Rickshaws were invented in Japan in the nineteenth century, the word deriving from ‘jinrikishaw.’ It was a cheap and inexpensive mode of transport. By 1872 there were more than 40000 rickshaws in Japan and became the most popular mode of transport not only in Japan but spreading to many other countries.
It was popular in China, where private and public rickshaws were differentiated by its colours, much like the yellow cabs. The earlier models were with iron wheels and flat seats, where the passengers had to spread their legs to sit. The designs later ergonomically evolved gave the riders more safety and comfort.
The northern parts of Kolkata city, the first capital of British India with narrow streets, are often accessible only by rickshaws to this day. The rickshaws are the only saviour to the stranded many in the flooded streets to reach to their last mile journeys, though they had learnt and employed a surge-pricing policy, long before Uber moved in. The ‘rickshaw-walas,’ the pullers as they are called, were the usual guardians to fetch the children safely from homes to the school and back before the advent of modernity and school buses. They are dependable much like the Sikh taxi drivers of Kolkata, the latter steeped merely in memories now.
High and mighty of the society always were carried in palanquins, which required many men and rickshaws, a single man drawn, became middle-class replacement of the bourgeois luxury. The earlier roads too were not level and could not have permitted wheeled carriages, devoid of rattle and shocks.
Rickshaws, known by many names ‘Pousse-Pousse’ in Madagaskar, ‘renliche,’ meaning ‘man-power-vehicle’ in Chinese and more commonly as ‘Dongyangche,’ meaning ‘east-foreign-vehicle,’ or ‘Huangbaoche’ in Shanghai, meaning ‘yellow carriage for rent’ was prevalent in many colonial countries of Africa and Asia, besides the US and the UK. A 17th Century art depicts Confucius being pushed in a single seated cart, probably the precursor of later developments of rickshaws.
Rickshaw pullers became a sizeable population in many cities, like in Beijing they consisted more than 20% of the population in the 19th century. Chairman Mao considered rickshaw pulling a blot on the society and banned it from China, though a very few run to this day for tourists in the Peak at Hong Kong. Indian Rickshaws appeared first in Shimla for the ‘Sahibs,’ and later arrived at Kolkata.
As many as 6000 rickshaws ply in the Kolkata, by nearly 18000 rickshaw pullers, doing shift work and sharing their pulling time. Efforts to ban the rickshaws by the Communist government several times have bitten dust as the implementers, the policemen are reportedly the benami owners of the rickshaws. The rickshaw pullers are mostly Biharis, often from very poor places like Darbhanga, Begusarai or Kishangunj. Most of them die young and have no insurance cover for either injuries or deaths from road accidents. Most can be seen living on the pavements of Kolkata streets.
Rickshaw has featured in Rudyard Kipling’s Phantom Rickshaw, and the puller has been immortalised in Bimal Roy’s classic film, Do Bigha Jamin.
I see every day, huge bundles of goods are loaded on to rickshaws, carted to many roadside outlets by neighbourhood hawkers. One day, I engaged in a friendly banter with one of the puller, who has been on this job for 40 years, having taken over the job from his father. Asking about the threat of banning of rickshaws from Kolkata, laughingly he replied, “first let them provide jobs to the many youth, who are hawkers. If they get jobs, we may lose our work. I guess there is no need to worry anytime soon,” he philosophically tore the ugly face of political promises and as well the pseudo economists.
Torn between empathic concern for the rickshaw pullers and the love for retention of ancient culture, Kolkata has deprioritized rickshaw-pullers plight.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide voix
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Lovely article Sir.
Thank you!