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Nonetheless, several princes still maintain splendid households. Since 1947 the literacy rate among men has risen from 9 percent to 25 percent, and several universities have been established. New industries benefit from an increased electricity supply that once only met the needs of palaces, but now reaches most villages, while irrigation schemes such as the Indira Gandhi Canal, which brings water from Punjab across the northern deserts to Bikaner and Jaisalmer, have improved crop production, and provided relief in times of inadequate monsoon. The modernization of Rajasthan, however, has been an uphill struggle, and this remains among the poorest and most staunchly traditional regions of India. As Rajasthanis are apt to remind you: " Delhi door ast ", "Delhi is far away", particularly in its attitude to women. Feminist groups in the capital created a publicity storm in the 1980s over the sati case of Roop Kanwar, an eighteen-year-old from a village near Jaipur who burned to death on her husband's funeral pyre, but more |
revealing of the everyday problems faced by Rajasthani women are the rates of female mortality and illiteracy, far higher here than in any other state in the country. |
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Rajasthan |
Brief history |
Visiting Rajasthan |
Transportation and
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