When the hills came alive

Not unexpectedly, popular sentiment against this locally impractical policy transformed itself into a mass agitation and caste sensibilities of every hue were disturbed throughout the state. On October 2, 1994, the state administration went into overdrive 8212; 24 persons were killed, 7 women were raped and 17 others sexually molested at a peaceful demonstration for a separate hill state. This strident violation of civil liberties, which shocked the Allahabad High Court into making a landmark judgement questioning the sovereign immunity of the State, fuelled the thrust of the renewed movement for Uttarakhand.

The people of the Kumaon and Garhwal hills have a fiercely independent character. It is recorded that the raja of Kumaon offered shelter to the beleaguered Dara Shikoh, in the face of the not inconsiderable might of the Moghul empire. As early as 1938, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru had conceded at a Congress Party meeting in Srinagar, Garhwal, that the hill people had the right to self-determination.

The economy and culture of the hills has always been significantly different from that of the plains. The British understood these local sensitivities and handled the hill states with a velvet glove policy. The hill districts were exempt from many of the laws and regulations operative in the rest of the erstwhile United Provinces. Many of these policies continued even after Independence.

There are many hopes and aspirations attendant to the formation of the state, and if they are not to be betrayed with the ruthless cynicism with which dreams usually are, it is essential to look beyond political ideology and rhetoric to the real and pragmatic issues at stake. The northernmost of the three new states, Uttaranchal, shares a common border with both Tibet and Nepal, and is therefore vital to national security concerns. It is the source of both the Ganga and the Yamuna, and of crucial ecological importance to the rest of India.

The entire trans-Himalayan belt has a distinct cultural and sociological identity, and the Kumaoni and Garhwali people, like mountain folk everywhere, are fiercely independent and ruggedly individualistic. The impulse for statehood has been propelled by a very strong and determined people8217;s movement, a continuous and concerted agitation that encapsulated many diverse issues, including environmental concerns such as the path-breaking Chipko movement, issues of identity, and a refusal to submit to the galloping malaise of the parent state of UP.

Optically, things look good in the hills. The people are startlingly good looking and the landscape is awesome, yet the realities of life are harsh. The terrain is inhospitable in the extreme. Unlike in other parts of rural India, agriculture does not provide even basic sustenance here 8212; the narrow, terraced fields cut into steep hillsides are difficult to cultivate and land holdings are pitifully meagre.

All this leads to an inevitable migration of labor and a familiar cycle is unleashed where women and the aged are left behind amidst abandoned fields to cope in a money-order economy. The builder mafia from the plains only make things worse and the corrupt nexus between the builders, the sharaab ka thekaas liquor shops, and the forces of social disruption is a naked and ugly reality. The dysfunctional attitudes engendered by rampant alcoholism are a major problem, causing even the Army to reconsider its traditional recruitment policies. The forest mafia openly smuggle timber out of the forests. Tourism brings exploitation, and revenues from subsidised hotels flow to absentee owners in Mumbai and Delhi, leaving the local populace at the mercy of ill-paid summer jobs as waiters and chaiwallahs. All these problems have arisen from an appalling insensitivity on the part of a disaffected administration to local issues and sensibilities.

Yet there are many things which are right with the Uttaranchal. No, we are not talking about economic statistics, or hydropower, or even ozone reserves and biodiversity patents. It is the intangibles of the situation that give cause for optimism. The young state has a legacy of activism and the human spirit here is angry and engaged rather than abject and fatalistic. The sense of community in Kumaon and Garhwal is intense by any standards, with sangharsh samitis, chakka jams and people8217;s participation at all levels. The understanding of environmental issues is also real and pragmatic, despite the depredations of the thieving timber tycoons. Sunderlal Bahuguna and the Chipko movement reflected a society and people that could give of themselves to a larger cause.

The feisty people of the hills understand the price of resistance and are willing to pay it. They demand grassroots rather than top-down development, and instinctively confront issues that they suspect stink. The entrails of society are not completely rotten with corruption and honesty is still valued and respected. Trust, that most precious commodity, which binds the social contract and makes governance possible, is still viable here. In this moment in history it mingles with that most betrayed of all emotions, hope.

It is undeniable that agitating for a state is very different from managing a viable economy and administration. The right to make one8217;s own mistakes confers an onerous responsibility, one that Uttaranchal will surely rise to.

The feisty people of the hills understand the price of resistance and are willing to pay it. They instinctively confront issues that they suspect stink