Mera Gaon Mera Desh - Kithana, Haryana (3/3)

Part 3 - My impressions

On this trip, other than my village, I also got to be in my state again. And learnt a lot more about the society that my parents have left behind. Haryana is still a very rural state. Village life is core to it, which revolves around agriculture and raising cattle. And since the Jats are the ones who are farmers and own most of the lands, they are the dominant caste in the state. The people of the state are more attached to their land than elsewhere and don’t leave it so easily.

People in Haryana villages were never rich, have never been rich. But the villages have always been sustainable - not enough to be lavish but there was always enough to eat for all. Also, earlier the villages were self-sustaining in many ways, though this has changed over the years. The social structure has also changed now as would be expected.

Women have not had equal status to men as in most of north India. But they were never killed at birth like in other states. They were just ignored and not cared much after birth (as if that's better!). So a lot more died during childhood and that is one of the reasons for the low sex ratio in the state. The women also have a tougher life than the men. They work at home plus help their menfolk in the fields. The men only have to work in the fields:). Hopefully this is also changing, at least women are studying and doing better in academics than men - so there is hope!

Wearing ghaghras by the women has almost vanished. Everyone wears suits now, even sarees don’t exist much in the villages. Jats never really had much jewellery. Most of their jewellery was made of silver - hasli, kanthi and thick silver anklets to be worn with ghaghras. And when they would collect enough jewellery, they would sell if off to buy more land! Land was just so dear to them. Back on clothes, the men still wear the dhoti and the kurti and pagdi - all in white. It looks regal I must say!

Religion is not huge among Jats. Arya Samaj has always been popular in Haryana, hence idol worship and rituals are not too common. Also, Jats were ostracised early on by the Pandits for their lack of beliefs. And as a consequence, Jats don’t believe in Pandits either and never get their janampatris made! (total anecdotal information). Caste of course is real and important, as you would have noticed from the rest of my article.

Jat food has concentrated amounts of dairy - butter, ghee, lassi, milk, kheer, etc.. They can all be part of a single meal:). I love the lassi we get in our village, its a pale pink colour, very light and sweet tasting. I never find it anywhere else:(. Wheat is critical, rice not at all and vegetables also not much. And we eat halwa before we start our meals!! Really!! I found it very tough initially to start with a sweet dish but later on started enjoying it:).

Education is becoming a big business in the villages now. There are loads of private schools coming up in every village, located in the fields:) and consequently loads of money. There are government schools too in every village but they are neglected and not paid attention too.

Bureaucracy doesnt help here at all. Some schools have students but no teachers while some have teachers but no students!! Lot of private colleges and universities have also come up across the state, include the Baba Mastnath university (funny name!), which we crossed while driving. Apparently it was all set up by a single person - Baba Mastnath and has a religious angle to it.

Cowdung fields

Overall development in the state is low. Till it was with Punjab, it was ignored by the government. Once it split in the 60s, some progress started but its still way behind. The roads are not good enough. The bus network is good, though quality is debatable but the train network in Haryana is quite limited. There is not enough water in the canals for agriculture (and Punjab refuses to release more water!). Sanitation and electricity is also an issue, especially in the districts farther from Delhi. In fact I still remember when power came to our village, we could see parts of the tv serials when the voltage was good and miss part of it when it wasn’t enough:).

In the villages, some people have started selling their land at high prices due to proximity to Delhi. But they are not using this money well. Most of this is spent on buying huge cars and building palacious houses and having grand weddings. Not much of it is used in entrepreneurship or for securing a safe future. And the effects of that are already being seen. The new generation who do not have lands are not in a good situation. They need a stable source of income and that is one of the reasons for the Jat agitation for reservation in jobs.

There is not enough land left with the Jats. Especially with constant division within a family, the size of the farms is very small now. Plus with the dependency on nature and limited water, revenues are also low from farming. While the other castes have the stability of a job income, a lot of Jat families are left with no stability. And that is said to be one of the reasons for the Jat agitation for reservation in jobs. What happened after that though is deplorable.

The recent riots between the Jats and the non-Jats has affected the state a lot. There were a couple of discussions about it, and even though I heard only one side of it, it felt like the situation was created by politicians. Since Hindu - Muslim differences cannot be used in Haryana, BJP used caste differences to build a division in society. They opened fire on peaceful protestors, and then the police beat up Jat students killing some of them. Their families from the villages then got agitated and acted. And then non-Jats were sent to create riots.

I don't know how true or untrue these stories are, but a peaceful state has surely been wrecked! When we were driving through the state, we saw a lot of police around. And billboards asking for people to stay with each other peacefully. I've never seen anything like this before. I only hope this is a temporary situation and things go back to normal soon. Though I don’t think it will ever be the same again!

Overall, I saw my village, state and community from a very different perspective this time and loved it! Looking forward to sharing more such interesting titbits over the next couple of years from the place I belong to...

(I have loads of more stories to share about my state, but am limiting this article to all the new things I heard this time)

Part 1 - Towards Kithana
Part 2 - Kithana

Mera Gaon Mera Desh - Kithana, Haryana (2/3)

Part 2 - My village, Kithana

Village jhod

The first view of my village was the jhod - the village pond. Its where all the cattle bathe and is quite the village gathering spot. There are multiple jhods (haha, love the mix of Haryanvi and English!) in the village and you can always see buffaloes swimming there. And then wells for people to drink water from. And I realised more as I went around, each village was supposed to be a self-sustaining unit. It had all amenities available within - water, schools, shops, cobblers, barbers and so on.

Andhe baba ka dera

Our first stops were the Shivalaya and the government school, both located on the village main road. The Shivalaya (Shiv temple) is I think the only temple in the village. But apparently we (the Jats) don't really worship at this Shivalaya. There is another place visited by a lot of people, known as Andhe baba ka dera. Its not really a temple, but still revered by a lot of people.

Govt school, Kithana

After that we visited the government school where my father had studied for about 5 years. The school felt the same it would have been 50 years ago. Classrooms in a single floor spread around with basic furniture. And lot of empty space in between for the children to play during the breaks.

Some of the teachers and the principal were there (on a Sunday!), so we chatted with them for some time. The principal told us how for a year, the class 10th and 12th students haven't had a Maths teacher. And that the girls from the school were doing better than the boys:). He mentioned how the school was going down in quality because of more private schools coming up nearby. There were at least 5 private schools in the village itself. And also that the government teachers in the village had multiple duties - counting cattle, election duty, health duty and so on that they did not have enough time to teach:). No wonder it is tough for them to focus enough on students.

When we offered to give a scholarship to the most intelligent student of the year, the principal was unwilling to take money and said we should come and give the prize ourselves. He seemed like a very dedicated teacher and asked for our help in getting a Maths teacher for the students. Meeting him made me feel that not everyone is corrupt and lazy in the government. There are people who are dedicated to their jobs and there is still hope!

Kithana high street:)

The main street of the village seemed quite developed, with lot of cars and shops around. Then we took our car inside and it was like driving into a different world altogether. Narrow lanes, with mud/brick roads, some brick and some mud houses, bullock carts parked on the sides, buffaloes walking on the street and so on. How I always remembered my village like:).

We first stopped at my grandfather's first house where my dad was born. The old house wasn't there anymore. But papa ran into some old classmates of his who he had studied with more than 60 years ago. It was like he was returning to his childhood days:).

Our kitchen!

Then we went to my grandfather's current house. Our house was earlier almost at the outskirts of the village but its now within the village. And then onwards I don't remember the next 4 hours, they were a blur. As children, me and my brother had spent many of our summer vacations in that house, playing with the buffaloes; mom cooking in a kitchen with an earthen

Where food for cattle is threshed

chulha; sleeping on the terrace where sometimes cotton was put up to dry; going to the khet to relieve ourself; trying to cut the chara for the cattle but everyone telling us to be careful; being scared of the buffaloes, and so on. As I said it felt like a different life altogether and I also felt that nothing much had changed. The house was the same, the roads the same, it was all same old, same old.

All the 8-10 houses next to my grandfather’s house are owned by his brothers and cousins, and so all relatives of ours. The news spread very fast that we were there and everyone came out to meet us! I must have met 50-100 of my 'relatives’ who all knew me by name and everything about me:) even though I hadn’t met them for years.

Lanes of my village

In a village, neighbours and relatives are more connected than in the cities and know more about each other too. As I said, it felt like such a different world. Having all 10 houses next to yours occupied by your relatives is something I haven't experienced ever in my life. We visited them all and some of dad's classmates. Had milk and lassi everywhere, and so much sweet that I was totally full. I was also overcome with a lot of feelings at seeing the warmth of everyone I met. They were curious to know what I was doing in my life and also very very happy to see me after so many years.

Dada ka Kheda

After the multiple social visits, we visited the Dada ka Kheda which is where my family lights a diya (earthen lamp) on special occasions. This Kheda of an ancestor is revered more than the temples in the village. Its a small place made of marble. There is no idol there, you just light a diya and keep it inside the marble structure. Jats are not known to be very religious, especially in Haryana, hence they don’t pray much. And therefore, the Pandits in the village are also not that dominant, they depend more on the others for charity and are not as rich as say in UP.

While we were walking towards the kheda, we passed through several different areas of the village. And apparently different castes stay in different parts of the village and are segregated. There are apparently 36 castes in Haryana, and I heard some of their names mentioned as we were passing their sections - Doomb, Chamar, Kumhar, Lohar, Khati, Baniya, Pandit, Nayee and so on.

Each caste had its own roles in the village, but that’s changed now. Our village now has a SC sarpanch which doesn’t make a lot of people too happy:). People are known and even called by their caste and community names. My dad even remembered about a person who had come from Pakistan during partition and where his shop was. He was known to all as the ' Pakistani’ in the village but now has moved on to a city.

Gher

After the kheda, we went to our gher where cowdung is put to dry. Everyone who has cattle has their own gher and its an important piece of owned land. As a child, even I used to make and enjoy making cowdung cakes:). Now of course I would think its too unhygienic! I felt like an NRI taking photos of all of it, but it did feel different and exotic after the years in London!

Our khet

And last we went to our khet, our fields - with the golden hue of wheat all around. I walked around there enjoying the view. And touching the wheat. A lot of people have now starting building houses in the fields and not in the village. It sounds like a good idea:). Also, by this time I felt too hot as the sun was up fully and didn't want to stay outside too long:D. So we left soon to come back to the wedding in Jind.

Milestone to home

Overall, I was very surprised with how strongly I felt that I was back to my roots. I don't think I can settle in my village or even stay there for long. Have become quite used to city life and its conveniences. But it is nice to know you have a place where you belong. Its another home, its your own, its where your roots are. Where people know who you are even if you don't. Where you will always have a connection. As I said, its nice to have a place you belong to. It also makes me feel a bit different than people who have no place they can call their 'ancestral home'.

I don’t know when I will be back, as our house is locked and no one lives there anymore. But I can sense I will like to visit again.

Part 1 - Towards Kithana
Part 3 - My impressions

Mera Gaon Mera Desh - Kithana, Haryana (1/3)

Part 1 - Towards Kithana

I belong to a village in Haryana, called Kithana. My father was born there and lived his first few years in the village. Then he moved out, took up a job outside and we only visited during summer holidays to meet our relatives. When we grew up, everyone moved away from there and so our visits stopped. I recently got a chance to visit my village again after 10-15 years and it was a whole new experience. Taking photographs for the first time:), looking at my community, traditions and society as an outsider and an adult, was a completely new experience for me. This article is about all that I personally saw and felt during the visit, as well as a social commentary on what I picked up during my time there.

This March when we were attending my cousin's wedding in Jind, Haryana, we decided to visit our ancestral village too, just like that. And to be honest, I was surprised by all I felt when I went back there! Given that no one stays there anymore and it’s been years since I visited, it felt very different.  I also learnt a lot about the society now as compared to what it was before. Hence this blog. It will not be much of a travel article, as much as just sharing some of my experiences on the blog.

Obviously its not researched, just what I picked up in all discussions with my relatives and others. One thing that was a surprise to me was how much caste is a part of life in the society there. We, living in the cities think it doesn’t exist, but it very much does. And it will take a long time to change something so ingrained as that.

My experiences of being “home” started when we were driving towards Jind itself. It was March and the wheat crop was ready to be harvested. All along the roads, there was a golden hue of the grain. No green, only golden, it looked so enchanting! Apparently many years back, wheat was grown mostly in Punjab while chane were grown in Haryana. That’s definitely changed now based on what I saw during my entire drive.

Golden wheat fields

As a child, when I used to visit back home, I don't think I ever bothered to look at or admire the fields. I didn’t even know what it meant. But now I do. Maybe it was the DDLJ effect:). Maybe it was the years of living abroad far away from your roots. Or maybe just that I am older and wiser now:). And know what a crop means to a farmer, and what it means to the farmer community I belong to, Jats.

The road to Jind was ok, at least till Rohtak. After that it was just a lot of potholes, where the choice was between the bigger and the smaller one:). So I drove till Rohtak and let my dad cover the fun part:). Surprisingly, the villages from Delhi to Rohtak didn’t even look like villages, they had cemented houses and pucca roads. Very unlike the villages I have been used to:).

While driving through Rohtak, I noticed a lot of billboards advocating people to live in peace and harmony with all. I am assuming all that was because of the recent riots in Haryana (there were Jat and then anti-Jat demonstrations in Haryana in March this year, which led to rioting and loss of lives and property). I also noticed a lot of police and security everywhere, its the first time have seen something like this in Haryana. And it was sad!

Before visiting Kithana, I spent some time in Jind and learnt a bit about the city. Apparently Jind had its own king too some time back. And an old fort, haveli and rani ka talab. None of it remains, or at least in a visitable state for tourism. The talab is now dry and lies in the centre of the market. Actually, that is true for most of Haryana, not much remains of its history, unlike the numerous palaces existing in Rajasthan.

We stayed in the Jat Dharamshala which was very well constructed (forgot to take a photo of that!). Apparently, it was about to be burnt during the recent anti-Jat agitation. Next to the Jat Dharamshala was the Agarwal Dharamshala which had a mandir too. And quite contrastingly, it played devotional music from early morning on:) (which is not too welcome when you are on holiday and don't want to wake up at 5:30 am!).

One of the days, we had a small gap in the wedding festivities and planned to go and be back from Kithana in a few hours. But the whole trip turned out to be much much longer! Kithana is about 30 minutes drive from Jind and the road passes through multiple other villages. We passed through Naguran till where the buses used to run when my dad was younger. The rest of the way to our village was not paved in those times.

As my father studied in MP, he used to often have to take the train from Jind for which he had to walk through 4 villages (~14 kms) up to Naguran. There he would get a bus to Jind and then the train to MP. And sometimes when the letters would not reach in time, there was no one to receive him when coming back on holidays and he had to walk the distance alone carrying a lot of luggage on his head. And sometimes he had to walk the distance without water! In those days, you could not drink water at a lower caste house, and if those were the only houses you came across the way, you chose to not drink! Times have really changed since then and for good.

Part 2 - Kithana

Part 3 - My impressions