The Tyranny of Geography
The tectonic, political, historical and tumultuous makings of the state of Uttarakhand
Like a rash driver India went and crashed against the Asian landmass a few million years ago, its entire front crumpling and rising on impact, much like the bonnet of a Maruti 800 rear ending a large, stationary bus , Few accidents are so felicitous, for it gave us the Himalaya, still growing and rising( 5 mm – 1 cm per year) and nestled among them, the jewelled state of Uttarakhand. We begin with this geography lesson because it is impossible to understand Uttarakhand without understanding its natural features, for everything – its history, flora, fauna, culture, religion and politics- follows from it.
Your exploration of one of the India’s newest state can begin with a good relief map, or better still a computer. If you have access to Google Earth, descend to earth over north-west India, stabilise roughly over the crinkly brown green area from where you can see the Ganga and Yamuna arise, and you know you are in Uttarakhand. To the west, cresting from the northern plains of India you will sight the sharp, spine like ridge of the Shivaliks, beyond which is the shadowy dip of the Doon Valley; further east you come across a large swathe of the green of the Terai, once thick with swamply forests and now much of it reclaimed as prime agricultural land. Zoom in and you find yourself hovering like a kingfisher just above Corbett national park. Scroll to the north-east, and you will encounter the shattered rocks of Bhabar before the green hills of Kumaon roll northwards like gentle swells of great ocean. Zoom out a bit while moving northwards and see how these are transformed into wave upon wave of mountains of Middle Himalaya, amongst which the British established their sanctuaries of rest: Mussorie, Nainital, Ranikhet, Almora. Move northwards, using the tilt tools that you are now ‘flying’ parallel to the tall crests and deep troughs of the Great Himalayan Range, all snow and ice. Among the lower reaches, find the vast patches of olive green of the high pastures, the bugyals, where Garhwali shepherds spend their summers; higher up, spot a magical blue glacial lake tucked awayin a shadowed valley; follow the thick icy tongue of a glacier to the point where it merges into the mountain itself; trace the path of streams that slowly transform into India’s mightiest rivers further south – Ganga, Yamuna, Ramganga, Mahakali,; identify the peaks – Trishul, Chaukhamba, Panchachuli, and the magnificent Nanda Devi that marks the boundary between the two regions of Uttarakhand – Garhwal in the west and Kumaon in the east.
A history of strife
As you contemplate the serenity of the Ganga at dawn or the quiet magnificence of Nanda Devi at dusk, it is easy to think of Uttarakhand as a veritable haven of tranquillity. But why , you may ask, does Garhwal loosely translate into the Land of Forts? Early records are thin, but it appears that area is relatively peaceful, inhabited as it was by a number of hill tribes. Even Xuanzang, the Chinese mendicant-traveller writing in the middle of the 7th century, recalled hearing of a mystical land ruled by women somewhere in the vicinity of modern day Uttarakhand.
But by the 8th century, the Rajputs and Brahmins of the plains turned up, bringing with them all the angst of flatlands: petty rivalries, internecine strife, fratricide and war. Much of it had to do with the fact the area had scarce arable land, and ambitious chieftains of Garhwal & Kumaon that lasted for 700 years. But the region wasn’t all bereft of culture. Between the 9th and 11th centuries, ascion of Katyuri dynasty built the magnificent Sun temple of Katarmal , in the vicinity of Almora.
Once the Katyuris were eased out by the Chands of Kumaon, it was back to business at the latter skirmished with Pals of Garhwal. By the time the Mughals arrived in India, both kingdoms found it expedient to bend their knee before the emperor. In 1640, Baz Bahadur, Raja of Kumaon tried to push home his advantage by persuading Shah Jahan to send a large expeditionary force against Rani Karnavati of Garhwal. The besieged hill state managed very well, giving the Mughals a bloody nose- literally. Rather than executing the defeated prisoners as was the custom, the Ranisent them home after chopping off their noses and earned the dubious appellation, ‘ Nak-katni Rani.’
Had the will of Prithvi Pat Shah of Garhwal prevailed, and fate and the treacherous Jai Singh of Jaipur not intervened, India’s politics may well have been less communal today. In 1659, after Aurangzeb killed Dara Shikoh, the rightful heir of Shah Jahan, he set his sights on Dara’s fugitive son, Sulaiman, who had sought refuge with the king of Garhwal. Not entreaties nor threats, bribes, neither Aurnagzeb’s grteat legions could make old Prithvi Pat budge from his stand and hand over Prince Sulaiman to his bloodthirsty uncle. That is, until Aurangzeb availed the services of the raja of Jaipur who tried to use his influence over his fellow Rajput. When this and a poisoning attempt failed, Jai Singh bribed Prithvi Pat’s son into overthrowing his father, capturing Sulaiman and delivering him bound and manacled to Aurangzeb’s court in Delhi, only to be murdered within the year at Gwalior Fort.
Was it this treachery that turned the fortunes of this region? By the early 18th century, the marauding Rohillas overran Dehra Dun and Almora, and if the locals though this was bad, the next century only saw their misery increase with the famines, earthquakes and Gurkha invasions, the last not only exciting a heavy tribute but also d=selling hundreds of hapless Garhwalis and Kumaonis into slavery. For the worse or better , they may have found themselves citizens of Nepal today had the Gurkhas not overplayed their hand by plundering the East India Company’s territories in the early 19th century. Hardly one to the tolerate impudence, Governor General Hastings declared war, sent in his forces, and by 1815 made Kumaon a British protectorate and divided Garhwal between the Company and the Raja of Tehri.
While British rule was certainly an improvement over the Gurkha’s their exploitation of the religion’s natural resources was soon to become a source of grief for the locals. By the mid 19th century the full- scale felling of entire hillsides of cedar, oak and pine forests, coupled with curtailment of forest rights of the hill-folk, led to widespread anger. Some of this was soothed when the British set up the Garhwal Rifles and Kumaon Regiment ( headquartered at Lansdowne and Ranikhet respectively), providing employment for thousands, who then fought and distinguished themselves all over the world in campaigns of WW1 & WW2.
By this time, the region, part of the United Provinces of British India, had become popular for its R&R stations for recuperating British troops as well as the Indian elite. If Gandhi had his Ashram at Kausani and his kutir near Ranikhet, Tagore found the Environs of Ramgarh conducive for writing the first tentative lines of Gitanjali, and while Vijayalakshmi Pandit retreated to the Khali Estate in Binsar to rest, poor Jawaharlal Nehru cooled his heels in Nainital prison for long stretches. If the Kumaonis and Garhwalis participated enthusiastically in the struggle for the Indian Independence, they were soon to be disappointed with the new dispensation of Uttar Pradesh. Again it became question of who would control the rights to the forests and water s of the region, the locals or the outsiders? Thus began the region’s struggle for a separate hill state of Uttarakhand. The 1962 India-China War ended with further curtailment of local rights when the centuries old trade between the border villages and Tibet was brought to an end.
By the 1970s , when the deforestation had become rampant, the Chipko Movement was born where thousands of locals women across Garhwal and Kumaon hugged tress and refused to be separated when contractors from the plains arrived to log the forests, a mass action that won them admirers from all over the world. One of the protagonists, Sunderlal Bahuguna, went on to lead a losing battle against the construction of the Tehri Dam, arguing against the destruction of thousands of hectares of forests, and pointing out he dangers of locating a dam in a high seismic zone, a fear which intensified by the devastating Uttarkashi earthquake of 11991 that killed nearly 2000 people.
The Uttarakhand movement intensified by 1994, when dozens were killed in police firings. Six years later , the state of Uttaranchal was born and renamed Uttarakhand in January 1, 2007 as per aspirations of people. The state capital was provisionally situated at Dehra Dun, a move opposed by advocates of the capital being established at Gairsain, Chamoli District, who argue for developing impoverished areas. The jury is still out. But this is a minor quibble when you look at the more pressing problems of the state: retreating glaciers, overgrazed pastures, forest cover of only 35%, a stagnating economy and as much as 70 % population living below poverty line.
