ABSTRACT

This chapter argues for the existence of ‘potent’ resource objects -those ‘objects of appropriations’ that contribute actively in the making and unmaking of extractive cultures. The chapter shows that the rubber resource frontier that developed across the borders of the erstwhile province of Assam was not simply the doing of human-centric activities. It was in fact considerably shaped by the material qualities that rubber exhibited at the various stages of its appropriation. I attempt to elucidate this by studying rubber from its occurrence in the ‘wild’ as a tree to its harvested form. The argument, hence, proceeds at two levels. The first level deals with Ficus elastica, the Indian rubber plant of Assam, and some of its essential characteristics, as they started influencing some of the dominant state practices of the time. The second level deals with the material efficacies of the raw latex that was circulating in the frontier zone as the prime commodity of the contraband rubber trade.