Nehru’s Garhwal visit in May 1938
Pandit Nehru visited Garhwal in May 1938 , soon after the elections of
1937 which the congress won handsomely. He was the chief campaigner of the
elections and people responded to his appeal with great love and admiration.
He visited
Garhwal for 5 days with his sister Vijaylakhsmi Pandit and Raja Huttising. His
observations on his visit in 1938 may be more than 80 years old but some
observations are relevant till date. What is interesting is that during his 5
day visit he grasped the social and economic condition and noted them and appealed
for measures to be taken such as roads, hydroelectric projects, afforestation,
schools, medical facilities, exploration of minerals etc. He feels very sad
that not even ‘carriage roads
were built(
kachhi sadak). What is disheartening is
that even after so many years the situation has not improved despite the
formation of a separate state of Uttarakhand. At that time too many people left
villages for employment ,the barrenness of Garhwal hills continues. Perhaps the
felling was more in Garhwal as the rivers were available for transportation ,
whereas the Kumaun hills remained unaffected as there are no major means of
river transportation there .
Nehru also
observes that despite money spent on survey no railway or roads were built
because the Government wanted to keep Garhwal in political isolation as many soldiers were
recruited from here. One thing of
importance emerges is that Nehru had regard for Garhwal people on account of
the sacrifice of Veer Chandra Singh Garhwali , when he refused to fire on the
people participating in civil disobedience movement; he was court martialed and
sent to cellular jail.
The poet and
romantic in Nehru also emerges when he describes the rivers Alaknanda ,
Bhagirthi and Ganga . He writes “We were in the land of birth
of the Ganga and this noble river, which we had known and loved so well in its
rich and stately maturity, appeared before us now in its eager and joyful youth
and its bubbling and gurgling childhood.”
His comments on Srinagar in one letter
to his sister Krishna are so true; he laments that such a beautiful place in Europe
would have developed very fast. Alas! Even after attaining statehood we are far
behind ! “We have been
here since yesterday noon. Srinagar is situated in a broad and pleasant valley
with the Alaknanda running through it. It is a small unpretentious little town, though in olden times it was the
capital of the Garhwali kingdom. Now it is cut off almost from the rest of the
world by the lack of even a carriage
road. Such a site in Europe would be jumped upon and a beautiful town would
grow up with villas all over the hill-sides and a brightly-lit city.”
And his lasting
impression of Garhwal is: “The abiding
impression of Garhwal was one of isolation and poverty. It was
extraordinary how near we were to the rest of the world and yet how cut off
from it. Twenty miles represented now a hard day's journeying, as it must have
been a thousand years ago or more. During these ages that had gone by there had
hardly been any improvement in communications and journeys were on foot or rarely on horseback.
Only the telegraph wire spoke to us of science and the modem world .”
And ‘isolation and poverty’ may still be there
;women still carry their load on their head ; few have benefitted during these
long years of Independence.
He is also forthright in his criticism of Garhwal
people, when he says: “I must confess that I found a certain
lack of enterprise among the people of Garhwal. They seemed to be resigned to
their sad fate and their only reaction to it was to ask others to do something
for them. They seldom thought in terms of doing something themselves. This was
a natural outcome of long and distressing poverty and suppression and it will
pass. For the Garhwalis are a brave and sturdy people and, given the chance,
they will make good.
And he is
reasonable too when he says that such an attitude could be the result of long
years of distressing poverty and suppression; and that it shall pass.
Reproduced
below is the full text of his written impressions of Garhwal and assessment and
areas of improvement written in May 1938 and taken from his selected works vol
8:
A Visit to Garhwal- by Jawaharlal Nehru-1938
My sister Vijayalakshmi and I have just spent five
days in Garhwal . During these many years I have travelled a good deal in India
and I have visited every district of the United Provinces, often more than
once. But Garhwal remained unvisited except for a few hours given to Dugadda a
year and a half ago. I was eager to fill this gap and, as always, the mountains
attracted me. But the lack of communications necessitated a longer period and
so I hesitated. But the insistence of friends in Garhwal and the consciousness
of my own failure in the past induced me at last to repair this omission and to
find a few days for these mountain valleys. I was happy to have as companions
Vijayalakshmi and Raja Hutheesing as well as comrades from Garhwal. It was a
delightful visit, though a strenuous one, and we have returned somewhat stiff
of body but with our minds full of pleasant memories. We visited Gochar,
Devaprayag, Srinagar and Pauri and many villages on the way. Our journeying was
done by aeroplane, by car, on horseback and on foot, riding being the principal
means adopted owing to the lack of cart roads. The aero-
plane took us
all the way to Badrinath and Kedamath and we had a near view of the snowy peaks
which dominate these ancient places of pilgrimage. We could not land there and had
to come back some way to Gochar where we landed. A great welcome awaited us
there from the mountain folk and then we returned having completed by air
within five hours a journey that takes as many weeks on foot, From the air we saw Garhwal spread out below
us with its bare mountains and its numerous valleys with rivers winding through
them. We were in the land of birth of the Ganga and this noble river, which we
had known and loved so well in its rich and stately maturity, appeared before
us now in its eager and joyful youth and its bubbling and gurgling childhood.
Having done with the air journey we took to the road and followed the Ganga
from Risikesh to Devprayag, where the Bhagirti meets the Alaknanda and joining together
drop their own particular names and become the ‘Ganga’, the river that has held
India’s heart captive for many thousands
of years. Perched up precipices between the two rivers and across
them,sits the little town of Devaprayag, looking down on the swiftly
flowing currents as they rush through rock-hewn
gorges to meet and intermingle in warm embrace.
We reached Srinagar, situated in a broad and
pleasant valley. The Alaknanda flowed
swiftly by it, carrying timber from its upper reaches. The town was a small
one, fallen greatly from its old estate when it was the capital of the Garhwali
kingdom. Here we stayed for two days and took part in the conference that was
being held there and met many old comrades. We then proceeded to Pauri on the
hill-top which gazes at the magnificent range of the northern snows. Badrinath
and Kedarnath, the Chaukhamba and Trishul and even Nanda Devi. All along the route we were met by the people
from the villages, men and women and children, and warm-hearted affection came
to greet us. A busy programme in Pauri and a night there, and then a| long and
weary ride by a little frequented and badly kept route to Devaprayag, with
halts and meetings on the way. From Devaprayag to Hardwar and back to railway
train.
The abiding
impression of Garhwal was one of isolation and poverty. It was extraordinary
how near we were to the rest of the world and yet how cut off from it. Twenty
miles represented now a hard day's journeying, as it must have been a thousand
years ago or more. During these ages that had gone by there had hardly been any
improvement in communications and
journeys were on foot or rarely on horseback. Only the telegraph wire spoke to
us of science and the modem world . The lack of cart roads throughout this
wide-flung district is astonishing and for half a century there has been an
insistent demand, ever growing louder, for a good road. We had heard of this
before but we had not realized the passion behind it. Everywhere all sorts of
people demanded and begged and shouted for a road. Everything else was
secondary to them and Swaraj itself took the semblance of a road leading from the
heart of the mountains to the plains below. They told us that it was a matter
of life and death for them. 'Give us a road or we die' they pleaded.
Why has
this road-making been delayed so long in Garhwal? It was expensive, cf course, but equally
expensive roads have been made all over India in mountainous regions. During the
period of the World War the people of
Garhwal were soothed by promises of a railway and a survey at a cost of many
lakhs of rupees was actually made. But neither the railway nor a road
materialized. If there had been a regiment stationed in Garhwal or any
considerable British official presence, a road would have appeared soon enough.
But officials do not look with favour on a sojourn in Garhwal and consider it
as a kind of exile. Even inspection by high officials seldom takes place there.
Still the road would have come
If there had not been some objection to it on the
part of the British Government. I imagine this objection was based on the desire on the part of the government to keep
Garhwal isolated and immune from political influences, as it was one of their
chief recruiting areas. Garhwal regiments are well known, but I was surprised
to learn that thousands of people from the district served in the armed police
in Bengal. They are terribly poor and the land cannot sustain them in its
present condition; they have hardly any industries, and so inevitably they seek
employment elsewhere. We met large numbers of school children and I liked to
ask them many questions. I found that over ninety per cent of them had never
seen a railway train, or a motor car, or even a carriage. But they had seen an
aeroplane flying over them; only some days before we had ourselves flown
across.
Garhwal must have a road and that soon. It will
never progress without it. But a road is not enough and what is urgently needed
is to improve the productive capacity of the people. Apart from the question of
the road the chief complaints were the lack of water, the heavy assessment, and
the lack of medical help and schools. If a person fell seriously ill, it was
not even .possible to carry him to some hospital nearby. He simply died or, if
he was lucky, survived. The demand for education was great, even for girls, but
the schools were few and far between.
The lack of water for the fields seemed strange, for
there were several rivers with plenty of it and occasional springs. And yet
.fields in the river valleys were lying dry and elsewhere they were worse off.
We saw large numbers of terraced fields which had been cut out of the
hill-sides with enormous labour, lying desolate and untended. They had been allowed
to run waste as it was not considered worthwhile to cultivate them. Partly this
problem of water has been aggravated by the lack of forests and the general barrenness of the hill sides. Why Garhwal has
such few forests while Kumaun abounds in them I do not know. The soil is as
good and other conditions appear equally favourable.
Yet with all its poverty and barrenness, Garhwal gave us an idea of
great potential strength and resources.
There was water power running to waste everywhere when it could be converted
into electricity and life-giving power for fields and industries. Probably
there were plenty of minerals in the vast area only waiting to be developed.
let the road come to Garhwal, But equally urgent is
an inquiry into its power resources and minerals. These power resources could
supply electric power not only for Garhwal but to a large part of the province.
Thus two expert inquiries seem called for immediately - one, for the
utilization of water power and the
building up of hydroelectric schemes and the other into mineral of the area.
While these schemes develop it may be possible to put up inexpensive pumps to
send up the river water to the fields above. A scheme for afforestation should
also be inquired into and begun.
Probably there are considerable opportunities for
the development of cottage industries in Garhwal. Of these wool-spinning and
weaving are the most obvious and they can be easily developed. An attempt to do
so in Kumaun is meeting with success and there is every reason to believe that
it will meet with equal success in Garhwal. Bee-keeping is common in Garhwal but the
methods adopted are primitive and wasteful. These could be easily improved. I
must confess that I found a certain lack of enterprise among the people of
Garhwal. They seemed to be resigned to their sad fate and their only reaction
to it was to ask others to do something for them. They seldom thought in terms
of doing something themselves. This was a natural outcome of long and
distressing poverty and suppression and it will pass. For the Garhwalis are a
brave and sturdy people and, given the chance, they will make good. They have
become dear to India for the gallant
deed they performed eight years ago in the North West Frontier Province, when
civil disobedience raged throughout India and the blood in our veins tingled as
we took our part, big or small, in the struggle for freedom.
(Jawaharlal Nehru attended the District
political conference in Srinagar Garhwal on 05 and 06 May 1938)
