IN FRONTIER GANDHI'S VILLAGE HOME 53
Set in the midst of a landscape of rare pastoral beauty,
on the bank of the Swat river, the little village of Utmanzai
is not lacking in idyllic charm. For miles together on
all sides there is an unbroken stretch of dark green fields
of maize and cane and legumes and cotton, interspersed
with fruit gardens which grow the finest fruit, from blood-
red oranges to prize peaches and plums and grapes and
apricots and rich luscious pears. The soil is rich, the
water plentiful, thanks to the Swat river canal which,
with the soft gurgle of its numberless little waterfalls, fills
the entire landscape with a gentle, unceasing music by
day and by night.
On the edge of the village there is a small, picturesque
water mill. A quaint, old-world air hangs over the place,
which seems loath to change with the changing times.
The houses in the village, even of the aristocracy, are
mostly mud, with thick adobe walls and Heavily timbered
roofing which keep them cool^ in the hot weather and
agreeably warm in the cold. Some of these houses are
still built in the old Pathan style with hujra (guest room)
in front, the stables next, and the residential quarters
proper right at the back. The hujra at present serves as
the servants' quarters, but in the good old days it served
also as the * village club house' where all the male adults
of the village daily gossiped together and smoked, and
'where the bachelors slept at night in preference to their
own homes. The horses in the stables, I was told, used
to be kept ready harnessed day and night in the old un-
settled times so that in case of an emergency the Khan
could in an instant leap into the saddle and ride off.
Thanks to the fine metalled roads with which the
whole of the Frontier Province is heavily intersected, and
increasing facilities for vehicular traffic which they pro-
vide, the stables are today almost all empty, though an
enthusiastic horse-lover might still, here and there, try to
maintain the appearance of the old tradition. These roads
are a gratuitous gift, at the expense of the poor Indian
tax-payer, which the Frontier Province owes to the strate-
gic exigencies of British Imperialism. During the Civil