Salam !

Assalamu’ Alaikum !

Dear All !

It is heartening to see that you guys are so much interested in the history of the villages of Pargana Chail and thank for the overwhelming response this site has received in a short span of time. All thanks to Almighty Allah. 

Today I am not into history, I am talking of the present scenario and would like to draw your attention to something serious with the submissions that I am going make in the following:-

As some of you may know I have been criss-crossing Pargana Chail for the last two years in order to collect historical information with regards to the origin and the progeny of the original settlers in & around Pargana & Tehsil Chail. During the course of my frequent, regular visits in and out of the area I have noticed certain things that I would like you to know and pay attention to it and take corrective measures:-

1.Extensive selling of Lands in Chail 

2.Lack of ilm-i-Deen and the spirit of Deen in Chaili Community.

3.Lack of Guidance for the ,aspirant & promising youth for higher education

I will elaborate these three points and ask your inputs as to how you would like it to be dealt with and how you want to be a part of this drive. This does not involve too much of money, society, membership etc etc. It needs your time. If you are sincerely concerned you will spend your time & resources to do the job.

1.Extensive selling of Lands in Chail 

Pargana Chail is a geographical entity. It comprises and is made up of land surrounded by its boundary. Our ancestors struggled hard to maintain, retain and sustain the lands they had won or received from their forefathers. These lands make Chail what it is known for. Our forefathers fought tooth & nail to safeguard these lands and even went to the extent of going into litigation against their own brothers and family just to retain their share of land……..For the last many hundreds of years land has been the primary source of not only the sustenance but also the source of the honour and dignity of Chailis in and around Allahabad. Peasants would regard you and hold you in esteem only because you had lands. It is these lands through which our older generation survived , they Lived off the lands virtually………. Zamindars were because of Zameen ……….but today we the people of Chail are disposing, selling their century’s old land, hard earned and hard saved land just for nothing. 

While I appreciate there are times when there is no way but one is forced to dispense with the lands in order to have something more important in life than the lands but this should not become a habit, a practice and a fashion. Today it has become a fashion to dispose the lands just for nothing substantial, concrete and much better in exchange……………..In the past 20 years the ex-zamindars of chail have lost almost 60% of their ancestral lands which were with them for the last hundreds of years……….for which they were known throughout the district and even in the entire eastern UP. The servants of the Zamindars have become masters of the region……….and the masters are still intoxicated with the bug of 150 year old Zamindari status ?

Why the other communities are not selling their lands ? Why is Chamrauti, Pasiyan and Ahiraan more vibrant, more vivacious, more colourful , Pur-Raunaq than ours in all the bigger villgaes ? Why is that our ancestral houses are in ruins and the other parts of village shining ? Why all the Aafat have befallen on the poor zamindars that it has to sell his lands, leave the village and stay in a rented house in the city of Allahabad ? Why the servants and protégés are not only well established but also increasing their part year by year ? Have we ever given a thought to it ? 

Today our community has got money , political power/access and the also the required social clout then why our INFLUENCE , our SAY, our LANDs, OUR VILLAGE, our DEEN, our EEMAN, our TAQWA , our CHARACTER , is not improving or getting better day by day ? ?

Why we cannot purchase a Bigha or Four Biswa of land in and around our villages. Why can’t we increase and make addition of our fathers’ share ? How come our countrymen who were our servants then have managed to make properties in leaps and Bounds ? ?

With the economic boom in the go , our brothers in Gulf and abroad well off , Kaushambi getting hotter day by day , don’t you think it will be a wise decision to retain and maintain our lands for the future ………….. Even we cannot increase our lands , we can still maintain what we have inherited………..

Can we stop this ? Can we have an awareness drive within the younger as well as among the older generation not to sell their hard –earned & meticulously saved lands in vain ? Can we message them to please increase your share and purchase few more lands there ? The peasant and the locals respect you only because of your lands.

2. Our Deeni Inhitaat - 

During the course of my visits I found gradual but perpetual annihilation of our erstwhile, Deeni Spirit, ilm-i-Deen and the Jazba that encouraged our ancestors to sacrifice their lives and lands for the sake of Deen and Deeni Sha’air………………………..I agree that we apparently seem to have become very Deendar , utterance of Insha Allah , Masha Allah is too much prevalent to be ignored, The charcha of Quran & Hadeeth is also way too much than required but at the ground level, these do not translate into actions…the correct understanding and the basics of Deen are ZERO…Peity and Character building have almost gone from our lives. Let me be a bit bitter and without being bitter I won’t be of any help to you , not being to myself rather……. 

“Pargana Chail mein Deen Sirf Zabaan per hai “. this is a statement from a very senior citizen and Aalim, Daayi and observer in Allahabad…………..This Zawal ( downfall ) started after 1960s and it is at the peak now …………Indeed exceptions are there but I am not here for excepted few………Some people are highly knowledgeable , very punctual and practicing Muslims but the general scenario is quite gloomy. 

In a no. of villages there are found only one , two , at the most three Muqtadis only at the time of prayers……..I will avoid taking names of the villages. Believe me some Masajid have no one at the time of Fajr , an old man is hired and paid to go and open the door of mosque , call Azan and offer the two Rakahs himself without waiting for someone……..This is not hearsay this I what I have seen with my own eyes and confirmed the fact with the elders of the village………………Majority of the youngsters in village do not know how to offer Salat al Janazah , they try to conceal themselves from the scene when the Salatul Janazah is getting ready……….leave aside the information about Fard , Sunnat or Mustahabb.…

A number of villages have mosques locked with no IMAM , NO Mudarris whatsoever ? I found a young man of our own community grappling with these issues, singularly spending his own money in financing the Imam in at least 6/7 villages , he personally funded several Madaaris /Masajid and Aspiring Huffaz ? Unfortunately you are not aware of that guy but he is an example and I wish myself and you following his pursuit……

In some very notable villages I have found Ancestral Graveyards being used, littered and mortified by swine. I have photographs which I have never posted on my webpage WIRASAT that shown pigs wallowing on the graves of our ancestors ? Where have we gone ? What are we doing ? Can we do something ?

If you wish to know the Deeni Halat of a Qaum , just go through their Mosques , Graveyards, Eid Gaahs and their social institutions ……….

Do you think we will grow and make progress with worlds of fortune at our feet with this kind of lassitude and slackness in Eeman and Deen ? In my opinion the lack of Eeman and the resultant absence of Taqwa has played havoc with our rank and file and eaten up all our luster and fairness. Allaah swt is NO relative of ours. Are we waiting for the punishment to come and decimate us completely ?

3 -Lack of Guidance

There are a lot of young people in the villages who do not know what to do and how to go ahead with regards to their educational pursuit ? 

Can we identify those young men and guide them with our experience ? There are some who have got education but have not reached a satisfactory place ? Could we help them out over phone and guide them for a jump ?

All this is possible only when we reconnect and revivie our connection with our ancestral villages ? Reading history will not help us otherwise the day is not far when Chail will also become history without its characteristics and original traits ?

What do you say when Our houses are getting ruined , graves of elders getting weltered , lands being sold , Deen at the lips, The primary target of life is to get married at Shagun Palace or some castle at Kareli? All money and might thrown in the marriage just to show what you are NOT ? 

What do you say when a certain percentage of the community sells its ancestral lands, mortgages family property, pawns jewellery and force family members to put up a grand show at LAGAN PALACE or MAGAN Palace ? Should I agree with one of our elders who says “ Jhooti Shaan has actually become the eeman of Chaili Biradari “

What would you say when 90% of the youth does not know how to read Urdu, Arabic at all ? No connection with original texts of Islam and scanty or no knowledge of the basics of Islamic Creed ?

With these demerits I am sure ,we are not going to gain a respectable place either in the eyes of our Lord Allah swt or in the eyes of our countrymen, kinsmen and fellow men……………

WHAT WE CAN DO :- (Abruptly summarized)

• Reconnect and revisit visit your villages and make it a point to visit it at regular intervals.
• Meet the young ones there , encourage them to continue education ,ask them their needs, 
• Identify the talented ones , the promising ones , help me get to the correct place of coaching and guidance.
• Arrange coaching for the poorer students in Allahabad, Mundera, Sulem Sarai, Bamhrauli with the help of our brothers who are already in the field in this group. Keep a track of their progress. 
• Visit your ancestral places, spend some time there, if ruined , construct at least a room for your stay there. Meet the elders and the friends of your fathers, grandfathers.
• Visit the village mosques; look for something that you could extend your help to. Try to establish a maktab ( if it does not exist) and arrange for an Aalim.
• Try to arrange for a weekly , fortnightly , monthly get together in a village or a common place amongst a cluster of near-by villages where a visitor Aalim , Maulvi, Mufti could recite, explain, answer the queries and teach the basics of Namaz and roza and Masail related to this. The Sabaq taught may be checked in the next discourse.
• This will not require Crore of Rupees , it just requires you to visit your place and maintain the contacts on regular basis and the things will come to you spontaneously………………
• At last we may find and then found a group of willing individuals without forming a society or anything who will assist each other with time and resources as and when needed….informal but punctual……..Where there is a will there is a way…

Three major points

1. Maintaining and increasing our presence in Villages in the form of lands and person.
2. Drive for education and guidance for higher education
3. Push for Ilm-i-Deen with emphasis on practicing good morals, leading to nobility..

All this can only happen when we have True Jazba and when we are with true intention then we are ready to spend our TIME & MONEY to reconnect with our roots. 

It is a request with sound, anguish in the form of scream from a brother whose heart bleeds to see the pathetic and pitiful condition of our community in Pargana Chail. I being part of this large Chaili Biradari have the right to fight with you just for you only and that includes me as well.

Imam Bukhari and Muslim reported that the Prophet Mohammad (P.B.U.H.) said, "all of you are heads of a group and all of you are responsible for your groups; the ruler is the head of state and he is responsible for his people, the man is head of his family and responsible for his family, the woman is the head in her husband's house and she is responsible for the house. In short all of you are heads and responsible for your groups".

Please convey this message to all & sundry and your practical inputs are welcome for the three points as to how to implement It without going into prostitution of words !

It is very much possible that our words of mouth and a small amount of time spent might bring a silent change in the people we love there. Even if 10% of minds have a 10% change , we would have done something at least ?

Jazak Allah for your patience !

Was’salaam

Khalid Bin Umar

New Delhi