Birth of the Rajasthan (IGNP) Canal

The Radcliffe Award of 1947 that drew the Indo-Pak boundary caused considerable disappointment in Pakistani circles. They started taking concrete action to undo the Award by digging a cut from the loop of the river Sutlej which entered Pakistan territory, before entering the Ferozepur Head Works. This operation was reported by our Intelligence staff and was interpreted as an anti-gun trench. When I saw the report, it became quite apparent to me that it was an attempt to modify the Radcliffe Award. Immediately, a move was made by the Government of Bikaner that in the face of West Punjab trying to bypass the Ferozepur Head Works, we should be prepared to meet all the eventualities. As a temporary measure, it was decided to increase the supply through a creek which was located in the East Punjab territory.

In the note submitted by me to the Government of Bikaner at the end of June 1948, a definite suggestion for constructing head works at Harike was brought up for the first time. A relevant extract from the note is reproduced below:

“The permanent remedy to the threat would be to practically shortcut the Ferozepur Head Works. During the S.V.P. negotiations the Bikaner government had insisted on the Head Works being constructed at Harike Pattan just below the junction of the Sutlej and Beas rivers. This Headwork may almost be a duplicate of the Ferozepur Head Works in all detail.

A Canal may be taken off from Harike to irrigate areas right down to the Bikaner border. About 24 miles below Harike, a link may be taken to feed the present Eastern and the Gang canals.

In addition the following areas can possibly be irrigated from the Harike Head Works:

                                                                               

                                                                                                                                Acres

1) Grey Canals                                                                                                     3,20,000 

2) Faridkot State                                                                                                 1,90,000

3) Sirhind Canal area

     between the Proposed Harike

     Canal and the Gang canal                                                                           9,10,000

4) Area that can be commanded

    from this canal in the Bikaner

    State                                                                                                                   12,00,000 

This area would considerably benefit as abundant non-perennial supply could be given from Harike. Later on, it will be possible to make the canal perennial.....

Harike Head Works once constructed would provide a permanent and important control to the Dominion of India over the supplies of the Beas river. Harike is about 20 miles from the Pakistan border and is not so easily vulnerable to enemy action as Ferozepur Head Works is at present”.

The above idea was further pursued in the following months and resulted in the conception of one of the largest irrigation projects of the world. A preliminary report was submitted to the GoI (Ministry of States) on October 29, 1948. The conclusions and recommendations of the Report made as far back as October 1948 have a prophetic ring and are reproduced below:

“The proposal to irrigate more than seven million acres of desert land  in the Biakner and Jaisalmer States may appear to some as a fantastic dream. So have appeared practically all the bold entreprises of the world to those who do not have the courage to venture into untrodden paths. The Suez and Panama Canals also were at one time such fantastic dreams. The Tata Hydro Electric System - the largest in South East Asia- stands as a monument to the ‘unpractical’ dream of a great man. The Boulder and Grand Coules Dam projects in the USA are the fulfilments of what appeared to be mere dreams.

 I have a conviction, which has grown out of my 18 months’ asociaition with this desert that the dream of seeing these great deserts where hardly anything grows at present, converted into thousands of square miles of fertile lands, will come true in less than quarter of a century.”

Excerpted From: Reminiscences of An Engineer, Dr. Kanwar Sain, Young Asia Publications, Delhi, 1978  

More About Dr Kanwar Sain 

URMUL Desert crafts dazzle Delhi

Delhi is known for it's markets. And the market in clothes has not only a distinct identity of it's own but is much in vogue these days. The market in the megapolis and the dresses, fashion shows and big garment companies that dominate the scene lure you in every possible way to buy their product.


In the glittering lights over the ramp the Capital creates new celebrities every day. Fashions come and go, and every day the city gears up to meet new desires. There is so much happening there to satiate the consumerist urges of the city dweller. For the well-placed city dweller clothes are, after all, primarily a subject of desire and fantasy.


And amidst all this showbiz arrive the craftspeople, with their colourful products, from the Thar desert and the images of sand dunes and folk music. For the discerning buyer Rajasthan has been synonymous with a rich and colourful craft tradition. The trucks laden with all the products, travelling all night that arduous journey, arrive early in the morning. Hopes of striking good fortune for the rural artisans from Rajasthan are writ large on their eager faces.




The URMUL Desert Crafts Exhibition held from December 12 to 15, 2001 in Delhi had a different ring. The exhibition represented the interest of hundreds of artisans who had to toil very hard to survive. These artisans created primarily to fend for themselves. Traditionally most of this creation was either tied to rites of passage or was a way of occupying oneself in those long hours of leisure. These products were objects of desire made for the most loved, and for marking special occasions. But the drudgeries of daily life have changed all this. The meaning of these meticulous creations had altered. Now most of this colourful creation is mass produced for daily wages and sold in the open market.


The year 2001 was in one very important sense, not like all the previous years. The artisans from the Thar have faced the worst effects of the drought since 1998. A majority of them are still facing it. The drought has meant that there was no water for months at a stretch. Their livestock had perished. The majority of the families had to reconstruct their lives anew. Most of their creations bear testimony to this difficult period. A tale of human misery hides behind these deep and attractive colours. Summer in the Rajasthan desert has been long unbearable and gloomy. Surviving it had been ordeal. Craftsmanship is an alternative livelihood to the humiliating and hard option of digging a earth for low wages. These craft products have provided some respite in the otherwise miserable scenario.


The URMUL logo, of a woman sitting on a spinning wheel, symbolises time rolling by and the ceaseless efforts of the woman to survive. And in the desert, time really rolls and survival is difficult. Opportunities to eke out a living are really few. And on top of it droughts are quite frequent.


The URMUL Trust founded in 1987 by Sanjoy Ghose (who was abducted by the ULFA in Assam in 1997) has been trying to facilitate the survival of the poor in some of the most backward areas of the state of Rajasthan. After the 1986-87 drought, the most severe in recent years, women from the villagers in the Bikaner district were encouraged to spin wool into yarn as relief measures. Therein lay the genesis for a search and exploration for families scattered over not only Bikaner district but also the entire western Rajasthan.


The URMUL Desert Crafts looks after the interests of the weavers from Bikaner, Churu, Jodhpur, and Jaisalmer district, and the leather workers from Sikar. The collectives also work in the field of primary health care and education, rural livelihood, thrift and credit support, action research and advocacy on the key issues of the desert.


In Thar, every third year is a drought year. When it is declared a drought year the majority of the population have to, in order to survive, dig earth or migrate to unknown territories. Imagine having to dig earth for 120 hours a day in the gruelling heat just to survive for the next day. Only then does one get a daily payment of Rs 30 and some 4 kg of wheat. It is not only tough but also thoroughly inhuman. And this year thousands of men and women have done precisely that to survive. There is no other possible source of livelihood that is available to the ordinary people.


The 'marusthali', has always posed formidable challenges for human settlement. True, there has been arable expansion but there has been phenomenal population growth and resource degradation too. for the fragile balance that characterises this ecosystem, human survival has become quite unsustainable over the last few decades.


The harsh physical climate presents very little scope for any opportunities of livelihoods to thrive. Most of the agriculture is a gamble with the rain gods. Livestock rearing is tough, not very popular with the young generation and anyway becoming difficult with all the shrinkage of pastures and resource degradation. Due to poor infrastructure the scope of non-farm economic activities is fairly restricted.


URMUL has also experimented with design interventions at promoting 'sustaining livelihoods'. The Thar was known for it's traditional skills in dyeing, printing, weaving, embroidering, woodwork, leatherwork and painting.


Meanwhile, the products of these artisan families were being pushed out by the industrial commodities that had penetrated even the small village Bazaars. The demand for these traditional handicrafts was increasingly getting reduced in the rural exchange circuits. That is when, with innovative design inputs, the village co-operatives have been able to compete in the urban markets.

Bright and deep colours from the sandy land of Rajasthan carry within them the quaint smell of the sands of the remote village settlements. The rustic mud houses are the 'studio's, where these colours of add new vigour to a life beaten by the harsh vagaries of their landscape. In these craft products can be heard echoes of hundreds of artisans, a reminder to the fact that we, who live in the big cities have a social responsibility towards desert people, cut off from civilisation and fighting hard to live.


Supporting crafts is not necessarily the solution to the problem. But it is definitely one of the solutions.




Source: Deccan Hearld, 30.01.2002, Charkha Features