The year 2019 marked the bicentenary of British contact with the indigenous people of the Nilgiri Hills, in south India. This contact was initiated by John Sullivan, a local official from Coimbatore, who over a few years founded the town of Ootacamund from scratch.
Interestingly, and contrary to many accounts of colonial expansion, there is no indication anyone here was harmed by the outsiders, let alone enslaved or killed. Thus south India's first hill station came into being, in 1821.
The Nilgiris District is a bare 1,000 square miles in extent, yet it remains one of the most heavily researched areas of India. This volume brings together new articles from writers and scholars, including ecologists, filmmakers and a musicologist, local writers and overseas experts, on topics that have never before been examined:
These fresh topics add to our understanding of this mountainous area; and stunning photographs, both historical and of the modern day, complement the chapters to bring the region alive.
Paul Hockings is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at the University of Illinois, and also Editor-in-Chief of Visual Anthropology.
List of Images, Figures and Maps List of Plates List of Abbreviations A Timeline of Nilgiri Modernisation Preface
PART I: PROLOGUE
1. The Eve of the Modern Paul Hockings
PART II: NATURE
2. Biodiversity and Conservation Challenges R. J. Ranjit Daniels
3. A Climatologist in the Nilgiris Hans J. von Lengerke
PART III: COMMUNITIES
4. John Sullivan and the Toda Monegars Anthony R. Walker
5. Innocent Times: A Glimpse Back into Sullivan’s Nilgiris Philip K. Mulley
6. Through Badaga Eyes: The Social Construction of a Cultural Landscape Frank Heidemann
PART IV: ARTS & CRAFTS
7. Ancient Nilgiri Metallurgy Sharada Srinivasan
8. Among the Gems from the Nilgiris, the Kota Women Potters Marie-Claude Mahias
9. Experiencing Music in Tribal South India: On Doing a Recording Project William Tallotte
PART V: HONEY & MONEY
10. ‘When We Have the Blessings of the Bees, Why Should We Worry?’: Chronicles of a Honeyhunter from the Northeastern Slopes Pratim Roy and Anita Varghese
11. Cultivating the Money Bush: Tea Production, Socioeconomic Transformation and the Ambivalence of Money Jens M. Zickgraf
PART VI: PERSONALITIES
12. Twenty-first Century Toda Recollections of the British Raj Tarun Chhabra
13. The Sadist Who Sired a South Indian Scholar-Administrator Paul Hockings
14. A Nineteenth-Century Photographer of the Nilgiris and its People Christopher Penn
15. ‘Everything is Poison Now’: Irula and Alu Kurumba Illness Narratives in a Changing Social Context Andrew C. Willford
16. The German Nilgiri Family: Team Members of the Indo-German Nilgiris Development Project Peter Neunhäuser
PART VII: CODA
17. The Symbiosis in the Nilgiris Indu K. Mallah
A Brief Bibliography for Readers Notes on the Contributors Index