Temporary Detention

Those of us in certain government departments who have to deal with people on a face to face basis almost daily know a lot of things that the ordinary public doesn’t know. One of the most common misconceptions is that villagers are naïve, innocent, and gullible. Of course, it is true that most of the villagers are so in addition to being trusting and helpful. It has also been my experience that some of the most wonderful human beings are the people in the villages who lead simple lives, don’t have much of an ambition in life and take whatever life has to offer them. I have a soft corner for them and am always on their side no matter what they do. But it is also true that some villagers are very, very stubborn and quite unreasonable when it comes to certain things. One recent experience brought me face to face with this facet of a few villagers. The incident even got me (and my picture) into the local papers.

Since last Monday I have been traveling to villages as part of a program that the government has designed to help farmers prepare themselves for the coming agricultural season. The program involves conducting meetings with farmers in villages where officials of agriculture and allied departments give the farmers advice. Last year I had done this program in another part of the district but now I am supervising eleven officials. I am visiting the area of a different officer every day. Sometime last week I went to a village where only a handful of farmers gathered in the beginning. After the meeting started two villagers asked where the revenue staff was. They said they wanted to ask about the list of farmers who were getting compensation for loss of their crops due to drought the previous year.

The two were adamant that the revenue official also known as Village Revenue Officer be summoned to the meeting. They said that they would not let the meeting progress further. Soon a crowd gathered demanding the same. They said that the list was wrong and that ineligible farmers got compensation whereas farmers who had actually lost their crops did not get any money. I tried to convince them to write out a representation to the higher officials but they scoffed at my idea. They were very skeptical and said that we were trying to pass the buck. In every such meeting there are usually a couple of people who are reasonable and try to be on our side. But that day almost the entire village was hostile to us. As the crowd gathered the hostility increased. They said they would not let us leave the village until the VRO was produced. They said that they wouldn’t even give us water or food. I had left early in the morning without even breakfast and three hours later the hunger was gnawing. There seemed no way out as the villagers especially the two persons were very stubbornly refusing to see reason.

Only the other night I was talking to a friend over the phone and he revealed that someone he knew worked as a higher official in the area. I called him up, got his friends’ number and talked with the higher official. He sent the Tahsildar to the village. The villagers said they would detain him too until the VRO was produced before them. The elderly Tahsildar tried to convince them and finally the villagers relented after he assured them that he would take against the truant VRO. It was almost half past two when we left the village feeling damn hungry. From about half past eight in the morning to half past two in the afternoon we were captive in the village. It was not a new experience to me but what made me annoyed was that the two stubborn people prevented the other villagers from learning what we had to tell them.