Chapter 6 Bhangis and village politics
Chetan Ram and politics
In March 1977 a general election to the Indian Parliament in New Delhi was held all over India. The ruling Congress Party had become impopular after two years of emergency and a rough family planning campaign headed by Sanjay Gandhi, son of the prime minister, Mrs. Indira Gandhi. The opposition, headed by the Janta Party, had good hopes of getting into power. In the Chelana area the election campaign went on for several weeks in February. Jeeps with loudspeakers and party flags drove around spreading messages. At Chelana the villagers were as usual divided in a Pro-Congress and an Anti-Congress camp. The Dethas, headed by Ravi Dan, was for the Congress and Indira Gandhi, whereas their old foes among the Rajputs and the Baniyas supported the Janta Party.
Bahadur Singh strongly supported the Janta Party. He was a Rathore youth of the Chelana village who studied law at a Jodhpur college. He had been enrolled by the Janta Party as an election campaign worker, and he did his best to persuade the Chelana villagers to vote for that party.
Chetan Ram's liqour drinking Rajput friends were all for Bahadur Singh and his Janta Party. That is how Chetan Ram started to propagate for the Janta party, too.
He himself might not have had much preference for any party, as ideologies and party programs were practically unknown at Chelana, apart from the family planning campaign led by Sanjay Gandhi.
About that campaign there were many rumours at Chelana, but few persons had any first-hand experience, as there were no raids for sterilizing menfolk at Chelana itself. People came to know about raids by family planning teams at small villages in the region, as well as at Jalagarh and Anandpur Kalu. People had been caught on the roads. Therefore migrant labourers and others were reluctant to visit their home villages, as long as the family planning campaign was going on.
Next year, in 1978, there were elections to the Gram Panchayats all over Rajasthan. In earlier village council elections Ravi Dan had become sarpanch without difficulties, but the confidence of various big and medium size castes in the village had grown. This time they wanted to put forward their own candidates rather than rallying around the Dethas in a united front against the the former feudal elite, as they had done in the 1950s and 1960s. Neither the Jats nor the Muslims were likely to vote for him. Realizing that his chances had become smaller this time, Ravi Dan decided not to contest as a sarpanch (village council chairman), but as an ordinary panch (village council member) at the election ward of the Detha mohalla. Instead the Dethas and their allies in village politics put forward Praduman Singh as their sarpanch candidate. He was a Rathore of an influential ex-jagirdar family, and that could attract Rajput voters. Although Praduman Singh's family was a Rajput one, it had old bonds of friendship with the Dethas. A few other powerful Rajput families had been their common foes for generations. Especially Bhan Singh's family, as we have told in the section about dacoit robber bands in the Chelana area up to the 1950s. Also the Rathore family of Bahadur Singh, the law student, had been hostile to Praduman Singh's family for a long time.
In the 1977 parliament election Chetan Ram had been with the Rajput group in village politics against the Dethas, but one year later he had changed side. He supported Ravi Dan's party in their campaign for Praduman Singh. When Tan Dan asked Chetan Ram how it could be that he had changed from one side to the other, Chetan replied that this was an opportunity for him to show his affection and gratitude to Praduman Singh, his old master and wellwisher, who had taught him everything about tractors.
Therefore he propagated for Praduman Singh among his caste brethren, in spite of the objections from his Rajput liqour drinking companions. They were all for Satya Narayan, the rivaling sarpanch candidate.
Chelana Bhangi mohalla voting pattern at 1978 village election
At the Bhangi mohalla there was one more young tractor driver, who kept company with young Rajputs in the same way as Chetan Ram. It was Dula Ram, the son of Sugna Ram, the chaprasi of the village hospital. Dula Ram partly owned the tractor he was driving, as we have told earlier, and therefore he felt a little more secure than most other Bhangis. Like Chetan Ram he was something of a leader within the Bhangi community.
Dula Ram had no special bonds to Praduman Singh, and gave the other candidate, Satya Narayan of the Brahmin caste, his active support. Mainly because Satya Narayan was the candidate of Bahadur Singh and many other Rajputs with whom Dula Ram wanted to be associated in the eyes of his fellow Bhangis.
Dula Ram was the grandson of Labuji, and Chetan Ram the grandson of Bhikaji. These two branches of the Bhangi bhaipa at Chelana often had somewhat different inclinations in village affairs.
Since the days of Labu Ram's family had been close to the Rajputs of the village Thikana. The Thikana Rajput families were their most important jajman clients. Labuji's offspring used to be on the Rajput side in village matters out of a feeling of obligation rather than conviction. These families lived in the western half of the eight to ten houses built on a line in the Bhangi mohalla.
Those who lived in the eastern half of the mohalla were the children, grandchildren and greatchildren of Bhikaji. They had a closer relationship to the Dethas, partly because Dethas were their jajman clients. They also had some Rajput families as their jajman clients, including that of Praduman Singh. Families who were friendly to the Dethas.
Two of the houses on the eastern side had been in favour of the Dethas in village politics since the 1950s. Headed by Harman Ram and Pelad. They felt grateful to Ravi Dan for helping them to get the stone houses constructed in the new Bhangi mohalla. Also Udaji's household were old supporters of the Dethas. Two of Uda Ram's sons worked as tractor drivers for Detha families in the 1970s.
(Kalyan for Naru Dan, Jabru for Sumer Dan's family. Naru Dan and Sumer Dan were both employed in Government offices in subordinate positions for several years, but their families lived at Chelana all the time. They were two of the fourteen partners in the Detha Brothers farm in the 1950s.)
Also Chetan Ram and his brothers lived in the eastern side of the mohalla. Their support to the Dethas was less stable due to Chetan Ram's attempt to play a modest part in village politics himself.
Hence, the election had divided the whole Bhangi mohalla in two parts, as all members of a family voted for the same candidate. On the day of voting Dula Ram, his father, his paternal uncles, and all their women voted for Satya Narayan, the sarpanch candidate of most Rajputs and the savarn Hindu elite. So did also the other voters of the western houses of the mohalla, whereas all grown-ups in the eastern houses voted for Pradhuman Singh. The election day was like a folk festival, with all villagers dressed up in their best clothes. The Bhangis did vote, they even enjoyed the excited atmosphere, but the outcome of the election did not concern them much. Praduman Singh lost and Satya Narayan become the new sarpanch, but the people of the Bhangi mohalla showed very little reaction. As the Bhangis were not emotionally involved in the game of village politics, nobody felt bitter about the result and no rift was created within the caste. Chetan Ram and Dula Ram continued to drink with their Rajput friends as before.
Madhobhai, a Bhangi poet liked by the villagers
Madan Ram was also called Madhobhai. He was a Bhangi of the Gharu gotra like the other sweepers of Chelana, as they all were related. He was a good poet.
Madan Ram was of about the same age as Ravi Dan, both were born in the 1920s. He died in the late 1970s.
Madan worshipped Lal Guru, a deity popular among Bhangis. Although not literate, he was nevertheless awakened and enlightened, Tan Dan thought.
Before the Harijans moved to the new line of houses around 1960, they lived in the old Bhangi mohalla, which was close to the original Charan mohalla, where Budh Dan had settled and his sons Jugti Dan and Kiman Dan grew up in the 19th century.
The old Charan mohalla was only some fifty metres away from the edge of the old Bhangi mohalla. In the middle of the old Charan mohalla there was a hathai, a place where menfolk go
t together. It belonged to the Mehru clan. At that hathai Charan men used to sit and talk in the evenings, also Detha Charan men. They recited Dingal poems popular among Charans. People of other castes could come and listen. Untouchables such as Bhangis were also allowed, but the rules of untouchability were strictly observed. Madan used to come in the evenings. He was handicapped in one leg and had difficulties to move. He worked as an agricultural labourer in spite of that, but he could not do any sports and he could not run.
Madan liked to hear Charans recite their poems. He used to come and listen in the evenings, when the recitation started. He also made his own poets having heard various poets of the Charans.
After village democracy was introduced at Chelana in the 1950s, the Gram Panchayat arranged general meetings to which all villagers were invited. Menfolk, of course. These meetings were called Ramasama, and they were held twice a year on the day after Divali and Holi. Everybody used to come to tell his ideas and problems.
On such occasions Madan used to recite his own poems about village affairs. For example disputes among rivals about irrigation land. He told who was at fault, and who should be lenient. In these poems he told his opinions and gave his suggestions.
He also described the geography and nature of the area in his poems.
(Told by Tan Dan in 1999.)
Vimla's small brother
Harman Dan and his wife had three daughters in 1980. Vimla was in her early teens and the other two were about five. They used come along with Vimla on her forenoon sweeping rounds in the village. In 1977 Vimla also had a small brother, who was the darling of his mother. When in July 1977 the girls by chance got the opportunity to learn the basics of reading and writing at Vimla's home, Vimla's mother also let her baby boy try a little.
The Bhangi mohalla was situated in the extreme north of the village, at the edge of the flat wasteland over which cold winds from the north kept blowing in the winter. The wind blew from the snowy mountains of the Himalayas across the north Indian Plains. The line of houses, where the Bhangis lived, was very much exposed to it, especially as the solid stone houses had windows and door openings, but lacked window panes, window shutters and doors. So the cold breeze kept blewing through the house, and the winter nights can be chilly in the desertlike western Rajasthan.
He got pneumonia and died. Like many other small children in the Chelana area the small boy died due to winter cold. Vimla's mother was so much lost in him, that his death became very difficult for her to accept. She had many daughters, but he was her son, the future of their family and her support at old age.
Later on she got another son.
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