Uttar Pradesh Politics and The Bahu bali

One may perhaps be forgiven if on watching Omkara set in rural and coarse rural Uttar Pradesh, one is not reminded immediately of Shakespeare’s Othello even though the credit titles give explicit credit to the bard as the source of its inspiration. There may be a lot to be said about the coarse and the sexually explicit language of the film and the restrained but enchanting prose of Shakespeare. Besides, stories of love triangles, jealousy and revenge are not new either. But by setting his adaptation of Othello in the wild west of western Uttar Pradesh, Vishal Bharadwaj has captured for us the phenomenon of the Bahu bali in politics, a term much heard of in TV reportage but seldom seen or understood.

Now this is not the revered Bahu Bali of the Jains. The Bahu bali we are talking of, whose loose English translation would b a muscle man is a some what modern phenomenon in its present shape but with age old feudal roots. It would seem that in the rural heartlands of north India, bahu balis are the face of democracy in the sense that to win elections, you need to support and active involvement of bahu balis. They will do the booth capturing, block the way to ensure that inconvenient voters who might vote the other way are kept at away and then of course they will kill if their dictates are not observed.

Bhai Saab in Omkara represents the powerful, politician who needs and keeps Bahu balis . They are important and necessary accessories when you want to introduce fundamentally alien concepts in an ancient society steeped in caste, class and feudalism. The Leif motif of democracy is the equality of all humans which our cast driven feudal society does not accept in principle. So even though we in India has always been proud of its thriving democracy, which sees popular verdicts being delivered at various levels throughout the year from the village panchayats to urban municipalities to state legislatures and, finally, to parliament in New Delhi, we often ignore the window dressed democratic verdict that the Bahu bali delivers for his master.

Those who have been following the giant democratic exercise in Uttar Pradesh currently will have observed that out of the compulsion that some form of democracy is better than none , we choose to turn a blind eye to the nature of the churning which occurs in the political arena, throwing up elements whose influence in their constituencies depends more on the fear they generate than on the respect they earn. India has always been proud of its thriving democracy, which sees popular verdicts being delivered at various levels throughout the year from the village panchayats to urban municipalities to state legislatures and, finally, to parliament in New Delhi.

But during this process the country has chosen to turn a blind eye to the nature of the churning which occurs in the political arena, throwing up elements whose influence in their constituencies depends more on the fear they generate than on the respect they earn. the attitudes of our politicians remain steeped not only in patriarchal values but are liberally spiced with values of the dominant caste, class, region, language and religion and the hired muscle man serves to show every one their place in the social tier. Clearly , the dominant culture in many places of rural India is that of ruthlessly enforced patriarchy , the visible manifestation of which is the Bahu bali. Parliamentary democracy is a convenient cloak and garb to wear in the assembly rooms and meetings of the legislative assembly or parliament but once the session is over , that democratic cloak is taken off and put away even as the Neta hits the roads of his constituency , guarded by who else but his Bahu balis.

Shaheed Bhagat Sngh .... The Terrorist

Later this year the nation will celebrate the birth centenary of Sardar Bhagat Singh and as a curtain raise, the revolutionary hero is getting a great deal more attention that he would otherwise get. It is also a good time to study his ideology. But even though, I started off trying to read up about a man of who I had read about only in history books, I ended up admiring the man. I am learning to admire Bhagat Singh not necessarily for his ideological convictions which I do not agree with but for the sheer amount of content that hi short life of only 23 years produced. Bhagat Singh, born in 1907 was hanged on March 23^rd, 1931 having avenged the lathi charge on his hero ands mentor, Lala Lajpat Rai who died shortly after the lathi charge.

Bollywood has of course done well to capture the influence his life had through Rang De Basanti as well as through at least 5 other biopics on his life. They might or might not have done him justice. But it is amazing as to how what we would think to be a callow youth developed strong convictions, lived by them and died for them. Bhagat singh was an atheist, considered to be one of the earliest Marxist in India and in line with hi thinking, he renamed the Hindustan Republican Party and called it the Hindustan Socialist Revolutionary Party. Bhagat Finally, awaiting his own execution for the murder of Saunders, Bhagat Singh at the young age of 24 studied Marxism thoroughly and wrote a profound pamphlet “Why I am an Atheist. ” which is an ideological statement in itself.

The circumstances of his death and execution are worth recounting. Although, Bhagat Singh had assassinated Saunders, the Assistant Superintendent of Police at Lahore as a means of avenging Lala Lajpat Rai’s death, he was not arrested then. It was later, when he along with his co patriots threw a bomb in Delhi’s Central Legislative Assembly, that he was captured though escape could have been possible as he wanted to embrace martyrdom. Consequent to that, once sentenced to death, he made no further appeals to the higher courts or the Privy Council in the House of Lords.

There is some controversy about the role of Mahatma Gandhi in the attempts that were otherwise made to save him from the gallows. The Gandhi – Irwin talks were going on at the time and it was felt that a word from Gandhi could have made a difference. Other leaders like Motilal Nehru made public appeals , but it seems that Gandhiji kept away , ostensibly because he believed in non violence but according to some historians, because he perceived Bhagat Singh to be a threat like Netaji to his own stranglehold over the Nationalist movement.

As I said in the beginning, I set out to debate it out whether Bhagat Singh was an terrorist or a freedom fighter but like the actors in Aamir Khan’s Rang De Basanti who are happy go lucky folks whose lives are transformed as they read about the characters they play, I find myself challenged. When we all see and read about are Vikas Yadav , Anand Jon , Amardeep Singh Gill, and the many politically active Bahu Balis of Uttar Pradesh is it really possible that a man like Bhagat Singh achieved all that he did and left behind a lasting revolutionary legacy that lasts till this day and all that in a short span of 24 years? Well may be Bhagat singh was a terrorist and may be he wasn’t. But he surely lived a full life in the short span of time he was alive. And that by itself is no mean thing!