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Memoirs
Bhiwani: My Small Town in
Haryana
by K. Gajendra Singh
Since
Vijender Singh won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics, the first
ever in boxing and two of his mates, Akhil Kumar and Jitendra reached
the quarter finals, Bhiwani, a small town in Haryana, has become a
household name in India, and perhaps even in the world of boxing. In
India's boxing contingent, four out of five were from Bhiwani. At the
Athens Olympics, out of four, three Indian boxers were from Bhiwani. No
wonder Bhiwani, with boxing rings scattered around the town, is called
little Cuba. Vijender fought valiantly but lost to his Cuban opponent.
Cuban boxers did not win a single gold this time. But under Fidel
Castro, this Caribbean island has produced a dazzling succession of
Olympic boxing champions including Teófilo Stevenson, one of the
greatest of all times, who like other Cuban boxers refused to turn
professional with assured millions to win in USA, another great boxing
nation, where this game is dominated by Afro-Americans, who in the
absence of other professions barred to them, excel in boxing,
basketball, athletics and music.
Before the start of the Olympics and during it, as other fancied Indian
participants failed even to qualify for the final rounds, Indian TV
channel sports anchors, now focused on boxing, started looking up for
Bhiwani, a district town 125 kms west of Delhi. Soon TV teams and
reporters turned up at this till now obscure town to cover the
aspirations and reactions of boxers' families and the town's excited and
proud residents. Except for hockey's gold and other medals, one silver
in shooting and just two bronze medals in wrestling and tennis, Indian
athletes did little to cheer her billion population throughout Olympic
games since India began participating. But on the trough of India's
economic upsurge, the best ever Olympic performance with Avinash Bindra
's Gold in 10 meters air rifle shooting and another bronze in wrestling
for Sushil Kumar from Delhi , somewhat fortuitously, was reason enough
for exuberant celebrations all over India for its masses hungering for
sports icons.
Except for rifle shooter Bindra, who hails from a very well off family
in Chandigarh, which provided him for a decade, not only moral but most
of the financial support, a prerequisite to produce a world beater, the
boxers and wrestlers come from poor families; children of bus drivers,
conductors or marginal farmers. India is not a sporting nation and the
bludgeoning middle class is yet to take to athletics and other sports as
a professional career option, except for cricket, which with a religion
like following in India, now supports the cricket world.
I was born in Bhiwani in 1938, when it was a small dusty Tehsil town in
the backward region of undivided Punjab of Hindustan and treated as
Kalapani aka punishment postings for officials by ruling mandarins in
Lahore.
When I went over to Banaras in 1954 to study engineering, Bhiwani was a
subdivision of Hissar district of Indian East Punjab. When I said Punjab
was my home state, many would start conversing in Punjabi, which
certainly was not my mother tongue. We were still learning Punjabi from
refugees, who were forced to flee their homes in Multan, Jhang and other
cities in newly created Pakistan. They had lost their belongings and
many of their relatives were butchered on way to India. Some would brag
unconvincingly about big gardens and properties they had left behind.
However they were all hardworking and aggressive in business and
transformed the city's commercial environment. The Haryanvi women
started changing over to Punjabi dress -salwar kamiz, more practical
than the billowing skirt, short shirt and head cover. Of course I learnt
to understand Punjabi only when in 1958 I started teaching electrical
engineering at Patiala. The salwar –kamiz has become perhaps the most
popular wear in India, specially among the young, although jeans, a
fashionable western import, is now taking over in major cities and
towns.
Many would ask me where was Bhiwani situated. Most had not heard about
it, except for residents of cities which textile industry, since Bhiwani
boasted of two textile mills and an Institute which trained textile
engineers. Bhiwani also had a degree and teachers training colleges, run
by local Seth Kirori Mal Trust, which also runs Delhi's Kirori Mal
college. Some literary types would exclaim, " Oh! Bhowani Junction!" and
had to be corrected that Bhiwani was a non-descript meter gauge rail
station. The locale of novel 'Bhowani junction ' was perhaps inspired by
Jhansi's railway hub.
However, after the division of East Punjab into Punjab and Haryana, its
dynamic and development obsessed Chief Minister Chaudhary Bansi Lal,
soon got its railway station transformed into a junction, by cajoling
the Indian Railways to build a broad gauge link from Rohtak to Bhiwani.
A politician friend related how it was done. When Bansi Lal made the
request, the Railway Minister, in usual fashion said that " Yes, we will
do it after the land survey etc-- in next years budget ". But Bansi Lal,
a shrewd and go getter Jat, replied that the Haryana government had
completed all the required surveys. The Railway Minister then talked of
acquiring land for the project , which could take some time. Bansi lal
had brought along his officers ready with draft notifications for
acquiring land and signed them on the spot. Once he was determined to
achieve something, he would go all out for it. He is rightly known as
the builder of Haryana (and Bhiwani) adding irrigations canals, lift
irrigation schemes, industries, roads, universities and historic and
tourist spots at Panipat and Kurukshetra. His drive and rough and ready
methods specially during the 'Emergency rule' of 1975-77, when he had
shifted to New Delhi as the Defense Minister brought him much notoriety
but at least in India, people knew about Bhiwani, Bansi Lal's home town.
Haryana was carved out of Punjab in 1966. This region had been neglected
both as part of undivided Punjab and East Punjab. It soon flourished and
took advantage of its proximity to Delhi, as can be seen in Gurgaon,
near Delhi, home to national and international companies in automobiles,
motorcycles, tractors, white goods industries and sunrise IT and BPL
business. Haryana is now one of India's richest states in spite of
little local raw materials.
During 1940s and 1950s , Bhiwani was a dusty waterless town, with
Rajasthan's sand dunes encroaching right inside the city's western
limits. Birla's education city of Pilani in Rajasthan is only 50 kms
west of Bhiwani and Churu, home town of Laxmi Mittal, the steel baron,
is not far away. I remember perpetual water scarcity in Bhiwani. Summers
brought in hot abrasive sand storms. Two water channels, one for city's
water needs and another for the two textile mills, were called small and
big nehers – canals or rivers. As a child if we jumped from
one bank we would hit the opposite side. No wonder I never learnt
swimming. There were many big ponds dug around the town to store
rainwater for drinking, washing and for the cattle. Between Bhiwani and
Rohtak, 45 kms away on way to Delhi, one could spy only one little
garden. There were a few gardens around the city, otherwise it was just
dust, sand and more sand with some dry shrubs here and there.
When I visited Bhiwani in 1970, on home leave while posted at Ankara,
I was almost shocked to see that between Rohtak and Bhiwani, not only
there was greenery and booming agriculture, even sugarcane was being
cultivated near the city. The old city gates had been rebuilt in
splendor, there were new smooth concrete roads with traffic
signals, not that any one followed them. Shop keepers were selling
apples and grapes like wild berries of old days. There was a growing
smell of prosperity all around. Earlier, even those who owned thousands
of arid land were forced to join the army as simple soldiers for a
livelihood. Now with networks of canals and water pumps, they had come
into riches and indulged in politics and usual aggressive activities. In
general, owing to the abiding influence of Arya Samaj, few ate meat. I
myself became a non-vegetarian while studying at Banaras. Unfortunately
the sudden upsurge of wealth has brought in evils like drunkenness and
alcoholism.
An unusual instance when Bhiwani was mentioned with some astonishment
was at Rome Airport in 1984 by the Italian airport manager of Air India,
when I then posted at Bucharest in Romania and was transiting via Rome
for Delhi. Apart from my passport, he had also seen details about
Haryana politician –academician Ch .Hardwari Lal, Om Parkash, an Indian
businessman settled in Prato, near Rome and the then Deputy Managing
Director of Air India, Chaman Lal Sharma, all connected to Bhiwani. With
scarce foreign exchange, not many Indians, not even rich ones, could
then travel abroad.
The town is believed to have been founded by a Rajput chief Neem Singh
to honor his wife Bhani. The name Bhani later morphed into Bhiyani and
subsequently to Bhiwani. The town also has a conspicuous religious
dimension. Because of a large number of Hindu temples it is called "Chhota
Kashi". Like Rajasthan, the arid land of Bhiwani has produced a
large number of rich traders and industrialists. They splash colossal
sums building big Havelis (mansions) and there are many in Bhiwani and
in ostentatious marriage ceremonies. But owners of these mansions made
their money in Kolkata and elsewhere, where they operated, occupying a
small space in a ill lit room in bazaars. Perhaps, embarrassed how to
explain to their Maker how they came into their ill gotten wealth, some
by hoarding food grains during famines and scarcity, to atone for their
sins, a few have built temples and Dharamshalas (charity rest houses)
and to perpetuate their names, schools and colleges.
Bhiwani has produced two chief ministers of Haryana state and a couple
of Cabinet Ministers for New Delhi. The state has been a model of
political innovation, not always of the right kind .It added the term
Ayaram-Gayaram, for political defections, now so prevalent all over
India; political parties and individuals changing allegiance for
political or monetary gain
It was sickening to watch Indian politicians crowding out the returning
Olympic medal winners for photo-ops. Almost all sports associations have
fallen in to the clutches of politicians and their favorite civil
servants or hangers on, which are used for patronage and free trips
abroad. As politicians do elsewhere, many awards and prizes are
announced after wars or sports medals, but not disbursed .
A few decades ago, many politicians would turn up, a few months before
the Olympics in European capitals, say of East Germany, a major sporting
force then and request for a coach so that India could win a few medals.
That attitude has not changed much since then. India did not even
qualify for entry into hockey at Beijing. There is just no
accountability or even remorse for their colossal failure.
Wrestling, football, hockey, volleyball used to be favorite sports in
Bhiwani. It appears that now boys from lower middle classes have taken
to boxing in large numbers, for, a national or international medal
ensures a job in the police at lower level of say sub-inspector.
Vijender has been promoted to Deputy Superintendent of Police rank. Like
most Indian states, jobs are sold, with political elites using even
transfers and threats of transfer to milk money from the civil servants.
No wonder they in turn do nothing unless bribes are paid. Well, what
would you expect when honorable members accept money for raising
questions in the Indian Parliament and during the recent vote of
confidence, according to Members themselves, the going rate for transfer
of loyalty was 250 million rupees, a big sum. But political dynasties
have garnered thousands of millions of rupees each, even held in foreign
currencies abroad.
Olympics had become a cold war arena of competition in physical prowess
between Capitalism and Communism, which has somewhat cooled off after
the collapse of the Soviet Union. However sport persons from Russia and
former communist nations are still doing well. China topped the list of
gold medal winners in Beijing, displacing USA to second place. Winning a
medal still requires national endeavour in which the state, corporate
interests and individuals all participate jointly.
Apart from the latest training techniques, supporting gizmos, sports
medicine and psychology, doping techniques aka administration of drugs
to enhance athletic performances have also seeped in; an ancient
practice from the days of Roman gladiators who used stimulants such as
strychnine to pump themselves up for a battle. Doping is done through
gene therapy i.e. by inserting genes into a cell which instruct the body
to produce large amounts of a hormone, protein, or other natural
substance that enhance performance. Dope manufacturers keep a step ahead
of means to detect it. Most sports suffer from it including cricket,
with players from Pakistan i.e. Shoaib Akhtar and Mohamad Asif and the
Australian spinning wizard Shane Warne to name a few.
There are
numerous examples of doping in recent history from athletics. Sprinter
Marion Jones of USA, who won five Olympic gold medals, used drugs and
has been convicted. Boxer Jason Giambi of New York says he turned to
steroids beginning in 2001. Ken Caminiti, once an 'Outstanding Player'
insisted half the players in baseball shared his steroid weakness. He
died at 41 of a cocaine overdose.
Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson, who lowered the old 100-meter mark at the
1988 Olympics, was found using illicit testosterone and banned. But Carl
Lewis, his rival and supposedly Mr. Clean and a loud one, had reportedly
failed drug tests before the 1988 Olympics (the charges came out only
after his retirement). And of course the ever popular Diego Maradona
from the slums of Argentina - the Pele of the generation- who was
expelled from the 1994 World Cup after testing positive for too many
drugs to count. Apart from American Tour de France star Lance Armstrong
since 1999, Richard Virenque of France, Italy's Marco Pantani (dead) of
a drug overdose last winter) and, most recently, Tyler Hamilton of the
United States have all tested positive for steroids or blood-enhancing
EPO. The list of doping of athletes is long and endless. It is like a
cat and mouse game, with athletes and players from advanced nations
generally succeeding more often than not.
K Gajendra Singh, Indian ambassador
(retired), served as ambassador to Turkey and Azerbaijan from August
1992 to April 1996. Prior to that, he served terms as ambassador to
Jordan, Romania and Senegal. He is currently chairman of the Foundation
for Indo-Turkic Studies. Copy right with the author. E-mail:
Gajendrak@hotmail.com
August 31, 2008
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