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Ganga
Devi
A Question of Literacy and Development
BY KISHWAR AHMED
SHIRALI
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case study is presented of an illiterate, but wise and knowledgeable Himalayan
woman, who ably managed family and village affairs; farms, herbal healing;
spinning and stitching. She could read the weather, the land, the trees, the
crops, birds, animals and people. She is one of the millions of women who
produce 50% of the world's food. She is also one of the 280 million illiterate
women in India. But the present day agrarian-industrial development and the
literate neo-Brahmins have not only bypassed, marginalized and devalued her,
but have been living off the fat of her back and usurping the meager resources
of the third world. This development-literacy axis has deepened the gulf
between peoples. This gulf is the root of all dehumanization and violence. What
are the limits of the arrogance of the written word is the crucial question.
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Ganga Devi - the river goddess-the river Ganges,
the life line of the northern Indian planes stretches all the way east to
Calcutta. Ganga Devi is aged beyond her years with the struggle of family
cares. The abortion and births of eight or nine children have dried her blood;
their feeding, clothing and schooling have dried her bronchi. The failure of
her husband's business, the desertion of her eldest son after getting a good
job; the death of her husband and grown up daughter have broken her heart. She
has 'settled’; i.e., married and employed all the children, even the
youngest, who is mentally handicapped - the most functional I have ever seen -
working as a "peon" (mail, file carrier and odd jobs) in the Shimla Medical
college, married to an orphan tribal girl. Yet Ganga Devi runs the household
with an iron and knowledgeable hand. Not a hair turns without her consent. She
knows all the rites and rituals for every feast of the moon, every sacrifice,
every offering for the pacification of the dead and the deified, and the dues
to the hierarchy of elders. She prescribes the recipes for the daily fare, as
well as the special fare for the feeding of the Brahmins to appease the dead,
and the very, very special family recipes for preserves, pickles and
rejuvenating, high protein tonics. She and her family are vegetarian, so high
protein processing of wheat germ and cereals is carefully passed down from
generation to generation. Yet Ganga Devi attends to and listens to people who
come from far and near - massaging, healing, prescribing a diet, herbal
medicine, advice and suggestions for local and family politicking; massaging a
woman's stomach, directing her second son in setting a sprained ankle. Ganga
Devi can hardly see, having sacrificed her sight to the stitching of clothes
for family and village and spinning the finest wool into the small hours of
night, to supplement and even at times support the meager family income. And
all this after the household chores of fetching fuel and water from distances
and heights in the hills to feed the family of man, children and cows.
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