Author:
Publication: India Today
Date: September 20, 2004
The ASI is doing more than just
conserving monuments at the Kumbhalgarh Fort. Officials have for long wanted
to shift out about 400 people living in two small villages inside
the fort-one inhabited by Muslims, the other by tribals. The Muslims are
descendants of the artisans employed to build the fort. The tribals trace
their lineage to the captains in charge of security of the fort. One day,
ASI officials who were trying to prevent vandals from defacing the fort
were attacked by the miscreants. The Muslim villagers rushed to save the
officials and handed over the attackers to the police. "Had it not been
for the villagers, I would have been lynched," says D.C. Sharma, conservation
assistant.
The ASI has now employed about 100
villagers in the project. Some months later, a Muslim villager helped the
ASI and the police recover an idol stolen from the Juna Bhelwara temple
inside the fort. The tribal villagers, on the other hand, voluntarily provide
drinking water to the workers at the conservation site. With such bonding,
the ASI is considering a proposal to convert the two villages into heritage
sites with owners running traditional goods shops. Of course, they will
have to shift their homes to some other place. The villagers are happy
and want to cooperate. "My son earns more now by running a restaurant in
the village," says Dungar Singh Ranawat, a tribal villager whose ancestors
looked after the security of Kumbhalgarh Fort for centuries.
