Mokama Ghat: A Discovery

Along the winding course of the river Ganga there were several ghats in the Indian cities and towns of UP, Bihar and West Bengal which were used for the shipment of cargo and passengers across the river in the British period. These Ghats used to be the important links for trade and commerce. However such a Ghat would lose its importance as soon as a bridge was constructed across the river.

Mokama Ghat was one such Ghat in Bihar about which I had heard from the elders in my village, that is Mokama. It used to be a very thriving centre of transport in East India during the British period. Thousands of tons of cargo and passengers would be shipped everyday from there across Ganga to Simaria Ghat. A railway station, a port, several ships, a huge warehouse for the storage of goods and a large colony for accommodation of the railway officials (most of the senior officials were British) and workers existed at Mokama Ghat.

Just as it happens with the fate of any such Ghat, Mokama Ghat too became history as soon as its purpose was fulfilled by Rajendra Bridge, that was constructed across Ganga in 1960. Its docks, ships, the station, tracks--- all disappeared over a period of time. Even though the bridge was inaugurated in the same year in which I was born, I was a witness to the wiping away of the tracks and the other structures of Mokama Ghat. I saw it becoming a part of history. What remained with me were only some stories, myths or memories that could not be erased so easily. These included its association with the freedom movement or with some important persons like Jim Corbett, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar or Prafulla Chand Chaki.

I kept on wondering about this place over the years. The questions lurked in my mind how such a huge centre of transport worked? Who were the people who managed? While so many of them were the British, what were their experiences? Did anyone like Jim Corbett describe these experiences and has any of these been published? I tried to discover these through the various tools of the Google Engine like Gbooks, news, images etc. or through Wikipedia. I found there was no article on Mokama Ghat on Wikipedia and except for Google books, it was traceless even on Google maps. I soon realized how such a thriving centre of activity was on the brink of extinction.

I decided I must create an article on Mokama Ghat on Wikipedia. Reading and researching through more than 10 books on the net I could get some interesting facts about the place:

1. Jim Corbett , the famous naturalist, writer and hunter had worked at Mokama Ghat railway sation from 1893 to 1913 ------ as a fuel inspector, transshipment manager and labor contractor. While staying in Mokama Ghat he would go for hunting the man eating tigers in the jungles of Uttarakhand from time to time. Later he joined the British army as a major in the first world war. He wrote all his stories and books of adventure after retirement from Kenya in Africa.

2. Prafulla Chand Chaki was one of the revolutionaries of the freedom struggle who along with Khudiram Bose had thrown a bomb on a carriage in Muzzafarpur on April 30, 1908 in which a British lady and her daughter were killed. Prafulla Chaki was spotted at Mokama Ghat railway station after a few days and after a stand off with the police, he killed himself with his own revolver there. On the other hand Khudiram was arrested in Muzzafarpur and finally awarded death punishment.
3. Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, the well known Hindi poet of India, was a student of Mokama Ghat railway high school.
4. An author named Malabika Chakrabarti mentions the congestion at Mokama Ghat in May  1897 as one of the factors that had affected the supply of grains during the famous Bengal famine of 1896-97 in her book.

Many more questions are still lurking in the mind. Perhaps a lot more excavations are required to answer these questions.

You may visit the following to see the article that I have created on Mokama Ghat on Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/

Mokama_Ghat

D C Kala's Jim Corbett of Kumaon: a review

Everybody knows Jim Corbett as a hunter, wildlife expert and as an established writer. But I was more interested to discover the life that he lived at Mokama Ghat, a small village on the bank of Ganga in Bihar. He had spent about 20 years of his life there with the Railways. I wanted to understand his character as a professional and as a human being.

And I was not disappointed. I got one full chapter on that in the book. I did have some knowledge about that though. Corbett himself has described it in the last chapter of his My India. But this book has brought to light several other aspects of his character.

If you want to be a successful human resource manager, you need to take good care of human resource under your command. This book reveals how Corbett used to take care of the needs of the people working under him. He made them work hard, 16 hours a day, and get tons and tons of goods loaded on the ships/rail at Mokama Ghat.

Corbett used to be very compassionate and concerned about the daily needs such as food, income and education of his workers. He was instrumental in opening the first high school in that area with the help of a local person named Ram Sharan who had been closely associated with Corbett.

D C Kala has been able to reveal several of these attributes of Jim Corbett in the book. 

Dalrymple's The Anarchy: a review

‘History is boring' is a common refrain from students in schools. And one obvious reason is the history books have generally been written by the historians who are skilled in historiography but they are unable to connect with the common reader. Very few historians have the ability to build engaging narratives in their books. And William Dalrymple is one of them.

Dalrymple is known today as a leading expert of Indian colonialism in the world. As a historian he knows his job well and he does it too; diligently, effectively. Before taking up the task of writing Dalrymple carries out extensive research analysing diverse sources. Then he weaves the stories of history in such a way that you find his books unputdownable. With every new book that he writes, his canvas widens and the skill of writing matures.

Dalrymple’s The Anarchy is the latest in a series of three books that he has written on the history of the transition of the Mughal rule to the British in India. His other two are The White Mughal and The Last Mughal. 

In The While Mughal Dalrymple focuses on the influence of the Mughal culture on the British officers in the initial period of the British Raj. He has presented the case of an officer posted at Hyderabad to reveal this. The Last Mughal is the story of the 1857 revolt in India with Bahadur Shah Zaffar as a key character. These two books seek to portray the political, cultural and societal aspects of colonial India.  

The Anarchy, however, is the most prophetic of all. It relates the story of how a trading company, that is East India Company, started ruling over India in 18th century. How it first captured a rich state like Bengal and then consolidated and spread its rule through the whole of the country. 

The book reveals the manner in which EIC used all the means at its command to carry out 'loot' in India. The company had been authorised by the British government to have a private army and to wage a war if it was required to fulfil its aim. 'Its lawyers and MP shareholders slowly and subtly worked to influence and subvert the legislation of Parliament' through what is known today as corporate lobbying. 

In the Epilogue Dalrymple makes an interesting comparison between the nature of EIC with that of giant companies in the world today. He also uses this comparison to reveal the sinister policies of these companies -- साम, दाम, दंड, भेद -- which they employ to maintain their monopoly in the markets.

Ustad Abdul Karim Khan

Ustad Abdul Karim Khan has been one of the legendary singers of Hindustani classical music in India. Apart from his immense contribution to music, he also represents the cultural unity and diversity of what we know today as India. He was the founder of the famous Kirana Gharana in the traditions of Hindustani classical music.

He was from Kiryana in UP from where he moved to Baroda in Gujarat. He spent some time as a court singer in the court of Maharaja Sayaji Rao where he fell in love with Tarabai Mane, a member of the royal family of Baroda. After marriage they moved from Baroda to Bombay where the couple lived with their two sons and three daughters. Abdul Karim Khan, however, moved further south to Maharashtra and Karnataka after their separation in 1923. 

The life of Abdul Karim khan is like an open book. He kept on moving from UP to Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and other places, performing as well as enriching his style with anything worth that came his way. It is no surprise then that a maestro of Hindustani classical music like him did not hesitate in adopting the features of Carnatic music in his gayaki. He was very open as a teacher too. He also prepared a good number of disciples.

One may not be aware that some of the great singers of Kirana Gharana like Sureshbabu Mane, Hirabai Badodekar and Sarashwati Mane were his children from his wife Tarabai. Before the couple got separated, Sureshbabu Mane was named as Abdul Rahman, Hirabai was Champakali and Sarashwati was Sakina. After the separation Tarabai changed those names by what they are known today. Sureshbabu was the guru of another legendary singer, Dr Prabha Atre.

When Bharat Ratna Bhimsen Joshi ran away from home to learn classical music, his source of inspiration was Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. Bhimsen Joshi  learned under the wings of a legendary disciple of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan. His name was Pandit Sawai Gandharv.

Fortunately Abdul Karim khan was born in a period when the recording of music had just started in India, in 1902. More than 30 of his songs were recorded, many of which are still available for the listeners. I enjoy listening to some of his songs that I have. One of them, Jamuna ke teer, is a treat, especially when you listen the same song from his disciple, Sawai Gandharwa as well as from his grand disciple, Bharat Ratna Bhimsen Joshi. The basic structure of the song remains the same but you can also observe the individual differences.

https://youtu.be/SgYPp0BKu6Y

From the Diary of a Snake

Yesterday was a very painful day for me. I had come out in the open for an evening crawl. The hot day of the rainy season had been followed by a light breeze in the evening, which was a perfect occasion for my crawl. I wanted to breathe the fresh air after living in the dark fissures of my underground home for long. I wanted to enjoy every moment of my crawl.

Suddenly I saw a giant looking creature staring at me from a distance. He looked very similar to the kind of species named human beings, about whom my parents had warned me in my childhood. He had covered his body with strange looking materials from neck to the bottom. He could stand like a tree, but unlike us he moved vertically. My parents had conveyed that these humans consider us as their sworn enemies. Whenever or wherever they catch sight of us, they attack and kill us.

So, I immediately crawled for safety and hid myself under a big iron box kept nearby. From there I could see that the human was still standing. It seemed it was speaking to someone with the help of a device in his one hand. Just then I saw that two other humans arrived on a fast moving machine. They were armed will long sticks, the sight of which sent a chill down my whole body.

My grandfather had once told me that though the human beings consider themselves the most powerful creatures on the earth, most of them worship a superpower named God in various forms. They always pray to God whenever in danger. I wished we also had had such a God to whom I could send my prayers.

Anyway these two well built fellows started searching every nook and corner around. Soon they discovered my hiding place. They overturned the box and surrounded me from two sides. I crouched and left myself to the fate. By that time a few more humans had assembled to watch this whole spectacle. They started talking to one another. Probably they were discussing my fate: whether to kill me or to drive me away. I used this as an opportunity to escape from there and run towards the road.

Thus started the game of hide and seek between me and those lathi clad guys. They were trying to lift me on the stick but I would always escape either to the roads or the bushes. I saw that one of the onlookers was using the same small device that I had seen with the first human, to take an aim at me. Probably they were taking my images which they would show and circulate later as a sign of their victory.

I could not continue dribbling and dodging in this life threatening game for long. I was tired and injured. So I gave up. They held me on a stick and threw me away from 'their territory' in the wild of the rice fields across the boundary wall. I fell on an unknown and unfamiliar hard surface with a thud, hurt and humiliated.

I was unable to understand why I had been thrown away from the place where I had lived since my birth. Why do the human beings consider us as their enemies? Why should they kill us or even evict us from the territories which are equally ours? We never offend them or any other species unless provoked. Is it not possible for all the creatures including us and humans to live together in peace and harmony on this Earth?