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Barkur in 1940s......... Barkur
was a prosperous little rural town in the late 1930s and the 1940s; it
was not a hamlet at any
time, as some people appear to have referred to it in an article. We all
know that Barkur is made up
of 4 or 5 large villages, and it caters to many other interior villages,
and we can rightly call it
a town. In the 1940s, there used to be quite a lot of trade and
business; it was kind of wholesale trading outlet for rice, timber etc.
The retail business too used to be good; there were number of shops on
the main road selling cloth, groceries, general merchandise etc. The
weekly fair on Friday used to be well patronised, and full of supplies
from the surrounding villages. I suppose, the decline of Barkur began
sometime towards the end of the decade, and perhaps continued during the
next three or four decades, and it had an appearance of an abandoned
town. I am glad it has since revived, particularly during the last 10 or
15 years. Though
Barkur was prosperous, as far as business and trade was concerned, it
lacked certain basic needs, such as a regular full time post and
telegraph office, a decent hospital, and a high school. There used to be
a branch post office, without telegraph facilities, operated by a
part-time post master. People had to cross the ferry, and trek all the
way to Brahmavar in order to send a telegram; telephones were not heard of in
the those days in the rural areas. The sub-post office must have come
into existence sometime during the early 1950s. There used to be a Govt. dispensary, which used to cater to the
medical needs of the people of Barkur and
the surrounding villages. I guess, the same facility continues even
today, and a regular hospital still remains a dream. There
was no education facility beyond 8th standard in Barkur; there were two
separate higher elementary boys and girls schools, and few people could
afford to send their sons (very
seldom their daughters) to Kallianpur, Udupi or Kundapur for high school
education. Therefore,
the most significant thing that happened in our home town during the
1940s was the establishment
of National High School. It has benefited immensely not only the people
of Barkur, but also the
nearby villages. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, of students must
have passed out (graduated) from the High School and the Junior College
during the last 54 years!
Thanks to the vision, foresight and tireless efforts of all the
communities of Barkur
during that period; it was entirely a combined effort, no credit can be
given to a single community as such, and rightly the high school was
named 'National'. Among the Catholics, it
was Mr. John P. Sequeira who was instrumental and involved. Most of
our people, particularly the Catholic community of Barkur and nearby
places were poor by any
standard, money was scarce to come by, the main source of income was
from farm and agricultural
produce, which could not sustain the large families people had in those days. Those who had some education went to places like Bombay
in search of jobs, and their parents/families depended on their monthly
remittances. Those who did not have much of education did various kinds odd jobs to supplement the family
income. Some of them took to tailoring
in and around Barkur, and some able bodied men worked as copper/brass
smiths, especially in
erstwhile Mysore State (ghats). They would work in the ghats for about
8/9 months of the year, and come home during the monsoon (lean) season,
in time to attend to the agricultural
or farm work, and also to enjoy family life; they would come in the
month of June, in time for
the patron, St. Peter's feast, and go back on... As we
all know, the first half of the 1940s was a very volatile period in
colonial India and elsewhere
in the world; it was the height of freedom movement (in India) and World
War II. Though our people did not have to face the realities of war,
they faced the indirect effects, such as shortage of food and other
essential goods. For the first time, rationing of food grains, kerosene,
cloth, etc., was introduced. Only substandard quality of food grains and
certain kind of grains which our people did not use in their diet were sold
in the ration shops; prime quality food
grains being requisitioned for the military. The result, local rice was
being sold in the black market,
if I remember correctly, at around Rs. 60/- per 'moora', whereas it used
to be about Rs. 6/- per 'moora' before the war, a tenfold increase!
Needless to say, the vast majority of the
people could not afford that kind of price, with the result they
substituted their diet with sweet
. While
the war was going on elsewhere in the world, kind of a mini war took
place in Barkur Parish in the early 1940s, during the vicarship of Fr.
Marian Castelino at St. Peter's Church. From what I can recollect, a
dispute arose between two groups, the parish priest and a few people
(his advisors, let's call them: rightists) on one side, and a group of
active parishioners (leftists) in the opposition, on a certain issue at
the annual church council meeting. The dispute took such an ugly turn
that the parish feast of December 1943 was almost totally boycotted by
the vast majority of the parishioners, rather people were prevented from
attending the three day church services connected with the feast. Even
the then bishop of Mangalore got a cold reception on his pastoral visit
to Barkur during that period. The attitude on both sides was one of
defiance and confrontation, not of conciliation and understanding. I
cannot comment or express my views on this............ Edwin
P. Sequeira, Ohio,
U.S.A. For a glimpse of the life at Barkur as remembered by Barkurians, check archives |
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Barkur, located in Udupi Taluk, Karnataka, India. 576 210 |
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Copyright Kishoo, Barkur 2002. |
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