Meteoric rise of a community
Ex-farmers of Bhayander, the Agris, have started businesses sans education
“That lake used to come up till here,” says Pawan Gharad, 24, pointing to a small lake across the street and then pointing to his feet. We’re sitting in front of his house in Bhayander (East). He’s trying to impress on me the fact that this area — a haphazard maze of bylanes choked with autorickshaws and shops selling everything from jeans to jewellery — is his village, Goddev.
“We have been living in this village for generations; the city that you see now has grown around us.”
Gharad is muscularly built and wears two thick gold chains. He’s a typical member of the Agri community, the original inhabitants of the area. The word Agri comes from agar, a collection of rectangular vats where the sea water is dried and processed to make salt. The agris are so called because they were originally salt farmers. They diversified to include rice farming and fishing in their repertoire of professions, but their original identity is bound with the name of their community.
The Bhayander-Mira Road area — that was a cluster of Agri villages — has come a long way from housing large stretches of salt pans and rice fields. Today it is a multicultural hot-pot, a bustling centre of commerce replete with skyscrapers, restaurants, malls and call centres.
And to accommodate the burgeoning population, under-construction multi-storeyed buildings have risen from empty plots all over the place. Gujaratis, Marwaris, Punjabis, Bengalis — all flock to the area to do business. And as the landscape of the area has changed, so has the Agri community living in the area.
Gharad has never worked in a field. His father sold his farm to start a decoration business. A young Gharad took to the family business after leaving school at 15.
He exemplifies the typical Agri youth, says Rohit Das Patil, a senior BJP leader and a senior member of the Agri community. “A lot of Agri farmers sold their farmlands when development started in the area. They either developed projects in partnership with builders or started small businesses. Because they were farmers even as recently as 25 to 30 years back, there still isn’t much emphasis on education. So most of the youth join the family business or take up small-time jobs.”
Times are changing though. Other communities migrating to the area brought with them schools, colleges and a focus on education. Patil instituted SN College, which offers higher education to 7,500 students.
But education, says Gharad, is not a priority. “I could have studied till class 12, but what would be the point? So I left school after class 9. Most of my friends too left school and either got into politics or took up small jobs. You don’t need education to do these things.”
The elders of the community like Rohit Das Patil, though, are not very happy that the Agri youth lack education. “Their families got a lot of money by selling their lands. So the children have become complacent. They have not got guidance to invest their money properly and plan for the future.”
The Agris are known for their fondness of the good life. They like food, drink, fast cars and are attracted to gold. The stretch of road, less than a kilometre, on the east of Bhayander station is dotted with 12 bars. They’ve sprung up to accommodate travelling businessmen from Gujarat and Pune but they are also heavily patronised by the Agri community.
As for their predilection for gold, it’s a cultural thing, Gharad says, “When our ancestors earned money, they put it all into gold. You won’t see a Gujarati or a Punjabi do that. They’ll invest in business. But us Agris, we’ll spend them all in gold ornaments. That’s just the way we are.”
The Agris also have a fierce reputation for being short-tempered. Gharad says, “First we are Maharashtrians. That makes us 50% predisposed to anger. Then we’re Agris which means we’re 100% hotheaded. But we don’t hold grudges. If I have a problem with you, I’ll finish it off then and there.”
But along with this hotheadedness comes a largeness of heart. “For every Agri function, the whole village will turn up to celebrate just as they will turn up to mourn a loss. We are united as a community,” says Patil.
Gharad, though, disagrees. “We Agris are getting divided by political parties. This also stops us from growing as a community and making the changes we want to see at a political level. We just don’t have a united communal voice.”
Ex-farmers of Bhayander, the Agris, have started businesses sans education
“That lake used to come up till here,” says Pawan Gharad, 24, pointing to a small lake across the street and then pointing to his feet. We’re sitting in front of his house in Bhayander (East). He’s trying to impress on me the fact that this area — a haphazard maze of bylanes choked with autorickshaws and shops selling everything from jeans to jewellery — is his village, Goddev.
“We have been living in this village for generations; the city that you see now has grown around us.”
Gharad is muscularly built and wears two thick gold chains. He’s a typical member of the Agri community, the original inhabitants of the area. The word Agri comes from agar, a collection of rectangular vats where the sea water is dried and processed to make salt. The agris are so called because they were originally salt farmers. They diversified to include rice farming and fishing in their repertoire of professions, but their original identity is bound with the name of their community.
The Bhayander-Mira Road area — that was a cluster of Agri villages — has come a long way from housing large stretches of salt pans and rice fields. Today it is a multicultural hot-pot, a bustling centre of commerce replete with skyscrapers, restaurants, malls and call centres.
And to accommodate the burgeoning population, under-construction multi-storeyed buildings have risen from empty plots all over the place. Gujaratis, Marwaris, Punjabis, Bengalis — all flock to the area to do business. And as the landscape of the area has changed, so has the Agri community living in the area.
Gharad has never worked in a field. His father sold his farm to start a decoration business. A young Gharad took to the family business after leaving school at 15.
He exemplifies the typical Agri youth, says Rohit Das Patil, a senior BJP leader and a senior member of the Agri community. “A lot of Agri farmers sold their farmlands when development started in the area. They either developed projects in partnership with builders or started small businesses. Because they were farmers even as recently as 25 to 30 years back, there still isn’t much emphasis on education. So most of the youth join the family business or take up small-time jobs.”
Times are changing though. Other communities migrating to the area brought with them schools, colleges and a focus on education. Patil instituted SN College, which offers higher education to 7,500 students.
But education, says Gharad, is not a priority. “I could have studied till class 12, but what would be the point? So I left school after class 9. Most of my friends too left school and either got into politics or took up small jobs. You don’t need education to do these things.”
The elders of the community like Rohit Das Patil, though, are not very happy that the Agri youth lack education. “Their families got a lot of money by selling their lands. So the children have become complacent. They have not got guidance to invest their money properly and plan for the future.”
The Agris are known for their fondness of the good life. They like food, drink, fast cars and are attracted to gold. The stretch of road, less than a kilometre, on the east of Bhayander station is dotted with 12 bars. They’ve sprung up to accommodate travelling businessmen from Gujarat and Pune but they are also heavily patronised by the Agri community.
As for their predilection for gold, it’s a cultural thing, Gharad says, “When our ancestors earned money, they put it all into gold. You won’t see a Gujarati or a Punjabi do that. They’ll invest in business. But us Agris, we’ll spend them all in gold ornaments. That’s just the way we are.”
The Agris also have a fierce reputation for being short-tempered. Gharad says, “First we are Maharashtrians. That makes us 50% predisposed to anger. Then we’re Agris which means we’re 100% hotheaded. But we don’t hold grudges. If I have a problem with you, I’ll finish it off then and there.”
But along with this hotheadedness comes a largeness of heart. “For every Agri function, the whole village will turn up to celebrate just as they will turn up to mourn a loss. We are united as a community,” says Patil.
Gharad, though, disagrees. “We Agris are getting divided by political parties. This also stops us from growing as a community and making the changes we want to see at a political level. We just don’t have a united communal voice.”
No comments:
Post a Comment