Social structure in the heart of Thar

Deep into the Thar desert, the Indira Gandhi Canal has transformed the ecology and economy of many villages but not their socio-cultural landscapes. In the command area of this canal, some 30 years back, the Kanwar Sen lift canal, which irrigated village Jagdewala of Bikaner district, was the social laboratory of my PhD thesis.

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It was the kharif harvesting season and I had to traverse the sand dunes to reach out to the farmers to record the parameters of their agricultural and social development.

It was my first day and I reached a remote farmstead in almost a dehydrated state and requested the owner for a glass of water. The social hierarchy was so deep-seated that assuming me to be an upper caste, he refused. However, he yielded to my persuasion. My conversation with him on the impact of the canal on community life earned me a cup of tea from his wife which gave me the energy to cross the next sand dune.

My interaction with a Bawaria tribe man shall remain unforgettable. He owned one murabba (plot) of land. His house was at a distance from the village and there was no visible sign of its interaction with the main settlement. Some villagers cautioned me about the man’s behaviour. When I arrived, the husband and wife were winnowing the fodder crop, guar. To ascertain their operational holding size, I asked the man whether he leased out part of the owned land to someone. He got infuriated and picked up a forked stick to attack me. The woman stood between us and started scolding the man in the local dialect, ‘Turo hiko billo haike, mina khni dekyo? (Are you a wild cat, haven’t you interacted with humans ever?)’

She explained that he believed he belonged to a Rajput clan for whom selling or leasing out the assets was a taboo. Now, I could realise that he was smitten by the bug of Sanskritisation where a person belonging to a lower caste imitates the rituals and behaviour of the upper castes. As for his aggressive social behaviour, there are many tribes in the region where women are their social face and the male counterparts mostly roam around in rohi (wilderness) in search of food and hunting.

One of the bus stands of the village had ‘Dhaba 786’. It was a place of refreshment before I boarded the bus for Bikaner at the end of day’s work. After the first day of my interaction with him, the dhaba owner insisted that I must not pay for tea as I was a guest but I never accepted his offer.

On the final day, I asked him the meaning of 786. He said he was a Muslim and it was a holy number in Islam. He did not accept payment for the refreshment either. His parting words were, ‘I will never meet you again, but I will always value our relationship.’

Given the present situation, I acknowledge that such associations are the treasures of life.