End of Trip Summary 5

Lohardaga

It has been over a month since I have returned from India and I am still processing all that I learned and experienced there. On the 9th of February we went to visit a small town called Lohardaga about 1.5 hours west of Ranchi. This is where Ferdiand and Doris Hahn spent 20 of their years. As was the case with everywhere we went we were met with great hospitality.

Our first visit was the old mission compound where the schools and the church still stand. Though the original church literally collapsed one day and a new one was built next to the old foundation.

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It was so facinating to be in the house where the Hahn family had lived and talk about what life must have been like with others who had also lived in the same house just a few decades ago. Today it is portioned off into several smaller apartments and parts of it are in need of much repair.

The church women who greeted us were excited about talking about the history of the place. In particula Eren Minz, who remembers hearing stories about Ferdiand Hahn from her grandfather, DharamDas Minz who had been the chawkidar (security gaurd). She took me by the hand down the back street where those with Leprosy once had lived in view of the bungalow's back veranda. She showed me the field that use to be a fruit orchard and the fields where they had grown their own food. I couldn't understand her completely, but she was so full of stories to tell. It is for this reason that I hope to have a chance to return there when I go back to Jharkhand in November.

We visited the small graveyard that had unmarked graves. One we knew would have been for two year old Helene who died at the age of 2 in 1891.

Ferdinand and Doris moved to Lohardaga in 1878. Primarily because it is higher elevation than Chaibassa where they had been stationed for 3-4 years.  Years that had hit the mission hard with a cholora epidemic. Ferdinand had become so ill that he almost died, so it was agreed that a milder climate would help him regain his health.

While Lohardaga had been one of the Gossner Missions earliest centers, it really had dminished over the years. There was however a congregation of about 700 souls.  The leadership of the church had been a little neglected so at that time there was a leader named ManmasihDas Birsa who was setting himself up as the new Raja of the Oraons. Lohardaga is a dominantly Oraon area and were rapidaly losing their land and power to the outsider landlords called zamindars. Some how Ferdinand Hahn, who was just learning the language of the Oraon, was able to win over the hearts of the people and the church rapidly grew during his tenure. During these years Ferdinand Hahn got to know the people well. He wrote down their language and published a dictionary and grammar book that are still used today. He came to know the people well enough that they shared with him their oral stories, which he also wrote down. This work is remembered with much gratitude and it is for this reason that we were received with such honor. What he accomplished in Lohardaga alone is an important part of the history of the original people's of the land, the Adivasi.

After visiting the schools, church, old bungalow and graveyard, we went to the Mayor's house and was told that after lunch we would go to the town hall. It was then that I learned that he had been the founder of the town council and its first president in 1888. I had seen this picture of Ferdinand Hahn sitting with the town council, but did not know he was the leader of this group.  I am curious to find out if the formation of this city council, which like most governing structures in India has not changed since India gained its Independence from the British, is unique in that it was started by a German person and may have used a different model then the British used. Or was Ferdinand simply the first to be placed in charge of this district. How it seems to be remembered is that Hahn organized the natural leaders of the region to create their own civil government. Hahn, I learned, is remembered for being a fair and just advocate for the concerns of the citizens, so that even when he was not the president the citizens of the area would turn to him for advise or request his assistance.

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When we arrived at the town hall I was surprised to see the huge reception we had and asked to participate in a ceremony that they already had going that day to distribute sewing machines to a women's group. We were shown the old meeting room and where the leader of the council would sit.

In respect it was an honor to garland the bust of the local legend and hero Birsa Munda. This was a freedom fighter who was personally known by my anscestors. 

We were also shown a safe that was in the floor and told that it hasn't been open for a long time. No one knows how long. The key has not been available.

I told the people there, jokingly, that when I go to Germany to do more research on the family  will see if I can find the key there. 

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