Delwara is no ordinary village. Founded sometime in the 8th century A.D., the town became an important center for the Jain religion, as evidenced by exquisite temples dating to the 1100s A.D. Delwara later rose to political prominence as one of the 16 princely tikhanas, or fiefdoms, in the Kingdom of Mewar. The tikhana left behind a number of impressive monuments, including the towering 18th centu
ry palace, step wells, a hunting tower, and traditional haveli homes. While visiting these sites, the Walk seeks to preserve their historical significance as well as explore their place in Delwara today. However illustrious its past, Delwara has an even richer contemporary history. Since 2004, in partnership with the NGO Seva Mandir, the 5,000 inhabitants of Delwara have transformed their town’s infrastructure and brought about revolutionary social change. At the center of this experiment is the Citizen’s Development Forum (x), an alternative local government with democratically elected members from each caste-based neighborhood. It is the only place where men, women, and all 27 caste and religious groups living in Delwara can meet together as equals, and debate the pressing problems and opportunities facing their town. Over the past decade, with facilitation and funding from Seva Mandir, the projects of the Citizen’s Forum have improved the dignity and quality of life in Delwara in many ways. Among its primary accomplishments are:
• Improving the financial and social independence of women in close collaboration with Sadhna.
• Clean and nearby drinking water for hundreds of the town’s poorest households.
• A town-wide cleaning system that employs the formerly Untouchable caste community as sanitation workers. This project has helped to slowly revolutionize intercaste relations.
• Constructing toilets for nearly half the families in Delwara.
• A Youth Center with a library, vocational training opportunities, study space, and organized sports. It is the only place where young men and women from all neighborhoods can meet together. As it visits these sites of change and discusses their impact with Delwara’s people, the Walk is in many ways a window into contemporary India, where high caste and low caste, Hindu and Muslim, rich and poor, village and city, tradition and modernity coexist side by side. Unlike other heritage walks, our walk goes beyond physical heritage to explore Delwara's social inheritance. The Walk was founded in 2013 as a project of Seva Mandir’s local Youth Center. It is guided by local young adults, and was mainly researched through extensive interviews with Delwara’s people. It seeks not only to provide a livelihood to the guides, but to make them owners and teachers of their village, the very definition of empowered and engaged citizens.
