Ballia: The roots of Ballia date from pre-historic times. It is believed that Rishi Balmiki the author of Ramayan and rishis Bhrigu, Durvasa, Parashar and Jamadagni had their ashrams at Ballia. Mangal Pandey, who played a prominent role during the uprising of 1857 hailed from Ballia. Ballia was also in prominence during the quit India movement of 1942, when it declared independence from the British rule for a brief period of 11 days. Acharya Hazari Prasad Dwivedi, one of the luminaries of Hindi literature, Jay Prakash Narayan who spearheaded a movement during the days of Indira Gandhi and Chandra Shekhar, who was the prime minister of India for a brief period were also from Ballia. In 1950, Ballia was the smallest district of U.P.and was part of Banaras division. Ballia had a high literacy rate. At that time, Ballia had the highest number of secondary and post secondary educational institutions in U.P. Ballia is situated at the confluence of rivers Ganga and Ghaghra with Ganga in the south and Ghaghra in the north west. Ballia district was divided into three tehsils. Eastern part bounded by rivers Ghaghra and Ganga was Ballia tebsil. During the floods of 1948, the flood levels of rivers Ganga and Ghaghra were higher than the general ground levels of Ballia tehsil and therefore, barring some high grounds in villages, almost the whole of Ballia tehsil was under six to eight feet of water. There was water and water everywhere. All local roads were under water and people moved from one place to another by boats. People had suffered substantially during the floods and their needs were few. They knew that it is not possible to control the spills and overflow from the rivers like Ganga and Ghaghra during floods and therefore, all that they wanted was that there should be some high ground or platform in every village to enable them to move to these highgrounds or embankments with their families, essential belongings and livestock during times of flood.
Life in Ballia: Rivers Ganga and Ghaghra have played a significant role in the lives of of the people of Ballia. The soil is good and fertile. The overflowing rivers inundate the fields, depositing fine fertilizing silt and other organic matter in the fields. The floods saturate the soils and moisture is retained by the soils for substantial periods after the floods. That is an ideal bounty by rivers Ganga and Ghaghra to the people of Ballia. Receding floods and end of monsoon bring a lot of cheer on the faces of people. As the land starts drying, they move out to the fields, run the plough through the land, throw up the seeds and then relax, waiting for the sprouting of seeds, healthy growth of the plants and ringing of the bells for harvesting bumper crops. The lands soaked by the floods do not need much of preparation and as the plants grow, they draw most of the moisture from the soil and do not depend very much on artificial sources of irrigation. People of Ballia suffer a lot of hardship during the floods. All their fields are submerged and in some cases the lands remain submerged for weeks. The communications are disrupted. People shuffle down from place to place to shield themselves from the fury of the rivers. Sometimes the rivers change course and cut through the lands and the people find that part of their fields are gone. In some other cases the rivers move away from the banks releasing some extra land for the people. Inspite of all the hardships and sufferings, enrichment of the soil through deposits of fine silt and other nutrients during floods and prospects of rich harvests keeps the people on their legs. They are the people, who witness wide spread devastation face to face, year after year, but, keep clinging to delicately dangling hope and keep praying for better days. Ballia is dotted all over the district, with temples of Shiva, Rama, Hanuman and other deities and the people of Ballia carry with them an unwavering faith in their destiny. The names of most of the people of Ballia start with Shiv, Ram or Ganga, e.g, Shiv Ram Singh, Shiv Mangal Singh, Ram Janam Singh, which represents a sub-conscious feeling that their destiny is inseperably linked with the invisible hand of these gods and goddesses.
Flood protection works: The floods in rivers Ghaghra and Ganga during the year 1948 were unprecendented. After preliminary surveys of the flood affected areas of Ballia, detailed surveys were undertaken. High flood levels were traced and prominently marked along the banks of rivers Ghaghra and Ganga and in all villages and near prominent landmarks of the district. Thereafter, a number of works were started for strengthening the banks in vulnerable reaches of rivers Ghaghra and Ganga. In some cases, construction of embankments parallel to the banks was undertaken to serve as the second line of defence during floods.. In the interior of the district, villages were identified and formed into groups or clusters for the construction of ring bunds. The protection works of Ballia city were strengthened.
Quit India Movement of 1942: Indian National Congess passed a resolution on 8 August 1942 for the British to quit India. The second world war was on and was in a crucial phase. Germany had occupied almost the whole of Europe and north Africa and had control of the Mediterranean Sea and was on the verge of landings in Great Britain. Indian armed forces were fighting side by side with the British forces in the middle east sector. That was the time when the British Government was under tremendous pressure for the safety and security of India and for unhindered supply of men and materials and other resources from India to the British and Indian troops fighting in the middle east and north African sectors. Naturally, the British Government could not take any chances and arrested the top leadership of the congress on 9 August 1942. Most of the leaders of the congress at provincial and district levels went underground. That left the rank and file of the congress, leaderless throughout the country. Those were the conditions when the people of Ballia moved to the collectorate, unfurled the tricolor and declared independence. For almost eleven days the people of Ballia enjoyed freedom from British rule. Nethersole who was the commissioner of Banaras division and was a ruthless bureaucrat, swiftly moved to Ballia and ruthlessly crushed the rebellion. We were told that people had to leave their hearth and homes to escape retaliation and many of the active leaders hid themselves in the numerous islands in the sprawling bed of river Ganga.
District Club of Ballia: Ballia was a small district. The number of officers in Ballia District was very few. Most of the officers were members of the district club. Some prominent persons of the town and professionals were also members of the club. Collector of the district was a prominent member of the club. He was fond of playing cards and spent late evening hours in the cardroom with a coterie of five to six senior members of the club. Their favourite games were solo and poker. It was intriguing to find that the collector regularly won most of the stakes and the other members were consistent in sharing the losses by turns. The young officers normally came rushing to the club in the evening, had a set or two of fast tennis and that was all. Sometimes, the collector would send the word to the young officers to come and have some cards with him. On one such occasion I had the privilege of playing cards with the so called elite group. To entice me, I was provided with opportunities for substantial winnings on that day. The winnings were placed on the books. On all future calls, I used to play one or two rounds defencively and then quit with nominal losses. When we moved from Ballia in July 1950 I left the club with some unutilized balance of first day’s winnings.
Winding up of Ghaghra Survey Circle: Ghaghra Canal Survey Circle was on its last legs in June 1950. Survey work of Ghaghra Canals was almost complete. Preliminary surveys of Ganga and Ghagra floods had been completed and the ongoing flood relief works were in the final stages of completion. That was the time, when all officers of Ghaghra Canal Survey Circle were summoned to Faizabad for a brief review of conditions in the field and to provide final touches to the winding up of Ghaghra Canal Survey Circle. After all the pleasantaries, exchange of notes and records, the officers were told that Ghaghra Canal Survey Circle was being wound up and that the transfer orders for the officers were on their way. The officers spent a few days at Faiazabad, interacting with each other and giving final touches to the records and thereafter they were on their way back to their headquarters. I had transfer orders for Fatehpur Division of Lower Ganga Canal with headquarters at Kanpur. We left Ballia in July 1950 and moved to Kanpur.