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Journalism of Courage
THE official border checkpost with Nepal is about 200 metres away, but it may as well not exist. The garbage-and slush-ridden strip of No Man8217;s Land, with the white pillar marking the border serving mostly as a prop for bicycles, is where all the business in this small town is.
Barhni is not as well known a border town as Sonouli or Katarniaghat, but the porous border here serves to make it an important trading area: jackets, liquor, leather goods, electronic items, cosmetics and so forth from Nepal at discounted rates, and household goods like sewing machines, refrigerators, and fans from India.
The town has just one main street around which the entire population of some 5,000 is settled. Parallel to this and across the border is a similar street in the Nepalese town of Krishnanagar, in that country8217;s Kapilavastu district. A few houses lie in between.
But both towns depend on border trade 8212; official and unofficial 8212; for livelihood. By all accounts, official and unofficial, there8217;s absolute harmony between the sides.
8220;We often go to the other side to buy vegetables and chow mein, which is made only in their restaurants,8221; says Ruksar Ali, who runs a tea stall at the Barhni railway station. 8220;Most of the shopkeepers there are Indian. It doesn8217;t even seem like another town there.8221;
Barhni does not have a cinema, or cellphone towers. But, thanks to the 1.5 km border with Nepal, townsfolk have access to the best electronic goods, clothes, blankets, pirated CDs, what have you.
Many children from Barhni walk to school in Nepal. There are hardly any policemen to interfere in what people say has been going on for ages.
These days, it is the legal trade in sugarcane that is bringing business to Barhni. A sugar mill in Chandhrota village, across the border, pays cash for the produce. Since getting payment from government-owned sugar mills in India is a tedious procedure, many farmers from the region are sending their crop across.
8220;We are coming from Gorakhpur, but it is better to take the cane there as we get money in hand,8221; says Mohammad Asgar, a truck driver.
But illegal activity has been thriving for long 8211; drugs, liquor, and wildlife contraband such as skins, bones, nails.
8220;Ek waqt tha jab yahan raat ko subah ho jaya karti thi. Sabhi log raat ko maal bhejte the,8221; says M.L. Rai, who8217;s in charge of the forest post. 8220;In the mid-nineties, more than 30 kg of charas would be transported across the border overnight. A posting here was much sought, and people would earn some Rs 20 lakh to Rs 25 lakh in bribes within six months.8221;
After many complaints, the town was put under the Seema Suraksha Bal, says Rai, 8220;but certain things continue to happen.8221;
The town had its bad days too, when the Maoists were at their peak in Nepal. Only a few days ago, a police checkpost in Krishnanagar, not even one kilometre from the Barhni Railway Station, was bombed. 8220;They also used to extort money earlier but would be careful to attack Indian shopkeepers on that side because we are here to support them,8221; said Om Prakash Verma, a gardener at the forest checkpost. If there8217;s anything else Barhni is famous for it8217;s a madarsa, which apparently attracts students from as far as Kanpur.
Small though it is, Barhni is not cut off completely. Last Sunday, Muslims burned 8220;George Pig Bush8221; in effigy to protest the hanging of Iraq8217;s Saddam Hussein.
