How kuhls of Kangra reached US, Euro university classrooms
Raghav Guleria
Dharamsala, August 12
The kuhls of Kangra are considered an exemplary model of effective and efficient community management of public assets across the globe.
The Kohlis
Kohlis (kuhl supervisors) judiciously distributed water to peasants, who, in turn, would religiously help them maintain the kuhls. There are records, which prove that the income generated through kuhls was used to fund artists. — Amit Dutta, Filmmaker and writer
The kuhl system is among the few examples of how public property is managed by the community itself, without any assistance or interference by the government of the day.
In many universities in the US and Europe, Kangra’s kuhls are taught as a compulsory case study in courses of sociology and anthropology, and, in some cases, economics courses.
Many opine that these water bodies in Kangra district are the world’s best community management system for irrigation.
Professor (Environment) and Community Coordinator, California State University, J Mark Baker delves into this community management system in his book, ‘Kuhls of Kangra: Community Management for Irrigation System in Western Himalayas’.
Baker’s study, assisted by Rivaz-e-Aabpashi — a British documentation — terms this model of elaborated water channels as the best in the world, a system that did not cost the government a single penny.
Under this system, farmer families maintain the kuhls, supplying water to their fields.
Baker, in his book, states that mainly based on channels emerging out of the Neugal rivulet, in 1897, 100 per cent of the irrigation system of Kangra district was based on kuhls.
According to him, most of the irrigation was done through kuhls in Kangra and Palampur tehsils.
Filmmaker and writer Amit Dutta, in his book ‘Asal Samridhi Ke Aakhri Satambh’ (The last pillars of the real prosperity), gives a description of these water channels.
Talking to The Tribune, he said, “Kohlis (kuhl supervisors) judiciously distributed water to peasants, who, in turn, would religiously help them maintain the kuhls. There are records, which prove that the income generated through kuhls was used to fund artists.”
Dutta’s short film ‘I do it for the sparrow and the mouse’ narrates the life of the Kohlis.
They are referred to as custodians of native rituals, who, without any greed, look after the perennial water channels emerging out of snow-fed rivers.
