United by social ecology, divided by faith

Historically, the foothills of Shivaliks and Khadar of the Yamuna-Som basin in Yamunanagar district have provided a conducive setting for the sustenance of the Gurjar community, whose members profess Hinduism or Islam. Unified by common ecological and socio-cultural heritage and segregated by religious faith, their common concern has been their socio-economic backwardness and the lack of education, particularly among women. After Independence, Yamunanagar and Jagadhari experienced the growth of educational institutions, yet the Gurjars in the rural hinterland hardly benefited.

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I got an opportunity to supervise a students’ socio-economic survey of Darpur village in Yamunanagar district in 2004. It is located at the edge of the Kalesar Wildlife Sanctuary in the Shivalik Hills. The village was dominated by Muslim Gurjars, who subsisted on agriculture, pastoralism, forestry and labour. Most inhabitants of the village were vegetarians. This surprised the students, who harboured the notion that Muslims were meat eaters. I took upon myself the task of verifying the information on food habits and found that they were habitual vegetarians. They had distinct awareness about their cultural-historical roots which were embedded in pastoralism that emphasised rearing of animals for the production of milk, not meat. And even the very few who were non-vegetarians could hardly afford meat consumption owing to poverty. The findings of the survey also revealed that it was economically a very backward village.

I again got a chance to visit this region earlier this year in connection with academic inspection of Gurjar Kanya Gurukul Mahavidyalaya, Devghar. The mother institution of this college was set up as a girls’ school in the gurukul tradition by Arya Samaji social leader and Padma Shri awardee Om Prakash Gandhi in 1987. Initially, it worked as a semi-residential school that provided education and accommodation to both Hindu and Muslim communities. Presently, the sprawling campus on the bank of the Yamuna accommodates a group of educational institutions that provide school-level to higher education to girls.

Undoubtedly, as claimed, these institutions have been the bedrock of secular and inclusive education. But for some years now, they have not been attracting Muslim Gurjar girls. Has it something to do with the prevalence of community and religion-based politics in the country? The answer of the respondents to this question was in the affirmative. That’s not a good omen for the community that has been integrated by its common heritage, culture and social ecology. It does not augur well for the concept of ‘unity in diversity’, the cornerstone of national integration.