Turmoil in the Hills
Changing Vignette of Himachal Life
Dr. Jaspal Singh

Himachal Pradesh is one of the most beautiful states of India. Rocks, bushes, trees, water springs, rivers and snow capped mountains are the prominent physical features of the state. There is hardly any plain land, though majority of the population are farmers. The people comparatively are honest and hardworking. It is not easy to eke out a living in such a terrain. Fruit and vegetables are the main produce of the land. At least one member in a family is in service who regularly remits money to his elders in the village which is why it is sometimes called a money order economy. Culturally and linguistically Himachal has a unique position. There are scores of cultural and linguistic communities. At some places there is a linguistic change just across the hill. People in the villages are orthodox carrying the entire burden of antiquated traditions on their shoulders. Every village has its own devta, the village god whose stone manifestation is represented by the temple priest. Every village god has a clearly demarcated territory where his writ runs like a divine law. The land is replete with hundreds of myths, legends, folktales and other folk narratives. During the last fifteen years people of Himachal are undergoing both pronounced and subtle changes in their way of life. The semi hilly area of the state is fast industrializing, bringing along all the vices and virtues of such a process. Socio-cultural mores and political praxis of the state is catching up with the rest of the country. The vulgarity and contamination infecting the system as a whole have also cast their shadow over this land of pristine gods and goddess.

Now against this socio-cultural, economic and political environment, the writers and artists are dealing with their themes, conceptualizing and delineating them through their artistic forms. Today a huge corpus of Himachali literature is available in print. Meenakshi F. Paul from Himachal Pradesh University, Shimla has collected and translated into English ten short stories of well-known Himachali writers. All these stories were originally written in the pahari dialect of Hindi. The authors selected by Meenakshi include S. R. Harnot, Sushil K. Phull, Sunder Lohia, Piyoosh Guleri, Naresh Pandit, Sudershan Vasishth, Tulsi Raman, Ratan S. Himesh, Jaiwanti Dimri, Badri Singh Bhatia.

The first story in this collection “The Reddening Tree” by S.R. Harnot is based on a strange pahari custom where even the trees and plants are married like human beings. Mathru, the main character in the story has two daughters. He solemnizes the marriage of the elder one by mortgaging a piece of his land. A tulsi plant in his yard is also married off to the village god the same day. Since there are two marriages therefore a huge feast is arranged that sapped away the entire financial resources of the family. Now the younger daughter Munni and a young peepal tree in their fields have to be married. Mathru can raise the money only by mortgaging the remaining piece of land which may eventually lead to his starvation. When the girl learns about the worries of her father she secretly walks up to the glorious peepal tree, goes around it seven times and marries it. As she reaches home the father is about to sign the mortgage deed. The girl instantly announces her marriage with the peepal tree thus saving the family land from the clutchs of the money lender.

“Mitsav” by Sushil Phull is about the institution of polyandry in the Spiti area of Himachal Pradesh where one woman was simultaneously made wife of several men. She was supposed to keep all of them happy. In this particular story the younger brother chooses to end his life rather than being second to his elder brother as the younger husband of the common wife.

“Manglachari” by Sunder Lohia is a story of a temple shehnai (pipe) player by the name Phuhnu who feels betrayed by the village devta (god) when his wife dies even after the temple oracle promised to save the ailing woman. His companion Runiya, the drummer too joins him in boycotting the temple celebrations which are rendered totally colorless without the traditional music.

“These Wolves” by Piyoosh Guleri is a story of an ungrateful nephew, who after borrowing money from his uncle sets up a business and becomes a rich corrupted politician. He represents the present day dominant political culture in the country which has been criminalized in course of time. The nephew Deena Nath refuses to return the money rather threatens his poor uncle of dire consequences if he keeps insisting on it.

“The River of the Black Month” by Naresh Pandit is a story about a village lad Taru living on the banks of the river Beas. The boy turns out to be an adept swimmer who saves many a life from the ravages of the river in the hills. “The Arena” by Sudarshan Visishth is about Lakhu a wrestler who could subdue any wrestler of the hills during chhinjs (wrestling matches) though he fails to subdue his flirtatious wife who mixes with other boys of the village causing great humiliation to the champion wrestler.

“Gaachi” by Tulsi Raman is a tale about the great transformation taking place in Himachal Pradesh in the wake of new economic development that has shattered the traditional ways of life and has vitiated every aspect of social fabric in the hills. The contaminated political culture and the flow of easy cash in the form of subsidies and other remittances have corrupted and honest and gentle folks of the hills. In this story the protagonist Motu becomes an alcoholic loafing around in the new township, leaving his entire family in the lurch. His wife Murto then takes up the challenge, harvesting the crops and plowing the fields to save her family from impending starvation.

“Legacies” by Ratan Himesh is about man woman relationship from two different villages tendered by two different devtas (gods) who are not compatible with each other. The relationship is not consummated because of this anachronistic dogma prevalent in the region. “Tenacity” by Jaiwanti Dimri is a beautiful story about a midwife who saved the life of an expectant mother by performing a difficult delivery by sheer grit and tenacity.

“And a Song She Became” by Badri Singh Bhatia is a tale about the life of a very colorful female character, Mahajanu who has gone through three husbands one after the other in search of happiness, peace and dignity. Ultimately after deserting all her relatives, she finds solace in the company of a white woman in Shimla who bequeaths her beautiful bungalow in her name. Now a ballad narrating her adventures and exploits is sung in those villages by the wandering bards and performers.

All these ten stories not only allow a peep into the traditional folk culture of Himachal, they also exhibit the epical transition taking place in the hills in the wake of modernization and socio-economic transformation. Meenakshi F. Paul has done a beautiful job by rendering these tales into English for a wider audience. She could have done a still better job had she avoided the overuse of localisms and native terms which have alternative English equivalents with nearly the same semantic load.

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