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Khejarli Massacre | |||
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September 1730, 363 Bishnois were killed while trying to peacefully protect a grove of Khejri trees. | |||
Date | early-mid September 1730, likely on 11 September | ||
Location | 26.1666654, 73.1591207 | ||
Caused by | felling of trees by the Kingdom of Marwar | ||
Resulted in | 363 Bishnois killed, tree harvesting halted and outlawed in the village | ||
Parties | |||
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Lead figures | |||
Amrita Devi Bishnoi, Bishnoi elders Giridhar Bhandari | |||
Number | |||
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Casualties and losses | |||
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The Khejarli massacre occurred in September 1730 in Northern India, when 363 Bishnois were killed while trying to peacefully protect a grove of Khejri trees. The soldiers were sent by the Maharaja of Marwar, Abhai Singh to cut the trees in the village of Khejarli to provide wood for a new palace. The killings were carried out on the orders of his minister Giridhar Bhandari. The effort had a long term impact on environmental advocacy, and the massacre later became known as a precursor to the 20th century Chipko movement. Due to the sacrifice of the protesters, the ruler took back his earlier order of felling trees. [1]
In 1730, Abhai Singh dispatched one of his ministers, Giridhar Bhandari, to collect wood to be used in the construction of a new palace; some sources report that the wood was needed to build the palace, [2] while others note the Marwars intended to burn the trees to create lime. [2] [3] Regardless of intended purpose, Bhandari and his entourage of soldiers arrived in Khejarli, where they demanded access to the village's trees. Led by a woman named Amrita Devi Bishnoi, the villagers refused to surrender their trees to the Raj's soldiers. Amrita stated that the Khejri trees were sacred to the Bishnois, and her faith prohibited her from allowing the trees to be cut down. [3]
The situation escalated and the Marwan party offered to leave the village's Khejri trees alone in exchange for a bribe. However, this was seen as a grievous insult to the Bishnoi values, and Amrita announced that she would rather die than to allow the trees to be cut down. She and her family began hugging the Khejris, shielding the trees with their bodies. Angered by the rebuke, the Marwans beheaded Amrita and three of her daughters before beginning to cut down the trees.< [2] [4]
News of the ongoing desecration of Jehnad's trees quickly spread among Rajasthan's Bishnoi population. In all, Bishnois from 83 villages began to travel to Jehnad in an attempt to save the trees, [3] and a council was convened to determine what could be done about the situation. The council's decision was that each Bishnoi volunteer would lay down their life to defend one of the threatened trees. Older people went forward first, with many of them being killed as they hugged the Khejris. Seeing this as an opportunity, Giridhar Bhandari claimed that the Bishnoi were only sending forward people who they thought were useless to be killed. In response, younger men, women, and children began to hug the trees, resulting in many of them being killed as well. [3] In all, 363 Bishnois were killed while protecting the trees. [5] [2] [6]
Shocked by the passive resistance of the Bishnois, Abhai Singh recalled his men and personally travelled to the village to apologise for his minister's actions. [5] He decreed that the village would never again be compelled to provide wood for the kingdom.The village was later renamed Khejarli, and the site of the massacre became a place of pilgrimage for the Bishnoi faith. [3] [2]
The Khejarli Massacre was an inspiration for the 20th century environmentalist Chipko movement. [7] Several temples and a cenotaph in Khejarli commemorates the massacre, and the village is the site of an annual Bishnoi ceremony held in honour of the event. [6] A fair is organised every year on Shukla Dashmi of Bhadrapad (Hindu month) in September at Khejarli, Jodhpur, to pay homage to the victims. [1]
The Government of India has also instituted the Amrita Devi Bishnoi Environment Protection Award recognising the sacrifice of Amrita Devi. [1] In 2013, the Ministry of Environment declared the day of the massacre (11 September) as National Forest Martyrs Day. [8] [9]
Sunderlal Bahuguna was an Indian environmentalist and Chipko movement leader. The idea of the Chipko movement was suggested by his wife Vimla Bahuguna and him. He fought for the preservation of forests in the Himalayas, first as a member of the Chipko movement in the 1970s, and later spearheaded the anti-Tehri Dam movement from the 1980s to early 2004. He was one of the early environmentalists of India, and later he and others associated with the Chipko movement and started taking up wider environmental issues, such as being opposed to large dams.
The Chipko movement is a forest conservation movement in India. Opposed to commercial logging and the government's policies on deforestation, protesters in the 1970s engaged in tree hugging, wrapping their arms around trees so that they could not be felled.
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The Bishnoi Panth, also spelled as Vishnoi Panth, is a Hindu Vaishnava community or panth found in the Western Thar Desert and northern states of India. It has a set of 29 Niyamas (principles/commandments) given by Guru Jambheshwar (1451–1536). As of 2010, there are an estimated 600,000 followers of Bishnoi Panth residing in northern and central India. Shree Guru Jambheshwar founded the sect at Samrathal Dhora in 1485 and his teachings, comprising 120 shabads, are known as Shabadwani. He preached for the next 51 years, travelling across India. The preaching of Guru Jambhoji inspires his followers as well as environmental protectors.
Guru Jambheshwar, also known as Guru Jambhoji, (1451–1536) was the founder of the Bishnoi Panth, a subsect of Vaishnavism.
Khejarli or Khejadli is a village in Jodhpur district of Rajasthan, India, 26 kilometres (16 mi) south-east of the city of Jodhpur. The name of the town is derived from the khejri trees that were once abundant in the village.
Chandi Prasad Bhatt is an Indian environmentalist and social activist, who founded Dasholi Gram Swarajya Sangh (DGSS) in Gopeshwar in 1964, which later became a mother-organization to the Chipko Movement, in which he was one of the pioneers. For his work Bhatt was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1982, followed by the Padma Bhushan in 2005.
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Kingdom of Marwar also known as Jodhpur State during the modern era, was a kingdom in the Marwar region from 1243 to 1818 and a princely state under British rule from 1818 to 1947. It was established in Pali by Rao Siha, possibly a migrant Gahadavala noble, in 1243. His successors continued to struggle against regional powers for domination and 9 out of 15 rulers till 1438 died in combat. In 1395, its capital was changed to Mandore by Rao Chunda of Mandore and to Jodhpur in 1459 by Rao Jodha.
Prosopis cineraria, also known as Persian mesquite, ghaf, is a species of flowering tree in the pea family, Fabaceae. It is native to arid portions of Western Asia and the Indian Subcontinent, including Afghanistan, Bahrain, Iran, India, Oman, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Its leaves are bipinnate. It can survive extreme drought. It is an established introduced species in parts of Southeast Asia, including Indonesia.
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Abhai Singh Rathore was an 18th-century Indian Raja of the Kingdom of Marwar (Jodhpur).
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