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.
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| Cowdung fields |
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
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