Hwahsakanalli Village

Hwahsakanalli Village

              Hwahsaknalli was a small village near the banks of the Karanja river in Bagdal hobali of Bidar district in Karnataka. In the 1960s the population of the village was less than a thousand and there were around 75 huts and some well-built homes of Gaudas and Patels. 95% of the population was illiterate. Hindus used to learn modi language and numerics for arithmetics. Muslims learn Urdu and read their holy book Quraan. Kannada learning was absent for many reasons in the history of the land. The Hanuman temple was standing without a roof. Ganesh idol in the temple premises was in a broken state at its stomach. Sharada temple had been modified as Sharambibi and a Dargah was built in place of Sharada Devi Temple Moorti. The pillars of the mandapam were lying scattered in the nearby ground. The invaders deliberately destroyed the temples.
There was an old irrigation well towards the north of the village, called Harur Mala [ meaning it belonged to Brahmins] but it was owned by Reddys and Muslims, each 50% share in the land. There was no brahmin family in this unfortunate village for the reasons untold. There was also no Gonda[kuruba] community here in Hwahsakanalli. There was another irrigation well called Mulgen Mala [meaning it belonged to a Hindu] but was the property of a Muslim, a Kulkarni who used to maintain land records for the nizams of Hyderabad dynasty. The Police Patel was a Lingayat while Mali Patel was a Muslim so also was The Kulkarni. More than 50% of the landholding was with Mali Patel and Kulkarni and Sharikar put together, all the three being Muslims. During Nizam ul-Mulk rule, the Muslims had well established dominating the Hindu population in the village. Interestingly the homes of these three families are adjacent to one another. Two educated young Muslims from this village had migrated to Pakistan during the partition of India and Pakistan. This location is nearly 150 km away from Hyderabad city. A few Urdu pandits were employed in the Hyderabad city.
The Sharam-bibi premises were used to bury the dead bodies of Muslims. During Ramzan prayer, they would get-together there for prayers.

              There was no public school available there for children. Children were at liberty to play what-ever way they desired to. Kabaddi, Gilli Danada, Hututu, were popular evening plays for boys.  Almost all residents were peasants and manual laborers. Patels and Patwaris held most of the cultivating land and Parihas were employed to till their lands and to graze their cattle, as farm servants. The servants were employed on yearly basis wages. Typically one quintal Jawar and a pair of clothes and footwear and some gifts for their lifestyle. There used to be a supervisor to monitor these farm servants. Parihas had their separate colony to dwell and small huts were built with mud walls.


             The backward community like artisans would produce goods needed for village families and provide essential services to the population. They included the water-pots, the wooden articles for agriculture, the iron tools, leather footwear, etc. Life was so simple those days. Chutta smoking was a peculiar art of making chutta from chudadeli[meaning leaf for chutta]. A parihan woman used to serve this chudadelis to each household and she was paid wages as roti [the bread] on daily basis. In every one or two decades of time, there would be one or more communicable diseases and would kill the innocent population and thus the population was naturally controlled, and there used to be very few surviving children in those days in the village. The plague, the cholera, the small-pox were some examples of communicable diseases. TB and Dammu doddabyani were also there.


            The village was surrounded by many tamarind trees and neem trees were planted in front of each hut. A lot of monkeys were housed in the village surroundings. There were also some mango trees here and there. The village floor surface was slightly slopy towards east and rainwater would drain out immediately from the streets and no dirt was felt due to waterlogging. the land was covered with hard laterite stone, red soil structure. There was an irrigation well just behind Hanuman temple called Alli-gidad-malaa, where boys would spend most of their time swimming freely in the well, as long as they pleased in the summer days. This well would feed water to all village cattle in the evening hours while returning to home from farm-fields. Bulls were employed to lift water from the well. a leather apparatus would collect water automatically and the load was pulled by bulls. when the water comes to the surface level of the ground, the controlling person would release water from the apparatus called Bakkun by pulling a rope. This was the oldest way of lifting more water using the bull power and it was called "motti" in the local tongue.

        Yugadi, Dashahara, Deepavali, Moharrum, and Ramzan were popular celebrations in this village. Nagara-Panchami was a famous festival for  Hindu-women. They would gather in an open area and sing folk-songs in the local tongue. Girls used to get together for "Sige hunnive" songs in a particular month of the year. Holi was another occasion for making merry and collecting wooden articles to burn in Holi. During the rainy-season, Hanuman Saptaaha BHAJAN  was popularly celebrated. After seven days of continuous Bhajana, the last day would be celebrated with sweet payasam meals to all the village population,  irrespective of their caste or creed.


                 As the time moved, Kirloskar engines were employed to lift water from wells to grow sugarcane crops and wheat. Many people used to grow groundnuts using rainwater. The land was fertile and cattle dung was served as a natural fertilizer to the farm-fields. Pesticides were unknown to farmers. The village was self-sufficient for most of its needs. The oil, the cloths, footwears, and chili were purchased from weekly bazaars in neighboring big villages. Halliked was a town for such weekly marketing.


The Muslim Patels were like Lords. They had well-trained Horses to ride on important occasions. They had well-built homes of large plinth area. They were rich and power was with them till the village accountants [Talaties] were appointed in Karnataka around the 1970s. For another decade, they continued to dominate and they had servants to till their lands and work for them. It is said that power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. These Patels were no exception and they did all tricks to enjoy and indulge in adultery. Mali-Patel and Kulkarni both were Muslims and owned more than one hundred acres of fertile land property each. they had multiple spouses. Mali-Patel had three sons from his married wife and one son from a Hindu spouse. in fact, he had two Hindu spouses to serve his interest.  similarly, Kulkarni had one son from his first wife and six sons from second wife. he also had a Hindu woman as his spouse, apart from his wives. thus the story goes. Nobody could question their personal life as they were the center of power in the village. A portion of their land was immersed in Karanja dam back-water.

Educated common people became government servants and improved their economic status and many of them settled in nearby towns. One Reddy became a commercial Tax officer and settled in Gulbarga. From Parihas, one became a doctor and two engineers and settled in cities. Many peasants' sons became employees in different services.

                    By 1990s the things got changed as servants were not available. The Patels managed with some Muslim servants. But many poor Muslins migrated to Hyderabad city. Patels' dominance gradually diminished to common people over the days.  The Patels families had divided into smaller ones and so also their landholdings. Some Patels sold their land for arranging marriages of their daughters. Some Patels migrated to cities. One Patel had no issues and he was holding more than 40 acres of land and after his death, the property was shared by his married sisters from different places. One of the Patels became a politician and got elected to the Karnataka government and became minister for a term. But he was suffering from heart problems and expired around the age of 50 years. His family settled in a nearby town. One of his brothers managed a sugar factory.

The parihas became skilled workers, in house building art and they are happier in the free India, the democratic India. They took no interest to work for Patels or cultivate for the Patels. They are not tilling the land for lords and this created a problem for large landholders. The Patels, either they themselves have to work or give the farmland on lease to interested workers.