The family and team at Rawla Bisalpur have long worked hard to support their homeland and local community. Seen as the head of the 24 villages that make up the Bisalpur estate, the family help and are involved in everything from helping villagers with setting up small businesses, resolving disputes, providing employment and ensuring sustainable development in the area. Rawla Bisalpur also works with and supports local NGOs working to ensure a ready supply of feed and water for local farmer’s animals.

The Rabari Shepherds have been an indelible part of Bisalpur for centuries, from grazing the estate herds to taking care of the temples. The enigmatic leopard has been living in and around our lands for centuries. This co-existence between the community and wildlife has been nurtured to ensure that local people embrace and value this animal as a part of our local family, and is still today an enduring part of our daily lives – in fact our region, the Jawai Bandh, is now a conservation zone for the Indian leopard. We believe it is important to live in harmony with nature, and the myriad of wildlife we share our lands with.

Prior to independence from colonial rule, the menfolk of our family not only took care of their people, but were also active in the British Indian Army. Post-independence saw our family take an active part in politics and the further development of our lands. We helped our people enter the modern, newly-liberated India by getting them the earliest access to the new government schemes and employment opportunities, and Rawla Bisalpur continue to do so today. We have helped develop the villages through construction of new buildings and inter-village metalled roads; the latter allowing the expeditious and uninterrupted transport of crops to the nearest towns. Thakur Prithvi Singh Deora was a member of the Legislative Assembly, Sarpanch of the Bisalpur panchayat, and the chairman of the Agriculture Marketing Board.

The people continue to hold the Bisalpur family in the highest regard. All village festivals and functions are still held under the guidance of the family. To this day, the people of the community come to wish the Thakur family well on festivals such as Holi and Deepavali, where they discuss current issues of the villages, and their plans for the future. We see ourselves as very much a community within a community.