Windows (Dec.8, 2001)

Reviving a dying tradition S.P. Sharma EFFORTS are being made by non-government organisations to give a new lease of life to the dying tradition of embroidering Chamba rumaals, following the failure of the state government to do so. The Chamba rumaal depicting the Godhuli theme in Calico Museum, Ahmedabad The Art and Culture Department of Himachal Pradesh had done almost nothing for the revival of the over 300-year-old tradition because of non-availability of funds. The department was pinning hopes on the NGOs for this purpose. The Delhi Crafts Council, in order to give a push to the art has organised a series of exhibitions of the Chamba rumaal in various parts of the country, including Mumbai, Delhi and Hyderabad. About two dozen Chamba rumaals recreated from the originals in various museums in the country and abroad were displayed in these exhibitions.

 

Images of Hindu gods and goddesses and motifs of flowers, birds and animals are generally embroidered on these jumbo-sized rumaals. This famous craft started during the reign of Raja Umed Singh (1748-68). The craftpersons were not only inspired by the miniature paintings done by Pahari artists, but also by paintings on the walls of the Rang Mahal in Chamba. The rumaal dated the oldest belongs to the 16th century. It is said to have been embroidered by Bebe Nanki, the sister of Guru Nanak. Another important rumaal depicting the battle of Kurukshetra was presented by Raja Gopal Singh of Chamba to the British in 1883 and is now preserved in the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Handspun or handwoven fabric was originally used for embroidering the rumaals. The quality of the rumaals deteriorated in the modern times as the art got commercialised and people started using fine cloth and inferior threads. Earlier, unbleached mulmul or fine khadi from Punjab was used for embroidering the rumaals which varied in size from one and and a half foot to four feet. It is believed that the embroidery art form of Chamba rumaal originated in the princely hill states of Chamba, Kangra and Basohli (in Jammu). The craft came to be associated specially with Chamba because of the patronage given by the rulers of the area and the quality of craftsmanship. Chamba rumaals are like paintings translated into embroidery. Raja Bhuri Singh was a great patron of this art and he took many rumaals to Delhi and displayed them in the durbars of 1907 and 1911. After Independence, some efforts were made to revive the art. However, the revival did not continue for long.

 

The Tribune

Spectrum

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Radio making waves S.P. Sharma on popularity of FM radio in J&K Within a few months of having come to Jammu and Kashmir, the BIG 92.7 FM has not only revived the radio culture in state but has also created ripples across the border in various parts of Lahore in Pakistan. The youngsters who till now did not relish listening to radio can now be seen tuned to the FM. With masala-packed programmes, people of all age groups and different sections of society have something to keep them entertained on the radio. The cluster head of the BIG FM in J&K says the popularity of their broadcasts can be gauged from the fact that they were receiving telephone calls and e-mails even from Sialkot in Pakistan in response to various programmes broadcast by them. Sialkot is just across their coverage area of Ranbirsinghpura on the border. He says that the Jammu station of BIG FM receives an average of 25,000 SMS per week in response to their programmes. The number adds up to 32,000 per week if the response to the Kashmir station is also taken into account. The coverage area in Jammu consists of the districts of Jammu, Samba and Udhampur, whereas in the valley the BIG FM can be heard in Srinagar, Anantnag, Baramulla, Sopore, Gulmarg and Pahalgam. Separate programmes are prepared in Kashmiri and Dogri for the two stations to reach the rural population. The Pyar Vyar Hello Yaar offered daily by the radio jockey (RJ) Manas between 7 pm and 10 pm has become a hit with the youth who are provided a platform to share their best moments and problems on the show. The morning begins with devotional songs and tips for prosperity and peace. This is followed by a four-hour lively programme Big Chai by RJs Rahul and Shaveta. Radio jockey Nazrana touches a chord with listeners by presenting an hour-long programme Aap ki Khatir in which she brings a woman achiever on board and has a chat with her about her life and work. Besides, programmes on Bollywood, fitness, request songs are being broadcast to entertain listeners round

Debt

Spectrum

Sunday, March 16, 2008

No exit Farmers in Malwa have little to celebrate as they still have to pay back loans to arhtiyas, reports S.P Sharma from Bathinda Women whose menfolk committed suicide because of debt in Walianwali, Bathinda. Photo by Kulbir Beera The Prime Minister's package covers only the loans taken from commercial banks and cooperative institutions. With the highest number of farmers of the Malwa region in Punjab reeling under debt, the area has hit headlines because of the high incidence of suicide. Nearly 700 small farmers and agricultural labourers have reportedly committed suicide in Bathinda, one of the district of the seven hard-core cotton-growing districts of the state. Victims of the farmers suicides have warned that they would intensify their agitation in case the state government failed to help them out of the debt. A group of widows, whose menfolk had committed suicide, as they were not in a position to repay the debt to private moneylenders, were highly critical of the successive governments that made "hollow" promises of pulling them out of debt. Many of them have lost their valuable agricultural lands to the moneylenders with whom these were mortgaged in lieu of a paltry amount. Paramjeet Kaur in the Wallianwali village said that her husband Surjeet Singh committed suicide five years ago, as he was unable to repay to the arhtiya the loan that had swelled to Rs 7 lakh. Karamjeet Kaur sobbed that her husband Jagrup Singh ended his life as the moneylender whom he was not in a position to repay Rs 2.50 lakh "harassed" him. Jagrup Singh was a farm labourer. Dilip Kaur has been left alone as her husband Sukhdev Singh and two sons Surjeet Singh and Manga Singh committed suicide. They used to take on contract farms for which they raised loan from moneylenders. An elderly Kaka Singh of the Malwala village in Sangat block, said that his son, Binder Singh (29), and daughter-in-law, Karamjeet Kaur, were pushed to suicide as a loan of Rs.50,000 stood against him. Binder was a farm labourer. Harbans Singh in the Kot-Fatta village cried that the moneylender from whom he took Rs 4,000 has occupied his entire landholding of two kanals. Deputy commissioner Rahul Tiwari said that he had received about 700 applications for relief from victims of suicide related incidents in the district and a committee was examining these claims. It is worth mentioning that coming across such incidents was unending in the Malwa belt in the south-west of Punjab where according to an official study around 93.5 per cent farmers were under the debt. Another study pointed out that there was a high incidence of suicides among poor peasants and agricultural labourers in all the three regions of the state, Majha, Doaba and Malwa, but it was higher in the three districts of Sangrur, Mansa and Bathinda in Malwa. Repeated pest attacks have financially broken the back of the cotton-growing farmers in Malwa as they had to undertake several rounds of spray of costly pesticides. A survey conducted by some official agencies has indicated that the cotton yield in Punjab is expected to fall from 749 kg to 598 kg per hectare. Punjab is the only state in the country where the average cotton production has declined by 20 per cent, whereas in other states the yield has increased. This was despite the increase in cotton growing area to 6.48 lakh hectares from the earlier 5.9-lakh hectares. Some farmers have diversified to cultivation of green chillies. A study jointly conducted by the Punjab State Farmers Commission and the Punjab Agriculture University has pointed out that the main reason for indebtedness as perceived by the farmers was the low price of farm produce and high cost of inputs. Complicated and time-consuming procedures of taking loans from banks forced them to avail loan from moneylenders. According to the study, "the Punjab peasant is born in debt, lives in debt and dies in debt".

Jan.9, 2006                                                               M A I N   N E W S

Monkey rule in Udhampur village
S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chirai (Udhampur), January 8
With lanes deserted, this obscure village in the foothills of the Pir Panchal range presents a curfew-like situation even at mid-noon as the residents not step out of their houses because of the fear of monkeys.

The burgeoning population of monkeys has forced several residents of the village to flee to "safer" places like Udhampur and Jammu.

The position is equally bad in the neighbouring villages of Dhani, Kambal-Danga and Balnagar, but no one has yet migrated from there.

Residents of Chirai say that the monkeys who virtually rule there have thrown life in the village out of gear. Women and children are frightened to venture out of their houses. Many incidents of monkey bite have occurred in the past few months.

A schoolboy was saved from monkeys, who injured him badly by taking out flesh from his cheek.

Ravi Abrol, a panchayat member, told this correspondent that the population of the village had considerably come down with almost 65 of the 100 households migrating from there because of the monkey menace.

On the other hand, the population of monkeys was growing day by day. Their strength has increased to more than 1,500 against the human population of just about 350.

Mr Abrol said panchayat members approached wildlife officials some time ago, but they expressed inability to do anything in the matter.

He said it had become difficult for the villagers to sleep even during night as monkeys kept jumping on the tin roofs.

A stick has become an essential part of life for the men when they come out of the house. Otherwise monkeys attack them and snatch eatables they carry.

Mr Mool Raj another resident of the village, said they had to bolt doors of houses from inside even in day time to save belongings from monkeys, who open the fridge and take away eatables.

The farmers in the adjoining area of about 5 square km have stopped cultivating their land or growing vegetable as the monkeys destroy the fields. Mr Mool Raj said till the past few years they were self-sufficient in grains and vegetables, but now they had to buy these from market.

Mr Ravi Kumar, a shopkeeper, said he had to keep the door of his shop closed even in the daytime because of fear. Monkeys snatch the merchandise from the hands of people.

He said only those such people were now left in the village who were financially unsound and not in a position to buy land outside. There were no buyers of property in the village and most of the abandoned houses had decayed.

Mr Ashwani Kumar, a chemist, said his relatives in other villages had stopped coming to meet them because of the fear of monkeys.

Feb.15, 2007

Neutral expert upholds Baglihar dam design
S.P.Sharma
Tribune News Service

Jammu, February 14
The Power Minister, Mr Nawang Rigzin Zora, today said the award of the neutral expert of the World Bank, Prof Raymond Lafitte, on the Baglihar hydroelectric project dispute would influence all future interpretations of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) that has been a hurdle in harnessing the river waters for power generation.

Mr Zora, in a statement on the issue in the legislative council, said the neutral expert has recognised India's right to utilise the waters of the Western rivers more effectively within the ambit of the IWT for power generation.

This is for the first time since signing of the IWT in 1960 that a neutral expert has been appointed by the World Bank.

He said the overall design of the Baglihar dam built by India on the Chenab as a run-of-river has been upheld by Professor Lafitte. He has emphasised that the IWT does not prevent incorporating state of the art technology for projects for reasons of safety and optimum utilisation of the waters.

During the 18 months' period after his appointment, the expert held five meetings in Paris, Geneva, London and Washington and also visited the Baglihar site and its hydraulic model at Roorkee.

After a detailed analysis of a data base of about 1300 dams from the International Commission of Large dams, he rejected the objection of Pakistan against the construction of the gated spillway and also held that in view of he high flood discharge and heavy silt load, India's design complies with the design criteria set out in the annexure D of the IWT.

The minister observed this important element in the neutral expert's determination will deeply influence all future interpretations of the IWT. The expert has observed that the present day state of scientific and technical knowledge with advances in technology in dam design, not known or developed in 1960, can and should be utilised in dealing with problems such as those posed by heavy sediment which shorten the effective life of a plant.

Terrorists rule the roost

Dec.18, 2006                                                             M A I N   N E W S

Kot-Bhalwal jail riot leaves 36 injured
S.P.Sharma
Tribune News Service

4 terrorists shifted Four foreign terrorists were shifted on Sunday to various prisons in Punjab and Rajasthan from the Kot-Bhalwal jail. According to the Director-General of Prisons, Mr M.K. Mohanty, these terrorists, belonging to Pakistan and Afghanistan, were shifted from here as they were inciting other inmates of the jail. Meanwhile, sources said that two more SIM cards of mobile phones were recovered during search of the barracks in the afternoon.

Jammu, December 17
Fifteen policemen and 21 terrorists from Pakistan and Afghanistan were injured in day-long clashes, teargassing and lathi-charge by the police to quell violence inside the high-security jail at Kot-Bhalwal on the outskirts of the city here today.

The policemen were injured when terrorists attacked them with stones and iron rods.

One terrorist was seriously injured as he jumped from the rooftop to escape the lathi-charge. Terrorists pelted stones at the police, which initially maintained restraint. They also lobbed other missiles at the cops.

Reinforcements of the CRPF and armed police were rushed to the jail as the terrorists went on rampage, burning furniture and taking up positions on the rooftops of barracks, from where they shouted slogans against the police. Some of them carrying black flags raised religious slogans.

Trouble had been brewing inside the jail following the seizure of cellphones from the inmates about a fortnight ago. The Pakistani and Afghan terrorists thwarted efforts of the jail authorities to search the barracks for the past two days. They turned violent this morning when the jail staff, accompanied by the police, started searching the barracks at about 6.30 a.m.

The local militants also joined the foreign terrorists and captured the kitchen, from where they started throwing boiled water at the police. Some militants carried LPG cylinders and threatened to blow these up in case the police continued the search operation.

It is suspected that the foreign militants chose this time for fomenting trouble and attract world attention, as a team of the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) is scheduled to visit the jail tomorrow.

The DGP (Prisons), Mr M.K. Mohanty, IGP (Jammu range), Dr S.P.Vaid, Divisional Commissioner, Mr Parmod Jain, and other senior officials rushed to the jail to personally supervise the operations.

They told mediapersons in the evening that the situation had been brought under control. They said that teargas shells were burst and lathi-charge ordered when the inmates of the jail turned violent. The injured have been shifted to hospital.

About 300 militants, including about 50 from Pakistan and Afghanistan, are lodged in the jail.

Reports indicate that the terrorists were being given VIP treatment in the jail and care for their entertainment had been taken by providing TV sets and games to them. Allegations of a nexus between the jail staff and the inmates have also been received from time to time. Six top terrorists were recently shifted from here to other prisons in the country. The terrorists got emboldened when the authorities not only transferred but placed under suspension the then Jail Superintendent, Sheikh Rashid, who seized two cellphones from the inmates about a fortnight ago. Rashid had told mediapersons that he had been sending reports of such activities of inmates to his top brass.

The militants manhandled the Jail Superintendent and the warders whenever they tried to search the barracks. Reports were lodged with the police in this connection.

Mr Salim Beig, who was posted in his place, tried to restore discipline in the jail, but the militants were resisting his attempts for the past three days. About 300 inmates refused to return to their barracks last night and demanded that their relatives should be allowed to meet them every day.

Intelligence agencies are learnt to have sent reports from time to time about the pampering of the terrorists in the jail by the authorities concerned.

Terrorism in Jammu

May 2, 2006                                                                   M A I N   N E W S

22 Hindus massacred in Doda
Bodies of 9 kidnapped from Udhampur found
S.P. Sharma
Tribune News Service

Women wail around the bodies of their menfolk and children massacred by terrorists at Kulhand in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir, on Monday as chief minister ghulam nabi azad flew to the site of the crime.

Jammu, May 1
In a pre-dawn attack, terrorists raided seven hamlets around Kulhand village in Doda district and massacred 22 Hindu men, women and children.

Eleven persons were wounded and nine of them were flown to the medical college here for treatment. The police confirmed the killing of 19 persons. The jungle nearby was being combed, from where bodies of some persons trying to flee were recovered.

Police sources said nine more bodies of Hindus, who were kidnapped from Basantgarh in Udhampur district yesterday, were spotted near Lolan Gala.

Reports said a group of heavily armed terrorists belonging to the Lashkar-e-Toiba in combat uniform asked residents of these hamlets to come out of their houses around 2.30 am and divided them on the basis of religion.

They were taken to the house of Jagdish Lal Bhagat in Goila hamlet and shot dead. Several persons tried to escape, but were fired upon indiscriminately by the militants.

By the time Army and police personnel reached the village in the morning, the terrorists fled.

Villagers carried the injured to the district hospital at Doda as the village was a three-hour trek from the road.

Following recent wireless intercepts of terrorist leaders asking their cadres to selectively kill Hindus, the Centre had asked the state government to beef up security in villages where Hindus were in a minority.

The attack came close on the heels of the people defying the separatists' call for boycott of elections.

The Bhaderwah constituency in Doda district, from where Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was a candidate, had registered the highest polling.

Among the killed were Shashi Ram and Satish, father and brother of Ashok Kumar, personal assistant to Doda SSP.

Official sources said the terrorists went around houses in Kulhand village and the surrounding hamlets of Thawa, Goila, Panchale, Jattan, Halian and Ponchara and asked heads of families to come out.

They were taken to a nearby house at gunpoint and shot.

The two successive incidents of massacre of Hindus showed that terrorists had reverted to selectively killing Hindus in isolated villages to trigger migration.

The nambardar of Kulhand, Gopi Chand, was also killed.

Among the killed were Jagdish Lal and one of his daughters, Sapna Devi.

His wife Giloo Devi and daughter Sumna Devi were critically injured and flown here in a helicopter for treatment.

Maghar Singh and his brother Ram Raj were also killed.

Others who were killed were Sunder Dass, Romesh Kumar, Sadhu Ram, Saroop Ram, Kumar Singh Rana, Bhagat Singh, Romal Singh, Gori, Kunj Lal, Prem Nath, Pritam Singh and Panchi Ram.

The attack came two days before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's crucial meeting with moderate Hurriyat leaders in Delhi.

These attacks were also being seen as an attempt of ISI-backed militants to thwart the round table conference of the Prime Minister at Srinagar on May 25.

Observers felt that by targeting Hindus, terrorists were trying to send a message that the government's peace process was futile and the Hurriyat and others would not be in a position to restore normalcy in Jammu and Kashmir.

Those who were flown here for treatment included Bal Krishen (45), Walait Singh (32), Sat Paul (20), Rajinder Kumar (19), Hoshiyar Singh (26) and Kikkar Singh (45).

Gyan Singh and Bhushan Kumar were admitted to the district hospital at Doda for treatment.

Those with serious injuries were given first-aid at Doda and flown to Jammu.

A doctor sent from Doda to Kulhand to conduct the postmortem examinations suffered a heart attack on seeing the mutilated bodies and was shifted to hospital for treatment.

An eyewitness, Rakesh Kumar, said the terrorists knocked at his door around 12.30 am and asked his elder brother to accompany them. He heard gunshots after some time and his brother sustained serious injuries.

He said there was no police picket at the village as the one that had been established a few years back had since been shifted. The Army camp was situated at a distance.

A complete bandh was observed at Doda and other towns of the district to protest against the incident. Students boycotted classes at the Jammu University and other institutions. Several BJP leaders rushed to Doda.

The Chief Minister, soon after his return from Delhi, visited the medical college to enquire about the condition of the injured. He expressed anguish and shock over the massacres. He announced an ex gratia of Rs 1 lakh each to the next of kin of those killed.

He said militants should read the writing on the wall that the people had rejected them and a deep hatred had grown against them. He said President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, the Prime Minister and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi had conveyed grief over the incident.