At the margin of Dalit politics, Bahurupias keep roza as well as navratri fasts

S
By Vidya Bhushan Rawat*
The Bahurupiyas are one of the most marginalised communities in India. They are engaged in life performances and depend on the patronage of the powerful in the villages. In the olden times, the Rajas and Maharajas patronised them as they would massage their ego. They act on impersonation but it is not to dupe any one but to perform. One day he becomes a Salim or Jahapana Akbar while other day he could be a majnoo or a Seth or a priest. I would call them ‘theatre artists’. Every day, they are on a new role and earn through begging.
If you watch them or listen to them, you will realise how they created various performances to keep their patrons happy. This is their traditional occupation. In Rajasthan the contemtuous term used for them was Bhand, which is an untouchable caste, though most of them would deny that they ever face untouchability or caste discrimination in the villages yet it is a reality that their art is nothing but to keep their ‘patrons’ happy, They would glorify them and laugh at themselves.
Traditional art forms were degraded for some communities but it was their source of livelihood. Today, they remain even at the margins of Dalit politics. None care for them. Interesting part is that Bahurupiyas adopt all kinds of names. Hence a father could sound like Hindu name Shiv Raj or Surendra while the son is Shamshad. They keep roza as well as navratri fasts. They celebrate all the festivals yet they have not been embraced by neither Hindus nor Muslims.
The community of Bahurupiyas are based in Bandikui town of district Dausa in Rajasthan. I was invited by the community in January 2019 to discuss their issues of jobs, housing, land and inclusion. Unfortunately, netas want to use them for their votes but not keen to help them uplift with dignity.
In Bandikui, I had a candid discussion with Subhrati Bahurupiya and Babu Khan. Both discussed in detail their plight and future. They had been performing live for decades. Subhrati or Shivraj, as he was mostly known during his performance, was suffering from cancer. He says that he never got any support from the government even when on behalf of the Ministry of Culture, he had gone to perform in Europe and many other countries. He questioned why he should ask his children to engage in this work when they can’t make two time meals.
The conversation of mine in the video below is with Babu Khan and Subhrati. They are brothers and their children too are engaged in cultural work. They go to villages to earn their money and depend mostly on Savarna patronage. I am sharing this conversation in hope that people will understand the plight of the wonderful community which is thoroughly dispossessed and disempowered and need our support to live a life with dignity.
Subhrati Bahurupiya passed away on July 3rd, 2019 at the age of 65.
—
*Human rights defender

Comments

India’s climate tech ecosystem in dire need of both early, growth-stage funding: Report

By Our Representative India’s climate tech ecosystem, which boasts over 800 startups, is in dire need of both early and growth-stage funding to leverage its full potential, according to a report by Indian Institute of Management-Ahmedabad (Ventures) and MUFG Bank , Japan. Despite a robust initial funding landscape, with approximately two-thirds of climate tech startups receiving seed capital, growth-stage investments remain critically lacking.

'Flawed' argument: Gandhi had minimal role, naval mutinies alone led to Independence

Counterview Desk Reacting to a Counterview story , "Rewiring history? Bose, not Gandhi, was real Father of Nation: British PM Attlee 'cited'" (January 26, 2016), an avid reader has forwarded reaction in the form of a link , which carries the article "Did Atlee say Gandhi had minimal role in Independence? #FactCheck", published in the site satyagrahis.in. The satyagraha.in article seeks to debunk the view, reported in the Counterview story, taken by retired army officer GD Bakshi in his book, “Bose: An Indian Samurai”, which claims that Gandhiji had a minimal role to play in India's freedom struggle, and that it was Netaji who played the crucial role. We reproduce the satyagraha.in article here. Text: Nowadays it is said by many MK Gandhi critics that Clement Atlee made a statement in which he said Gandhi has ‘minimal’ role in India's independence and gave credit to naval mutinies and with this statement, they concluded the whole freedom struggle.

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah* The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual.

105,000 sign protest petition, allege Nestlé’s 'double standard' over added sugar in baby food

By Kritischer Konsum* 105,000 people have signed a petition calling on Nestlé to stop adding sugar to its baby food products marketed in lower-income countries. It was handed over today at the multinational’s headquarters in Vevey, where the NGOs Public Eye, IBFAN and EKO dumped the symbolic equivalent of 10 million sugar cubes, representing the added sugar consumed each day by babies fed with Cerelac cereals. In Switzerland, such products are sold with no added sugar. The leading baby food corporation must put an end to this harmful double standard.

Bayer's business model: 'Monopoly control over chemicals, seeds'

By Bharat Dogra* The Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) has rendered a great public service by very recently publishing a report titled ‘Bayer’s Toxic Trails’ which reveals how the German agrochemical giant Bayer has been lobbying hard to promote glyphosate and GMOs, or trying to “capture public policy to pursue its private interests.” This report, written by Joao Camargo and Hans Van Scharen, follows Bayer’s toxic trail as “it maintains monopolistic control of the seed and pesticides markets, fights off regulatory challenges to its toxic products, tries to limit legal liability, and exercises political influence.”

UNEP report on how climate crisis is impacting displacement, global conflicts, declining health

By Shankar Sharma* A recent report by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), titled "A Global Foresight Report on Planetary Health and Human Wellbeing," warrants urgent attention from our country’s developmental perspective. The findings, detailed in the report, should be a source of significant concern not only globally but especially for our nation, which has a vast population and limited natural resources.

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Industries fueling climate crisis draining public funds in Global South: ActionAid

By Our Representative A new ActionAid report has exposed the alarming financial drain on the Global South, as climate-wrecking industries like fossil fuels and industrial agriculture receive over US$600 billion annually in public subsidies. The report, "How the Finance Flows: Corporate Capture of Public Finance Fuelling the Climate Crisis in the Global South", reveals that an average of US$677 billion in public finance is directed toward climate-destructive sectors each year, depriving crucial social sectors such as education.

75 years of revolution: How China moved away from ideals of struggle for human liberation

By Harsh Thakor* On October 1st, we celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Chinese Revolution, a pivotal moment in the struggle for human liberation. From 1949 to 1976, China achieved remarkable social equality and revolutionary democracy, outpacing other developing nations in literacy, health care, agricultural output, and industrial production.

Search This Blog