130 Integration
Wardha village
This small village is an isolated village that is 80 km on the outskirts of Nagpur in Maharashtra.
The villagers, being isolated from the urban environment, led very simple daily lives. Because they were so isolated, no Mughal officer chose to stay in the village. This turned out to be very fortunate for the villagers as they did not have to suffer like many other villages and towns that had better transportation and were more open to the outside world. Once a month, a tax collector would come and collect taxes from the panchayat.
However, everything changed since the war started. They have been charged exorbitant prices, and their cattle and sheep were confiscated by the lords as war tax. The elder in the village, Nagappa, who managed the daily affairs of the village, went out to the nearest Town to see if he could petition against the Mughal officer. But to his surprise, there was a war going on in the surrounding areas. Feeling unlucky, he quietly went back to the village and informed everyone not to leave the village and to convey the same message to their relatives and friends.
Living like this was hard as the supplies they had were getting less and less. Their village also specialized in farming, but for the past few months, because of the confiscation of their cattle and sheep, they were not able to plough the land. Fortunately, last year's yield was abundant and No Mughal officer came to collect the Grain tax, allowing everyone to have at least one meal a day.
Nagappa, alarmed by the dwindling grain reserves in storage and concerned about the future, felt compelled to venture outside the village to assess the situation. However, halfway through, fear took hold, prompting him to halt his exploration. Like any other day, Nagappa commenced his morning by waking up, offering prayers at the mandir for good fortune, and heading to the panchayat to address the pressing food situation. As he embarked on the path to the panchayat, he met with a strange guest.
A tall and burly man, clad in a full brown outfit with a lathi (Bhatan) in hand and a bag hanging on his back, caught Nagappa's attention. Swiftly assuming that a high-ranking officer had arrived in the village, Nagappa trotted forward and respectfully bowed, greeting, "This lord, what can this old man do for you, sir?" Satish, the recently appointed police officer of Wardha village, raised his eyebrows in surprise. Such deferential treatment was unfamiliar to him, a phenomenon he had observed consistently since leaving the police academy, particularly in the Mughal-occupied areas, where people seemed unusually wary of officials.
Putting away his thoughts, Satish hid his expression as he patted the old man's back with a loud *Thud*. "Haha, old man, you don't have to call me all those long names. You can just call me Satish; we are going to work in the same village for a long time after all."
The old man, who was badly beaten by this brute, bent down lightly due to the force exerted by the young man. But upon hearing that they were going to work together, he got confused and asked, "What do you mean, your high... ah, Satish?"
Satish nodded his head, appreciating the change of the title. "I don't think your village knows this, but the war has been over for over a week, and it was Vijayanagar who won the war. Now, you are all the citizens of the Vijayanagara Empire."
"Ah, is that so? Good, good. The Mughal officers used to suck our village dry of all our hard-earned money every month. Even for the purpose of war, they confiscated all our cattle and sheep too," the old man said in hatred as he clapped his hands. But soon remembering something, he proceeded to ask another question in a low voice. "Ah, sir, Sa Satish, does that mean we will not be taxed so highly under the new king?"
"I don't know about this. I am just a police officer, but what I can say is it will be at least more fair than the taxes you paid to the Mughal Empire."
The old man, listening to the reply, was happy, Finally getting a benevolent king. But later, he asked another of his doubts, "Satish, can you tell me what this police officer is?"
"A police officer is a person responsible for maintaining public security in a town or a larger village."
"Oh, I get it, I get it. It is like the job we old men do. We usually go around the village, and if any young people are causing trouble, we scold them."
Satish, hearing the old man's understanding, did not know whether to laugh or cry, but he did not correct the old man.
"Old man, is there any house or building in this village suitable to be my residence?"
The old man, hearing the question, went into thought. But soon his eyes lit up, as he answered, "There is one. This house is at the southernmost end of our village. It is pretty run-down, and nobody lives there. I will call some villagers to help, and by evening, we should be able to repair the house."
Satish nodded, joining his hands with a namaskara in appreciation. With the help of the villagers, his new home was settled, and finally, in the village centre, a police station was designated to be built. His superiors gave him the task of establishing this police station and provided a budget. Using the money the boss gave, he hired villagers to build a police station. He has To say, that the people were very efficient, in just two days, the police station was built.
His Next task, was to recruit a few people to train them as constables, this was the order given by his superiors. They needed to take in some personnel inside the police department as there were not enough people to assign each officer their own constables. So, they had to recruit them locally, which could also help prevent crime in the local area, as the people in the local area would be a lot more familiar with the terrain.
But to his surprise, it was met with opposition. And so, he went to Nagappa to ask for the reason, "Naga, the people are not allowing me to recruit some young people into the office. You know this is such a good thing; if they perform well, I have the right to send them to the nearest police academy. If they perform well there, they could be promoted to a police officer like me and get a salary from the government."
Nagappa, who was bombarded by the loud Satish, did not even understand the last part as he quickly replied, "Sir Satish, it is not that we oppose your idea, but as you can see, there are no cattle in the village, so the young people are very important as they are the main force for land ploughing. Now, if you take even a few of them, it will be a huge loss for the already strained grain reserves."
The old man said, and Satish's doubts were cleared up as he soon understood the ins and outs of the matter. But he is just a police officer; what could he do? He couldn't just ask the head office to send some cows hear now, could he?
Fortunately for him, in the coming days, his troubles were solved. A recruitment order was sent to the village from the Ministry of Transportation. He was the one who read the notice as he was pretty well-versed in the Vijayanagara law.
"This letter is written by the deputy director of the Ministry of Transportation, Aarya. According to this letter, the department has decided to build a highway road from Nagpur to Indirapuri (Nizamabad), and Wardha village is right in the path of this highway road. So, the department ordered for the interested men in the village to join the road construction work, and each able-bodied man would get 15 kilograms of grain per month."
Naga and the other villagers looked at each other as they could not understand some terms in the notice, but they could still pick out a few words like 'work' and '15 kg grain'.
Witnessing the confusion on their faces, Satish delved into a detailed explanation, unravelling the intricacies of the notice. Once the true meaning became clear, many parents encouraged their youngsters to enlist for the road construction job. The relieved youths, excused from the initial toil of ploughing the land, embraced the opportunity with enthusiasm. The notice assured them a payment of 15 kilograms of grain, a generous provision sufficient for a family of three to sustain themselves.
Satish's doubts were also cleared as he finally understood why he was sent to the remote village of Wardha. You have to know he is one of the top-ranking students in his class at the police academy. When he was first sent to this remote village, he was pretty upset, thinking that he was being stepped on by some higher-ranking official. But looking at this notice, he felt that he was wrong. If the main highway passes through Wardha, then wouldn't it mean that this village should soon become a prosperous town? Thinking of this, he also left happily.
The things that happened in the next few days confirmed his suspicions, as the post office was soon established, along with a primary school. The heads of both the post office and school were only two people, as there was a shortage of manpower across the empire. So only one person each was assigned to take charge of both departments. As for additional help, they could solve it by providing local employment. Throughout the month, many such operations took place all over the three states. Post offices, police stations, and schools were established for every village that met the requirements. Even in some towns, the court was established, which was in proximity to a large number of villages.
In this way, by connecting the systems of the new territories with Vijayanagar, the integration went on smoothly.
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