Jodhpur Dairies-3

Mr. Jhandak's Holy Cow

House-hunt in a small, two-tier city of India like Jodhpur is an arduous challenge. There is no formal, organized market where one can go online and get fair deals. On top of it, people are highly suspicious of young bachelors and outsiders. If one tells about his return from United States then it’s more than enough to worsen his case. He is thought of as a kind of debauch, drunkard and a meat-eating foreigner who will defile the ‘holy soul’ of India. It is very difficult for meat-eaters to rent a house. Hence, my father introduced me to Mr. Jhandak (names have been changed) who helped me yesterday in the house hunt. I have been instructed to feign complete ignorance in the matters of meat and wine!!!

Mr. Jhandak is a local merchant who deals in mining explosives. He is quite a huge personality who is made distinct by his thick-dark complexion, spotless white kurta-pajama and a string of stones in his fingers which includes a precious Safire, diamond and an exotic ruby. He strongly believes that his wealth, power and prosperity emanates from his stones and values. Mr. Jhandak is a very humble, low profile, simple, family-oriented, religious and a vegetarian man. However, he is a shrewd businessman. He is also a prominent politician with the local Congress wing but he is a great supporter of the right-wing Hindu nationalist leader Mr. Narendra Modi who is the present prime minister of India. Despite his proclaimed secular credentials he is a great fan of Mr. Modi for his pro-hindutva views.

In my interaction with him, I discovered many interesting aspects of his life, views, routine and family which enable me to understand India even better. He took me to a construction site where he is building a complex in order to make money from the soaring property rates in Jodhpur. I met a group of workers at his construction site. All of them came from either lower castes or Muslim community. They are mostly migrant workers from Bihar, Bengal and Bangladesh. They get around $8.33 to $15 for 8-10 hours’ work in extremely hot and dangerous conditions. The main architect, which in India is totally different from the university-educated architects of the West, is Hamid Khan. He comes everyday with his father Mr. Salauddin Khan. They are from the caste of silawats who are experts in stone-work.

“Three to four centuries back we were from the Sompura(Hindu stone workers) community before conversion to Islam. We have served the Jodhpur royal family for last three to four centuries.”, said Salauddin Khan. Salauddin Khan sounds very ancient and regal in his tone. He asked his son to fetch Jodhpuri onion katchoris (Indian dumplings) for me, and with that also came a piping-hot over-boiled cup of tea. It tasted like sugar syrup, though it made a great combination with Katchoris.

I am told that Jodhpur has about 40% muslim population. Hindus and Muslims have developed a strong communal harmony and joint culture which is a strange matrix of common rituals, beliefs, business and crime. But Salauddin Khan, being a traditional Muslim is disturbed by the increasing radicalization among the younger generation of Muslims. He said that one can see umpteen numbers of teenage Muslims boys with green pagdis (headgears) going to deobandi madarasaas. He supports modern computer-based education for Muslims. Some recent developments have started affecting the age-old trust based on shared culture and traditions. Recently about 12 local muslim youngsters were arrested by the central intelligence agencies for conspiring to bomb tourist places in Jodhpur. All of them have been found to have links with Indian Mujahiddin which is kind of a feeder organization for Al-Quaida.

Mr. Jhandak informed me that the relations between the two communities have a history of tension and cordiality but after the devastating attack of 26/11 in Mumbai, and a series of blasts in Jaipur and Ahemdabaad a general distrust has emerged. “I stopped selling mining explosives to Muslim merchants after I was investigated by the police in a link-up with the Ammonium nitrate found in a couple of blasts”, says Mr. Jhandak. On top of this increasing friction, Hindu communalism is also on the rise after the victory of BJP in the recent elections.

After the visit to the construction site, he took me to his place. I met his obedient son who is getting married in February, next year. He seemed pretty excited about his marriage. But, Mr. Jhandak seemed concerned over one issue i.e. his daughter-in-law is highly educated. He fears that she will spoil the family values and traditions. He feels that girls should not receive high education as it disturbs the social peace, harmony and family values. He proudly talks about his daughter’s marriage into a super-wealthy family. He believes that his daughter got such a wealthy and nice family because of her family values and not because of the little education which she was lucky enough to get. He also told me that he gave $416,666 in a dowry to his daughter and spent around $900,000 in his daughter’s wedding. But he is not going to take dowry in his son’s wedding. “I want a decent daughter-in-law. I have already earned enough money”, said Mr. Jhandak.

He also told me about his back-breaking routine. He sleeps at 2:30 in the night after jotting down the religious word “Ram” in a notebook for about three hours. He gets up at six and leaves his house at 6:30 after a cup of tea. He survives on several cups of tea and tobacco/lime masala (a harmful and throat-cancer causing mixture, immensely popular in Jodhpur) until three in the afternoon when he has his lunch and at 11 in the night he has his dinner. He is 44 years old and is almost free of his family responsibilities.

“I have established good business, property worth millions of dollars, married a daughter and now getting a daughter-in-law. What more I want!!! My son is obedient and a shrewd businessman so I have now worries. I want to spend the rest of my life in religious and socio-political pursuits now”, told Mr. Jhandak.