By Thomas. M. J.
Every one of us is associated with heritage and
traditions. Heritage and tradition speak to us about the past lives and rich
experiences and stories of our forefathers. The term 'heritage' means
'something handed down from the ancestors, as a characteristic experience; it
conveys values and ethical attitudes about life. The traditions such as oral
traditions, folklore, religious and ritual practices, songs, sayings, beliefs,
value systems and cultural attitudes, etc., generally carry the heritage
forward to following generations. Thus Dalit heritage and Liberative traditions
would include the social, economic, political, religious, cultural and festive
traditions and practices of Dalits.
Both these terms are also related to Dalit
identity question. These give them a space and voice in the society. It is
evident that none of the prevailing religious and cultural traditions are of
any use in building Dalit identity. Dalits, have to dig out their own
traditions and heritage in order to heal their broken psyche, which would then
lead them to build an identity for themselves. For that they need to recover
records of their struggles and movements. The age-old system of caste has not
only silenced them but also damaged their psyche. Damaged psyche resulted in
their material alienation, alienation of their own labour power and particularly
alienation from their own heritage and traditions, that have been either
submerged or buried in the course of history.
In this context, digging out the buried
traditions and heritage of a Dalit community is an extremely vital task since
it would bring glimpses of hope into their life. There have been some efforts
to bring out these hidden or buried traditions and heritage, but they have been
limited within a few regional pockets. The efforts of the Centre for Dalit and
Subaltern Studies (CDSS), in taking the initiative to research and discover the
heritage and liberative traditions of the Dalit community in India, is greatly
appreciated. The Centre is one of the leading Research Centers in India, which
mainly concentrates on grass root level research.
The research in Dalit Heritage and Liberative
traditions begins with a hypothesis. It comes out after analyzing a
considerable amount of literature that points that most of the existing works
are region-specific and limited to certain localities only. In the context of
the Dalit population, for example in North India, the literature is neither
descriptive nor comprehensive, to reflect the history related to Dalit
heritage. Therefore it is not conclusive enough to pronounce the equitable
Dalit identity.
To obtain data for the proposed research it is
planned to collect the scattered heritages and traditions from all over India.
The research area is divided into three regions; North, South and Central
India. Assam, representing all East India, is included in North India for the
purpose of this research. This study, thus covers almost all of India.
The selection of districts and villages is based
on recent census reports. Areas where Dalit population is in large numbers have
been selected for sample study. So this selection process gives initial justice
to the research.
In the field study, detailed questionnaires,
specifically aimed to find out traditions and heritage, have been used. Enough
time has also been allocated for group discussion, i.e participatory research.
Participatory research is not simply a means to collect facts, but is also
employed to make Dalit communities aware of their own traditions and heritage,
something which Dalits have always neglected since the dominant culture invaded
them. It is interesting to note that CDSS is not merely doing an academic
exercise but a research aimed to educate Dalit community as well.
Dalit communities are named differently
throughout India. Major Dalit communities have been covered in this research;
Mala and Madiga in Andhra Predesh; Mahar and Mang in Maharashtra; Mochi and
Chanmar in Chattishgrgh; Dhom and Mussahar in Bihar; Passi and Chamar in Uttar
Predesh; Valmiki and Chamar in Himachal Pradesh; Chura in Punjab, Paraya and
Chakkliya in Tamil Nadu, Pulya and Paraya in Kerala etc. Since data collected
will represent major Dalit communities in all the states, this study can be
representative of Dalit communities' tradition and heritage.
Traditions give information about the past. It
does not tell about the past that is recorded as history with accurate times
and dates, but reveals the past life and values handed over to the next
generation in different forms, like stories, songs, sayings etc., The field
study findings of CDSS show that in India Dalit communities carry rich
traditions, that impart certain values to the community that is carried down
the generations. A few oral traditions from North India are narrated below to
make an evaluation of the objectives of the study.
Tradition and Heritage of Dom Community:
Breaking the Silence for a just social order
Centre for Dalit and Subaltern Studies (CDSS)
conducted sample research in four villages in Bihar as part of the field study,
One of the communities among whom study was conducted was Dom / Dhairdar
community.
Dharidar/Dom community is one of the most
backward communities among Dalits. The community is of bhangis (scavengers) who
traditionally carry human waste out of the village and live outside the
village. They have several home-gods. Dhairdar community has a tradition of
worshipping a deity named Shyam Singh. In Pipraphan (Supal District) and
Hirnijodha (Supal District) in Bihar, there are temples dedicated to Shyan
Singh.
According to an oral tradition, Shyam Singh was
a Rajput. He had a servant (dasi) from Dom community. He was very kind towards
her and all the people of her community. There also lived a high caste landlord
(Jamindar) in that village, who was so cruel that he never gave enough food and
wages to his servants; instead, he used to beat them. Shyam Singh was not happy
with the attitude of the landlord (Jamindar). Many times Shyam Singh warned
him, but the warnings went unheeded. One day Shyam Singh fought with him on
behalf of the Dom community, and killed the landlord (Jamindar). Since he stood
as the protector of the community, the Doms started to believe that his spirit
protected them even after his death. They worshipped him and instituted him as
a deity. The myth related to Shyam Singh scores a protest against the dominant
myth of decadence...
The story of Shyam Singh hints at the tradition
among Doms for breaking the silence against the age-old oppressive structure.
Tradition and Heritage of Valmiki Community: Breaking the silence against the
dividing structure of caste system
CDSS conducted a field study in Haryana among
Valmiki community. Valmiki community is one of the major Dalit communities in
North India. One of their traditions is about Bullakki - a deity of Valimiki
community. The study found an oral tradition about Bullakki which runs as
follows:
Jaharveer was a thakur who lived at Bagarah in
Rajasthan. He was very healthy and so strong physically that the people
generally considered it as God-given attribute. However, one day he killed two
people in his home and buried them. His mother was angry with his behavior and
sent him out of her home. He left home. But at night he used to visit his wife
without anyone's notice. After a while his wife conceived. Her mother-in law
and others accused her of adultery. She tried to convince them by
sharing the truth, but nobody believed her. One
night, when Jaharveer visited her, she asked him to tell the truth to his
mother. But he refused to go in front of them. So next day she told the
mother-in-law to keep awake at night to witness her son's arrival. When he came
that night, the mother saw him. She asked Jaharveer to stay back, but he
refused the offer. This disappointed his wife and she told her husband that she
was not willing to carry his child in her womb if he would not come and live
with them because that would bring only ignominy to her. To abort therefore,
his wife asked Jaharveer to shout loudly so that with the help of supernatural
power and the thundering voice of her husband the fetus would come out, and she
would no more be carrying the shame. But it so happened that when Jaharveer
shouted, instead of the fetus, a live child dropped out of the womb. The
adamant Jaharveer took the child, put it in a basket and placed it on the
flowing waters of Yamuna.
One member of Valmiki's family in a nearby
village was walking along with her little child Bulakki, on the banks of Yamuna
that day. When Bulakki's mother saw the floating basket she asked her husband
to take it out of the water. It was to their surprise that the basket carried a
baby boy. Taking it as a gift from god, Valmiki's family decided to take care
of this child along with their own Bulakki. They called him also Bulakki. So
the two Bulakkies lived and grew together. However, after a while the thakurs
came to know about their son and decided to bring him back home. They went to
Valmiki village and asked for the child. But Bulakki was not ready to go with
them; he was so close to his foster family and his brother that he felt it
impossible to live without them. Even here Jaharveer was adamant and tried to
use force to take the child. As a result, both Bulakkies jumped in the Yamuna
River and killed themselves. Valmikis believe that the spirit of Bulakkies
started protecting their community thereafter. They started worshipping the
Bulakkies as their deity.
This tradition carries a heritage against
dividing human beings in the name of caste, and is designed to break the
silence of the Dalit community. This tradition carries a heritage of equality,
unity and love. Tradition and Heritage of Mussahar Community: Breaking the
silence to agitate against the oppressive structure of the caste system
CDSS conducted field study among the Mussahar
community in Bihar. According to the oral traditions of the community Mussahar
was an ancient hunting and gathering group, because they did not know anything
about food grains or cereals. This indicates that they were not agriculturists,
which means that they were nomads. Another view is that the name is derived
from masu-flesh and annera meaning seeker, signifying them as meat seekers or
hunters.
They belong to the ‘Dalit' caste group. They are
classified as an untouchable group. Being landless and in many cases homeless
too, they used to wander from place to place in search of their livelihood. But
now they have started to build fixed settlements.
Mussahar community is now part of the Hindu
religion. However, they worship certain deities, who are mythical figures which
belong to Mussahar community. Caste Hindus very rarely follow or worship these
deities. It is interesting to note that some of these deities protested against
the Hindu god-designed caste system. The major reason to keep these deities
among others is to remember their act of protest. One of these deities,
Dina-Bhandri, is particularly remembered as a striking example of their act of
protest.
According to the myth Dina and Bhadri were two
brothers, born in Nepal to a person named Kalu who was a Mussahar. Kalu and his
wife could have children only in their old age after they received a promise
from a deity that they would be blessed with two sons. Dina and Bhadri were
born very healthy and as they grew up, they learned wrestling. Being of Dalit
community, Kalu was ill-treated by the Jamindar named Jerovar Rai. Now, Jerovar
Rai had 700 wrestlers (pehalwans) under his care, whom he kept only to terrorize
the Mussahar community members and force them to work for him. To display his
strength Jerovar Rai would very often organize wrestling events between his
wrestlers in public. During these occasions Jerovar Rai would also challenge
other pehalwans. One day Dina and Bhadri accepted the challenge which annoyed
Jerovar Rai but he had no option but to fight with them. Dina and Bhadri not
only won the wrestling, but killed Jerovar Rai in the fight. In this way the
two brothers could get freedom for their community. After the incident the
Musshar community began honouring the two brothers as their warrior deities.
Together they are called Dina-Bhadri.
Even to this day Dina-Bhadri's idol is placed in
the middle of the village where the community lives. The villagers will gladly
make sacrifices every year. They believe that the village god is the protector
of his people. The worship of Dina-Badri is based on the comfort and consensus
of the community. On the day of worship, people bathe in the morning before
going to Dina-Bhadri's installation. They cleared the area.
On this day, desserts, puddings and other
delicacies are distributed in the form of prasad. Villagers, young and old,
gather around Dina Badri. The music of Madal and Dholak is accompanied by the
verses that the villagers sing for joy and happiness. Three bamboo poles with
red and white flags are also put up as the symbol of three deities namely Dina,
Bhadri and Salahesh (disciple of Dina and Bhadri). These are replaced with new
ones in the following year on the day of Dina Bhadri. Once the poles are
replaced villagers offer their worship with flowers, incense etcetra. Then
verses rent the air as the villagers led by Dhami (priest) in front begin their
journey to the jungle to a certain specified spot where they leave the old
bamboo poles. After this ritual the villagers return home, all along chanting
the verses.
This story is about a tradition of
agitation—agitation by challenging and breaking silence against the caste. The
heritage of Mussahar community replaced caste-ordained gods with
caste-destroying gods or placed an anti-caste god. The faith expression of the
Mussahar (Dalit) religion is the expression of agitation by breaking the
silence. Tradition and Heritage of Dalit Communities in Punjab: Breaking the
silence against the (closed) temple worship
CDSS have conducted a study in Punjab among the
Dalit communities. One of the traditions is taken from a village named
Zaffarwal. In this village, most of the Christians and other low caste people
worship the place called Bala Shah. It is a place where there is a heap of
earth over which an earthen lamp is kept burning. Sometimes even a colored flag
is kept over that heap of earth. On the auspicious day people go individually
to worship there.
Many stories are told about the cult of Bala
Shah: all are unscripted and can only be heard from the worshippers. According
to the popular stories it is told that there were four Balas: (1) Bala Jut
Sandoo; (2) Bala Marasi; (3) Bala Balmikh Barahman; and (4) Bala-Mar-Khanda,
who is called Bala Shah. Bala-Mar-Khanda was a well-known robber. One night, as
usual, he went to rob someone. While he was passing through the jungle, he saw
a light at some distance. Thinking it to be a house of a rich family, he went
there. But when he entered the house, he found that it actually belonged to the
shudras. Those shudras were very afraid, but he told them not to be afraid of
him as he had come there by mistake. He said they are building a pile of land
for the future and putting a red flag on it. That will always be a sign for him
not to come to their houses. They did as he told them, but later on they
started worshipping it and continue to do so till today."
The worship in an open place is in remembrance
of their past when robbers were kind to them and avoided their house by seeing
the red flag. The significant fact is that the place of worship is not closed
or institutionalized; rather it is kept open and in a public place which is
against the dominant caste concept of a 'closed temple.'
There are thousands of such oral traditions
scattered throughout India. In addition to these there are also stories of
Dalit heroes that remained unrecorded. Bhagavan Dethe in Maharashtra from Ahmad
Nagar District and Anna Bosate the leader of Mang Community, are some
historical figures who fought against caste oppression.
There are also a number of sayings scattered
throughout India among the Dalit communities, which CDS proposes to include in
its compilation.
Concluding Comments
The objective of the research is to bring out
Dalit liberative traditions and heritage by exploring their liberative
literatures, stories, sayings and oral traditions. These findings can be very
effective tool to establish heritage and traditions of the community and to
give them their identity. Oral traditions of Dalit communities, like the ones
found in sample-study are in fact widely prevalent in villages of Bihar,
Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. They are alive in the day-to-day life
of the rural communities all over the country. It may be difficult to
establish, the actual fact behind them but the moral values projected in them
are still relevant for the communities that are otherwise dominated by
Brahminical norms.
The major objective of CDSS is to discover the
hidden or buried traditions and heritage, of Dalit communities which are
liberative in nature, so that they can be effectively used to break the silence
of Dalit communities. Since the first part of the research is spread all over
North India, it will provide remarkable collection of narrations of Dalit
traditions and heritage from the area.
The data collected from the field proves the
effective coordination of the research scholars. The effort of CDSS leadership
to coordinate the work effectively by spending enough time in the field to
bring out the data needed for the research is indeed commendable.
The initial field study compels us to anticipate
that the findings of scattered liberative traditions and heritage in around 20
major states in India will be a strong and effective voice of a voiceless
community. This will encourage the silenced Dalit communities in India, to
refute and challenge Hinduised and Brahminized religious interpretation of the
social system and bring a sense of identity to them.
We hope this research is only a beginning. It
may move further in search of more silenced voices, in search of more buried
past, in search of more submerged traditions, in search of more dominated and
Hinduised heritages of Dalit communities in India.
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