 Cattle
The agricultural land was taken away for
development of colonies but what about the cattle? Many
villagers still rear animals, mainly buffaloes and cows.
People owning a large number of cattle usually operate
dairies and sell milk to the upmarket colonies. Some people
keep fewer cattle for personal dairy needs. If there are cattle there is bound to be gobar (dung)!
You can find plenty of it in the villages.
Not as gobar but as cow pats–put up
on the footpaths on the village fringe
for drying.
But keeping animals is becoming
an increasingly challenging task
now. Swaroop Singh, a cattle owner
from the traditional cow herding
community of Gujjars told GT that he
and others have to buy fodder (in a settlement locked on all sides by
buildings there is no grazing space!)
which comes in trucks from Haryana.
Reminiscent of the old village
economy, the truckers unload the feed
and replace it with gobar or cow dung
to be used as manure in the villages of
Haryana. That’s barter system
operating right here in the city!
Old governance systems
The
momentum of metropolitan expansion
has almost wiped away the
once powerful and assertive landed
peasantry of Delhi Territory as a social
class. Till the late 1980’s the village
panchayats, representing the locally
dominating castes — the Jats, Gujjars
or Rajputs — held sway over the rural
zones, spread mainly across Outer
Delhi. These bodies were influential
enough to mould the destinies of the
local political candidates. Now the
social context has changed. The old systems of governance reign supreme
in the village, but very loosely, and
outside any formal system. Although
there is no formal panchayat system in
existence, the erstwhile pradhans or
headmen and village elders still form a
sort of local governance system.
These key people still settle non-revenue
social disputes. They also
collect money from old households
and run the Chaupal. The chowkidaar or the guard at the chaupal is paid by
villagers.
An important village elder is
the lambardar or the erstwhile revenue
collector. The lambardar used to be the
person, who collected the land revenue
from villagers and hand it over to the
government. Although that system of
revenue collection is no longer in vogue
but everyone knows the house of the
lambardars in the village.
Interestingly, the recent wave of
demolitions, following the High Court
order, brought out the old leadership
back into action. As the elected
municipal counselors floundered, the
old pradhans took up the battle. The
mahapanchayat organised in protest,
was attended by village leaders from
across the city.
Caste system
The system remains,
although in a comparatively under-stated
manner.
The dominant castes in the Delhi’s
villages are the Jats and the Gujjars .
But there are other castes as well,
spread across different parts of Delhi.
There are some Brahmin farmers
and Baniya shopkeepers, both higher
in social status than Jats and Gujjars
but less influential in the villages’
social hierarchy. Then there are the
Schedules Castes — mainly Jatavs
and Balmikis, who constitute about
one-fourth of the rural population of
the capital.
 Wells
Most of the village wells still
exist. The outlying wells in the agri-cultural
fields were covered up by
authorities for safety reasons. The
remaining have been taken over by
DDA, to supply water to the rest of
the city.
Wells have been traditionally used
for many rituals and in most villages of
Delhi, there is a ceremony called
kuan poojan or praying to the well
ceremony, which still exists. In
Shahpur jat, the well is covered and an idol of the water god placed
on top, to complete the formalities of
the ritual.
Rural architecture
The villages
are dotted with structures depicting
traditional architecture. Gigantic
gateways or entrances to old courtyard-type houses still remain,
although the courtyards have been
constructed upon.The arches can be
distinctly identified in the villages.
Hafta bazaars
While finding out
more about these urbanised villages
GT found that even the weekly
bazaars set up on the pavements of
the city,date back to the medieval
period.Now kiosks are set up on
fixed days in a week on footpaths of
colonies next to the villages,and cater
to a much wider clientele.
Sohail Hashmi in his article on
http://www.kafila.org/2007/08/06/the
-hafta-bazaars-of-delhi/ offers an
interesting perspective.
He writes that while new items like
flashy clothes,toys and plastic
goods are on sale,many traditional
household wares like whole spices
(turmeric,rock salt,ajwain)utensils,
medicinal ingredients like Amla,
behera continue to occupy space
here.All of which,he says,
are "things that the villagers bought
and those villagers who have yet to
be modernised by this urban jungle
still do."
What’s missing?
So the urban villages still stubbornly
cling on to some facets of rural life.But
the spirit is on the wane.Old timers
miss the ‘community feeling ’.Jaswant
Singh Yadav,ex-lambardar says,
“There is no reason to interact now.
Earlier,when we grew crops,
everybody was interdependent.If one
didn ’t have bullocks,he borrowed
from neighbours.Now,we visit only
when we are invited to a wedding.”
The signs are unmistakeable. GT team found out that Sector 7 of Rohini
was made on the agricultural fields of
Naharpur village.But now the address
reads ‘Naharpur village,Sector 7,
Rohini ’.Developed on the fields of
Naharpur,‘Sector 7,Rohini ’ now
defines the village.
Perhaps it is time we look at the
future …
Where do we go from here?
Experts believe that the future of these
villages lies in urban renewal – in
widening narrow lanes,creating
parking spaces and doing away with
unauthorised constructions.
They also are emphatic that steps
need to be taken that new villages
which are about to udergo the make-over as per the city’s Master Plan, get
urbanised in a planned manner unlike
their predecessors.
The development of most of the
urbanised villages happened in a
haphazard manner.In most cases there
was no integration with the neigh-
bouring developed urban zones. Most
of the colonies were developed with
their back towards the villages,as if to
deny their existence.As a lot of the
commercial activities in these villages
cater to the colonies,like – gift stores,
cyber cafes,godowns,it would help if
commercial areas are clearly defined...
GT spoke to Prof.Neerja Tiku
of the School of Planning and
Architecture (SPA),New Delhi,who
is involved in the development of
Pochanpur village in the Dwarka area
of Delhi. Her group conducted a
survey of the village and developed a
plan keeping in mind the major needs.
She said, “Our aim is of weaving
the settlement seamlessly into the
urban fabric.There needs to be ease of
movement, open areas and space for
parking." She, however, reiterated
that pedestrianism was the best
model to decongest these villages —
the lanes inside the villages were not made for such heavy vehicular
movement.
Delhi-based Indian National Trust
for Art and Natural Heritage (INTACH),
which has evolved development plans
for villages,is focussing on restoring
natural water bodies like wells and
ponds.
It is heartening to know that
experts are on the job to ensure a
better future for the urban villages.
But what they plan on their drawing
boards would only work if it suits the
needs and aspirations of the people
who live there!
Let’s hope the two match… and in
future even if we keep doing
make-overs, they are at least
painless and scar-free… |
