Path between Ghivra Mauja in Gehlaur Ghati to Atara Prakhand Wazirganj made by Dashrath Manjhi (Photo: Sumita Roy Dutta via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
People who have faced tragedy are sometimes the most compassionate people in society. Knowing the pains of preventable devestation, they go to great lengths to prevent others from having to face the same fate. In 1959, a woman named Falguni Devi fell from a mountain ridge in Gehlaur, India. The nearest doctor was over 30 miles away, preventing her from getting quick help. She wound up dying from her injuries. Not willing to let anyone else lose a loved one because they're far from medical assistance, her husband, Dashrath Manjhi, set out to shorten the distance between his village and the closest hospital by manually carving a path through a mountain.
Manjhi, born in 1934, was an agricultural laborer. Some reports mention that Devi was on her way to bring something to eat or drink to Manjhi, who was working outside the village, south of the ridge. The narrow, rocky path she had to walk through is thought to be the leading cause of the accident, and it was that very same mountain that villagers had to go around to get to a doctor, extending the travel times for those in need of urgent care.
Thinking his wife's death could have been prevented had there been a straight path through the ridge, Manjhi decided to carve one on his own. “When I started hammering the hill, people called me a lunatic, but that steeled my resolve,” he said. “Most villagers taunted me initially, but quite a few lent me support later by giving food and helping me buy my tools.” Manjhi started working on this in 1960, the year right after his wife's passing.
Using only a hammer and a chisel, it took Manjhi 22 years to carve a path that was 360 feet long, 25 feet deep, and 30 feet wide. The achievement earned him the nickname “Mountain Man.” In the end, the distance between the Atri and Wazirganj sectors of Gaya district, where the couple lived, was reduced from 34 miles to 9.3 miles. After his death in 2007, the local government finally built an official road over the path that Manjhi carved.
Manjhi has been honored with a statue and a memorial in his hometown of Gehlaur. The Government of India also issued a postage stamp in his honor as part of their “Personality Series” in 2016. Additionally, his story has been told in documentaries and movies, such as Manjhi – The Mountain Man (2015). However, no tribute could arguably match his selfless effort and its impact on the local community. He vastly improved the quality of life for his community for generations, and even more to come.
After losing his wife due to the lack of easy access to a hospital, Dashrath Manjhi set out to build a path through a mountain in India.
Statue of Dashrath Manjhi in front of his memorial at Gehlaur. (Photo: Sumita Roy Dutta via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
It took Manjhi 22 years to carve a path using only a hammer and a chisel.
Sources: Manjhi – the man with a noble mision; The Mountain Man
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