Dausa district
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Aluda village
India’s tricolour flag/ as in 2018
From: Joychen Joseph, Weavers of free India’s first flag want to quit their craft, November 20, 2018: The Times of India
There’s a little bit of Dausa in Delhi. The tiny village wove the tricolour that was hoisted in Delhi on August 15, 1947, and that flag is still retained in Delhi. But more than 70 years later, few of the weavers of khadi used to make the national flag want to continue in the profession and none of them want their children to take it up.
As the Rajasthan election draws nearer, the Dalits of Dausa village say little has been done to promote their craft and keep them in the profession of their forefathers. The Aluda centre of Khadi Gramodyog Sansthan still weaves and supplies khadi cloth for the tricolour used during government functions. Dyeing and finishing of the flags is done in Mumbai as the water in Dausa is too polluted.
Chiranjilal, a descendant of Chotmal Mahawar who wove khadi for the first tricolour, is the only one from the family left in this profession. “I am still a weaver as I fractured my leg and there is nothing else I can do. My other family members have moved on to more rewarding jobs as construction labourers,” he said.
Chiranjilal said he is paid Rs 225 for 15.5m of khadi cloth. The yarn is provided by the khadi sansthan, and it takes him two days to weave enough material for a flag. “How can we survive on this meagre income?” he said.
Dausa has a long association with khadi, said Rajasthan Khadi Gramoyog Sansthan chairman and president of Kshetriya Khadi Gramodyog Samiti Sriram Dasji. Mahatma Gandhi set up the All-India Charka Sangh with its regional headquarters in Govindgarh near Jaipur before independence. A unit was set up in Aluda village then. He said Gandhi had hoisted an Aluda tricolour during the Quit India Movement.
Ahead of independence, Gandhi asked the Aluda centre to make a tricolour as per the Flag Code and send it to Delhi. Three other centres, in Karnataka, Maharashtra and UP, also made national flags from khadi, but the one from Aluda was finally chosen for the midnight hoisting, Dasji said. He agreed that “weavers’ pay is very low compared to other jobs. We have taken up this matter with the government,” he said.
Mehandipur Balaji shrine
The Times of India, July 24, 2011
If one visits Mehandipur Balaji shrine in Dausa district of Rajasthan, one will be met by a strange sight. Hundreds of devotees lie around with heavy stones on their body. They claim the stones work like magic to ease any pain. And if it’s evil spirits that are troubling you, why, the deity handles that too. Such people are kept locked or chained in a big room. The priest treats them either by reciting holy verses or by giving physical pain.
