Village Cot Surfing
The CouchSurfing Wiki, an informal workspace which anyone can edit.
Global Village-India
In this cosmos and constellation The Earth has become a global village and we might be primitive in the opinion of dwellers of some other planet in some other constellation. India is Third World Country? India is not developed but a developing country and majority of its population still lives in villages. Villages that lack basic facilities of life like clean drinking water, education, healthcare, electricity, sanitation etc.etc. We can divide the population of world in two categories viz. City Life and Village Life. Though these are not strict boundaries , since people from village shift to cities in search of employment, better avenues, quality living or simply due to glamour of city life. Same way people living in cities become fad up with pollution, adulteration, falseness of glitter go and reside in some village. Scattered throughout India are approximately 500,000 villages. The Census of India regards most settlements of fewer than 5,000 as a village. These settlements range from tiny hamlets of thatched huts to larger settlements of tile-roofed stone and brick houses. Most Indian villages are small; nearly 80 percent have fewer than 1,000 inhabitants, according to the 2001 census. Most are nucleated settlements, while others are more dispersed. It is in villages that India's most basic business--agriculture--takes place. Here, in the face of vicissitudes of all kinds, farmers follow time-tested as well as innovative methods of growing wheat, rice, lentils, vegetables, fruits, and many other crops in order to accomplish the challenging task of feeding themselves and the nation. Here, too, flourish many of India's most valued cultural forms.
Unfortunately villagers have no means of stocking there agriculture produces with safety and are always lacking financial means are forced to sell there produces just after harvest at whatever price offered to them. The lion’s share of that moneythat farmer receives by selling his agriculture produces is spent in repayment of loan taken for purchasing seeds& fertilizers.
The Village Community
Village is a complex socio-economic unit. According to Revenue Act this is not smallest unit.A cluster of few houses is known as “Dhani” in Rajasthan.
Indian villages appear deceptively simple. A cluster of mud-plastered walls shaded by a few trees, set among a stretch of green or dun-colored fields, with a few people slowly coming or going, oxcarts creaking, cattle lowing, and birds singing--all present an image of harmonious simplicity. Indian city dwellers often refer nostalgically to "simple village life." City artists portray colorfully garbed village women gracefully carrying water pots on their heads, and writers describe isolated rural settlements unsullied by the complexities of modern urban civilization.Poets have written poems in praise of village life. Social scientists of the past wrote of Indian villages as virtually self-sufficient communities with few ties to the outside world.
In actuality, Indian village life is far from simple. Each village is connected through a variety of crucial horizontal linkages with other villages and with urban areas both near and far. Most villages are characterized by a multiplicity of economic, caste, kinship, occupational, and even religious groups linked vertically within each settlement. Caste system plays key role in all types of activities. Factionalism is a typical feature of village politics. In one of the first of the modern anthropological studies of Indian village life, anthropologist Oscar Lewis called this complexity "rural cosmopolitanism."It has a web of life where all are linked and depend on each other for survival.
The layout of a village is also based on caste. The working class people mostly live on periphery of village and do not have access to public well.Indian village dwellings are built very close to one another in a nucleated settlement, with small lanes for passage of people and sometimes carts. Village fields surround the settlement and are generally within easy walking distance. In hilly tracts of central, eastern, and far northern India, dwellings are more spread out, reflecting the nature of the topography. In the wet states of West Bengal and Kerala, houses are more dispersed; in some parts of Kerala, they are constructed in continuous lines, with divisions between villages not obvious to visitors. In the deserts of Rajasthan villages are far and apart and located where probability of water was high.
Usually there is one caste that dominates the village like some villages are dominated by Rajput(warriors), Jat(agriculturist), Muslim, Vishnoi(environmentalist), Kumhar(potter), Meghwal(weaver), or Brahmins.The number of castes resident in a single village can vary widely, from one to more than forty. Typically, a village is dominated by one or a very few castes that essentially control the village land and on whose patronage members of weaker groups must rely. In the village of about 1,100 population near Delhi studied by Lewis in the 1950s, the Jat caste (the largest cultivating caste in northwestern India) comprised 60 percent of the residents and owned all of the village land, including the house sites. In Nimkhera, Madhya Pradesh, Hindu Thakurs and Brahmans, and Muslim Pathans own substantial land, while lower-ranking Weaver (Koli) and Barber (Khawas) caste members and others own smaller farms. In many areas of the south, Brahmans are major landowners, along with some other relatively high-ranking castes. Generally, land, prosperity, and power go together.And now they play big role in the politics of the country.
With the advancement in technology the agriculture is mechanized.In some regions, landowners refrain from using plows themselves but hire tenant farmers and laborers to do this work. In other regions, landowners till the soil with the aid of laborers, usually resident in the same village. Fellow villagers typically include representatives of various service and artisan castes to supply the needs of the villagers--priests, carpenters, blacksmiths, barbers, weavers, potters, oilpressers, leatherworkers, sweepers, waterbearers, toddy-tappers, and so on. Artisanry in pottery, wood, cloth, metal, and leather, although diminishing, continues in many contemporary Indian villages as it did in centuries past. Village religious observances and weddings are occasions for members of various castes to provide customary ritual goods and services in order for the events to proceed according to proper tradition.The artisans of some villages are making many handicraft item that have high demand in big cities for decorative purposes.
In villages some professions are strictly traditional while few other have been adopted by people with pragmatic approach. Aside from caste-associated occupations, villages often include people who practice nontraditional occupations. For example, Brahmans or Thakurs may be shopkeepers, teachers, truckers, or clerks, in addition to their caste-associated occupations of priest and farmer. Villagers may move to other places in search of better opportunities but never forget their roots.In villages near urban areas, an increasing number of people commute to the cities to take up jobs, and many migrate. Some migrants leave their families in the village and go to the cities to work for months at a time. Many people from Kerala, as well as other regions, have temporarily migrated to the Persian Gulf states for employment and send remittances back to their village families, to which they will eventually return. Much prosperous and thus much respectable.
The pace of life is slow in villages. It needs to be admired like in “Zen and art of motorcycle maintenance”At slack seasons, village life in India can appear to be sleepy, but usually villages are humming with activity. The work ethic is strong, with little time out for relaxation, except for numerous divinely sanctioned festivals and rite-of-passage celebrations. Residents are quick to judge each other, and improper work or social habits receive strong criticism. Indian Villagers feel a sense of village pride and honor, and the reputation of a village depends upon the behavior of all of its residents.Still some bad habits like Opium, Tadi, Country liquor, gambling. Ganja are not looked down by society and have some sort of social acceptance specially on festivals like Holi. Since all marriges are done in same or nearby village it becomes a compact society and villagers in India manifest a deep loyalty to their village, identifying themselves to strangers as residents of a particular village, harking back to family residence in the village that typically extends into the distant past. A family rooted in a particular village does not easily move to another, and even people who have lived in a city for a generation or two refer to their ancestral village as "our village."Even business communities who have shifted to far off places for business activities like traders from Rajasthan have shifted to places like Culcutta, Chennai, Assam make it a point to visit their native village for performing social ceremonies.
Every village has a pond where cattle and children are bathing and playing.It is a romantic place where youngsters get a chance to steal a glance of there beloved. Indian Villagers share use of common village facilities--the village pond (known in India as a tank), grazing grounds, temples and shrines, cremation grounds, schools, sitting spaces under large shade trees, wells, and wastelands. Perhaps equally important, fellow villagers share knowledge of their common origin in a locale and of each other's secrets, often going back generations. Interdependence in rural life provides a sense of unity among residents of a village. The old tree outside the village is silent spectator of many generations.
Villages in India have their own judicial system. All disputes pertaining to land, marriages, castles, loan, social obligations were solved by Headman sometimes known as sarpanch. In all this judicial body is made of five persons who are responsible for maintaining law and order in the village. The decisions of the panchayat , composed of important men from the village's major castes, who had the power to levy fines and exclude transgressors from village social life. Disputes were decided within the village precincts as much as possible, with infrequent recourse to the police or court system. The government supports an elective panchayat and headman system, which is distinct from the traditional council and headman, and, in many instances, even includes women and very low-caste members. As older systems of authority are challenged, villagers are less reluctant to take disputes to court. The justice was prompt and more practical.
The villagers are either having their own field to plough or work as laborers in the field of land owners.The class of exploiters and exploited are eternally there. The commonly known activities of most of the villagers have always been, subsistence agriculture or hunting and gathering. Most villagers are farmers who work in nearby fields. In India, the women work planting the rice paddy, while the men work pulling bullock carts, tilling new soil. Though men and women work similar hours, men earn more than the women. Most villagers own few possessions. These belongings typically include brass pots for cooking and clay pots for carrying water and storing grain. Village people cook foods on a chula, a clay oven that burns coal. People sit and sleep on cots of woven string, which are dragged outside on warm days. Many people also sleep outside. If the village is without electric power, kerosene lanterns are used for light. A local well or nearby pond or river provides water for most villages. Some larger villages have running water. Where surface water is ample people are also shallow (less patience).
It was in the beginning of the 20th century, that Mahatma Gandhi declared, "The Soul of India lives in its villages". The Indian Census of 2001, state that 74% of Indians live in 6,38,365 different villages. India has about 500,000 villages that are scattered throughout the country, where the population varies accordingly. Some villages have a population less than 500, while 3,976 villages have a population of more than 10,000 people.
No matter however, strong the bond of the villagers is, it is an obvious point that their unity is challenged by a lot of conflicts, rivalries, and factionalism. The fellow villagers are prone to their disputes, strategic contests and even violence. Most villages of India include the prosperous, powerful people, which are fed and serviced through the labors of the lower class people. Unfortunately, no change can be seen in this class structure, due to the increased involvement of villagers with the wider economic and political world outside the village. Due to the expanding government influence in rural areas and increased pressure on land and resources, the populations are yet a target of factionalism and competitiveness in many parts of rural India.
It has been for many years, that the life of a villager has always been the same. It includes an average villager struggling to make his ends meet by practising the age old occupation of agriculture and also being bounded in the shackles of the rigid caste-system throughout his life.
Life in Rajasthan Villages
Village life in Rajasthan is more interesting due to its rich cultural heritage. Rajasthan has variety of village life depending on topography, history, caste system and traditional festivals like cattle fairs, Haat and religious fairs.
The village dwelling unit popularly known as hut is usually circular in shape.. Its simplest hamlets, the most basic form of civilisation with a way of life that has probably remained unchanged since centuries, consists of a collection of huts that are circular, and have thatched roofs.
The huts so made are technically hygienic and give feelings of air conditioning. In summers they remain cool and in winters it remain warm.If a hamlet looks bleak, it is hardly surprising: the resources for building these homes, which are the most eco-friendly living unit, are made with what is available at hand, and in Rajasthan, and particularly so in its western desert regions. This can mean precious little. A village that is even a little larger may have pucca houses, or larger living units, usually belonging to the village Zamindar family. Consisting of courtyards, and a large Nora or cattle enclosure, attached to one side or at the entrance, these are made of a mixture of sun-baked clay bricks covered with a plaster of lime.
Mandanas are Frescos
There is wide range of these structures and graphics mostly depicting worship of nature, useful animals,trees.festivities etc.Decorative facades in such units are limited to creating a texture in the plaster in the facade, or using simple lime colours to create vibrant patterns at the entrance, and outside the kitchen. These homes capture, for many of its residents, the only cosmos they know. For the women, but for visits within the village community, the only social occasions were in the nature of pilgrimages which were usually combined with fairs. But it is when they step out that the stark desert and the village break into a feast of colour: turbans bob past in saffron and red; skirts billow beneath mantles that veil the faces of their women- if they didn't, the jewels that glint on their foreheads and faces would add to the shocking surprise of their magentas and their blues, greens and pinks.
Multicosmopolitan Complex
A village is a multi-community settlement, the various castes creating a structure of dependence based on the nature of their work. While changes are being wrought in this structure, with ceilings on land holdings, and with young seeking employment opportunities in towns distant from their villages.
Superstitions
Every village has some popular superstitions. Some people even though educated are also not able to break the shackles of superstitions.
Staple food
The pearl millet is the staple food of Rajastahn .The principal meal for the family consists of dinner, when freshly baked bread and porridge is served with a yoghurt curry called curry, and with vegetables that may consist of dried beans, or, now, increasingly fresh produce that is grown and transported from neighbouring states. For most families, breakfast is a glass full of hot tea gulped down with stale bread, before rushing off to attend to the day's tasks, and lunch is a frugal meal of unleavened bread known as sogra eaten with a spicy chutney of chillies and garlic.
Rajputs and some worker class are non vegetarians.In villages they rear hens for chicken meat. Most meals are vegetarian, and though they eat meat, the Rajputs too do not consume it regularly. In the old days, game would be hunted, and the spoils shared with families in the village. With the ban on hunting, meat now comes from the goats raised in the communities, but they are slaughtered only for special occasions like marriages, festivals and celeberations.
Village Cot Surfing
In
Rajasthani Villages
Camel safari in great Thar deserts Camel ride is very popular for an exotic experience to view the various colors of the villages in Rajasthan. Camping in close vicinity to the villages and participating in all aspects of village life is an experience that you would cherish for the rest of your life.
Amazing Hospitality
These villages have an amazing sense of hospitality. You may end up feeling ashamed of your response to visitors in your neighborhood back in your city. Agricultural practices in Rajasthan date back to the time of Indus valley civilization and observing them is an experience in itself to cherish for a lifetime. Camels and buffaloes are used for pulling the plough and most of the farmers wait for the rains to water their fields. Three important crops grown here are wheat, corn and millets. Beside this lintels cotton spices also make important cash crops.Take a tour in the green field and watch women milking the cattle while the elderly and young take them out to pastures for grazing and when you are tired and feel thirst, take a bite of watermelon or a glass of chhaj ( butter milk) which is a perfect way to quench your thirst.
The Panorama
The landscape and panorama of a village are breath taking.Some of the most admirable sights include women around a community well, people sitting in a group and discussing everything from world politics to domestic issues and the assemblage of children in an open air school. People are so friendly and hospitable that they would offer you almost everything without expecting anything in return.
Shekhavati – Epitome of rich heritage
Adjacent to thar deserts are Shekhawati tract. These have well-built houses, more often then not with painted walls and beautiful decorations and wall paintings. The gold painted frescos are the highlights.If the villages of the Thar are dotted with jhonpas, the cities feature a variety of architectural forms and structures. They depict either varying forms of adjustment with the inclement weather or intense love and pride for architectural richness and extravagance.Some town like Laxmangarh, Sujangarh , Ratangarh,and Jhunjhnu are famous for Havelis.
villages of Rajasthan hold their own distinct charm. Though they usually lack any attraction in form of forts, palaces, gardens and wildlife sanctuaries, yet they are worth visiting for the simple reason that they present the life of Rajasthan at its most basic. The rural life of Rajasthan reflects the determination of the people to survive in even most difficult of circumstances. For a tourists visiting Rajasthan for the first time, it is actually difficult to find a village in the vast stretches of barren land. It is only when a herd of cattle is seen around that the tourist gets an inkling of a village in closeby area. Many a times, interestingly, even these signs are not seen and the tourists acknowledges the existence of a village only upon entering it.
PEARL SANSTHAN-Role of NGO in village developement
Pearl ie.Planned Efforts for advance Rural Life is a registered Non Government Organisation working for all round development of villages in Rajasthan and qualitative improvement in village life.It is working in following sectors:-
Education
The target group is children of the age of 3 to 12 years who are supposed to attend a school for formal Primary Education,but for one reason or the other they are unable to do so.In last 15 years Pearl has provided primary education to about 200 children free of cost including study material.
Hygiene
Villagers need to be educated about health and hygiene care.Pearl organises camps in the villages with the help of doctors.The target group is pre and post child birth care.
Cottage Industries
Villagers have time when crop related activities are not happening.They utilize that time for some type of skilled job. These villagers do not have sources to sell their products.Pearl provides a platform by developing marketing infrastructure.They are providing net work for wooden iron and textile handicraft products.The current turn over of pearl is 3 million INC p.a.
Adoption of village
If some village needs constant care for a period of time for sustainable development then village is adopted and taken care of for a year.One such village is Bandai in the district of Pali-Marwar.
Social Vices
Some social vices like veil, dowry,domestic violence,child labor, casteism,opium taking are prevailing in villages and needs to be
eradicated by constant pursuance.
Opium Addiction
Opium is most popular form of intoxication in Rajasthan. Actually a large number of villagers are growing opium in their fields under the license of Government. There are outlets selling Bhaang,Opium and Doda(dried poppy flower).Many NGOs are working for de-addiction but with little success. This evil has its root in distant past in certain communities like Bishnoi and is part of all social rituals to the extent that if opium is offered and is refused it is considered as personal insult.
JODHPUR DISTRICT
The district of Jodhpur is located in the western part of Rajasthan. It stretches between 26 0’ and 27 37’ north latitude and 72 55’ and 73 52’ east longitude. The district is bounded on the north by Bikaner and Jaisalmer districts, on the south by the districts of Pali and Barmer, on the east by the districts of Pali and Nagaur and on the west by Jaisalmer district. The total area of the district is 22,850 sq. kms.
The district resembles in shape an irregular rectangle studded with a few small hillocks. Large parts of the district fall under the category of Indian Thar desert. It is an arid region where sand dunes are commonly visible. Luni river rises near Pushkar in Ajmer district and flows through Nagaur and Pali districts. It enters Jodhpur district near village Jhak in Bilara tehsil and ends in the form of an artificial lake known as “Jaswant Sagar”. Total length of the river in the district is 122 kms. Balsamand located in the north of the Jodhpur city, Kailana tank and Ummed Sagar are notable water reservoirs. There are two natural water springs in the district namely the Beri Ganga and Banganga. Besides, some of the important tanks are Soorpura and Golejor bundhs, Jaswant Sagar and Birai tanks which are maintained by the Irrigation Department. Total population of the district according to 1991 census was 2.1 million comprising of 1.1 million males and 1.0 million females. Rural population of the district was 1.4 million and urban population was 0.7 million. The Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population was 0.3 million (14.3%) and 0.06 million (2.8%) respectively. Table 1. Profile of Jodhpur district at a glance
- Area (Sq. kms.) 22,850
- Population (1991 census) 2.1 million
- Density (per Sq. kms.) 93
- Sex ratio (females per 1000 males) 904
- Literacy rate (%) 40.7 (male-56.7, female- 22.6)
- Decennial growth rate of population (1981-91) 27.57% (rural- 26.9%, urban- 28.8%)
Out of the total population of 2.1 million about 65% of the population lives in the rural area. The population density per square kilometer is low (93) as compared to that of entire Rajasthan (128). The Decennial growth rate for 1981-91 was higher in urban area (28.8%) as compared to rural area (26.9%). Hindi and Rajasthani are the main languages spoken in the district. Hinduism is the main religion (1.9 million) followed by Islam (0.2 million). Amenities available in the villages as per 1991 census are shown in table 2. Table 2. Villages having one or more amenities in the district (1991 census)
- Amenities No. of inhabited villages Percentage
- Education 807 93.84
- Medical 246 28.60
- Post and Telegraph 339 39.42
- Market/Hat 17 1.98
- Communications 525 61.05
- Approach by Pucca road - -
- Electricity 616 71.63
The district at present comprises of six tehsils and nine Community Development Blocks. It has four towns and 863 villages (860 inhabited villages and three uninhabited villages). Table 3. Administrative units in Jodhpur district
- Administrative units Numbers Name
- Talukas 6-Phalodi, Osian, Bhopalgarh, Shergarh, Jodhpur, Bilara
- Municipalities 4-Jodhpur, Phalodi, Pipar, Bilara
- Community Development Blocks 9-Phalodi, Bap, Osian, Bhopalgarh, Shergarh, Balesar, Mandor, Luni, Bilara
- Panchayats-706
The district is well connected by road, rail and air. It has a national highway as well as state highways. There are 3,940 kms road in the district. The district is connected by metre gauge line of Northern Railways. There are in all, 36 railway stations in the district. Jodhpur city has a Railway Divisional Office. District Headquarter, Jodhpur is connected by air services (both private and Government) with Jaipur, Delhi, Udaipur and Mumbai. Important crops in order of production in the district are wheat, bajra, gram, rapeseed and mustard, Kharif pulses, sesame and barley. Out of the net irrigated area of 56,041 hectares, most of the area (90.8%) was irrigated by wells and tube-wells. Out of the total livestock population 21.7% were cattle, 41.5% sheep and 30.8% goats. Of the total poultry in the district 99.6% were fowls. There were 15 veterinary hospitals, four dispensaries, eight artificial insemination centers, and two mobile units. The largest industrial unit in the district is Northern Railway Workshop. Other factories in the district mainly concern various types of edible oils, cotton textiles, spinning, weaving and finishing of other textiles, synthetic fibre rayons, nylons etc. There were 428 small-scale industries registered wit the Industries Department. In addition to the traditional manufacturers of tie-and-dye saris, embroidered shoes, plastic industries are also present. In the rural areas of the district, the most important industries are skin hide-black-smithy, oil crushing, limestone etc. Among the articles exported out of the district are building stone, plastic goods, shoes, brass utensils, saris, chilies, dyed cloths, wooden toys, lime stones and handicrafts. The articles imported in the district are consumption goods, medicines, petrol, diesel, machinery, iron and steel, timber, kerosene, edible oils, and general merchandise goods etc. The district besides having one university had three non-professional educational colleges, 11 professional colleges, 104 higher secondary and secondary schools, 231 middle schools, 824 primary schools and one professional school. There are a large number of government hospitals, dispensaries, Primary Health Centres and sub-centres in Jodhpur district. These health facilities are staffed with medical and para-medical personnel including laboratory technicians.
Some of the interesting villages where Village Cot Surfing is being or likely to be conducted.
Name of the Villages
- Beda
- Kakani
- Salawas
- Bilada
- Keechen
- Sathin
- Gangani
- Kheechan
- Satlana
- Guda Bishnoi
- Khejarla
- Sirdon
- Indolav
- Kherapa
- Zhalamand
- Jambo
- Mogra
- Kakelao
- Kheevsar
- Dhoro Ki Dhaani
- Badli
- Bawdi
- Ghadav
- Rohat
- Kakani
- Luni
References
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhani_and_villages
--Vipingoyal 21:51, 26 February 2009 (UTC)vipin Goyal
