Bakkargarh: The Land-Less Village of India 

The story I’m going to tell you about isn’t about some imaginary land but deeply rooted in reality. It’s about ‘Bakkargarh’, a village located in west Delhi in the Najafgarh area. Its neighbouring villages are ‘Kair’, ‘Mundhela’ as well as ‘Issapur’ and these are considered as the last villages of Delhi, towards the Harayana border. The land area of the village is about 818 acres and the interesting part is that only 90 acres are owned by the natives of the village. It is the only village where more than 90% of the land is owned by those not belonging to the territory.  

The incident of the village losing its land dates back to 1857, during The First War of Indian Independence. People were high on the spirit of patriotism which led the determined villagers to set fire to the bungalow of a British officer. During this incident, they also kidnapped his children and wife. At this point, stepped in the people of ‘Issapur’, who helped free the mother and children that were taken as hostage. The villagers who helped in setting up the fire were hanged. Most of the land was confiscated as a punishment and was eventually awarded to the people of the neighbouring ‘Issapur’ for their help in rescuing the officer’s family. Fast-forward to 165 years, people still don’t know about this village’s hardship even after 75 years of independence. The question is what did our government do to reward them for their participation. Well, so far there is just a signboard at the entrance of the village that reads ‘Welcome to the revolutionary village of ‘Bakkargarh’. 

It is quite heartbreaking listening to people’s stories describing their misery. Take the case of Nitish Singh, a small farmer with a little land of just 125 gaz or 104 m² which has now been further divided into five parts for his four sons. He has been pleading with the government for some kind of assistance to help uplift his family’s fortunes. Many feel that what was done to the people of the village was unjust and shouldn’t have been this way. If one listens to the beneficiaries of this land distribution arrangement, they take a defensive stand and blame the revolutionaries and their cruel act of taking hostage of the officer’s family for losing their land. Even after filling numerous cases and letters, justice feels like a distant dream for the aggrieved parties. I wonder if what was done to the village during British rule should’ve been carried on. Who does one blame for this? That’s something to ponder over! 

Vinayak is a student of Summer Fields School. Views expressed are personal.