Drops make an ocean; it is true in the case of people’s
movement and also the movement against the people. When Kanaiah Kumar is
arrested on sedition charges, the youth of India turned drops of protest to
form a huge ocean of resistance. So are the people who now stand for the over
politicized nationalists sentiments; slowly they too are turning into an ocean.
Elsewhere, the stories of rape, Dalit beating and caste discriminations are
submerged in the noise of the wailings of the hurt nationalist sentiments. But
the injured and insulted ones are coming together, slowly, steadily and forcefully
in order to change the course of history. As Malcolm X once put it, now the
chickens are coming to roost. The tables are being turned. This is the last
throes of the upper caste and upper class hegemony in India and they are desperate.
The oppressed people are going to take over this country and Bant Singh, who
has been hailed as the singing human torso is one of those drops which
constitute the ocean in the making.
Bant Singh’s story is all over the world. But in the times
of television and social media, our attention span has become a monkey that
jumps from one branch of information to the other. Upon hearing the news of
atrocities committed against the oppressed, downtrodden, children, old people
and women, we are enraged and our passions run helter-skelter and find
manifestations in our angst ridden status messages. But then we move on to the
next happy moment, reassuring our paining selves with the news of good tidings,
only to shudder at the memories of the bad events that have just passed. Bant
Singh with his revolutionary songs reminds us that we need to have this never
say die spirit in order to change the world. When he was asked to shut up by
the Panchayat and also by the relatives and friends, he did not shut up. Like
any other valiant father, Bant Singh also stood up against the tormentors of
his daughter who had raped her after her marriage was fixed. Both the daughter and
father went to court and got punishment for the rapists. But the dominant and
powerful Jat community in rural Punjab took revenge by cutting away the legs
and hands of Bant Singh. He survived with one useless leg saved by the doctors
just give him at least some human shape.
(The book cover )
In 2006, when this tragedy hit Bant Singh, though initially
it was not known to many, thanks to the consistent efforts of the left wing
political activists (CPI) and many other social organizations, it had become a
national issue. In a decade’s time people seem to have forgotten him as they
are now burdened with so many other issues, despite their graveness all
seemingly facile and passing. Noted journalist and poet, Nirupama Dutta,
however has taken the pains to keep the issue alive by bringing out his
biography. Titled ‘The Ballad of Banta Singh: A Quissa of Courage’, this book
is a journey of Bant Singh’s life, which has always been filled with optimism
and fighting spirit even if at each juncture it is bogged down by Punjab’s
casteism amongst the Sikhs. One of the positive sides of this book and Nirupama’s
narration is that it never gives a graphic description of Bant’s daughter’s
ordeals as a rape victim. She, Baljit Caur, appears as a hardworking and
fighting young woman who does not carry the burden of victimhood. She has all
the reason to behave one as her first marriage engagement to a better family
was called off due to the incident and also was socially ostracized for a long
time.
The places where Nirupama could have gone into the detailing
of the plotting and planning of the rapists and also the actual incident to
make the book spicy and catchy she takes the stance of a diligent activist and
a feminist who has tremendous self-respect respect for a fellow human being. As
a writer, Nirupama’s attention is to bring Bant into focus and show the reader
how this man, despite of the ill fate fallen on him, kept on working for the
poor and downtrodden. One would wonder whether Bant is the text of sub-text of the
book as Nirupama gives a very erudite but crisp narrative on the caste systems
prevalent in Punjab. Bant Singh comes from the Mazhabi Sikhs who had converted
to Sikhism from the lowest castes in the Hindu hierarchy. They converted to it
because they thought this religion with no caste barrier would give them
respect and dignity. But as time went by, the Mazhabis became more and more
oppressed by the dominant Jat Sikhs. The author, through Bant Singh speaks her
own anger against the system even if she hails from a privileged class and
caste.
(author Nirupama Dutt and Bant Singh at the Jaipur Literature Festival)
Bant Singh’s perseverance in fighting against inequality
through his recitals of poetry of Ravi Das Udasi, the famous romantic
revolutionary poet of Punjab, has become the topic of veneration and admiration
amongst many activists from across the globe. Bant sired eight children and he educated
all of them though he himself was not educated. Once he was introduced to the
poetry of Udasi, he became the voice of the poet. Nirupama recounts the story
of Bant using Udasi’s poems as the anchor lines. The book is painful as well as
inspirational. Behind every inspirational story, there must be a thing of pain
which often is not seen by most of the public. As he started getting financial
assistance from organizations and the governments after his story became the
national news (tehelka was at the forefront to create a fund for him), the
villagers started telling that now Bant had changed as he became rich. Bant
counters the criticism with a smile saying they too could become rich by losing
their limbs. The most important thing about Bant Singh is that he does not lose
hope. Even today he sings it with all his might and he vows to fight for justice
for all the downtrodden people. Bant Singh is Rohit Vemula, he is Kaniah Kumar,
he is Jyoti Pandey and he is all of us who have been asked to prove our
nationalism by toeing the line drawn by the bigots.
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