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Published: March 12th 2009
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Delhi Train Station
One of my favorite photos -- this old couple may actually live in the train station. CONTRASTS
Traveling in the Indian state of Rajasthan has made me think more than I ever have about the inequalities of life. As an American, I’ve always been vaguely “anti-king”, so being in a place ruled for the last several hundred years by an assortment of major and minor kings/princes has made me wonder about the morality (for lack of a better word) of that method of government. We have truly enjoyed staying in a series of Indian “Heritage Hotels”, formerly private residences ranging from hilltop castles to a luxury camping retreat. Their gardens, swimming pools and luxurious rooms provide a reprieve from the surrounding villages and farms where people scratch a living from the land exactly the same way they did all those hundreds of years ago when the castles were built.
With the formation of India (1947), the state of Rajasthan was created from a number of these small and large kingdoms. (“Rajasthan” means “place of kings and kingdoms”.) Over the next 50 years, the central Indian government has taken away the kings’ private tax collection powers and autonomy.
One night, we stayed on top of a hill in Fort Madhogarh (really a fortified palace) and
Fort Madhogar Bath
This was our bathroom in the heritage hotel established in the former prince's palace. were taken on a walking tour through the village that crouches at the bottom of the same hill. The area looks like a medieval knight’s domain. Small farmers and artisans live in tiny stone/brick/mud buildings (you can’t really call them houses), cook and bathe outdoors and still go into the nearby woods to poop - no indoor plumbing yet. The schools are primitive. Meanwhile, our bathroom in the Fort was palatial. The former king still lives in the Fort, is active in one of the Indian political parties, and sends his kids away to boarding school. We met him the evening we stayed in the Fort, and no one was discourteous enough to ask him why the “royal family” hadn’t done anything to help village living conditions.
The next night, we stayed in Bundi, a city of about 100,000, with its own former prince, now aged 65. Until about 1950, he lived in a huge palace/castle/fort above the town. In 1950, the prince moved out of this palace into yet another palace he owns in Bundi, and left his original palace to rot. It is filled with beautiful wall and ceiling paintings, sculptures, inlaid and carved wood and marble
- all of which are either cut away by looters, covered in graffiti, rotted and black with mold, or just plain filthy. Years ago, some luxury hotel chains offered to buy the place, but he’s not interested in selling. Our local guide told us the unmarried former prince spends most of his time in the local movie houses. The surrounding town gets a bit of money from the tourists coming to see the deteriorating palace, but not much, especially since it looks worse each year.
On the other hand, we stayed just after that night in the small town of Bijaipur, again in a castle. We met the owner, the local “king”, who is proud that he has provided water and electricity to all the houses in town over the past 20 years. (Many towns have one or two wells for public use; wealthier people have tube wells to serve only their own homes.) Bijaipur Castle is large enough that the owner provides a large number of townspeople with the only non-farm employment in the area.
So what do I think about the inequities that are more obvious in India than in the US? By the way, I
Bijaipur Castle Bedroom
This bed made getting up in the middle of the night a real challenge. am aware of m own middle-class, mid-western upbringing and the mix of vacation-home wealth and low incomes (median income in my Tennessee county is between $18,000 and $19,000 per year) that I see every day. However, we’re talking a huge quantitative and qualitative difference. Can India be “fixed” - in the way we Americans want to fix everything? I don’t know.
Here are some of the things I’ve noticed:
-- Indian people use many of the things we throw away - glass, paper, plastic, and wood that go into the landfills in the US are reused in India, many times over. Our milk this morning was delivered in a two-liter Fanta orange drink bottle.
-- On the other hand, Indian people seem to have no concept of garbage. Stuff piles up, and no one is paid to collect trash. What’s not picked up and recycled piles up everywhere, and no one seems to notice. Littering is not even recognized as a problem, and trash cans are scarce or nonexistent.
-- A recent Indian newspaper paper reported Indian government figures saying that 79% of Indian children under 5 are anemic, that more than 50% of urban children don’t get the
On the way out of Dehli
These people may live here all their lives -- and the lives of their children and grandchildren. minimum 2100 calories per day needed to sustain growth, and that almost 80% of rural children don’t get their required 2400 calories.
-- Camels, horses, cows, goats and hens are cared for (kind of); pigs, dogs and cats survive. These animals ARE the garbage collection system, as they freely roam the countryside, towns and roads.
-- The Indian transportation system is hugely varied - much more so than ours. It’s not unusual to see a rush-hour mix of cars, trucks, motorized and pedal rickshaws, motorbikes and bicycles (used for passengers and cargo), elephants, camel carts, donkey carts, and hand carts.
-- Indian people are enterprising, entrepreneurial and REALLY HARD WORKING. We’ve seen hundreds of tiny women with bales of grass (from a rich man’s yard) on their heads, taking it home to their cows or goats, or carrying baskets of rocks, gravel or sand (also on their heads) on construction crews. We’ve watched as a woman ran out into the road to pick up a “cow pie”, shaping it into a disk to be dried and used for fuel.
-- None of the religious practices followed by the Indian people (Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, and other smaller religions) seem to make any difference in the way people live.
I’m sure I’ll learn more as I travel through India the next six weeks. I’m certainly not comfortable making any judgments about how these problems can be fixed. This country is the world’s largest democracy, with almost four times as many people as the US and many fewer resources to improve quality of life. Last year, we spent three weeks traveling in China, with a similarly large population and a much more efficient and effective totalitarian government. The living conditions of China’s people have improved dramatically in the past 20 years. Would I wish that government on India to improve their lot? NO!
So - at the end of this long essay, do I have any answers? Again, no. Maybe I’ll be smarter six weeks from now.
Don’t get me wrong, India is an amazingly beautiful country with friendly, hard working people. While this blog entry may sound negative, we have been received with open arms, and have truly enjoyed the accommodations, food and scenery. A visit to India is not for everyone - we notice that many Westerners rarely leave their hotel, except to take arranged tours. We try to get out, wander the streets and interact with the locals as frequently as possible. Westerners are still a rare sight, and Indians are obviously as curious about us as we are about them. Shouts of “Go Obama!” are common when we say we’re from America. Children always stop to say “Hi”, and “Bye bye” - unfortunately, they also ask for water bottles, pens, sunglasses or money, even if they are not “beggers”. Stay tuned for our next entry as we work our way back to Delhi via Udaipur and Pushkar where we actually take a safari on camels.
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