In the Realm of the Diamond King: Myth, Magic, and Modernity in the Diamond Tracts of Central India

Abstract

From being “the cradle” of raw diamonds in the world in the eighteenth century, India has turned into an insignificant producer of rough diamonds today. Yet, even now, the indigenous Gonds mine diamonds artisanally in a remote location in central India, largely hidden away from public vision. This article presents an exposition of artisanal diamond mining in central India from the humanistic tradition in geography to illuminate the “realm” of the Gonds, where magic and social relations rule imaginaries of the diamonds in the particular place. It argues that the imaginations of diamonds and their mining by indigenous miners in Panna are shaped through the prism of their particular regional history, myth, geography, and culture. Without faith in the restrictive authority of science, capital, and state, and refusing domestication, the miners dig, smuggle, and spend for the savoir vivre. They remain dynamic and rely on traditional ideas of luck, masculinity, and success. They bind themselves to work and to each other in ways that preclude the possibility of amassing wealth and direct wealth in ways that reaffirm their dependence on the miner's life. The argument is illustrated through the story of protagonist Ramu, who proudly spends the earnings from his big diamond find. Based on ethnographic fieldwork in Panna, Madhya Pradesh State in central India, this article explores the magic of artisanal diamond mining, shows how place shapes such mining, and shows how informal mining shapes the context.

作为十八世纪全世界生产鑽石原料的 “摇篮”, 今日的印度已不再是知名的鑽石原料生产者。但即便在今日, 龚德原住民仍然在印度中部的偏远地区以手工採集鑽石, 并大部分未受到大众所注意。本文通过地理学的人文传统, 呈现印度中部手工鑽石採集的盛行, 以描绘龚德的“领域”, 其中魔术与社会关系, 规范了特定地方对于鑽石的想像。本文主张, 帕纳对鑽石的想像, 以及原住民的採矿採矿, 是通过其特定的区域历史、神话、地理与文化的稜镜所形塑。这些採矿者不信任科学、资本与国家的规范权力, 并且拒绝被驯化, 而是以其专有技术挖掘、走私并消费。他们仍然充满活力, 并仰赖传统的幸运、男子气概与成功的概念。他们投身工作并约束彼此, 以此方式排除积累财富的可能, 并将财富导向再确认其对矿工生活的依赖。该主张通过名为马努的倡导者的故事进行描绘, 他骄傲地花费因寻获大颗鑽石而赚取的财富。本文根据在印度中部中央邦帕玛的民族志田野工作, 探讨手工採集鑽石的魔法, 展现地方如何形塑此般採矿实践, 并展示非正式採矿如何形塑此一脉络。

Tras ser considerada “la cuna” de los diamantes del mundo en el siglo XVIII, la India se ha convertido ahora en un insignificante productor de diamantes en bruto. Sin embargo, incluso en nuestros días, los indígenas gonds extraen diamantes artesanalmente en una remota localidad del centro de la India, en gran medida sustraída de la visibilidad pública. Con base en la tradición humanística de la geografía, este artículo presenta una exposición de aquella minería artesanal de diamantes, para ilustrar sobre el “reino” de los gonds, donde la magia y las relaciones sociales rigen los imaginarios de los diamantes en ese lugar particular. Se argumenta que las imaginaciones de los diamantes y su minería por mineros indígenas de Panna son configuradas a través del prisma de su particular historia regional, mito, geografía y cultura. Sin fe en la autoridad restrictiva de la ciencia, el capital y el estado, rehusando la domesticación, los mineros cavan, contrabandean y se la gastan con todo gusto. Se mantienen dinámicos y confiados en sus ideas tradicionales de la suerte, la masculinidad y el éxito. Esta gente se obliga en vínculos con el trabajo y entre ellos mismos de modo que se excluya la posibilidad de amasar fortuna individual y orientar la riqueza en modos que reafirmen a cada quien su dependencia en la vida de minero. El argumento se ilustra con la historia del protagonista Ramu, que orgullosamente se gasta las ganancias del gran diamante que se encontró. Con base en trabajo etnográfico de campo en Panna, en el Estado de Madhya Pradesh, India central, este artículo explora la magia de la minería artesanal de diamantes, muestra cómo esta minería es configurada por el lugar e indica cómo a la vez la minería informal configura el contexto.

Key Words:

• ASM
• Gond Adivasi
• informal diamond mining
• Panna in central India
• realm

关键词：:

• ASM, 龚德原住民, 非正式鑽石採集, 印度中部的帕纳, 领域。

Palabras clave:

• ASM, Gond Adivasi, minería informal de diamantes, Panna en India central, reino.

Acknowledgments

The fieldwork would not have been possible without the assistance of Yousuf Beg, the leader of Prithvi Trust, working for years to improve the well-being of quarry labor. We received extremely helpful insights into the Gondi life-world through Ramu's eyes; thanks go to Ramu for sharing his story with us. Mr. Ashley Thomson helped us by carrying out some literature review pertaining to artisanal and small-scale mining. We also thank Professor Amalendu Jyotishi of Amrita University for sharing valuable historical documents.

Notes

1. van Dijck (2000) went on: “Until recently, bargains were often not clinched on paper, but by exclamations of the word Mazzel!, freely translated as Good luck!, and in the context of business to be understood as I take your word for it, indicating that business alliances are based in trust, backed by family ties, long-standing friendships or other means of social control” (74).

2. Unless stated, references to Tavernier are to the translation by Valentine Ball from the original French into English and published in London in 1889.

3. The term Hirashasan translates as “disciplining the diamonds” but actually signifies a set of rules made by the state government of Madhya Pradesh for governing diamond mining. The officer in control of the office is called the Hira Adhikari and the office is known as Hira Karyalay.

4. Which country is dominant depends on whether the metric is carats or value, as the relation between the two metrics is nonlinear. Bigger diamonds are valued disproportionately.

5. Until 1993, total global diamond production was around 2.5 billion carats or 500 tonnes, and for the next twenty years, output was 2.7 billion carats (see Statista 2017).

6. See Kimberley Process (2017) for more details.

7. A visit to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f0T2EBShIek&t=295s will familiarize the readers with the realm discussed here.

8. The Mines and Minerals Department of the state government of Madhya Pradesh and its rules regarding diamond mining.

9. According to Director of Prithvi Trust Yousuf Beg, the banks of the Qilqila River near Khinni ghat were also declared property of the forest department.

10. This is seen in Odisha, where the Khond Adivasi domain and their relation with mineral-rich terrain of colored gemstones were marginalized by the precolonial, colonial, and postcolonial state. They have also engaged in artisanal mining of gemstones in negotiating with the push and pull of state and capital (Roy Chowdhury and Lahiri-Dutt 2016).

11. As a license is required to mine the land, operations by farmers and the National Mineral Development Corporation are legitimate, whereas Ramu carries out his digging without a license, making himself vulnerable to law enforcement agencies.

12. “Kimberlite,” coined by Henry C. Lewis in 1887, is the primary source rock of diamonds in South Africa.

13. The weight of a carat was always 1 to 2 percent of 200 mg.

Additional information

Funding

We thank the Australian Research Council for its grant (Project ID: DP130104396), “Beyond the Resource Curse: Charting a Path to Sustainable Livelihoods for Mineral-Dependent Communities.”

Notes on contributors

Kuntala Lahiri-Dutt

KUNTALA LAHIRI-DUTT is a Professor in the Crawford School of Public Policy at the ANU College of Asia and the Pacific at the Australian National University, Canberra ACT 2601, Australia. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include gender, resources, and the environment.

Arnab Roy Chowdhury

ARNAB ROY CHOWDHURY is a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Public Policy at the National Research University Higher School of Economics (NRU-HSE), Moscow 101000, Russian Federation. E-mail: [email protected]. His research interests include environmental movements, resource politics, and subaltern studies.