, while India’s did not
even double.
India’s poverty can also be seen in a lackluster demand for modern energy.
In 1990 India’s per capita electricity consumption was 270 kilowatt- hours
(kWh), while China stood at 510 kWh. For comparison, in 1990 Japan was
at 6,850 kWh and the United States at 11,710 kWh. For every unit of elec-
tricity used by the average Indian, the ultra- efficient Japanese consumed
25. And as Todd Moss, at the time a senior fellow at the Center for Global
Development (Washington, D.C.), noted in 2013, his refrigerator consumes
459 kWh a year— over twice the Indian per capita electricity consumption
in 1990.
6
Based on these numbers, it is no surprise that although the country is
gargantuan in size, India’s entry into the global limelight is a very recent
phenomenon. Until the very end of the twentieth century, India was a minor
player in the energy- environment nexus by almost any indicator except pop-
ulation. In table 0.1, I show some statistics on the Indian economy as com-
pared to the world average in 1997, when the Kyoto Protocol on climate
change was negotiated. With the singular exception of having a large pop-
ulation, India shrank into insignificance in the world economy and energy
markets. India’s GDP per capita was less than one- tenth of the global aver-
age; both CO2 emissions and energy use per capita were less than
TABLE 0.1 Indian Economy in 1997
VARIABLE INDIA WORLD
GDP per capita, constant 2010 USD 671 7,695
GDP total, constant 2010 USD 669 billion 45,241 billion
CO2 emissions per capita, tons 0.98 4.08
CO2 emissions total, megatons 918 23,975
Population, billion people 1.00 5.88
Energy use per capita, kg of oil equivalent 399 1,624
Source: World Bank Development Indicators, https:// datasets . wri . org/.

INTRODUCTION
6
one- fourth of the average. As a result, India’s total CO2 emissions were less
than 4 percent of the global total— hardly a country of importance for global
climate diplomacy or energy markets. While India was the second most
populous country on the planet, its per capita emissions were so minuscule
that it did not yet register as a major emitter in global climate diplomacy.
During the Cold War, India distinguished itself as a staunch opponent of
colonialism and imperialism in global environmental politics. India’s dip-
lomatic stance reflected its closed economy and refusal to align with the
industrialized West. When Prime Minister Indira Gandhi addressed the
United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm,
Sweden, in 1972, she claimed the leadership of what was then known as the
Third World:
On the one hand the rich look askance at our continuing poverty— on
the other, they warn us against their own methods. We do not wish to
impoverish the environment any further and yet we cannot for a moment
forget the grim poverty of large numbers of people. Are not poverty and
need the greatest polluters? For instance, unless we are in a position to
provide employment and purchasing power for the daily necessities of
the tribal people and those who live in or around our jungles, we cannot
prevent them from combing the forest for food and livelihood; from
poaching and from despoiling the vegetation. When they themselves feel
deprived, how can we urge the preservation of animals? How can we
speak to those who live in villages and in slums about keeping the oceans,
the rivers and the air clean when their own lives are contaminated at the
source? The environment cannot be improved in conditions of poverty.
Nor can poverty be eradicated without the use of science and
technology.
7
Prime Minister Gandhi had her facts right: India’s environmental prob-
lems were caused by population growth and poverty, such as food security
and growing biomass consumption. No wonder, then, that India’s argu-
ments on the global diplomatic arena focused on demanding more action
from the industrialized countries and emphasizing how little India, and

INTRODUCTION
7
other less developed countries, had done to create the global environmen-
tal crisis. How could a country reduce its emissions when the vast majority
of its population lived in abject poverty? Before India, it was China’s turn
to establish itself as the central player in global energy and environment.
In 1978 Mao Zedong’s successor, Deng Xiaoping, launched an ambitious
reform program that was to bring communist China to the forefront of
global capitalism.
8
Over the next three decades, China’s economy grew by
about 10 percent annually, resulting in an aggregate effect of a tenfold
increase. By 2001 China’s carbon dioxide emissions per capita had increased
to 2.7 metric tons while India’s remained stagnant at about 1 metric ton. In
2001 India was still very poor and therefore only a marginal player. While
India’s economy was just beginning to grow, China was already at the cusp
of a phenomenal industrial expansion.
China will likely remain the largest consumer of energy and the largest
source of carbon dioxide emissions for decades to come, but its importance
is, perhaps paradoxically, already in decline. Although China’s carbon diox-
ide emissions have grown significantly over the past decades, the potential
for future growth is more modest. China’s total energy demand was 3,053
megatons of oil equivalent in 2016. By 2040 it is expected to increase by
950 megatons of oil equivalent (Mtoe).
9
In contrast, the IEA predicts that India will drive global energy demand
in the coming decades. Drawing on India Energy Outlook (2021), India’s pri-
mary energy demand is expected to grow by over almost 650 Mtoe by
2040.
10
This is both equivalent to one- fourth of expected growth in global
energy demand over the same time period and 70 percent of India’s entire
primary energy demand in 2019, which was 929 Mtoe. While India would
still remain a smaller consumer of energy than China, the difference would
shrink significantly, and India would emerge as the driver of global energy
demand.
The global pivot toward India is driven by an explosive combination of
(1) population growth, (2) economic performance, (3) abject poverty, and
(4) chronic institutional handicaps. In 1991 India, facing a balance of pay-
ments crisis, followed China’s lead and began an economic reform program.
From telecommunications to foreign direct investment, it embarked on a

INTRODUCTION
8
liberalization spree. Between 1990 and 2010 the Indian economy grew by
6.6 percent on an annual basis— a major departure from the earlier growth
of 3.5 percent between 1950 and 1980. Unfortunately, this economic boom
contributed to a host of energy and environmental problems that remain
unsolved to this date and are the subject of this book.
To understand India’s colossal size now and in the future, consider
table 0.2. Based on a future scenario study by the consulting firm Price-
waterhouseCoopers, India’s GDP per capita— measured in purchasing
power parity— would quadruple by the year 2050 while population would
grow by almost 30 percent. As a result, the Indian economy would be five
times as large as it is today. In a worst- case scenario, the environmental
destruction caused by such a massive economic expansion could be
enormous.
If anything, the great uncertainties surrounding India’s future amplify
its importance for the world. In an ideal scenario, India would continue
making rapid progress toward eradicating poverty, but in a sustainable man-
ner by taking advantage of clean technology. Alternatively, India could fail
to grow because of its mounting social problems. The COVID- 19 pandemic
that started in early 2020 caused massive damage to the Indian economy,
showing that India’s growth trajectory remains uncertain. Such a scenario,
of course, would be a human disaster for over a billion people. The third
possibility is that the Indian economy would grow, but the growth trajec-
tory would be unsustainable and the ensuing environmental destruction
would drive the country and the world into a crisis.
TABLE 0.2 India Now and in the Future
VARIABLE 2016 2050
GDP per capita, USD PPP 6,600 25,900
Population, million 1,326 1.705
GDP, USD PPP billion 8,700 44,100
Source: Projections based on PricewaterhouseCoopers,
https:// www . pwc . com / world2050.

INTRODUCTION
9
Be that as it may, India’s prospects and choices will be central to global
energy and environment.
GOVERNING ENERGY AND
ENVIRONMENT IN INDIA
The Hindi word jugaad can be roughly translated into English as “hack.”
India’s long history of resource scarcity has given rise to a special kind of
innovativeness that turns frugality into a virtue. In the field of energy, the
ubiquitous diesel generator is a great example of this approach. North India
was hit by the largest power outage in human history on July 30, 2012. And
yet the most important factories, offices, and malls continued to operate
with minimal inconvenience. At the time, about two- thirds of India’s com-
panies had a captive power source ready for use in an outage. In a country
that had launched satellites and had a nuclear arsenal, about 70 gigawatts
of captive generation capacity— roughly equivalent to seventy nuclear power
plants— substituted for unreliable grid electricity supply.
11
This capacity cost hundreds of billions of dollars, contributed to the
country’s trade deficit thanks to increased oil and diesel imports, and
polluted the air. It was a measure of last resort, where the Indian state failed
to provide a reliable supply of electricity from the national grid. And yet
the ubiquity of the diesel generator also shows that enterprising Indians can
find heterodox solutions to their power system problems against seemingly
long odds. Where the government failed to create a viable power sector,
Indian entrepreneurs stepped in and developed a supply chain that provided
over a billion people with a reliable source of power.
The central role of the diesel generator in the Indian economy highlights
the country’s challenges. On the one hand, rapid economic growth has cre-
ated unprecedented wealth and made India a dynamic marketplace of
goods, services, and ideas. India’s private sector has found innovative solu-
tions to problems such as resource scarcity and unreliable public services.
From information technology to telecommunications and medical services,

INTRODUCTION
10
the top end of the Indian economy has thrived in the postreform era. These
solutions have brought the private sector back to life after decades of neglect
under the stifling license raj, under which the Indian government withheld
permits to prevent entry into industry. Indeed, they have begun to relax the
resource scarcities that created the need for jugaad in the first place. On
the other hand, India’s insufficient capabilities for governance have given
rise to an environmental crisis of massive proportions. Basic public services,
such as electricity and water, are lacking. This makes both everyday life and
industrial activity difficult. Environmental regulations, though impressive
on paper, are rarely enforced and thus have little impact on pollution and
waste. Air in India’s cities is a toxic mix of pollutants from burned agricul-
tural residue, cooking with biomass, coal- fired power generation, industrial
emissions, diesel engines, and dust.
The diesel generator is but one example of the problem. Industries are
now investing in rooftop solar with limited regulatory oversight, contribut-
ing to a utility “death spiral” as the best consumers of struggling distribution
companies reduce their purchases from the electric grid.
12
Groundwater
pumps deplete a scarce resource at a furious pace as farmers, industry, com-
merce, and households drill deeper into the aquifers to meet their water
needs. Industrial and power plants violate emission regulations to main-
tain their competitive edge. In each case, India’s limited governance
capacity contributes to social problems, as private innovation generates envi-
ronmental degradation.
In India’s 600,000 villages, a billion people aspire for a middle- class life-
style. If that aspiration is met without improved governance capacity, the
number of winners in a captive society grows while the underlying social
and environmental problems continue to worsen.
To be fair, India has seen success in some important government pro-
grams. Specifically, the Indian government has been successful where gov-
ernment purchases have been enough. Take India’s LED lighting program,
UJALA, which was launched in 2014. Already by end of April 2018, the
program had resulted in the sale of a staggering 300 million LED lights,
saving 38,570 gigawatt- hours of electricity per year and avoiding 7.7 giga-
watts of peak demand.
13

INTRODUCTION
11
UJALA was essentially a bulk procurement scheme to bring down the
cost of LED lights. The government correctly recognized that it had the
wherewithal to massively reduce the cost of the lights and thus transform
the domestic lighting market in one bold move. India’s leaders leveraged
the vast domestic lighting market to reduce the cost of LED lights through
mass procurement. For a country with a large and growing domestic mar-
ket but only limited industrial prowess, such a strategy was appropriate.
Renewable energy installations tell a similar story. According to the
Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE), India had installed 46
gigawatts of solar power and 40 gigawatts of wind power by Septem-
ber 2021.
14
This is a massive increase from December 2014, when MNRE
estimated that wind power stood at 22 gigawatts and solar at only 3 giga-
watts.
15
Although COVID- 19 slowed down India’s progress temporarily,
renewables have made impressive progress, and their long- term trajectory
is promising thanks to low generation costs, improvements in battery stor-
age, and policies at the national and state levels.
Where public capital to subsidize production or procure goods is enough,
India’s massive government programs can make a real difference. The gov-
ernment has had little success, however, in regulating and changing the
behavior of firms, individuals, and communities. India’s national air qual-
ity standards are continuously violated across the country, and emission
norms for power plants and industry go unenforced. The government has
not, despite decades of efforts and a series of dangerous droughts across the
country, found a feasible way to regulate the use of groundwater in irriga-
tion. These regulatory failures stand in stark contrast to the government’s
success in procurement and auctions.
These diverging fortunes reflect India’s inconsistent performance. A
dynamic economy has created a host of environmental problems, but the
government’s response has been inadequate. India’s growing tax revenue has
enabled successful schemes that are based on public spending, but efforts
to regulate society for improved sustainability have largely failed.
The global implications of India’s challenges are nothing short of momen-
tous. On the one hand, India’s pivotal role as the world’s economic engine
and the driver of energy demand means that our ability to stop global

INTRODUCTION
12
environmental destruction depends to a significant extent on decisions and
behaviors in the country. If India’s middle class continues to expand with-
out new solutions to the country’s environmental crisis, the entire world will
suffer. On the other hand, India’s failure to develop would be equally trou-
bling. With a population in the billions, India’s failure to develop would
doom efforts to end global poverty.
OVERVIEW OF THE BOOK
This book has two goals. The first is to present an accurate and concise sum-
mary of energy and environment in India. In chapter 1 I present a broad
historical overview of the field. I go back to ancient times and run through
energy and environment from the Indus valley civilization and the Vedic
age to the colonial period and independent India before the economic
reforms in 1991. This historical overview is useful for understanding the basic
relationships among population, economic activity, energy, resources, and
the environment in India. I pay particular attention to the legacy of India’s
economic policies and the Green Revolution, which introduced high- yield
agricultural crops and thus saved India from famine in the 1960s. These
legacies, I venture, continue to play a major role in India’s energy and envi-
ronment landscape to this date.
Chapter 2, in turn, focuses on energy and environment in emerging
India. While economists continue debate exactly how important the reforms
of 1991 were for India’s economic boom,
16
it is obvious that India’s signifi-
cance for global environment and energy began to grow rapidly at the end
of the Cold War. India began to enjoy rapid rates of economic growth, while
the population explosion continued almost unabated. These changes
revealed that the Indian government and its states were wholly unprepared
to deal with the consequences, and India’s environmental degradation grew
into crisis proportions. While the country has in recent years found inno-
vative approaches to halting environmental degradation, the root causes of
the problem remain unaddressed, and the future uncertain.

INTRODUCTION
13
The second goal of this book is to understand India’s governance chal-
lenges in energy and environment. To achieve this goal, I present the core
of my argument in chapter 3. Drawing on Albert Hirschman’s ground-
breaking Exit, Voice and, Loyalty (1970) on how individuals respond to
problems in organizations and societies, I explain and document India’s
institutional failures and growing dependence on captive solutions to soci-
etal problems, as the wealthy look for private solutions to collective prob-
lems. In the meantime, public service delivery remains trapped in a low-
performance equilibrium.
Chapter 4 situates India in global environmental politics and energy mar-
kets, documenting its growing importance in environmental politics and
energy markets over time, and showing how fundamental the change in
India’s position has been. I then explain the implications of the country’s
changing role for governments, the private sector, and civil society in the
rest of the world.
In chapter 5 I reach for the crystal ball and consider potential future sce-
narios. I analyze uncertainties related to population numbers, economic
growth, inequality, technology, and governance. I flesh out the implications
of these uncertainties in a series of qualitative scenarios that assess India’s
energy and environment under optimistic and pessimistic assumptions
about the future. These scenarios reveal huge differences between an India
that manages to solve many of its fundamental problems and one that con-
tinues to expand economically and demographically but fails to govern the
accompanying challenges. These considerations confirm India’s pivotal role
in achieving sustainable human development at the global level.
Taken together, these chapters provide an overview of energy and envi-
ronment in India and explain the country’s present predicament. I begin
the analysis by going back in time, to precolonial India and South Asia.

1
FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
T
o set the stage for an analysis of India’s contemporary environmental
problems, this chapter describes some basic facts about Indian society
and reviews the country’s environmental history. In India, as else-
where, government and society are both shaped by historical developments.
From the deep undercurrents of precolonial India to the trauma of British
colonialism and the trials and tribulations of central planning after inde-
pendence, India has gone through a wide range of social arrangements that
continue to affect norms, attitudes, and behaviors in the twenty- first
century.
To summarize, India’s environmental history before the reforms of 1991
can be divided into three periods. In the precolonial era, environmental
problems reflected scarcity of natural resources and low productivity. As
such they, could not be separated from the more general problem of pov-
erty. When the British colonialists took over, India for the first time faced
widespread environmental destruction due to the commodification, com-
mercialization, and industrialization of natural resource use. After India
gained independence in 1947, a race between technological progress and
population growth under resource scarcity began. Social, economic, and

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
16
political developments during these three periods set the stage for India’s
postreform environmental crisis.
THE BASICS
Figure 1.1 shows the nations of modern South Asia. This region covers mod-
ern India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri
Lanka.
1
India as an entity has changed over the years. For thousands of
years, the Indian subcontinent consisted of a diverse group of societies. Dur-
ing the British colonial era, India covered a vast area that included modern
Bangladesh and Pakistan. From the Myanmar border along the Bay of Ben-
gal to the city of Peshawar near Khyber Pass, fewer than two hundred
miles from the Afghan capital Kabul, India covered the vast majority of
South Asia’s land mass. Today’s India, though still large compared to most
countries and clearly the hegemonic country in South Asia, is far more cir-
cumscribed in territory.
As the Indian National Congress fought for independence and the Brit-
ish colonialists began to plan their exit at the aftermath of the Second
World War, efforts to reassure India’s Muslim minority in what would be
a Hindu majority country failed. The Muslim League, led by Muhammad
Ali Jinnah, had already passed the Lahore Resolution in 1940 to demand a
separate nation for Muslims. When the negotiations between the Muslim
League and the Indian National Congress broke down, India was parti-
tioned in 1947 into India and Pakistan, with modern Bangladesh as East
Pakistan.
2
In a chaotic and violent partition, over ten million people were displaced,
and the refugee crisis threatened to overwhelm the two young nations. In
the Census of India in 1951, 2 percent of India’s entire population were refu-
gees who had relocated from either East or West Pakistan. These wounds
have yet to heal, and India and Pakistan consider each other enemies. They
have fought multiple wars since 1947 and continue to dispute the status of
Kashmir, the northernmost region of the Indian subcontinent. A curious

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
17
consequence of the partition was that West and East Pakistan had no land
connection. India’s Muslim population was always split between the two
distinct areas, and between them lay India’s Hindi- speaking heartland. In
1971, after a civil war and India’s intervention, Bangladesh declared inde-
pendence and became an independent nation.
Today, India is a vibrant democracy with a population of 1.4 billion
people and a GDP per capita of about US$2,000. A country of seemingly
endless diversity, India listed eleven languages in the Census of 2011 with
over 30 million primary speakers. In North India, Hindi is by far the most
FIGURE 1.1 Modern South Asia. Throughout this book, the representation
of India’s borders is for illustration only and is not a comment on territorial
sovereignty. Map by author.

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
18
common language spoken at home, with over 500 million speakers. It is
also the second or third language for over 160 million people. Other
major Indian languages include Bengali (97 million primary speakers),
Marathi (83 million), Telugu (81 million), Tamil (60 million), and Gujarati
(55 million). About 80 percent of Indians are Hindus by religion, with the
rest split between Islam (14 percent) and smaller religious groups such as
Christianity, Sikhism, and Buddhism.
A particularly complicated but important feature of Indian society is the
caste system.
3
While I cannot do justice to this complex issue here, it is use-
ful to review the basics and explain how they might influence energy and
environment. Historically, the caste system is based on a hierarchic orga-
nization of social groups called varnas, ranging from the lowest rung of
“untouchables”— a practice that is fortunately slowly losing its relevance
4
— to
the priestly Brahmins. Each primary caste group is divided into a huge
number of localized jatis. Traditionally, the caste system both prescribes
the primary occupation of the jati members and proscribes intercaste mar-
riage, along with several other social interactions. These rigid structures
have reduced social mobility and minimized the pace of socioeconomic
change in society, as Indians were born into certain positions in society
that were, until recently, very difficult to change.
The Constitution of India was written by Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, a prom-
inent intellectual of the formerly untouchable Mahar caste. It bans caste-
based discrimination and provides certain reservations for people belonging
to certain castes or tribes. In a form of affirmative action, these Scheduled
Castes (SC) and Scheduled Tribes (ST) have their reserved electoral con-
stituencies, public employment, and social benefit schemes.
5
The idea behind
these provisions is to provide opportunities for social groups that have his-
torically faced discrimination and had few opportunities to improve their
lot.
The caste system is worth noting in a study of energy and environment
because caste- based discrimination raises the possibility of environmen-
tal injustice and inequality in energy access. As caste continues to restrict
social mobility and create uneven opportunities, one must consider the
possibility that the worst problems of energy poverty and environmental

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
19
degradation are felt by lower- caste and tribal populations. For example,
Kopas et al. find that air pollution from coal- fired power plants tends to
find its way to relatively poor towns and villages with large lower- caste and
tribal populations.
6
Such environmental injustices and inequities cannot
be fully understood without referencing the historical evolution of the
caste system.
Like Indian society, the country’s economy is diverse. It is already the
third largest economy in the world, behind only the United States and
China, when measured in terms of purchasing power parity— that is, con-
sidering the low cost of goods and services in India. The most striking fact
about India is the low contribution of industry to the economy. India has a
relatively advanced service sector, which amounts to 54 percent of value
added; industry, in contrast, produces only 30 percent of value added. This
uneven pattern of development reflects both an advanced service sector,
with major strengths in fields such as medicine and information technol-
ogy, and the weakness of the industrial sector, especially the light indus-
tries such as textiles, which played such a critical role in China’s escape from
poverty.
7
Within India, regional differences are significant. South India tends to
perform better than North India on a wide range of social, economic, and
governance indicators. The most troubled states are found in the Hindi-
speaking Indo- Gangetic Plain. India’s largest state, Uttar Pradesh, for
example, has recorded an annual per capita growth rate of only 3.1 percent
between 1995 and 2017, while the Indian average is 5.3 percent. Another large
Hindi- speaking state, Bihar, has grown at 3.8 percent, although this twenty-
year analysis hides recent improvements in performance.
8
A key feature of the Indian economy is the monsoon. While Indian
weather patterns are complex, their defining feature is the southwest mon-
soon season that typically brings rains to the country between early June
and early September.
9
In the capital city of Delhi, in northern India, rains
are rare in the winter (October– January) and hot season (February– April),
with fewer than 30 millimeters of rainfall per month. In June, rainfall
increases to 55 millimeters and then reaches 220 millimeters and 250 mil-
limeters in July and August, respectively. As the monsoon comes to an end

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
20
in September, average rainfall is 135 millimeters. This variation in rainfall,
which could be exacerbated by climate change, is a key reason why surface
and groundwater irrigation is so critical for India’s agriculture.
India’s monsoon- and irrigation- fed agriculture feeds the world’s sec-
ond largest population in an area of only 3.3 million square kilometers, or
one- third of the United States. These numbers yield a population density
of 455 people per square kilometer in 2018. That is a staggering number,
as one sees by comparison to the world average (60), China (148), the
United States (36), or even Japan, famous for its dense population and
limited land availability (347). No other major economy comes close to
India’s density.
India’s population trends give rise to both hope and despair. Beginning
with the bright side, India’s fertility rate— births per woman— has decreased
significantly over time. In 1960 the average Indian woman gave birth to
almost six children, though it bears remembering that many of them died
as infants because of poor health care and nutrition. By 2016 this number
had come down to about 2.3, or close to the estimated replacement rate of
2.2. These changes are in line with falling birth rates across the world and
are critically important in an already crowded India. Yet India remains
above the replacement rate, and population growth continues. Indeed, at
the current rate, India’s population will exceed 1.5 billion by 2030.
My rather cursory review of Indian fundamentals would not be com-
plete without a comment on India’s energy resources. According to BP’s
Statistical Review of World Energy (2021), India had few oil and gas resources.
In 2020 the country had only 0.6 billion barrels of oil reserves, or 0.3 percent
of the world’s total. It had 1.3 trillion cubic meters of natural gas, or 0.7 per-
cent of world total. The only fossil fuel that India had in some abundance
was coal, of which it had 111 billion tons, or 10.3 percent of the world’s total.
While India thus has relatively abundant domestic coal resources for
power generation, it is almost entirely dependent on imports for oil and gas,
compromising India’s energy security and adding to its trade imbalance
problem.
10
As we shall see, this heavy dependence on foreign energy has
been an important driver of India’s efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels
over time.
11

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
21
From an environmental perspective, India’s energy security problem is
both an important driver of action and a potential bottleneck. India’s energy
policy aims to minimize the growth of oil use to strengthen energy secu-
rity, while encouraging the expansion of domestic coal production.
HUMANS AND NATURE IN PRECOLONIAL INDIA
Although my focus in this book is on the energy- environment nexus today,
understanding India’s contemporary plight is easier with some historical
background. In this section, I briefly review the human- nature relationship
in India before the arrival of the British colonialists. Key themes include
resource scarcity and the role of the caste system in managing resources.
Nobody can say with certainty when humans first reached South Asia.
Gadgil and Guha note that while human migrants could have arrived
almost two million years ago, soon after they left Africa, credible evidence
of human artifacts can be dated back to 700,000– 400,000 b.c.
12
At that
time, the Himalayan Mountains had risen and the South Asian pattern of
monsoon, with dry winters and summers followed by months of heavy rain,
was established. The Neolithic revolution prompted hunter- gatherers to
domesticate animals and cultivate plants around 10,000 b.c., and in the
coming millennia these practices spread to South Asia from the Middle
East through what is now Pakistan.
Environmental constraints have shaped life on the Indian subcontinent
in lasting ways. The first major civilization to emerge in the area was the
Indus Valley Civilization (3300– 1300 b.c.). Considered one of the three cra-
dles of human civilization along with ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia,
the Indus Valley Civilization was of the Bronze Age. It achieved a high
level of urbanization, engaged in trade using bullock carts and boats, and
created an extensive canal network. One important cause of the civiliza-
tion’s demise appears to have been shifts in river courses driven by the con-
tinuing rise of the Himalayas.
13
As major rivers, such as the Saraswati,
changed course for natural reasons, urban settlements along them lost access

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
22
to water and their populations were dispersed. Other possible contributors
to the end of the Indus civilization include climate change, flooding, and
salination of agricultural soil from irrigation. While the relative importance
of different causes is hard to establish, it is clear that natural causes played
a key role. When geographic and climatic conditions changed, urban set-
tlements failed to adapt and lost their dynamism over time.
When the Indus Valley Civilization collapsed, Indo- Aryan people
migrated into the northwestern parts of India and the Vedic age (1500– 500
b.c.) began. The society was initially organized along tribal lines, but it con-
solidated toward the end of the Vedic age into kingdoms with administra-
tive capabilities. Between 500 b.c. and a.d. 300, expanding agricultural pro-
duction finally gave rise to surpluses that made nonagricultural activities
possible. As a result, trade across the Indian subcontinent began to grow.
These favorable economic developments, in turn, gave rise to India’s first
generation of empires. Of these, the early Mauryan Empire (320– 180 b.c.)
left a particularly important mark on South Asian development. Expand-
ing from the Gangetic plains, the Mauryan Empire expanded further south,
colonizing river valleys and investing in irrigation works that further con-
tributed to agricultural surpluses. After the empire collapsed, it was replaced
by a number of smaller kingdoms that were unified into the Gupta Empire
in the third century a.d.
At this time, the Indian caste system was slowly gaining a foothold
in the society.
14
The Vedic scriptures describe how a blood sacrifice pro-
duced four caste classes, or varnas: the priestly brahmin, the martial
kshatriya, the trader vaishya, and the servant sudra. As tribes consolidated
into kingdoms with monarchs, the varna hierarchy gained traction and
social stratification increased. The other component of the caste system,
jati, is related. It consists of a huge number of local caste groups that inherit
specific occupations. In a specific area, for example, a certain jati might be
responsible for buffalo rearing while another caste group would cultivate
paddy. Marriages between jati groups would be regulated by complex
customs that reduce the likelihood of large status differences between the
groom and the bride’s family.
The caste system was still far from comprehensive or ironclad. In the
diverse Indian subcontinent, the caste system gained strength slowly over

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
23
time and had little impact on large segments of the population in tribal and
other communities outside the Hindu system. According to Bayly, “Caste
is not and never has been a fixed fact of Indian life . . . it is possible to see
a sequence of relatively recent political and ideological changes [between
about 1650 and 1850] which brought these ideals into focus for ever more
people in the subcontinent.”
15
Gadgil and Guha argue that the caste system, with its rigid endogamy
and occupational specialization, was itself strengthened by a “resource
crunch” in the second half of the first millennium a.d.
16
After the Mau-
ryan and Gupta empires, agricultural productivity declined, possibly because
of reduced rainfall or lower soil fertility. This decline contributed to eco-
nomic stagnation under severe resource scarcity. As the caste system con-
tributed to economic specialization, it regulated the use of scarce natural
resources and protected villages from crisis. The caste system of highly spe-
cialized occupations allocated to different households by birth reduced
resource competition. In each village, some caste groups even inherited the
occupation of guarding common resources. Thus the strengthening of the
caste system may have been an organic response to resource scarcity.
The Gupta Empire was followed by the classical and medieval periods.
At this time, the first estimates of the Indian population began to appear.
Cassen, warning that we “only have the sketchiest idea of the population
size before the nineteenth century,” notes a seventh- century estimate of
37 million from Hiuen Tsang, a Chinese Buddhist traveling through India,
as the first “plausible” estimate of population.
17
To put this number in con-
text, for every Indian at that time, there are over thirty- five today. It bears
remembering, then, that India’s high population density is a relatively recent
phenomenon.
When the Mughals conquered India and the Central Asian ruler
Babur started his empire in 1526, they claimed the surplus from grain pro-
duction and taxed animals “above a certain number,” but not forests.
18

The Mughal Empire, by and large, respected local customs and property
right systems. Overall, then, the Mughal Empire’s imprint on natural
resources was, with the exception of agriculture, quite limited. Of particu-
lar import and in stark contrast to British conduct in the colonial era, the
demand for timber was limited, and India’s forests were mostly used by

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
24
hunter- gatherers and farmers for their subsistence. The systematic exploi-
tation and eventual destruction of Indian forests were yet to come with the
British colonialists.
COLONIAL EXPLOITATION OF
NATURAL RESOURCES
The arrival of the British Empire in India changed everything. In a few cen-
turies India went from a localized, largely subsistence economy structured
by caste to a commercial, industrial system that tried to satisfy the British
Empire’s seemingly unlimited hunger for resources.
When the East India Company began gaining a foothold in India in the
early seventeenth century, European influence on the subcontinent was still
minimal. The Portuguese had established a trading center in Kerala in 1505,
and in 1510 the colonialists established a stronghold in Goa that was to hold
until 1961, fourteen years after India’s independence. The Dutch East India
Company traded along the Indian coast, but over time their presence dimin-
ished as they shifted their attention to the Dutch East Indies, known
today as Indonesia. A milestone for the British East India Company was
the Battle of Swally in Surat, Gujarat, in 1612, where British troops achieved
a decisive victory over their Portuguese opponents. Following a commercial
treaty with the Mughal emperor Jahangir in the same year, British com-
mercial influence in India began to expand. By 1717 the Mughal emperor
had waived all customs duties for trade with the British, and trade in tex-
tiles and other goods and commodities boomed. Between 1757 and 1858 the
British East India Company was dominant in India, as it acquired the right
to collect taxes and even established a capital city in Calcutta, known today
as Kolkata.
The British Empire disrupted the traditional pattern of natural resource
use in India, “their political victory equipping the British for an unprece-
dented intervention in the ecological and social fabric of Indian society.”
19

Whereas resource use in precolonial India was still overwhelmingly directed

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
25
toward local subsistence needs, the British colonial administration extracted
large surpluses for commercial use. Precolonial India had rich natural
resources and abundant forest cover, and the British set to replace this socio-
natural system with a system built around scientific forestry, agrobusiness,
and industrial exploitation of nature.
As a result, markets instead of communities began to govern natural
resource use. For the first time, commodity prices in London shaped the
exploitation of nature in India. Forests, in particular, saw rapid depletion
in the hands of the British.
20
As forest resources dwindled on the British
islands, the demand for timber for navy and industry from the colonies grew
dramatically. One example of this pattern is Britain’s voracious appetite for
teak, the best timber for shipbuilding. As the British merchant fleet’s ton-
nage increased from 1,278 to 4,937 thousand tons between 1778 and 1860,
the vast majority of the required wood came from the colonies, with India
playing a major role.
The British Empire took direct control of India after the 1857 mutiny.
An uprising by sepoys— Indians serving in the British armed forces— in
Meerut, forty miles northeast of Delhi, erupted into a series of rebellions
in North and Central India. The ultimately unsuccessful resistance led to
the Government of India Act of 1858, which dissolved the British East India
Company and created the India Office to rule what was now a fully colo-
nial India. After the failed mutiny, the official British raj began, as the
British Crown, represented by Queen Victoria, took direct control of India
from the British East India Company.
Besides extensive commercial exploitation, the British also constrained
traditional forest uses with rules and regulations.
21
In 1865 the Indian For-
est Act was the “first attempt at asserting state monopoly.” In 1878 a more
comprehensive revision claimed all land that was not cultivated for the state
and imposed severe restrictions on the use of forest resources. Families were
allowed only a limited quota of timber and firewood, while the sale of for-
est products was strictly prohibited outside the state monopoly. The Indian
forest department became a profitable entity that reaped revenue from the
sales of timber, firewood, and other forest products. Between 1869 and 1925
the Forest Department’s revenue grew tenfold and surplus thirteenfold.

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
26
By this time railroads had emerged as a key mode of transportation in
India, connecting different regions at an affordable cost.
22
Both the con-
struction of railways and the fuel for locomotives in India’s vast railway sys-
tem had a destructive effect on forests in the Indian subcontinent. The rail
network expanded from 1,349 kilometers in 1860 to 51,658 kilometers by 1910.
This expansion led to rapid deforestation, as the massive need for Indian
timber strong enough for railway sleeper construction— teak, sal, and
deodar— necessitated expeditions far into the remote Himalayas for suit-
able wood. Areas around India’s massive railway network were rapidly
cleared, and timber was extracted from farther away.
When the British conducted their first official Census of India in 1881,
India’s population, standing at 254 million, had only grown sevenfold over
the past millennium.
23
For comparison purposes, the Indian government
reports that 238 million people lived within the boundaries of contempo-
rary India in 1901.
24
Due to low agricultural productivity, and perhaps the
colonial extraction of surplus through taxation and loot, India’s demographic
pattern followed the Malthusian pattern of slow expansion. According to
the Malthusian trap theory, any gains made in the availability of food and
other necessities will generate population growth, which again results in
resource scarcity. In this system, any improvements in productivity or
resource access are negated by a larger population, and true socioeconomic
development is impossible. Despite high fertility rates, mortality related to
scarcity of food, contagious diseases, and a total lack of health care kept
population growth at a low level.
25
Indeed, some of the worst famines in
Indian history hit the population during British rule. These include the
Great Famine of 1876– 1878 and the Indian Famine of 1899– 1900, each of
which killed up to ten million people.
In the colonial era, Indian industry was weak and, in many sectors, actu-
ally declined from the precolonial era, before the British East India Com-
pany began expanding its control of India in the seventeenth century.
Between 1600 and 1871 India’s agricultural output per capita decreased,
leading to a decrease in GDP per capita from almost US$700 to about
US$500 over three centuries. Industrial production, led by textiles, contin-
ued to grow until the end of the eighteenth century and all but collapsed

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
27
when the Industrial Revolution gave British producers a huge advantage.
26

The Indian economy stagnated and failed to keep up with the industrial
powerhouses of Europe.
To summarize, the colonial era left an abiding impression on India. The
exploitation of natural resources accelerated, as it became more commer-
cial and systematic. India’s GDP per capita plummeted, however, as indus-
trial and agricultural production stagnated. While the debate among eco-
nomic historians on the long- term impacts of colonialism in India continues,
with some benefits from infrastructure, commerce, and administration, it
is clear that both indirect and direct British rule led to economic degrada-
tion on a grand scale, while much of the surplus went to British tycoon’s
profits or to support the continued wars with other major powers in Europe
and around the world. The colonial trauma left, as we shall see, a lasting
impression on Indian society.
ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT IN
INDEPENDENT INDIA, 1947– 1991
In the pre- reform era, 1947– 1991, India’s most important environmental
problems were related to poverty and resource scarcity, instead of pollution.
The environment could not be separated from livelihoods in a predomi-
nantly agrarian society, and a typical environmental problem might be
land degradation instead of, say, air pollution or climate change. Environ-
ment as such was not a notable concern, with the exception of the degraded
forests left behind by the British. Here I briefly review India’s energy and
environment at this time.
In 1947, when India gained independence, the country’s economic devel-
opment was limited to a small number of urban areas that the British colo-
nial administration developed into centers of industry and commerce.
27

“India at Independence inherited an economy whose main features reflected
two centuries of subservience to British interests and, particularly in the
twentieth century, the development of its own capitalism.”
28
In 1947 over

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
28
half of total national income came from agriculture while manufacturing
stood at 12 percent. Equally important, half of all manufacturing came from
informal, small- scale enterprises. Heavy industry was virtually nonexistent,
and three- fourths of the workforce was still in agriculture.
India’s population in the Census of India in 1951— the first conducted
after independence, under the Census of India Act of 1948— was 361 mil-
lion. If we compare that number to 238 million within modern Indian
boundaries in 1901, we see a relatively rapid growth rate of 52 percent over
four decades. At this time, infant mortality began to decrease, if perhaps
slowly, as improvements in public health reached India, with Protestant
missionaries and their health facilities playing an important role.
29
The
catch, of course, was that population growth made the accumulation of
wealth difficult, especially under the colonial rule.
No wonder that the average Indian was not much better off at the time
of independence than in the early years of the twentieth century. Accord-
ing to Maddison (2010), India’s GDP per capita in 1950 was US$619 (1990
prices). This number falls well below the country’s GDP per capita in 1913,
US$673, suggesting modest negative growth in the final decades of the Brit-
ish Empire. While these numbers must be approached with caution, as
accounting for the dominant informal sector with any precision was impos-
sible, they do reveal that the final decades of colonial rule in India did not
produce major economic gains. Population grew at a faster pace than before,
but the lot of the Indian population did not improve. At the time, then,
India’s economic and population dynamics could still be described as Mal-
thusian in nature.
The theory applies quite well to India’s first years of statehood. When
availability of food improved, the population grew and food again became
a problem. India’s tiny modern industrial sector was of limited import to
the country’s vast population, and most people survived on subsistence
farming or manual labor for major landowners. Specifically, although
advances in nutrition and basic hygiene brought down child mortality—
defined as share of children dying before the age of five— from over 50 per-
cent to below 30 percent by 1951, the availability of food was still a funda-
mental constraint on the population, with no obvious solutions on the
horizon.
30

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
29
Before economic reforms, India’s energy consumption was minimal. In
1971, the first year for which I was able to find data, energy consumption
per capita was only 268 kilograms of oil equivalent.
31
The vast majority of
Indians used traditional biomass for cooking and, in colder areas such as
the mountains, heating. For their lighting needs, Indians would use small
amounts of kerosene. Only a tiny middle class in the urban areas would
have regular access to electricity, clean cooking fuels, or mechanized
transportation.
Very few countries in the world today consume such small amounts of
energy per capita. In fact, the only countries listed in 2012 by the World
Bank Development Indicators as having a lower level of per capita energy
consumption than India in 1971 were Bangladesh, Niger, South Sudan, and
Yemen.
32
India’s energy economy in 1971, in other words, is a thing of the
past. The kind of energy poverty that characterized India during the first
three decades of independence has almost entirely disappeared from the
world.
India’s autarkic and heavily regulated economy was never able to gener-
ate the kind of dynamism that would produce environmental degradation
on a large scale. There was no industry to speak of; automobiles were a rar-
ity; power plants were a handful at best. For the first two decades of Indian
independence, the kinds of environmental problems that now prominently
feature in public debate were not even on the political agenda. India’s over-
whelming problem was poverty stemming from primitive technology in
agriculture, industry, and commerce.
While the first five- year plan, 1951– 1956, mostly compiled existing proj-
ects into a roster with few new additions, it did attempt to lay out govern-
mental priorities.
33
Unfortunately, the government failed to prioritize key
issues by considering everything essential. India’s scarce resources were allo-
cated across a wide range of sectors in a way that failed to produce concrete
progress in any of them. India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru,
attempted to find a shortcut to industrialization, with inspiration from the
Soviet Union.
It was only with the second five- year plan that the Indian government
decided to double down on heavy industrialization in a systematic manner.
Again, however, the lack of resources made actual implementation very

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
30
difficult. In the 1960s India had a rude awakening as the combination of
rapid population growth and poor harvests prompted a food security cri-
sis. The third five- year plan pivoted back to agriculture, but poor economic
performance, combined with costly wars with China and Pakistan, pro-
duced disappointing results.
34
The Green Revolution was a development of major import to India, as
it brought modern environmental concerns to public view.
35
While India’s
first government under Prime Minister Nehru had declared agriculture a
top priority, between 1947 and 1960 India had grown increasingly depen-
dent on U.S. food aid. Agricultural productivity had not kept up with pop-
ulation growth, and the country faced a very real threat of famine. In the
northwestern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana, a solution finally
emerged in the mid- 1960s. The introduction of new high- yield varieties of
crops, especially wheat and rice, made it possible for India to expand food
production and become self- sufficient. The Indian government, with for-
eign support, invested heavily in rural infrastructure to help farmers gain
access to these new crop varieties, distribute fertilizer, and encourage
groundwater irrigation with electric pumps.
The results were easy to see, and the agricultural revolution expanded
across India over the span of a few years. Food production surged, and the
threat of famine subsided. India was now able to feed its population. How-
ever, food production was imbalanced across Indian states, and the gov-
ernment had to develop an elaborate system of procurement to ensure that
surplus states transferred their grain to states in need. By the 1983– 1984
growing season, “76.0 percent of the land under wheat and 54.1 percent of
the land under rice were devoted to [high- yield varieties].” By that time,
yields in some parts of India had grown two- or threefold as compared to
1965, and they began to grow again in the mid- 1980s.
36
These agricultural extension investments were critically important for the
environment because high- yield varieties came at a cost of greater inputs.
Writing in Foreign Affairs in 1969, Wharton aptly notes that the Green Rev-
olution’s success “will produce a number of new problems which are far
more subtle and difficult than those faced during the development of the
new technology.”
37
These problems include dependence on large quantities

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
31
of insecticide, fertilizer, and water. While great improvements in yield per
acre did reduce land use pressure, excessive use of water and chemicals con-
tributed to serious environmental problems, ranging from groundwater
scarcity to soil degradation and contamination of drinking water supplies.
38

In India, these problems were recognized almost immediately, with Vee-
man writing about “groundwater problems which are emerging in north-
ern India” as a consequence of the Green Revolution already in 1978.
39
Today,
these problems have grown into crisis proportions.
The Green Revolution did not end the race between population growth
and productivity improvements. As the Indian population continued to
grow and land mass remained fixed, a certain degree of technological prog-
ress was necessary to compensate for the inevitable decrease in land per
capita. Population growth translated into lower land availability per cap-
ita, and improvements in agricultural productivity were necessary to offset
the resulting decrease in per capita food availability. In this sense, the Mal-
thusian trap was still sprung. The main difference was that technological
progress was now faster than before.
Where technological progress dominated, agricultural surplus contrib-
uted to social and economic development more broadly. Where population
grew fast but technology stagnated, rural development stalled. Overall,
GDP growth ranged from a decadal average of 3.3 percent in the 1960s to
5.2 percent in the 1980s. While these numbers may not look too bad, they
were driven by population growth. India’s GDP per capita (2010 prices)
grew only from US$304 to US$536 between 1960 and 1990, with an anemic
annual growth rate below 2 percent.
The story of Palanpur, a village in the state of Uttar Pradesh, over four
decades offers important insights into this rat race between technology and
population. Drawing on five socioeconomic surveys of this village between
1957 and 1993, Lanjouw and Stern (1998) identify three “primary drivers” of
economic development, or lack thereof, in the village. These drivers are pop-
ulation growth, progress in agricultural technology, and nonfarm
employment.
Population growth, naturally, puts pressure on the village’s natural
resources. The village population has doubled between 1957 and 1993,

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
32
meaning that per capita land availability is half of what it used to be. To
make up for this deficiency, the agricultural productivity of land would
need to double. Such a change would not leave the village any better off
than before.
Against this relentless logic of population growth, economic develop-
ment originates from improved agricultural technology and nonfarm eco-
nomic opportunities. In agriculture, a key improvement was the rapid
expansion of irrigated land from about half of the total to virtually all of it
as early as 1974, on the wings of the Green Revolution. Other key improve-
ments included modern cultivation practices and, more recently, mechani-
zation. As for nonfarm economic opportunities, the percent of adult males
working in cultivation or livestock as their primary occupation decreased
from 81 to 54, while regular or semiregular wage employment increased
from 3 to 14 percent.
Between these countervailing trends, Palanpur’s per capita income
increased by only 20 percent between 1957 and 1983. This change amounts
to a compound growth rate of well below 1 percent. At such growth rates,
it would take villages like Palanpur several centuries to escape extreme pov-
erty. Palanpur’s story, then, is a powerful illustration of the Malthusian
trap in which much of India found itself. Despite improvements in agri-
cultural technology and increased availability of off- farm employment,
shrinking land availability per capita all but canceled out these gains.
Indeed, even without any growth in off- farm employment, the Green Rev-
olution alone should have produced major gains in agricultural income, if
only population growth had remained modest. Alas, technological prog-
ress barely kept ahead of population growth. Despite, or perhaps because
of, government efforts, Indian industry stagnated.
The government attempted to kick- start the sector with capital invest-
ments in heavy industry. The combination of scarce capital, limited demand
from the broader economy for heavy industry products, and autarkic trade
policies made expansion difficult.
40
According to Chibber, however, the
problems ran deeper than structural imbalances and poor planning.
41
India,
unlike the stalwarts of the developmental state in East Asia, failed to indus-
trialize because its policy interventions fell prey to rent seeking and

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
33
bureaucratic paralysis. Where countries like South Korea used state inter-
vention to spur productivity growth in private industry, the Indian state’s
developmental programs failed in the face of stiff resistance from industri-
alists. India’s import substitution strategy made lobbying for specific sub-
sidies and resistance to coordinated industrial policy a rational strategy for
India’s great business houses. As a result, industrialization failed, and the
Indian economy languished for four decades after independence.
Environmental problems of the time reflect this state of affairs in a poor,
predominantly agricultural society. When the Delhi- based Centre for Sci-
ence and Environment (CSE) published its first Citizen’s Report on the State
of India’s Environment in 1982, India’s environmental concerns were still
largely traditional in nature and today’s pressing issues were only slowly
emerging. In fact, the report recognized that “atmospheric pollution has
long been regarded as probably the least important of all the environmen-
tal problems in the country, concentrated mainly in the major cities and
industrial towns.”
42
As we shall see, things are a little different in India
today.
The report had it right, as a cursory review of the relevant statistics shows.
While systematic pollution data is not available, many of today’s drivers of
bad air quality were simply not there. In 1981 India had only 5.4 million
vehicles— including two- wheelers and three- wheelers— on its roads.
43
With
such a tiny fleet, transportation would not have been an issue, except per-
haps in some of the larger cities, despite a complete lack of emission con-
trol technology or regulations.
Thermal power generation capacity, mostly coal, remained below 20
gigawatts.
44
This capacity is about one- tenth of where India was thirty- five
years later. Again, even though these power plants were very inefficient and
had no end- of- pipe emission control technologies, their overall impact was
limited simply because of scale. For a country of India’s size, 20 gigawatts
of thermal capacity is simply not enough to make much of a difference, even
without any environmental technology at all.
Aklin et al. offer a snapshot of Indian energy access in 1987, at the end
of the prereform era, using National Sample Survey data. At that time, only
one- third of the rural population had electricity at home. Cooking fuel

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
34
access was far worse, with only 6 percent of all rural households being able
to access liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), the dominant clean cooking fuel
in India.
45
Again, these numbers show how little progress India had made
in reducing rural energy poverty.
The CSE report in 1982 did emphasize indoor air pollution as an envi-
ronmental problem. With over 90 percent of India’s population dependent
on firewood for their daily cooking needs at the time, the Citizen’s Report
played a pioneering role in recognizing smoke from cooking as a major
threat to public health. Because indoor cooking with firewood produces
large amounts of smoke, Indian households did suffer from air pollution in
their homes and, where population densities were high enough, in the
nearby areas. As we shall see, residential solid fuel use remains a major envi-
ronmental problem in India.
To summarize, before the great Indian economic reforms that began in
1991, the country’s environmental problems were directly related to poverty.
Until the Green Revolution, low agricultural productivity made life harsh
and perilous for the rapidly growing population. After that time, India
averted the threat of famine, yet the relentless logic of population growth
under land scarcity continued to drive Indian rural population into pov-
erty. Air pollution was mostly a product of residential biomass burning. The
Green Revolution gave rise to an alarming pattern of groundwater deple-
tion, which Indian researchers began to observe as early as in the 1970s. But
the most profound environmental problems were yet to come.
ENVIRONMENTALISM IN
THE INDIAN SOCIETY
Environmentalism and environmental thought are not new to India.
Already in ancient times, the challenge of natural resource governance fea-
tured prominently in the densely populated Indian subcontinent. In the
colonial era, the clash of indigenous and colonial natural resource regimes

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
35
gave rise to widespread social conflicts that contributed to calls for inde-
pendence. Indeed, the British exploitation of India’s natural resources
amounted to massive environmental and economic losses over time, and
even today’s environmental discourse reflects this historical experience to a
notable extent.
In precolonial India, both natural resource conflicts and indigenous envi-
ronmental protection were important themes. In their study of India’s
environmental history, Gadgil and Guha note that by the time of
India’s great empires, natural resource scarcity had emerged as a major soci-
etal concern.
46
The combination of local hunting- gathering and organized
surplus extraction for commerce and elite consumption put unprecedented
pressure on natural resources, and social norms began to reflect the increased
scarcity. In the sphere of religion and philosophy, both Buddhism and
Jainism emphasized the sanctity of life, encouraged vegetarianism, and
applauded modest and prudent living. In the long run, perhaps more sig-
nificant was the emergence of India’s caste system. The rigid stratifica-
tion of families into specialized castes “traditionally moderated or largely
removed inter- caste competition through diversifications in resource use
and territorial exclusion. . . . This unique system of cultural adaptation to
the natural environment was devised by Indian society in response to the
resource crunch.”
47
More generally, Hindu religious tradition has left an abiding impression
on Indian environmentalism. India has a homegrown environmentalist
movement that has borrowed from its Western counterparts but has not lost
its original approach. As Misra argues, “Environmental movements in India
have been non- violent and firmly embedded in social and political struc-
tures. Unlike western environmental activist movements, they are strongly
tied to human rights, women’s rights, social justice and equity. . . . This dis-
tinct character of Indian environmental movements is linked to the Hindu
ecological vision of life.” He goes on to explain that Hinduism is based on
a “form of utilitarian conservationism, as opposed to protectionist conser-
vationism.” Hinduism links ecological conservation to spiritually signifi-
cant themes, as “Hindus seem to value and preserve those elements of nature

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
36
that have ritual significance in the Hindu way of life.”
48
In this telling, spiri-
tual considerations are an important driver of environmental concern
among the Hindu majority of India.
In the colonial era, natural resource conflicts were greatly aggravated,
and indigenous environmental protection came under severe stress. Call-
ing colonialism an “ecological watershed,” Gadgil and Guha note that the
British aggressively exploited Indian forests, and teak in particular, to enable
a vast maritime expansion.
49
The colonial administration also put a heavy
emphasis on expanding arable land and cleared vast areas for commercial
agriculture. So while the traditional patterns of resource use were mostly
localized, which limited the scale of ecological destruction, the British colo-
nial administration transplanted an industrial approach that commodified
and commercialized India’s vast natural resources. This new pattern enabled
widespread ecological destruction, as areas with abundant resource endow-
ments or high potential for commercial agriculture were rapidly exploited
to meet the empire’s seemingly unlimited need for raw material and income.
At the time of India’s independence in 1947, Mahatma Gandhi’s envi-
ronmental thought played an important role in the Indian discourse. Famous
for his opposition to industrialization and the Western lifestyle, Gandhi
saw economic growth in its modern form as an obstacle to moral and spiri-
tual development.
50
Among the many famous Gandhi quotes, these words
summarize his position particularly well: “The world has enough for every-
one’s need, but not for everyone’s greed.” In Gandhian thought, the pur-
suit of material gain is ultimately futile, and modern forms of economic
development ultimately counterproductive.
While Gandhi remains a widely admired freedom fighter in India, the
relevance of his antigrowth philosophy has decreased over time. The Indian
government is firmly committed to the idea of rapid economic growth,
industrialization, and modernization. Gandhian thought still has support
among many popular movements and intellectuals, but the Indian govern-
ment and business elites have a strong preference for technological mod-
ernization and economic development.
A key moment for India’s environmental movement was the March
1973 Chipko “tree hugger” movement consisting of “unlettered peasants

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
37
threatening to hug trees to prevent them from being cut.”
51
In the moun-
tain state of Uttarakhand, then part of the larger state of Uttar Pradesh,
thousands of peasants mobilized to protest environmentally destructive
forestry practices. Following heavy flooding in the Alaknanda River,
enabled by deforestation, the movement succeeded as the government
enacted a ban on commercial forestry for a decade.
The Chipko movement became a hit in the global environmental scene.
As Rangan notes, “Chipko was a social movement that emerged . . . in the
Garhwal Himalaya. Today, transformed by a variety of narratives, it exists
as a myth.”
52
The tree hugger movement struck a chord because it dealt with
some of the major environmental issues of our time, demonstrated the power
of the weak, and gave hope to a wide range of grassroots movements around
the world. It also underscored a key feature of Indian environmentalism of
the time: a focus on local livelihoods.
Another major mobilizer of environmental activism in India was the Sar-
dar Sarovar dam on the Narmada River in the western state of Gujarat.
53

India’s largest dam, it was initially planned in 1979 but only finished in 2017.
The World Bank withdrew its support to the dam in 1994, after the Save
Narmada Movement mobilized to resist the environmental and social
impacts on the tribal population. With hundreds of thousands of farmers
under threat of displacement, the local tribal population formed an alliance
with Western environmentalists and convinced the World Bank to with-
draw its support.
54
The Narmada dam also became a major theme in global environmental
activism. Environmental researchers and activists have written hundreds
of papers on the dam and the movement resisting it. To this date, environ-
mentalists invoke it as a powerful symbol of the folly of modernist “techno-
political dreams.”
55
Again, the narrative of marginalized communities,
fighting for their survival and livelihood against environmental destruction
brought on by the powerful Indian state, proved irresistible.
These developments gave rise to three distinct ideological trends in
Indian environmentalism during the socialist decades between indepen-
dence and the economic reform era: Gandhian, appropriate technology,
and ecological Marxism. As already noted above, the Gandhian view

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
38
“relies heavily on a religious idiom in its rejection of the modern way
of life. . . . Gandhians are concerned above all with the stranglehold of
modernist philosophies (rationalism, economic growth) on the Indian
intelligentsia.”
56
In contrast, the appropriate technology movement “strives for a work-
ing synthesis of agriculture and industry, big and small units, and western
and eastern (or modern and traditional) technological traditions.” Draw-
ing inspiration from works such as E. F. Schumacher’s Small Is Beautiful,
this movement believes that capital- intensive development is a dead end for
both environmental and social reasons. The movement focuses on “the cre-
ation and diffusion of resource conservation, labour intensive, and socially
liberating technologies.”
57
This movement does not reject modern technol-
ogy but argues that for a country like India, technologies that do not require
large capital investments are more appropriate. The combination of poverty,
abundant labor, and resource scarcity would lead the appropriate technol-
ogy advocates to reject the path of heavy industry that India’s first prime
minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, advocated.
Finally, argues Guha, the “third and most eclectic strand embraces a
variety of groups who have arrived at environmentalism only after a pro-
tracted engagement with conventional political philosophies, notably Marx-
ism.”
58
This group embraces economic modernization and is unequivocally
hostile to social tradition. It argues that ecological sustainability is possible
only under a socialist mode of production. This group is far removed from
Gandhian thought and appropriate technology, insofar as it embraces
modern technology on a large scale. It attributes ecological degradation to
the lack of integrated planning and perverse incentives in capitalist societ-
ies and sees centralized planning under socialism as a way to combine rapid
economic growth with sustainability.
Environmental conflicts in postindependence India were the most pro-
nounced in the realm of natural resources.
59
As we have seen, the energy
and industrial sectors were still very small, and contemporary problems such
as air pollution and climate change barely registered. In contrast, resource
degradation had already emerged as a major theme. Both tribal and non-
tribal communities across India remained heavily dependent on forests,

FOUNDATIONS AND HISTORY
39
fisheries, and other natural environments for basic livelihoods. When state
or private resource extraction activities threatened these fragile and uncer-
tain livelihoods, social conflicts erupted as locals fought for their rights
under an administrative system that was ill- equipped to handle the con-
flict and deal with the associated social problems.
India’s postindependence environmentalism had limited space to oper-
ate, and its successes were ad hoc. It is true that the Chipko tree hugger
movement and the movement against dams achieved some high- profile vic-
tories, but India’s own economic stagnation did far more to protect the
environment than these movements. Until the beginning of the economic
reforms, India’s primary environmental problem was natural resource scar-
city under a large and growing population. But because per capita con-
sumption remained low, environmental degradation did not reach the
extreme levels we see today.
As we shall see, India now faces a rather different set of environmental
problems. Air pollution, climate change, and groundwater depletion are
increasingly central to the country’s future. In the case of climate change,
argue Dubash et al., India’s environmental discourse has changed with the
introduction of new ideas from a younger, more international generation.
60

Modern environmental discourse in India is much more heavily influ-
enced by global environmental narratives than in the past. Younger envi-
ronmentalists have often studied in English, spent time abroad studying
and working, and regularly attend international conferences.
From a contemporary perspective the Gandhian, appropriate technol-
ogy, and Marxist environmental movements may seem somewhat out-
dated. None of them begins with the notion of sustainable development in
a market- based economy, where clean technology and smart policies and
regulations are integral to environmental protection. As we shall see in
the next chapter, these themes play a major role in postreform Indian
environmentalism.

2
ECONOMIC GROWTH AND
ENVIRONMENTAL DEGRADATION
I
ndians love cricket, but these days a winter test match in Delhi can be a
health hazard. When India faced Sri Lanka in a test match at Delhi’s
Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in December 2017, Sri Lankan fast bowler
Suranga Lakmal was escorted off the ground on the fourth day as air pol-
lution levels exceeded the World Health Organization’s guidelines by a fac-
tor of twelve.
1
While Mr. Lakmal could escape the deadly Delhi smog
after a few days, tens of millions of Delhiites have to deal with the prob-
lem every day. Air pollution levels vary over time, but they rarely fall to
safe levels in this sprawling metropolis.
To help understand how polluted Delhi air is in the winter, figure 2.1
shows monthly mean levels of air pollution in Delhi from January to Decem-
ber 2016 on an hourly basis. The unit is the Air Quality Index (AQI) that
aggregates different pollutants under one measure. The WHO typically
considers values below 50 as good, over 100 as unhealthy, and over 300 as
an emergency. In a healthy environment, values above 50 would be rare,
and values above 300 never seen.
In Delhi, the mean value in that year was 119, and the index fell below
the safe threshold value of 50 only 36 percent of the time. Of all the

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unconscionable Spaniards practice a cheap and lazy way of living.
Others will sell them away for that week unto a neighbour that hath
present need of worke, demanding Rials a piece for every Indian,
which he that buyeth them, will be sure to defray out of their wages.
So likewise are they in a slavish bondage and readinesse for all
passengers and travellers, who in any Towne may demand unto the
next Towne as many Indians do goe with his Mules, or to carry on
their backes a heavy burthen as he shall need, who at the journeys
end will pick some quarrell with them, and so send them back with
blowes and stripes without any pay at all. A Petaca, or leatherne
Trunke, and chest of above a hundred weight, they will make those
wretches to carry on their backs a whole day, nay some two or three
daies together, which they doe by tying the chest on each side with
ropes, having a broad leather in the middle, which they crosse over
the forepart of their head, or over their forehead, hanging thus the
waight upon their heads and browes, which at their journeys end
hath made the blood stick in the foreheads of some, galling and
pulling off the skin, and marking them in the fore-top of their heads,
who as they are called Tamemez, so are easily known in a Towne by
their baldnesse, that leather girt having worn off all their hair. With
these hard usages, yet do those poor people make a shift to live
amongst the Spaniards, but so that with anguish of heart they are
still crying out to God for justice, and for liberty, whose only comfort
is in their Preists and Friers, who many times doe quiet them when
they would rise up in mutiny, and for their owne ends doe often
prevaile over them with fair and cunning perswasions, to bear and
suffer for Gods sake, and for the good of the Common-wealth that
hard task and service which is laid upon them. And though in all
seasons, wet and dry, cold and hot, and in all wayes plain and
mountainous, green and dirty, dusty and stony, they must performe
this hard service to their commanding Masters, their apparell and
cloathing is but such as may cover the nakednesse of their body, nay
in some it is such torne rags as will not cover halfe their nakednesse.
Their ordinary cloathing is a paire of linnen or woollen drawers broad
and open at the knees, without shooes (though in their journeys
some will put on leatherne sandals to keep the soles of their feet) or

stockins, without any doublet, a short course shirt, which reacheth a
little below their waste, and serves more for a doublet then for a
shirt, and for a cloake a woollen or linnen mantle, (called Aiate) tied
with a knot over one shoulder, hanging down on the other side
almost to the ground, with a twelve penny or two shilling hat, which
after one good shower of raine like paper falls about their necks and
eies; their bed they carry sometimes about them, which is that
woollen mantle wherewith they wrap themselves about at night,
taking off their shirt and drawers, which they lay under their head
for a pillow; some will carry with them a short, slight, and light Mat
to lie, but those that carry it not with them, if they cannot borrow
one of a neighbour, lie as willingly in their mantle upon the bare
ground, as a Gentleman in England upon a soft down-bed, and thus
doe they soundly sleep, and lowdly snort after a daies worke, or
after a daies journey with a hundred weight upon their backs. Those
that are of the better sort, and richer, and who are not employed as
Tamemez to carry burthens, or as Labourers to work for Spaniards,
but keep at home following their own farmes, or following their
owne Mules about the Country, or following their trades and callings
in their shops, or governing the Townes, as Alcaldes, or Alguaziles,
officers of justice, may goe a little better apparelled, but after the
same manner. For some will have their drawers with a lace at the
bottom, or wrought with some coloured Silke or Crewel; so likewise
the mantle about them, shall have either a lace, or some work of
birds on it, some will wear a cut linnen doublet, others shooes, but
very few stockins or bands about their neckes; and for their beds,
the best Indian Governour, or the richest, who may be worth four or
five thousand Duckats, will have little more then the poor Tamemez;
for they lie upon boards, or Canes bound together, and raised from
the ground, whereon they lay a broad and handsome Mat, and at
their heads for man and wife two little stumps of wood for bolsters,
whereon they lay their shirts and mantles and other cloaths for
pillowes, covering themselves with a broader blanket then is their
mantle, and thus hardly would Don Bernabe de Guzman the
Governour of Petapa lie, and so doe all the best of them. The
womens attire is cheap and soon put on; for most of them also go

barefoot, the richer and better sort wear shooes, with broad ribbons
for shooe-strings, and for a petticote, they tie about their waste a
woollen mantle, which in the better sort is wrought with divers
colours, but not sowed at all, pleated or gathered in, but as they tie
it with a list about them; they wear no shift next their body, but
cover their nakednesse with a kind of surplice (which they call
Guaipil) which hangs loose from their shoulders down a little below
their waste, with open short sleeves, which cover halfe their armes;
this Guaipil is curiously wrought, especially in the bosome, with
Cotton, or feathers. The richer sort of them wear bracelets and bobs
about their wrists and necks; their hair is gathered up with fillets,
without any quaife or covering, except it be the better sort. When
they goe to Church or abroad, they put upon their heads a vaile of
linnen, which hangeth almost to the ground, and this is that which
costs them most of all their attire, for that commonly it is of Holland
or some good linnen brought from Spain, or fine linnen brought from
China, which the better sort wear with a lace about. When they are
at home at work they commonly take off their Guaipil, or surplice,
discovering the nakednesse of their breasts and body. They lie also
in their beds as doe their husbands, wrapped up only with a mantle,
or with a blanket. Their houses are but poore thatched cottages,
without any upper roomes, but commonly one or two only roomes
below, in the one they dresse their meat in the middle of it, making
a compasse for fire, with two or three stones, without any other
chimney to convey the smoak away, which spreading it selfe about
the roome filleth the thatch and the rafters so with sut, that all the
roome seemeth to be a chimney. The next unto it, is not free from
smoak and blacknesse, where sometimes are four or five beds
according to the family. The poorer sort have but one room, where
they eat, dresse their meat, and sleep. Few there are that set any
lockes upon their dores, for they fear no robbing nor stealing,
neither have they in their houses much to lose, earthen pots, and
pans, and dishes, and cups to drinke their Chocolatte, being the
chief commodities in their house. There is scarce any house which
hath not also in the yard a stew, wherein they bath themselves with
hot water, which is their chief physick when they feel themselves

distempered. Among themselves they are in every Town divided into
Tribes, which have one chief head, to whom all that belong unto that
Tribe, doe resort in any difficult matters, who is bound to aid,
protect, defend, counsell, and appear for the rest of his Tribe before
the officers of justice in any wrong that is like to be done unto them.
When any is to be married, the father of the son that is to take a
wife out of another Tribe, goeth unto the head of his Tribe to give
him warning of his sons marriage with such a maid. Then that head
meets with the head of the maids Tribe, and they conferre about it.
The businesse commonly is in debate a quarter of a yeer; all which
time the parents of the youth or man are with gifts to buy the maid;
they are to be at the charges of all that is spent in eating and
drinking, when the heads of the two Tribes doe meet with the rest of
the kindred of each side, who sometimes sit in conference a whole
day, or most part of a night. After many dayes and nights thus
spent, and a full triall being made of the one and other sides
affection, if they chance to disagree about the marriage, then is the
Tribe and parents of the maid to restore back all that the other side
hath spent and given. They give no portions with their daughters,
but when they die, their goods and lands are equally divided among
their sons. If any one want a house to live in, or will repair and
thatch his house anew, notice is given to the heads of the Tribes,
who warn all the Town to come to help in the work, and every one is
to bring a bundle of straw, and other materials, so that in one day
with the helpe of many they finish a house, without any charges
more then of Chocolatte, which they minister in great cups as big as
will hold above a pint, not putting in any costly materials, as doe the
Spaniards, but only a little Anniseed, and Chile, or Indian pepper; or
else they halfe fill the cup with Attolle, and powre upon it as much
Chocolatte as will fill the cup and colour it. In their diet the poorer
sort are limited many times to a dish of Frixoles, or Turkey beanes,
either black or white (which are there in very great abundance, and
are kept dry for all the yeer) boyled with Chile; and if they can have
this, they hold themselves well satisfied; with these beanes, they
make also dumplins, first boyling the bean a little, and then mingling
it with a masse of Maiz, as we do mingle Currants in our cakes, and

so boile again the frixoles with the dumplin of Maiz masse, and so
eat it hot, or keep it cold; but this and all whatsoever else they eat,
they either eat it with green biting Chile, or else they dip it in water
and salt, wherein is bruised some of that Chile. But if their means
will not reach to frixoles, their ordinary fare and diet is, their
Tortilla's (so they call thin round cakes made of the dow and Masse
of Maiz) which they eat hot from an earthen pan, whereon they are
soon baked with one turning over the fire; and these they eat alone
either with Chile and salt, and dipping them in water and salt with a
little bruised Chile. When their Maiz is green and tender, they boil
some of those whole stalkes or clusters, whereon the Maiz groweth
with the leaf about, and so casting a little salt about it, they eat it. I
have often eate of this, and found it as dainty as our young green
pease, and very nourishing, but it much increaseth the blood. Also of
this green and tender Maiz they make a Furmity, boiling the Maiz in
some of the milke which they have first taken out of it by bruising it.
The poorest Indian never wants this diet, and is well satisfied, as
long as his belly is thorowly filled. But the poorest that live in such
Townes where flesh meat is sold, will make a hard shift, but that
when they come from worke on Saturday night, they will buy one
halfe Riall, or a Riall worth of fresh meat to eat on the Lords day.
Some will buy a good deal at once, and keep it long by dressing it
into Tassajo's, which are bundles of flesh, rowled up and tied fast;
which they doe, when for examples sake they have from a leg of
beefe sliced off from the bone all the flesh with the knife, after the
length, forme, and thinnesse of a line, or rope. Then they take the
flesh and salt it, (which being sliced and thinly cut, soon takes salt)
and hang it up in their yards like a line from post to post, or from
tree to tree, to the wind for a whole week, and then they hang it in
the smoak another week, and after rowle it up in small bundles,
which become as hard as a stone, and so as they need it, they wash
it, boyl it and eat it. This is America's powdered beef, which they call
Tassajo, whereof I have often eaten, and the Spaniards eat much of
it, especially those that trade about the Countrey with Mules; nay
this Tassajo is a great commodity, and hath made many a Spaniard
rich, who carry a Mule or two loaden with these Tassajo's in small

parcels and bundles to those Townes where is no flesh at all sold,
and there they exchange them for other commodities among the
Indians, receiving peradventure for one Tassajo or bundle, (which
cost them but the halfe part of a farthing) as much Cacao, as in
other places they sell for a Riall or sixpence. The richer sort of
people will fare better, for if there be fish or flesh to bee had, they
will have it, and eat most greedily of it; and will not spare their fowls
and Turkeys from their own bellies. These also will now and then get
a wild Dear, shooting it with their bows and arrows. And when they
have killed it, they let it lie in the wood in some hole or bottom
covered with leaves for the space of about a week, untill it stinke
and begin to be full of wormes; then they bring it home, cut it out
into joynts, and parboil it with an herbe which groweth there
somewhat like unto our Tanzy, which they say sweetneth it again,
and maketh the flesh eat tender, and as white as a peice of Turkey.
Thus parboiled, they hang up the joynts in the smoke for a while,
and then boyle it again, when they eat it, which is commonly
dressed with red Indian pepper; and this is the Venison of America,
whereof I have sometimes eaten, and found it white and short, but
never durst be too bold with it, not that I found any evill taste in it,
but that the apprehension of the wormes and maggots which
formerly had been in it, troubled much my stomack. These Indians
that have little to doe at home, and are not employed in the weekly
service under the Spaniards in their hunting, will looke seriously for
Hedge-hogs, which are just like unto ours, though certainly ours are
not meat for any Christian. They are full of pricks and brisles like
ours, and are found in woods and fields, living in holes, and as they
say feed upon nothing but Amits and their egs, and upon dry rotten
sticks, herbes, and roots; of these they eat much, the flesh being as
white and sweet as a Rabbit, and as fat as is a January hen kept up
and fatted in a Coope. Of this meat I have also eaten, and confesse
it is a dainty dish there, though I will not say the same of a Hedge-
hog here; for what here may be poyson, there may be good and
lawfull meate, by some accidentall difference in the creature it selfe,
and in that which it feeds upon, or in the temper of the air and
climate. This meat not only the Indians but the best of the Spaniards

feed on it; and it is so much esteemed of, that because in Lent they
are commonly found, the Spaniards will not be deprived of it, but do
eat it also then, alleadging that it is no flesh (though in the eating it
be in fatnesse and in taste, and in all like unto flesh) for that it feeds
not upon any thing that is very nourishing, but chiefly upon Amits
egs, and dry sticks. It is a great point of controversie amongst their
Divines, some hold it lawfull, others unlawfull for that time; it seems
the pricks and brisles of the Indian Hedge-hog prick their
consciences with a foolish scruple. Another kind of meat they feed
much on which is called Iguana; of these some are found in the
waters, others upon the land. They are longer then a Rabbit, and
like unto a Scorpion, with some green, some black scales on their
backes. Those upon the land will run very fast, like Lizards, and will
climbe up trees like Squerrils, and breed in the roots of trees or in
stone walls. The sight of them is enough to affright one; and yet
when they are dressed and stewed in broth with a little spice, they
make a dainty broth, and eat also as white as a Rabbit, nay the
middle bone is made just like the backe bone of a Rabbit. They are
dangerous meat, if not throughly boiled, and they had almost cost
mee my life for eating too much of them, not being stewed enough.
There are also many water and land Tortoi's, which the Indians find
out for themselves, and also relish exceeding well unto the
Spaniards palate. As for drinking, the Indians generally are much
given unto it; and drinke if they have nothing else, of their poore
and simple Chocolatte, without Sugar or many compounds, or of
Atolle, untill their bellies bee ready to burst. But if they can get any
drink that will make them mad drunk, they will not give it over as
long as a drop is left, or a penny remaines in their purse to purchase
it. Among themselves they use to make such drinks as are in
operation far stronger then wine, and these they confection in such
great Jarres as come from Spain; wherein they put some little
quantity of water, and fill up the Jar with some Melasso's, or juyce of
the Sugar Cane, or some hony for to sweeten it; then for the
strengthning of it, they put roots and leaves of Tobacco, with other
kinde of roots which grow there, and they know to bee strong in
operation, nay in some places I have known where they have put in

a live Toad, and so closed up the Jarre for a fortnight, or moneths
space, till all that they have put in him, be throughly steeped and
the toad consumed, and the drink well strengthned, then they open
it, and call their friends to the drinking of it, (which commonly they
doe in the night time, lest their Preist in the Towne should have
notice of them in the day) which they never leave off, untill they bee
mad, and raging drunke. This drink they call Chicha, which stinketh
most filthily, and certainly is the cause of many Indians death,
especially where they use the toads poyson with it. Once I was
informed living in Mixco, of a great meeting that was appointed in an
Indians house; and I took with mee the Officers of Justice of the
Town, to search that Indians house, where I found foure Jarres of
Chicha not yet opened, I caused them to be taken out, and broken
in the street before his doore, and the filthy Chicha to be poured
out, which left such a stinking sent in my nostrils, that with the smell
of it, or apprehension of its loathsomenesse, I fell to vomiting, and
continued sick almost a whole week after.
Now the Spaniards knowing this inclination of the Indians unto
drunkennesse, doe herein much abuse and wrong them; though true
it is, there is a strict order, even to the forfeiting of the wine of
anyone who shall presume to sell wine in a Towne of Indians, with a
mony mulct besides. Yet for all this the baser and poorer sort of
Spaniards for their lucre and gaine contemning authority, will goe
out from Guatemala, to the Towns of Indians about, and carry such
wine to sell and inebriate the Natives as may bee very advantagious
to themselves; for of one Jarre of wine, they will make two at least,
confectioning it with hony and water, and other strong drugs which
are cheap to them, and strongly operative upon the poore and weak
Indians heads, and this they will sell for currant Spanish wine, with
such pint and quart measures, as never were allowed by Justice
Order, but by themselves invented. With such wine they soone
intoxicate the poore Indians, and when they have made them drunk,
then they will cheat them more, making them pay double for their
quart measure; and when they see they can drinke no more, then
they will cause them to ly down and sleep, and in the meane while

will pick their pockets. This is a common sinne among those
Spaniards of Guatemala, and much practised in the City upon the
Indians, when they come thither to buy or sell. Those that keep the
Bodegones (so are called the houses that sell wine, which are no
better then a Chandlers shop, for besides wine they sell Candles,
Fish, Salt, Cheese and Bacon) will commonly intice in the Indians,
and make them drunk, and then pick their pockets, and turne them
out of doores with blowes and stripes, if they will not fairly depart.
There was in Guatemala in my time one of these Bodegoners, or
shopkeeper of wine and small ware, named Joan Ramos, who by
thus cheating and tipling poore Indians (as it was generally
reported) was worth two hundred thousand duckates, and in my
time gave with a daughter that was married, eight thousand
Duckats. No Indian should passe by his doore, but he would call him
in, and play upon him as aforesaid. In my time a Spanish Farmer,
neighbour of mine in the Valley of Mixco, chanced to send to
Guatemala his Indian servants with half a dozen mules loaden with
wheat to a Merchant, with whom hee had agreed before for the
price, and ordered the money to bee sent unto him by his servant
(whom hee had kept six yeers, and ever found him trusty) the wheat
being delivered, and the money received (the which mounted to ten
pound, sixteen shillings, every mule carrying six bushels, at twelve
Rials a bushel, as was then the price) the Indian with another Mate
of his walking along the streets to buy some small commodities,
passed by John Ramos his shop, or Bodegon, who enticing him and
his Mate in, soone tripped up their heals with a little confectioned
wine for that purpose, and tooke away all his mony from the
intruded Indian, and beat them out of his house; who thus drunk
being forced to ride home, the Indian that had received the money,
fell from his mule, and broke his neck; the other got home without
his Mate, or money. The Farmer prosecuted John Ramos in the Court
for his money, but Ramos being rich and abler to bribe, then the
Farmer, got off very well, and so had done formerly in almost the like
cases. These are but peccadillo's among those Spaniards, to make
drunke, rob, and occasion the poor Indians death; whose death with
them is no more regarded nor vindicated, then the death of a sheep

or bullock, that falls into a pit. And thus having spoken of apparrell,
houses, eating and drinking, it remaines that I say somewhat of
their civility, and Religion of those who lived under the Government
of the Spaniards. From the Spaniards they have borrowed their Civill
Government, and in all Townes they have one, or two Alcaldes, with
more or lesse Regidores, (who are as Aldermen or Jurates amongst
us) and some Alguaziles, more or lesse, who are as Constables, to
execute the orders of the Alcalde, (who is a Maior) with his Brethren.
In Towns of three or four hundred Families, or upwards, there are
commonly two Alcaldes, six Regidores, two Alguaziles Maiors, and
six under, or petty Alguaziles. And some Towns are priviledged with
an Indian Governour, who is above the Alcaldes, and all the rest of
the Officers. These are changed every yeer by new election, and are
chosen by the Indians themselves, who take their turnes by the
tribes or kindreds, whereby they are divided. Their offices begin on
New-Yeers day, and after that day their election is carryed to the City
of Guatemala (if in that district it bee made) or else to the heads of
Justice, or Spanish Governours of the severall Provinces, who
confirm the new Election, and take account of the last yeers
expences made by the other Officers, who carry with them their
Town-Book of accounts; and therefore for this purpose every Town
hath a Clerk, or Scrivener, called Escrivano, who commonly
continueth many yeers in his office, by reason of the paucity and
unfitnesse of Indian Scriveners, who are able to bears such a
charge. This Clerk hath many fees for his writings and informations,
and accounts, as have the Spaniards, though not so much money or
bribes, but a small matter, according to the poverty of the Indians.
The Governour is also commonly continued many yeers, being some
chief man among the Indians, except for his misdemeanours hee
bee complained of, or the Indians in generall doe all stomack him.
Thus they being setled in a civill way of government, they may
execute justice upon all such Indians of their Town as doe
notoriously and scandalously offend. They may imprison, fine, whip,
and banish, but hang and quarter they may not; but must remit
such cases to the Spanish Governour. So likewise if a Spaniard

passing by the Town, or living in it, doe trouble the peace, and
misdemean himself, they may lay hold on him, and send him to the
next Spanish Justice, with a full information of his offence, but fine
him, or keep him about one night in Prison they may not. This order
they have against Spaniards, but they dare not execute it, for a
whole Town standeth in awe of one Spaniard, and though hee never
so hainously offend, and bee unruly, with oathes, threatnings, and
drawing of his sword, hee maketh them quake and tremble, and not
presume to touch him; for they know if they doe, they shall have the
worst, either by blowes, or by some mis-information, which hee will
give against them. And this hath been very often tried, for where
Indians have by virtue of their order indeavoured to curbe an unruly
Spaniard in their Town, some of them have been wounded, others
beaten, and when they have carried the Spaniard before a Spanish
Justice and Governour, hee hath pleaded for what hee hath done,
saying it was in his owne defence, or for his King and Sovereign, and
that the Indians would have killed him, and began to mutiny all
together against the Spanish Authority, and Government, denying to
serve him with what hee needed for his way and journey; that they
would not bee slaves to give him or any Spaniard any attendance;
and that they would make an end of him, and of all the Spaniards.
With these and such like false and lying mis-informations, the unruly
Spaniards have often been beleeved, and too much upheld in their
rude and uncivill misdemeanors, and the Indians bitterly curbed, and
punished, and answer made them in such cases, that if they had
been killed for their mutiny and rebellion against the King, and his
best subjects they had beene served well enough; and that if they
gave not attendance unto the Spaniard, that passed by their Town,
their houses should bee fired, and they and their children utterly
consumed. With such like answers from the Justices, and credency
to what any base Spaniard shall inform against them, the poore
Indians are fain to put up all wrongs done unto them, not daring to
meddle with any Spaniard, bee hee never so unruly, by virtue of that
Order, which they have against them. Amongst themselves, if any
complaint be made against any Indian, they dare not meddle with
him untill they call all his kindred, and especially the head of that

Tribe, to which hee belongeth; who if hee and the rest together, find
him to deserve imprisonment, or whipping, or any other punishment,
then the Officers of Justice, the Alcaldes or Maiors, and their
Brethren the Jurates inflict upon him that punishment; which all shall
agree upon. But yet after judgment and sentence given, they have
another, which is their last appeale, if they please, and that is to
their Priest, and Fryer, who liveth in their Town, by whom they will
sometimes bee judged, and undergoe what punishment hee shall
think fittest. To the Church therefore they often resort in points of
Justice, thinking the Preist knoweth more of Law and equity, then
themselves; who sometimes reverseth what judgement hath been
given in the Town house, blaming the Officers for their partiality and
passion against their poore Brother, and setting free the party
judged by them; which the Preist does oftentimes, if such an Indian
doe belong to the Church, or to the service of their house, or have
any other relation to them, peradventure for their wives sake, whom
either they affect, or imploy in washing, or making their Chocolatte.
Such, and their husbands may live lawlesse as long as the Preist is in
the Town. And if when the Preist is absent, they call them to triall for
any misdemeanor, and whip, fine, or imprison, (which occasion they
will sometimes pick out on purpose) when the Preist returnes, they
shall bee sure to heare of it, and smart for it, yea, and the Officers
themselves peradventure bee whipped in the Church, by the Preists
order and appointment; against whom they dare not speake, but
willingly accept what stripes and punishment hee layeth upon them,
judging his wisdome, sentence, and punishing hand, the wisdome,
sentence and hand of God; whom as they have been taught to be
over all Princes, Judges, worldly Officers, so likewise they beleeve,
(and have been so taught) that his Preists and Ministers are above
theirs, and all worldly power and authority. It happened unto mee
living in the Town of Mixco, that an Indian being judged to bee
whipped for some disorders, which hee committed, would not yeeld
to the sentence, but apealed to mee, saying hee would have his
stripes in the Church, and by my order, for so hee said his whipping
would doe him good, as comming from the hand of God. When hee
was brought unto mee, I could not reverse the Indians judgment,

for it was just, and so caused him to be whipped, which hee tooke
very patiently and merrily, and after kissed my hands and gave mee
an offering of mony for the good hee said, I had done unto his
soule. Besides this civility of justice amongst them, they live as in
other Civill and Politick and well governed Common-wealths; for in
most of their Townes, there are some that professe such trades as
are practised among Spaniards. There are amongst them Smiths,
Taylors, Carpenters, Masons, Shoomakers, and the like. It was my
fortune to set upon a hard and difficult building in a Church of
Mixco, where I desired to make a very broad and capacious vault
over the Chappell, which was the harder to bee finished in a round
circumference, because it depended upon a triangle, yet for this
work I sought none but Indians, some of the Town, some from other
places, who made it so compleat, that the best & skilfullest workmen
among the Spaniards had enough to wonder at it. So are most of
their Churches vaulted on the top, and all by Indians; they onely in
my time built a new Cloister in the Town of Amatitlan, which they
finished with many Arches of stone both in the lower walks and in
the upper galleries, with as much perfection as the best Cloister of
Guatemala, had before beene built by the Spaniard. Were they more
incouraged by the Spaniards, and taught better principles both for
soule and body, doubtlesse they would among themselves make a
very good Common-wealth. For painting they are much inclined to it,
and most of the pictures, and Altars of the Country Townes are their
workmanship. In most of their Townes they have a Schoole, where
they are taught to read, to sing, and some to write. To the Church
there doe belong according as the Town is in bignesse, so many
Singers, and Trumpeters, and Waits, over whom the Preist hath one
Officer, who is called Fiscal; he goeth with a white Staffe with a little
Silver Crosse on the top to represent the Church, and shew that he
is the Preists Clerk and Officer. When any case is brought to be
examined by the Preist, this Fiscall or Clerk executeth Justice by the
Preists Order. He must be one that can read & write, and is
commonly the Master of Musick. He is bound upon the Lords Day
and other Saints dayes, to gather to the Church before and after
Service all the yong youths, and maids, and to teach them the

Prayers, Sacraments, Commandements, and other points of
Catechisme allowed by the Church of Rome. In the morning hee and
the other Musicians at the sound of the Bell, are bound to come to
Church to sing and officiate at Masse, which in many Townes they
performe with Organs and other musicall Instruments, (as hath
beene observed before) as well as Spaniards. So likewise at Evening
at five of the clock they are again to resort to the Church, when the
Bell calleth, to sing Prayers, which they call Completa's, or
Completory, with Salve Regina, a prayer to the Virgin Mary. This
Fiscal is a great man in the Town, and beares more sway then the
Majors, Jurates, and other Officers of Justice, and when the Preist is
pleased, giveth attendance to him, goeth about his arrants,
appointeth such as are to wait on him, when hee rideth out of Town.
Both hee and all that doth belong unto the Church, are exempted
from the common weekely service of the Spaniards, and from giving
attendance to Travellers, and from other Officers of Justice. But they
are to attend with their Waits, Trumpets, and Musick, upon any great
man or Preist that cometh to their Town, and to make Arches with
boughes and flowers in the streets for their entertainment. Besides
these, those also that doe belong unto the service of the Preists
house, are priviledged from the Spaniards service. Now the Preist
hath change of servants by the week, who take their turnes so, that
they may have a weeke or two to spare to doe their work. If it bee a
great Town, hee hath three Cookes allowed him, (if a small Town,
but two) men Cookes who change their turnes, except hee have any
occasion of feasting, then they all come. So likewise hee hath two or
three more (whom they call Chahal) as Butlers, who keepe
whatsoever Provision is in the house under lock and Key; and give to
the Cooke what the Preist appointeth to bee dressed for his dinner,
or supper; these keep the Table Clothes, Napkins, Dishes, and
Trenchers, and lay the Cloth, and take away, and wait at the Table;
hee hath besides three or foure, and in great Towns half a dozen of
boyes to doe his arrants, wait at the Table, and sleep in the house all
the week by their turnes, who with the Cookes and Butlers dine and
sup constantly in the Preists house, and at his charges. Hee hath
also at dinner and supper times the attendance of some old women

(who also take their turnes) to oversee half a dozen yong maids,
who next to the Priests house doe meet to make him, and his family
Tortilla's or Cakes of Maiz, which the boyes doe bring hot to the
Table by halfe a dozen at a time. Besides these servants, if hee have
a Garden hee is allowed two or three gardeners; and for his stable,
at least half a dozen Indians, who morning and evening are to bring
him Sacate (as there they call it) or herb and grasse for his Mules or
Horses, these diet not in the house; but the groome of the stable,
who is to come at morning, noone, and Evening, (and therefore are
three or foure to change) or at any time that the Preist will ride out;
these I say and the Gardners (when they are at work) dine and sup
at the Priests charges; who sometimes in great Townes hath above a
dozen to feed and provide for. There are besides belonging to the
Church priviledged from the weekly attendance upon the Spaniards
two or three Indians, called Sacristanes, who have care of the Vestry
and Copes, and Altar Clothes, and every day make ready the Altar or
Altars for Masse; also to every Company or Sodality of the Saints, or
Virgin, there are two or three, whom they call Mayordomo's, who
gather about the Towne Almes for the maintaining of the Sodality;
these also gather Egges about the Town for the Preist every week,
and give him an account of their gatherings, and allow him every
moneth, or fortnight, two Crownes for a Masse to bee sung to the
Saint.
If there be any fishing place neer the Town, then the Preist also is
allowed for to seek him fish three or foure, and in some places half a
dozen Indians, besides the offerings in the Church, and many other
offerings which they bring whensoever they come to speak unto the
Preist, or to confesse with him, or for a Saints feast to bee
celebrated, and besides their Tithes of every thing, there is a
monethly maintenance in money allowed unto the Preist, and
brought unto him by the Alcaldes, or Maiors, and Jurates, which he
setteth his hand unto in a book of the Townes expences. This
maintenance (though it be allowed by the Spanish magistrate, and
paid in the Kings name for the preaching of the Gospel) yet it comes
out of the poor Indians purses and labour, and is either gathered

about the Town, or taken out of the Tribute, which they pay unto the
King, or from a common plat of ground which with the help of all is
sowed and gathered in and sold for that purpose. All the Townes in
America, which are civilized and under the Spanish government,
belong either to the Crowne, or to some other Lords, whom they cal
Encomendero's, and pay a yeerly tribute unto them. Those that are
tenants to their Lords or Encomendero's (who commonly are such as
descend from the first conquerors) pay yet unto the King some small
tribute in mony, besides what they pay in other kind of commodities
unto their owne Encomendero, and in mony also. There is no Town
so poor, where every married Indian doth not pay at the least in
mony four Rials a yeer for tribute to the King, besides other four
Rials to his Lord, or Encomendero. And if the Town pay only to the
King, they pay at least six, and in some places eight Rials by statute,
besides what other commodities are common to the Town or
Country where they live, as Maiz, (that is paid in all Townes) hony,
Turkeys, fowles, salt, Cacao, Mantles of Cotton-wool; and the like
commodities they pay who are subject to an Encomendero; but such
pay only mony, not commodities to the King. The Mantles of tribute
are much esteemed of, for they are choise ones, and of a bigger
size, then others, so likewise is the tribute Cacao, Achiotte, Cochinil,
where it is paid; for the best is set apart for the tribute; and if the
Indians bring that which is not prime good, they shall surely be
lashed, and sent backe for better. The heads of the severall Tribes
have care to gather it, and to deliver it to the Alcaldes and
Regidores, Maiors and Jurates, who carry it either to the Kings
Exchequer in the City, or to the neerest Spanish Justice (if it belong
to the King) or to the Lord, or Encomendero of the Towne. In
nothing I ever perceived the Spaniards mercifull and indulgent unto
the Indians, but in this, that if an Indian bee very weak, poore, and
sickly and not able to work, or threescore and ten yeers of age, he is
freed from paying any tribute. There be also some Towns priviledged
from this tribute; which are those that can prove themselves to have
descended from Tlaxcallan, or from certaine Tribes or families of or
about Mexico, who helped the first Spaniards in the conquest of that
Country. As for their carriage and behaviour, the Indians are very

courteous and loving, and of a timorous nature, and willing to serve
and to obey, and to doe good, if they be drawn by love; but where
they are too much tyrannized, they are dogged, unwilling to please,
or to worke, and will choose rather strangling and death then life.
They are very trusty, and never were known to commit any robbery
of importance; so that the Spaniards dare trust to abide with them in
a wildernesse all night, though they have bags of gold about them.
So for secrecy they are very close; and will not reveal any thing
against their own Natives, or a Spaniards credit and reputation, if
they be any way affected to him. But above all unto their Preist they
are very respective unto him; and when they come to speak unto
him; put on their best clothes, study their complements and words
to please him. They are very abundant in their expressions, and full
of circumloquutions adorned with parables and simile's to expresse
their mind and intention. I have often sate still for the space of an
houre, onely hearing some old women make their speeches unto
me, with so many elegancies in their tongue (which in English would
be non-sense, or barbarous expressions) as would make me wonder,
and learne by their speeches more of their language, then by any
other endeavour or study of mine owne. And if I could reply unto
them in the like phrases and expressions (which I would often
endeavour) I should be sure to win their hearts, and get any thing
from them. As for their Religion, they are outwardly such as the
Spaniards, but inwardly hard to beleeve that which is above sense,
nature, and the visible sight of the eye; and many of them to this
day doe incline to worship Idols of stocks and stones, and are given
to much superstition, and to observe crosse waies, and meeting of
beasts in them, the flying of birds, their appearing and singing neer
their houses at such and such times. Many are given to witchcraft,
and are deluded by the devill to beleeve that their life dependeth
upon the life of such and such a beast (which they take unto them
as their familiar spirit) and think that when that beast dieth they
must die; when he is chased, their hearts pant, when he is faint they
are faint; nay it happeneth that by the devils delusion they appear in
the shape of that Beast, (which commonly by their choice is a Buck,
or Doe, a Lion, or Tigre, or Dog, or Eagle) and in that shape have

been shot at and wounded, as I shall shew in the Chapter following.
And for this reason (as I came to understand by some of them) they
yeeld unto the Popish Religion, especially to the worshiping of Saints
Images, because they looke upon them as much like unto their
forefathers Idols; and secondly, because they see some of them
painted with Beasts; as Hierom with a Lion, Anthony with an Asse,
and other wild Beasts, Dominick with a Dog, Blas with a Hog, Mark
with a Bull, and John with an Eagle, they are more confirmed in their
delusions, and thinke verily those Saints were of their opinion, and
that those beasts were their familiar spirits, in whose shape they
also were transformed when they lived, and with whom they died.
All Indians are much affected unto these Popish Saints, but
especially those which are given to witchcraft, and out of the
smalnesse of their means they will be sure to buy some of these
Saints and bring them to the Church, that there they may stand and
be worshipped by them and others. The Churches are full of them,
and they are placed upon standers gilded or painted, to be carried in
procession upon mens shoulders, upon their proper day. And from
hence cometh no little profit to the Preists; for upon such Saints
daies, the owner of the Saint maketh a great feast in the Towne, and
presenteth unto the Preist sometimes two or three, sometimes four
or five crownes for his Masse and Sermon, besides a Turkey and
three or four fowls, with as much Cacao as will serve to make him
Chocolatte for all the whole Octave or eight daies following. So that
in some Churches, where there are at least fourty of these Saints
Statues and Images, they bring unto the Preist at least fourty
pounds a yeer. The Preist therefore is very watchfull over those
Saints daies, and sendeth warning before hand unto the Indians of
the day of their Saint, that they may provide themselves for the
better celebrating it both at home and in the Church. If they
contribute not bountifully, then the Preist will chide, and threaten
that he will not preach. Some Indians through poverty have been
unwilling to contribute any thing at all, or to solemnize in the Church
and at his house his Saints day, but then the Preist hath threatned to
cast his Saints image out of the Church, saying, that the Church
ought not to be filled with such Saints as are unprofitable to soul

and body, and that in such a statues room one may stand, which
may doe more good by occasioning a solemn celebration of one day
more in the yeer. So likewise if the Indian that owned one of those
images die and leave children, they are to take care of that Saint as
part of their inheritance, and to provide that his day be kept; but if
no son, or heirs be left, then the Preist calleth for the heads of the
severall Tribes, and for the chief officers of justice, and maketh a
speech unto them, wherein he declareth that part of the Church
ground is taken up in vain by such an image, and his stander,
without any profit either to the Preist, the Church, or the town, no
heir or owner being left alive to provide for that orphan Saint, to
owne it; and that in case they will not seek out who may take
charge of him, and of his day, the Preist will not suffer him to stand
idle in his Church, like those whom our Saviour in the Gospel
rebuked, quid hic statis tota die otiosi? for that they stood idle in the
market all the day (these very expressions have I heard there from
some Friers) and therefore that he must banish such a Saints picture
out of the Church, and must deliver him up before them into the
Justices hands to be kept by them in the Town-house, untill such
time as he may be bought and owned by some good Christian. The
Indians when they hear these expressions, begin to feare, lest some
judgement may befall their Town for suffering a Saint to be
excommunicated and cast out of their Church, and therefore present
unto the Preist some offering for his prayers unto the Saint, that he
may doe them no harme, and desire him to limit them a time to
bring him an answer for the disposing of that Saint (thinking it will
prove a disparagement and affront unto their Town, if what once
hath belonged to the Church, be now out, and delivered up to the
secular power) and that in the mean time, they will find out some
good Christian, either of the neerest friends and kindred to him or
them who first owned the Saint, or else some stranger, who may buy
that Saint of the Preist (if he continue in the Church) or of the
secular power (if he be cast out of the Church and delivered up unto
them, which they are unwilling to yeeld to, having been taught of
judgements in such a case like to befall them) and may by some
speedy feast and solemnity appease the Saints anger towards them,

for having been so sleighted by the Town. Alas poore Indians, what
will they not be brought unto by those Friers and Preists, who study
nothing more than their own ends, and to enrich themselves from
the Church and Altar! their policies (who are the wise and prudent
children of this world spoken of in the Gospel) can easily overtop
and master the simplicity of the poor Indians; who rather then they
will bring an affront upon their Towne, by suffering any of their
Saints to be cast out of their Church, or to be with mony redeemed
out of the secular powers hands, will make hast to present unto him
an owner of that orphan Saint, who for him shall give to the Preist
not only what he may be prized to be worth in a Painters shop for
the workmanship, gold and colours belonging to him; but besides
shall present him what before hath been observed, for the
solemnizing of his Feast. These feasts bring yet unto the Saints more
profit then hitherto hath been spoken of; for the Indians have been
taught that upon such daies they ought to offer up somewhat unto
the Saints; and therefore they prepare either mony (some a Riall,
some two, some more) or else commonly about Guatemala white
wax-candles, and in other places Cacao, or fruits, which they lay
before the image of the Saint, whilst the Masse is celebrating. Some
Indians will bring a bundle of candles of a dozen tied together of
Rials a peice some, some of three or four for a Riall, and will if they
be let alone light them all together and burne them out, so that the
Preist at the end of the Masse will find nothing but the ends.
Therefore (knowing well of the waies of policy and covetousnesse)
he chargeth the Church officers, whom I said before were called
Mayordomo's to looke to the offerings, and not to suffer the Indians
who bring candles to light more then one before the Saint, and to
leave the other before him unlighted (having formerly taught them,
that the Saints are as well pleased with their whole candles as with
their burnt candles) that so hee may have the more to sell and make
mony of. After Masse the Preist and the Mayordomo's take and
sweep away from the Saint whatsoever they find hath been offered
unto him; so that sometimes in a great Towne upon such a Saints
day the Preist may have in mony twelve or twenty Rials, and fifty or
a hundred candles, which may be worth unto him twenty or thirty

shillings, besides some ends and pieces. Most of the Friers about
Guatemala are with these offerings as wel stored with candles, as is
any Wax-chandlers shop in the City. And the same candles, which
thus they have received by offerings they need not care to sell them
away to Spaniards, who come about to buy them (though some will
rather sell them together to such though cheaper, that their mony
might come in all at once) for the Indians themselves when they
want again any candles for the like feast, or for a Christening, and
for a womans Churching (at which times they also offer candles) will
buy their own againe of the Preist, who sometimes receiveth the
same candles and mony for them again five or six times. And
because they find that the Indians incline very much to this kind of
offerings, and that they are so profitable unto them, the Friers doe
much presse upon the Indians in their preaching this point of their
Religion, and devotion. But if you demand of these ignorant, but
zealous offerers the Indians an account of any point of faith, they
will give you little or none. The mystery of the Trinity, and of the
incarnation of Christ, and our redemption by him is too hard for
them; they will only answer what they have been taught in a
Catechisme of questions and answers; but if you ask them if they
beleeve such a point of Christianity, they will never answer
affirmatively, but only thus, Perhaps it may be so. They are taught
there the doctrin of Rome, that Christs body is truely and really
present in the Sacrament, and no bread in substance, but only the
accidents; if the wisest Indian be asked, whether he beleeve this, he
will answer, Perhaps it may be so. Once an old woman, who was
held to be very religious, in the Town of Mixco, came to me about
receiving the Sacrament, and whilst I was instructing of her, I asked
her if she beleeved that Christ body was in the Sacrament, she
answered, Peradventure it may be so. A little while after to try her
and get her out of this strain and common answer, I asked her what
& who was in the Sacrament which she received from the Preists
hand at the Altar; she answered nothing for a while, and at last I
pressed upon her for an affirmative answer; and then she began to
looke about to the Saints in the Church, (which was dedicated to a
Saint which they call St. Dominick) and, as it seemed, being troubled

and doubtful what to say, at last she cast her eyes upon the high
Altar, but I seeing she delayed the time, asked her again who was in
the Sacrament? to which she replyed S. Dominick who was the
Patron of that Church and Town. At this I smiled, and would yet
further try her simplicity with a simple question. I told her she saw
S. Dominick was painted with a dog by him holding a torch in his
mouth, and the globe of the world at his feet; I asked her, whether
all this were with St. Dominick in the Sacrament? To which she
answered, Perhaps it might be so; wherewith I began to chide her,
and to instruct her. But mine instruction, nor all the teaching and
preaching of those Spanish Preists hath not yet well grounded them
in principles of faith; they are dull and heavie to beleeve or
apprehend of God, or of heaven, more then with sense or reason
they can conceive. Yet they goe and run that way they see the
Spaniards run, and as they are taught by their idolatrous Preists.
Who have taught them much formality, and so they are (as our
Formalists formerly in England) very formall, but little substantiall in
Religion. They have been taught that when they come to confession,
they must offer somewhat to the Preist, and that by their gifts and
almes, their sins shall be sooner forgiven; this they doe so formally
observe, that, whensoever they come to confession, but especially in
Lent, none of them dareth to come with empty hands; some bring
mony, some honey, some egs, some fowls, some fish, some Cacao,
some one thing, some another, so that the Preist hath a plentifull
harvest in Lent for his pains in hearing their Confessions. They have
been taught that also when they receive the Communion, they must
surely every one give at least a Riall to the Preist, (surely England
was never taught in America to buy the Sacrament with a two pence
offering, and yet this custome too much practised and pressed upon
the people) which they performe so, that I have known some poor
Indians, who have for a week or two forborne from coming to the
Communion untill they could get a Riall offering. It is to be wondred
what the Preists doe get from those poore wretches in great Towns
by Confession and Communion Rials in great Townes, where they
denie the Sacrament to none that will receive it, (and in some
Townes I have knowne a thousand Communicants) and force all

above twelve or thirteen yeers of age to come to Confession in the
Lent. They are very formall also in observing Romes Monday,
Thursday, and good-Friday, and then they make their monuments
and sepulchres, wherein they set their Sacrament, and watch it all
day and night, placing before it a Crucifix on the ground, with two
basins on each side to hold the single or double Rials, which every
one must offer when he cometh creeping upon his knees, and bare-
footed to kisse Christs hands, feet, and side. The candles which for
that day and night and next morning are burned at the sepulchre
are bought with another Contribution-Riall, which is gathered from
house to house from every Indian for that purpose. Their Religion is
a dear and lick-penny religion for such poor Indians, and yet they
are carried along in it formally and perceive it not. They are taught
that they must remember the souls in Purgatory, and therefore that
they must cast their almes into a chest, which standeth for that
purpose in their Churches, whereof the Preist keepeth the key, and
openeth it when he wanteth mony, or when he pleaseth. I have
often opened some of those chests; and have found in them many
single Rials, some halfe pieces of eight, and some whole pieces of
eight. And because what is lost and found in the high-waies, must
belong to some body, if the true owner be not knowne, they have
been taught that such monies or goods belong also to the soules
departed; wherefore the Indians (surely more for fear or vanities
sake that they may be well thought on by the Preist) if they find any
thing lost will bestow it upon the soules surer then the Spaniards
themselves (who if they find a purse lost will keep it,) and will bring
it either to the Preist or cast it into the chest. An Indian of Mixco had
found a patacon or peece of eight in a high-way, and when he came
to Confession, he gave it unto me telling me he durst not keep it,
lest the soules should appear unto him, and demand it. So upon the
second day of November which they call All soules day, they are
extraordinary foolish and superstitious in offering monies, fowles,
egs and Maiz, and other commodities for the soules good, but it
proves for the profit of the Preist, who after Masse wipes away to his
chamber all that which the poore gulled and deluded Indians had
offered unto those soules, which needed neither mony, food, nor any

other provision, and he fills his purse, and pampers his belly with it.
A Frier that lived in Petapa boasted unto me once that upon their All
Soules day, his offerings had been about a hundred Rials, two
hundred Chickens and fowls, half a dozen Turkeyes, eight bushels of
Maiz, three hundred egs, four sontles of Cacao, (every sontle being
four hundred granes) twenty clusters of plantins, above a hundred
wax candles, besides some loaves of bread, and other trifles of
fruits. All which being summed up according to the price of the
things there, and with consideration of the coyn of mony there (halfe
a Ryall or three pence being there the least coyn) mounts to above
eight pounds of our money, a faire and goodly stipend for a Masse,
brave wages for halfe an houres work; a politick ground for that
Error of Purgatory, if the dead bring to the living Preist such wealth
in one day onely. Christmas day with the rest of those holy daies is
no lesse superstitiously observed by these Indians; for against that
time they frame and set in some corner of their Church a little
thatched house like a stall, which they call Bethlehem, with a blazing
Starre over, pointing it unto the three Sage wise men from the East;
within this stall they lay in a Crib, a child made of wood, painted and
guilded (who represents Christ new borne unto them) by him stands
Mary on the one side, and Joseph on the other, and an Asse likewise
on the one side and an oxe on the other, made by hands, the three
wise men of the East kneel before the Crib offering gold,
Frankincense and Myrrhe, the shepheards stand aloof off offering
their Country gifts, some a Kid, some a Lambe, some Milk, some
Cheese, and Curds, some fruits, the fields are also there represented
with flocks of Sheep and Goats; the Angels they hang about the stall
some with Vialls, some with Lutes, some with Harps, a goodly
mumming and silent stage play, to draw those simple souls to look
about, and to delight their senses and fantasies in the Church.
There is not an Indian that cometh to see that supposed Bethlehem
(and there is not any in the Town but doth come to see it) who
bringeth not either money or somewhat else for his offering. Nay the
policy of the Preists hath been such, that (to stirre up the Indians
with their Saints example) they have taught them to bring their

Saints upon all the holy dayes, untill Twelfth day in Procession unto
this Bethlehem to offer their gifts, according to the number of the
Saints that stand in the Church, some daies there come five, some
daies eight, some daies ten, dividing them into such order, that by
Twelfth day all may have come and offered, some money, some one
thing, some another; The owner of the Saint, hee cometh before the
Saint with his friends and kindred (if there bee no sodality or
company belonging unto that Saint) and being very well apparelled
for that purpose, he bowes himselfe and kneels to the Crib, and then
rising takes from the Saint what hee bringeth and leaveth it there,
and so departs. But if there be a sodality belonging to the Saint,
then the Mayordomo's or chief Officers of that company they come
before the Saint, and doe homage, and offer as before hath been
said. But upon Twelfth day the Alcaldes, Maiors, Jurates, and other
Officers of Justice, must offer after the example of the Saints, and
the three Wise men of the East (whom the Church of Rome teacheth
to have been Kings) because they represent the Kings power and
authority. And all these daies they have about the Town and in the
Church a dance of Shepheards, who at Christmas Eve at midnight
begin before this Bethlehem, and then they must offer a Sheep
amongst them. Others dance clothed like Angels and with wings,
and all to draw the people more to see sights in the Church, then to
worship God in Spirit and in Truth. Candlemas day is no lesse
superstitiously observed; for then the picture of Mary comes in
procession to the Altar, and offereth up her Candles and Pigeons, or
Turtle-Doves unto the Preist, and all the Town must imitate her
example, and bring their Candles to be blessed and hallowed; of
foure or five, or as many as they bring, one onely shall bee restored
back unto them, because they are blessed, all the rest are for the
Preist, to whom the Indians resort after to buy them, and give more
then ordinary, because they are hallowed Candles. At Whitsontide
they have another sight, and that is in the Church also, whilst a
Hymne is sung of the Holy Ghost, the Preist standing before the
Altar with his face turned to the people, they have a device to let fall
a Dove from above over his head well dressed with flowers, and for
above half an houre, from holes made for that purpose, they drop

down flowers about the Preist shewing the gifts of the holy Ghost to
him, which example the ignorant and simple Indians are willing to
imitate, offering also their gifts unto him. Thus all the yeer are those
Preists and Fryers deluding the poore people for their ends,
enriching themselves with their gifts, placing Religion in meer Policy;
and thus doth the Indians Religion consist more in sights, shewes
and formalities, then in any true substance. But as sweet meat must
have sowre sawce; so this sweetnesse and pleasing delight of
shewes in the Church hath its sowre sawce once a yeer (besides the
sowrenesse of poverty which followeth to them by giving so many
gifts unto the Preist) for, to shew that in their Religion there is some
bitterness, & sowrenesse, they make the Indians whip themselves
the weeke before Easter, like the Spaniards, which those simples
both men and women perform with such cruelty to their owne flesh,
that they butcher it, mangle and teare their backs, till some swound,
nay some (as I have known) have died under their own whipping,
and have selfe murthered themselves, which the Preists regard not,
because their death is sure to bring them at least three or foure
Crownes for a Masse for their soules, and other offerings of their
friends.
Thus in Religion they are superstitiously led on, and blinded in the
observance of what they have been taught more for the good and
profit of their Preists, then for any good of their soules, not
perceiving that their Religion is a Policy to inrich their teachers. But
not onely doe the Fryers and Preists live by them and eat the sweat
of their browes; but also all the Spaniards, who not onely with their
worke and service (being themselves many given to idlenesse) grow
wealthy and rich; but with needlesse offices, and authority are still
fleecing them, and taking from them that little which they gaine with
much hardnesse and severity.
The President of Guatemala, the Judges of that Chancery, the
Governours and High Justices of other parts of the Country, that
they may advance and inrich their meniall servants, make the poor
Indians the subject of their bountifulnesse towards such. Some have
offices to visit as often as they please their Towns, and to see what

every Indian hath sowed of Maiz, for the maintenance of his wife
and children; Others visit them to see what fowles they keepe for
the good and store of the County; others have order to see whether
their houses bee decently kept and their beds orderly placed
according to their Families; others have power to call them out to
mend and repaire the high wayes, and others have Commission to
number the Families and Inhabitants of the severall Townes, to see
how they increase that their Tribute may not decrease, but still bee
raised. And all this, those officers doe never perform but so, that for
their pains they must have from every Indian an allowance to bear
their charges, (which indeed are none at all) for as long as they stay
in the Town, they may call for what fowles and provision they please
without paying for it. When they come to number the Townes, they
call by list every Indian and cause his children, sonnes and
daughters to be brought before them, to see if they bee fit to be
married; and if they be of growth and age, and bee not married, the
fathers are threatned for keeping them unmarried, and as idle livers
in the Towne without paying tribute; and according to the number of
the sonnes and daughters that are marriageable, the fathers tribute
is raised and increased, untill they provide husbands and wives for
their sons and daughters, who as soone as they are married, are
charged with tribute; which that it may increase, they will suffer
none above fifteen yeers of age to live unmarried; Nay the set time
of age of marriage appointed for the Indians, is at fourteen yeers for
the man, and thirteene for the woman, alleadging that they are
sooner ripe for the fruit of Wedlock, and sooner ripe in knowledge
and malice, and strength for worke and service, then are any other
people. Nay sometimes they force them to marry who are scarce
twelve and thirteene yeeres of age, if they find them well limbed,
and strong in body, explicating a point of one of Romes Canons,
which alloweth fourteene and fifteen yeers, nisi malitia suppleat
ætatem. When I my selfe lived in Pinola, that Town by order of Don
Juan de Guzman, (a great Gentleman of Guatemala, to whom it
belonged) was numbred, and an increase of tributary Indians was
added unto it by this meanes. The numbring it lasted a full week,
and in that space I was commanded to joyne in marriage neer

twenty couple, which, with those that before had been married since
the last numbring of it, made up to the Encomendero or Lord of it an
increase of about fifty Families. But it was a shame to see how
young some were that at that time were forced to marriage, neither
could al my striving and reasoning prevail to the contrary, nor the
producing of the Register Book to shew their age, but that some
were married of between twelve and thirteene yeers of age, and one
especially who in the Register booke was found to bee not fully of
twelve yeers, whose knowledge and strength of body was judged to
supply the want of age. In this manner even in the most free act of
the will, (which ought to bee in marriage) are those poore Indians,
forced and made slaves by the Spaniards, to supply with tribute the
want of their purses, and the meannesse of their Estates. Yet under
this yoke and burden they are cheerfull, and much given to feasting,
sporting and dancing, as they particularly shew in the chief feasts of
their Townes, which are kept upon that Saints day to whom their
Town is dedicated. And certainly this superstition hath continued also
in England from the Popish times, to keep Faires in many of our
Towns upon Saints dayes (which is the intent of the Papists to draw
in the people and country by way of commerce and trading one with
another, to honor, worship, and pray to that Saint, to whom the
Town is dedicated) or else why are our Faires commonly kept upon
John Baptist, James, Peter, Matthew, Bartholomew, Holy Rood, Lady
dayes, and the like, and not as well a day or two before, or a day or
two after, which would bee as good and fit dayes to buy and sell, as
the other? True it is, our Reformation alloweth not the worshipping
of Saints, yet that solemne meeting of the people to Fairs and mirth,
and sport upon those daies it hath kept and continued, that so the
Saints and their dayes may bee and continue still in our
remembrance. There is no Town in the India's great or small (though
it be but of twenty Families) which is not dedicated thus unto our
Lady or unto some Saint, and the remembrance of that Saint is
continued in the mindes not onely of them that live in the Towne,
but of all that live farre and neere by commercing, trading, sporting,
and dancing, offering unto the Saint, and bowing, kneeling, and
praying before him. Before this day day cometh, the Indians of the

Town two or three Moneths have their meetings at night, and
prepare themselves for such dances as are most commonly used
amongst them; and in these their meetings they drinke much both
of Chocolatte and Chicha. For every kind of dance they have severall
houses appointed, and masters of that dance, who teach the rest
that they may bee perfected in it against the Saints day. For the
most part of these two or three moneths the silence of the night is
unquieted, what with their singing, what with their hollowing, what
with their beating upon the shels of fishes, what with their Waits,
and what with their piping. And when the feast cometh, then they
act publikely, and for the space of eight dayes, what privately they
had practised before. They are that day well apparelled with silkes,
fine linnen, ribbands and feathers according to the dance; which first
they begin in the Church before the Saint, or in the Church yard, and
from thence all the Octave, or eight dayes they goe from house to
house dancing, where they have Chocolatte or some heady drink or
Chicha given them. All those eight daies the Towne is sure to bee full
of drunkards; and if they bee reprehended for it; they will answer,
that their heart doth rejoyce with their Saint in heaven, and that
they must drinke unto him, that hee may remember them. The chief
dance used amongst them is called Toncontin, which hath been
danced before the King of Spain, in the Court of Madrid by
Spaniards, who have lived in the India's to shew unto the King
somewhat of the Indians fashions; and it was reported to have
pleased the King very much. This dance is thus performed. The
Indians commonly that dance it (if it bee a great Towne) are thirty or
forty, or fewer, if it be a small Town. They are clothed in white, both
their dublets, linnen drawers, and Aiates, or towels, which on the
one side hang almost to the ground. Their drawers and Aiates are
wrought with some workes of Silk, or with birds, or bordered with
some Lace. Others procure dublets and drawers and Aiates of Silk,
all which are hired for that purpose. On their backs they hang long
tuffes of feathers of all colours, which with glew are fastned into a
little frame made for the purpose, and guilded on the outside; this
frame with Ribbands they tie about their shoulders fast that it fall
not, nor slacken with the motion of their bodies. Upon their heads

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Energy And Environment In India The Politics Of A Chronic Crisis Johannes Urpelainen

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Energy And Environment In India The Politics Of A Chronic Crisis Johannes Urpelainen

About This Presentation

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