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Balbir Singh
It is fun to remember good olden days before the green revolution when farmers in Haryana grew many crops. Fields were small and scattered as the work of land consolidation had not been accomplished. A piece of land was cleared to make it fit for ploughing and growing crop with much difficulty. There were no machines, no tractors, no tube wells and no advanced implements. Rain was the chief source of water for irrigating fields, but that too was irregular and unreliable. Canal water was available but it was also not sufficient. A farmer had his turn once in about 15 days and the water supply was for 10 to 16 hours, depending upon the size of his land. The authority let the water flow into a canal for a week or 15 days, depending upon its availability from big rivers like the Ganga and the Yamuna. Our fields were provided water from the Yamuna.
To meet their water requirements, farmers also used ponds. This job was done with the help of a large saucer made of leather. A small pit was dug on the bank of the pond, which automatically filled with surrounding water. A man stood on the either side of the pit, holding the ‘Dail’ (a leather sac, 4-5 feet long with ropes at two ends). Then it was filled with water from the pond, swung to the other side with force and tilted to pour water into a drain leading to fields. Both steps were done in a single stroke. Thus they irrigated their fields even at the time of water scarcity. But water was not always present in the ponds and during the summer they went dry. So, wells were also dug up and their walls were lined with bricks. Some iron pipes were put in the bottom of the well and so it was filled with underground water. To pull water out from the well, farmers invented a mechanical device called ‘Rahat’.
In a ‘Rahat’, oxen (in some areas a camel) dragged a long wooden log, which rotated two iron wheels. These were joined by a thick iron shaft to the big iron wheel around which the ‘Mhaal’, the string of iron buckets, was wound. When the big iron wheel was rotated, one end of the string carried empty buckets in the well where they were filled with water automatically. They then move up and water was poured into an iron receiver from where it flowed into the wide pit made of bricks, and then was diverted to fields through narrow watercourses. The small moat going to the fields of a farmer was stopped and water diverted to the fields of the other farmer, whose turn was on that day.
As all farmers were poor, it was beyond their means to afford a ‘Rahat’ individually. About eight to 10 farmers were cooperative partners in one well and the ‘Rahat’. They dug the well and bore its expenditure and then irrigated their fields turn by turn. Each farmer was allotted a day or two depending on the area of his field. A person would move the oxen, while another oversaw the spread of water evenly in the field divided into many parts for irrigation. Sometimes another person was engaged to supervise the long watercourse from the well to the fields and plug any water leakage and wastage. Boys usually preferred to move the oxen on the well. It was easier and also one could sit behind the oxen on a wooden seat and enjoy ‘Bari’, a kind of swinging.
However, after the arrival of electricity, the long companion of farmers ‘Rahat’ was replaced by tube wells.
(The writer is retired Principal of Government College, Israna)
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