The dominantly pastoral economy of Pugal got
transformed into a peculiar capitalist economy maintained and sustained by the
IGNP canal. It may be mentioned that the coming of the canal, with it's
associated practices and institutions, ushers in a process of transformation of
the interior regions of the border districts of western Rajasthan. These were
regions where, till the coming of the canal, the modern state had been only
able to achieve a very limited, almost negligible penetration. The transition
that takes place in Pugal is in that sense part of larger geography of
transformation.
Along with the construction of the canal came
new institutions of private property; these were incompatible with the existing
communal conditions of production and required vast changes in the
institutional rules for resource use. Therefore, the first step in the canal
development process began with the implementation of radical land reform
policies that dismantled the desert's common property regimes.
The parts of western Rajasthan that comprise the
canal command area were sparsely populated before the canal arrived, with a
population density of approx. 5 persons per sq. km. Generally land use for mobile
desert communities is distinct from land use by the settled communities in
India. Before the canal was built, the desert's production conditions could not
possibly accommodate new regimes of private property relations. For example,
immediately preceding the canal's arrival, the percentages of areas dedicated
to private cultivation in two of the canal districts, Bikaner and Jaisalmer,
were 39% and 13% respectively, among the lowest in India. The dominant pattern
of land use was highly extensive through natural forage production on
pasturelands; locally consumed pulses, grains and vegetables were produced on a
crop-fallow rotation system, which also shifted from location to location
depending upon micro- climatic rainfall conditions.
Pre canal conditions were managed by the village
institutions that were shaped by the characteristics of the area: low
population density, low intensity land use, fluid land boundaries, mobile
communities and herds, and the natural symbiotic qualities of animal husbandry
and human land use.
In other words, western Rajasthan was very much
a pastoral society and economy, dominated by communal institutions whose
functions were inextricably linked to extensive pastoral lanes, vegetative
cover and watersheds, watering holes and ponds of the wide open desert.
Pastoral communities depended upon reciprocal, if not amiable, relations with
the settled and semi nomadic communities settled in hundreds of miles in each
direction.
Pugal region, the beginning of Stage II of the
IGNP, became a favoured place for rehabilitating families. Two successive waves
of settlements first of the Pak Oustees from 1971 War and then of the erstwhile
inhabitants of the 34 villages that were converted into the Mahajan Field
Firing Range (MFFR) came in mid-eighties. It meant that the individual
ownership over the new PPRs grew in an overall context of carving out private
niches against the backdrop of being uprooted, displaced. This kind of a
colonisation, looking at in the retrospect, had it’s own peculiar pressures to
exert on the common property natural resource regimes then existing. The
immediate past of displacement pushed these communities in a situation of
distress that prompted unbridled use of the common natural resources properties
for coping with difficult conditions of survival in the initial years. These
years, when the new community water resources like the diggis (open reservoirs)
were very few and the canal network was only in it’s infancy, created an
overall crisis and contestation between this new settler population and the
original natives (raiyas). It is to be noted that the existing common natural
resources had to bear the pressure of most of this settlement. Even after a decade and a half of the
creation of the command area the weight of the pre canal geography (of vast
stretches, sprawling grasslands, shifting sand dunes) is fairly dominant. The
PPRs (in this case the allotted irrigable land holding unit of 6.2 hectares)
have not yielded much, majority of them are poor and unfit for cultivation. So
the members of the community came to possess PPRs that are unproductive, to
maintain them is in fact a big drain on the meager resources.
The coming of the water was considered a
harbinger of a new life based on irrigated cultivation. This was in contrast to
the older life, where tradition, custom and CPR based natural resource use
practices were dominant.
It is important to mention here that this shift
did not only come from the above, from the realm of State policy, only. Rather
it was a change that a large part of the community also wished. By wishing I
mean that there was no large-scale opposition to the land and water regime that
the IGNP proposed. The Government showed a dream with the IGNP that practically
everyone believed in, and those who did not had little choice but to accept it.
Considerations of the pre canal geography of
extensive land use and fragility of the ecology were completely kept at side
and were ignored in this ambitious land use modeling by the humans.
Dissipating
World Of CPRs
Last quarter of the 20th century has been a time
of transformative changes in the Pugal region vis-Ã -vis the CPRs. The creation
of the canal command area, and with it the penetration of the State as well as
the market, has brought about far reaching changes in the status and relevance
of CPRs. The coming of the IGNP and the
subsequent creation of the command area of the Stage II radically altered the
natural resource use practices. The coming of the water was considered a
harbinger of a new life based on irrigated cultivation. This was in contrast to
the older life, where tradition, custom and CPR based natural resource use
practices were dominant.
It is important to mention here that this shift
did not only come from the above, from the realm of State policy, only. Rather
it was a change that a large part of the community also wished. By wishing I
mean that there was no large-scale opposition to the land and water regime that
the IGNP proposed. The Government showed a dream with the IGNP that practically
everyone believed in, and those who did not had little choice but to accept it.
Below
are presented some testimonies of members of the community:
q the rain water harvesting structures - the johads, nadis, kunds and kuans:
"If
you take the case of Pugal, then 25 years from now, there were many johads and
nadis- Harasar, Suvadesar, Bikampuria, Lakhasaria, Ranawala Nadia, Rawal Kheda
and Amarsagar, etc. In total there were nine water ponds. The maintenance of
these was done by the members of the community. To desilt them was considered
as some sacred pilgrimage. When the water in the ponds used to dry up, people
would go, all together, to desilt it. Care was kept in cleaning it and seeing
to it that no one dirties the catchment area or no animals are allowed near it.
Mostly the elders in the village used to take care of all this and they would
educate the coming generations.."
(Muktiyar, Pugal)
There were community sharing practices regarding
the maintenance of these johads.
" There were two johads,…and if they used to get filled
in sawan (July-August) and then the water would not finish the whole year. For
a continuous water supply the johad was maintained by everyone. The silt in the
johad, we used to call it khural (clayey silt), was taken out by everybody.
After taking it out of the pond, khural was used to make a paste for plastering
walls, etc. So there were many uses- we used to get the khural and the johad
also got dug in the process. And water did not get spoilt in the
khural."
(Mohammad
Yar Khan, Tharoosar)
In a predominantly pastoral economy care had to
be taken to protect the water in the ponds from the livestock.
"Some
people at the johad would constantly remind that water is scarce, and livestock
of others also has to drink water. Cows and Sheep were given water and then
driven away. They were not allowed to stay on in the catchment lest they would
soil it with their dungs."
(Meera Bai, Hazra & Roshan, Pugal)
Apart from the johads, Pugal also had wells to augment it's drinking water supply.
"In the village Pugal there used to be an
annual meeting for deciding about the usage of wells. In the village there were
7 wells. In an annual meeting of the village community it was decided that 1
well would be given on contract (to be run and maintained by one family). It
was the duty of the contractor to make available water for livestock as well
humans by running the well (there were different rates for water- viz. Rs 1/-
for a cow; Rs 1/- for 10 Goats / Sheep;
Rs 1/- for a camel; Rs 10/- for a small camel cart tank; Rs5/- for one leather
bag). From the rest six wells one belonged to the Thakurs of the Pugal fort who
maintained it; one was for the Meghwals and Muslims. Rest four wells were kept
in reserve for crisis periods…"
(Muktiyar, 34 Yrs, Pugal)
The wells were an important source of drinking
water. It was on the sharing and access to water that the social discrimination
by the high caste also manifested itself in the daily life of the village.
"…In
the talai everyone had equal share. But on the wells Meghwals and Nayaks were
not allowed to climb. There was one beri (a well) for us that we used. If we
used the well then we had to draw water for others."
(Aduram
Meghwal, Amarpura)
Apart for the wells
there used to be another kind of rain water harvesting structure that a
critical relevance for drinking water for the humans. It was the kund.
"People
had made rain water harvesting kunds
made of limestone. These were constructed by people themselves. Kunds were made
in the catchment area in then hard, flat and plain areas. The rich got
constructed five- six of these kunds for consumption. These kunds could store
up to 25000 litres of water. In Pugal area to make these kunds lime was got
from Ranisar (a nearby village). Then it was broken into small slabs which were
then burnt in the fire wood. Then the lime was separated from the ash and used.
The raised round ceilings and covers of the kunds were made from this lime. In
some cases even phog wood was used
for making the ceilings."
(Muktiyar, Pugal)
The problem of brackish water was very severe
and quite widely prevalent. Many settlements had sources of water that was
brackish and not fit for drinking.
"…there
are four wells, the water in all of them is different (brackish), so there was
problem with drinking water. The rain water was collected in kunds, after that,
2 pots of water from the wells was mixed with 1 pot of water from the kund and
then used for drinking. In this way we used to pass our time."
(Mohammad
Yar Khan, Tharoosar)
Especially in droughts the problem of water
became very severe:
"When
it did not use to rain, the water in these wells would not suffice. Water used
to be got from Kakrala or Siyasar (nearby villages) and then we used to mix it
with the brackish water in the wells of Tharoosar and pass out time. We used to
give water to the livestock once in two-three days and thus save some
water."
(Mohammad
Yar Khan, Tharoosar)
In this region slowly the IGNP canal replaced
the drinking water sources in most of the villages in twenty thirty years.
q The coming of the IGNP
The coming of the canal
certainly is a very big event. The older water bodies, especially the
catchments were mostly allotted. The canal command area by converting the
majority of the land into individual land holdings undermined the extensive
land use practices and eroded the very basis of pastoral livelihoods.
Majorities of the people in the community were pushed into practicing intensive
irrigated cultivation that was not so productive.
"The
wells have crumbled, people have started cultivating the catchment of the
ponds; it has been allotted to people. It is something like this - seeing the
clouds you break the pot - similarly seeing the canal we forgot our traditional
natural common resources.."
(Meera, 70
Years,Pugal)
"The
Government has not left any land for the catchment of the johad. Earlier around
25 bighas was left for the johad, land that was taken care by the entire
village."
(Mohammad
Yar, Tharoosar)
"The
Colonization Department sold all the land as johar - paitan land. According to
today's rates, for each bigha of such land the Govt took Rs32000."
(Shiv Lal
Purohit, Pugal)
"…the
Government has sold so much land, has that not satisfied their greed! Will the
Govt. get some special prize by allotting these ponds! These were there, amidst
sand dunes, to take care of the water needs of travelers, animals, birds, deer
for at least four months in an year. There was no higher authority to appeal
to...people by having murabbas (private landholdings) have reaped their own
personal benefits.."
(Meera,
Pugal)
But within the community
there is a growing realization about the need to save the CPRs. As one of
erstwhile PRI representative says:
"In
the tradition of this place, CPRs were not a thing or a mere property but they
were the very basis of life. After Independence and the coming of the IGNP came up various Govt. Depts. And the
hold of the community over the CPRs started weakening. With the fragmentation
of families people's self dependence over their own resources started getting
eroded. In the hands of corrupt politicians and the Govt. bureaucracy the
status of the CPRs became unsafe. Today it has become very crucial that we
inspire and mobilize the community to maintain the CPRs. I feel this is really
the challenge of our times."
(Shiv Lal
Purohit, Pugal)
Apart from the allotment
of old water sources and the grasslands the coming of the IGNP had a very deep
impact on the social bonding. The older collective values that were
commensurate with the CPR usage have been replaced. Reflecting on them one
says:
"One
big damage that has happened is that brotherhood, love and spirit of sharing
among people has finished. In today's time a brother is not willing to see the
face of his own brother. With the coming of the canal water people have
scattered into far flung, isolated dhanis
(hamlets) in the chaks."
(Nazru
Khan, Ramada)
Excerpted
from Rahul Ghai, Whither Commons ! State
and Land Use in the Canal Command Area in the Pugal Region, AZERC, URMUL
Trust, For Shanti Maitri Mission Sansthan and Aga Khan Foundation India, March
2002, Bikaner, Rajasthan
Starting in 1990 as a voluntary effort in remote regions
of Chohtan, SURE today works in the desert districts of Barmer and Jaisalmer,
two of largest and backward districts of India.
From the beginning SURE has focused on strengthening rural
livelihoods, strived for dignity and well being of vulnerable and marginal
communities, especially women and people with different abilities.
Interventions in improving agriculture, conservation of Thar Parkar breed of
cow, ensuring food, fodder and water security have attempted to sustain a judicious
relation with fragile ecology of the Thar. Motivation to pursue our goal,
sustain the vision and mission owes a great deal to the acceptance by rural
communities who have always reposed their faith in us. They have participated
in development initiatives of SURE with a sense of ownership and
accountability. We have been fortunate to get support from well meaning and pro poor people in the state bureaucracy
and development agencies.
These remote districts of Thar are changing fast.
Following the discovery and drilling of oil and setting up of a power
generation unit, Barmer is poised for a period of industrial growth. There is
an increasing talk about the vast potential of reserves of solar energy. All this
modernization is sure to put further squeeze on the fragile ecology and scarce
natural resources of the region. This heightened context of resource tapping
and use has created its opportunities and challenges before rural communities.
The largely survival economy based on fragile natural base and rustic life is
volatile with possibilities of change.
