The Oud people were originally nomads, who travelled across India specializing in the excavation of ponds, water-reservoirs and irrigation canals. Their villages were made of earth, a fleeting architecture but permanent skill; and even today their fragrant homesteads still attest to the power of their artistry in construction.
They were literal conservators of the earth, since their living-places could be maintained indefinitely, taking no more resources than could be returned to the natural world that provided them. It is, therefore, a tragedy that the community of Oud people to the south of Delhi, in the mud village of Bhagirath Nagar, should have been declared an urban slum, and as such, ready for demolition.
