Certainly, many other reasons contributed towards the decline and the poor economy of Bhera, but the main ones were as under:
- Wealthy Hindus, Khawajgans, and Parachgans were the leading business community of Bhera. They had trade relations with far-off places, like Central Asia, particularly the cities of Samarkand and Bukhara, Russia, Afghanistan Calcutta, Delhi, and Karachi. The trade drastically went down due to the Russian Revolution of 1917 (Bolsheviks Revolution), which never recovered later on.
- In 1921-22, the British authorities decided to downgrade the status of the town from tehsil headquarters to sub-tehsil. Bhalwal, a nearby town, was given the status of the tehsil headquarters. It had a disastrous effect on the development of Bhera. The development projects that the tehsil headquarters deserved were stopped. Thus, the markets were ruined, industries ceased to flourish, and roads remained unrepaired.
- The plans of building a bridge over the river Jhelum near Bhera were shelved with the expansion of road and railway elsewhere, the town was marginalized.
- The railway line was laid connecting Malakwal, Bhalwal, and Khushab, Bhera was eliminated from the main communication network, like other significant towns of Punjab.
- The river trade declined, and so too did the fortunes of the town. The Imperial Gazetteer of India (1908) testifies to Bhera’s prosperity and mentions: ” It is the largest and most commercial town of this part of the province, having direct export trade to Kabul and Sukkhur for importing goods from Amritsar and Karachi, of course at that time rivers were navigable and number of ferries operated in the waters of Jhelum to Bhera : played a key role in developing the trade link” ( Dr Abdul Rehman ).
- After the independence, the situation became even worse. The wealthy Hindu merchants migrated to India, and the poor refugees replaced them. The process of conservation and repair of beautiful houses stopped. Some of the new occupants sold the beautifully and exquisitely carved doors, windows, and Jahrokas (balconies). The buildings collapsed with fine brick and masonry work. The ravages of time have taken away the precious chapter of the town’s rich cultural history.
- Bhera has been well known for its arts and crafts in the subcontinent. Wood carving of doors, windows, and jahrokas was the unique feature of the carpenters and wood carvers of Bhera. Moreover, it was also famous for pure silk lungies with gold thread (a colourful hand-woven long piece of cloth, which is tucked around the waist by both men and women), walking sticks with mother-of-pearl work, cutlery, daggers, swords, hand-woven Khes (thin cotton blanket), cotton Duries and rugs, etc. Gradually, the arts and crafts of Bhera have faded away. The main reasons for the downfall were the lack of demand and markets for handmade crafts. Modern machines produce things much cheaper than handmade ones, so a little monetary benefits to the craftsmen. Hardly any patronage by the government and the passing away of the master craftsmen.
References:
- Historic Towns of Punjab: Ancient and Medieval Period, Dr Abdul Rehman. Published by Ferozsons, 1967.
- Lahore Journal of Policy Studies Vol 6 , No 1, November 2016. The chapter on Bhera (pp 85- 110), “Is Modernity Depleting Bhera”, by Fizza Batool, Rabia Nadir and Munir Ghazanfar.
- Arts and Crafts of Punjab Vol III, Bhera. A publication of Punjab Small Industries’ Cooperation (1993).
- Craft and Craftsmen of Punjab Vol VII, Crafts of Sargodha by the Handicrafts and Design Directorate, Punjab Small Industries Cooperation, Lahore – 2010. Zahid Mumtaz