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HomeFeaturesBringing Ambedkar's ideas to small towns—Mumbai artists using kirtan, shahiri

Bringing Ambedkar’s ideas to small towns—Mumbai artists using kirtan, shahiri

Ambedkar’s philosophy might be available in books that are ubiquitous. But to understand the Constitution, it’s not enough to just pick it up and read it.

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On 30 November in Panvel, a small town near Mumbai, a group of young singers performed shahiris before a small but responsive audience.

Matdaan cha hakka dila sarvana samaan (We all have the right to vote)

Shikshanachi sandhi amha deta sanvidhan (We all have right to education)

Bahujanana shikshan ka nako ha sawaal Mahatma Jyotiba Phule ne 1882 saali suru kela ([Jyotirao] Phule questioned why shouldn’t Bahujans get an education)

Ani tech swapana gheun Babasahebani shikshanachi sandhi amhala dili ahe (Babasaheb took this dream forward).”

The performance was a way to take B.R. Ambedkar’s teachings and the Constitution to the local townspeople.

Ambedkar’s life and philosophy might be available in books and speeches that are ubiquitous. But to understand the Constitution, it’s not enough to just pick it up and read it. In Ambedkar’s own words: “Constitutional morality is not a natural sentiment. It has to be cultivated. We must realise that our people have yet to learn it.”

Today, Ambedkarites believe that people still haven’t fully understood his ideals and big knowledge gaps remain. That’s why they have taken it upon themselves to educate people now — with art forms that commoners can relate to.

“It is important that Ambedkar’s ideology reaches the masses as it teaches equality, freedom, justice, secularism, and brotherhood,” says Mahendra Rokade, director of CORO India, a Mumbai-based NGO. “And the values of the Constitution should be followed by every citizen; that is what we think.”

CORO India has been providing a platform for such groups that want to take Ambedkar’s philosophy to the grassroots level. Folk songs, shahiris, plays, kirtans, paintings, dances are the tools that these young artists are using.

“Ambedkar’s ideology is there in the written form everywhere. But we have come forward to make it visual and easy to grasp,” says Rokade.


Also read: Chaityabhumi: Pa Ranjith’s new production, a film on annual Ambedkar celebrations


Shahiri and theatre

Shahiri is a centuries-old art form practised in Maharashtra. In the late 19th century under Jyotirao Phule’s Satyashodhak Samaj, ‘lower castes’ developed it as a musical weapon to fight the caste system. Decades later in the 1930s, when Satyashodhaki jalsa was in decline, ‘Ambedkari jalsa’ was on the rise. It carried forward Ambedkar’s thoughts and ideals and Dalit culture through shahiri songs.

Many Dalit shahirs have been well-documented — Bhimrao Kardak to Annabhau Sathe to Prahlad Shinde to Sambhaji Bhagat. The last is a Dalit activist, revolutionary balladeer, and music composer for Chaitanya Tamhane’s legal drama Court (2014).

“I was into revolutionary songs and once got a message that Sambhaji sir was conducting an audition for a programme. He saw my work, and that’s how my journey started five years ago,” says Shital Bhandare who is an artists associated with CORO India and regularly performs shahiri around Ambernath, her hometown. She lives with her two children and is originally from Satara.

Shital at the Samvidhan Mahotsav arranged at Ambernath | Purva Chitnis/ThePrint
Shital at the Samvidhan Mahotsav arranged at Ambernath | Purva Chitnis/ThePrint

Bhandare also runs a ‘Childrens’ cafe’ where she teaches street theatre based on Ambedkar’s philosophy to children aged 13 to 15. “Once a week, we conduct a class for one hour in which we play songs, dance, and narrate stories based on the Constitution, so that they get accustomed to it at a young age,” she says.

Street plays based on Ambedkar | Purva Chitnis/ThePrint
Street plays based on Ambedkar | Purva Chitnis/ThePrint

Bhandare says that since childhood she felt differentiated due to her caste, despite the fact that many from her family secured government jobs.

“My community was always at the margins of the village. We had government jobs, but people used to come and ask us to dispose of dead animals, and such things affected me,” she says.

Sambhaji Bhagat and his songs had a great influence on her since childhood. But one incident years ago made her feel even more strongly for Ambedkar’s ideology. She and her mother once asked for water from a house in their locality, and it was given to them in a mug used for bathing.

“I felt humiliated and insulted,” she says. “I didn’t drink it, but the incident got etched onto my mind.”

Dhammarakshit Randive, a 34-year-old resident of Satara, too, has been associated with CORO for the last one year. His father is also an Ambedkarite. Dhamma, as he is called — which also has a deep meaning for all Ambedkarites — is into theatre arts. He heads a group of 15 artists who perform plays on Ambedkarism in Mumbai’s Kandivali area and even further north toward Mira Road.

Dhamma graduated in 2015 with an MA in theatre arts from Mumbai University and also holds a diploma in folk music. Along with his friends, he formed a Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch that performs street plays to teach constitutional values and morality to bystanders.

“When you talk about speeches and books, people don’t remember it completely. But any art form is understood by people quickly,” he says.


Also read: Ambedkar was latecomer in world of stamps where Nehru’s and Gandhi’s ‘could fill floors’


Forgotten ideals

Dhamma says that the response to street theatre is encouraging, especially because people are able to relate to the art. However, he says more work needs to be done as some of Babasaheb’s ideals remain forgotten even among his followers.

“Ambedkar used to say that hero-worship is dangerous for democracy and even feared that people would worship him, and that is what we are seeing around us,” Dhamma says. Hero-worship has also turned into superficial following today, according to him. “His ideals are relevant even today. In our country, we make humans ‘gods’, and then everything revolves around that person. Be it Babasaheb or even Shivaji. People don’t really care about what their teachings are. So, it is evident that [Ambedkar’s] his teachings have not really reached the grassroots levels, only his image has.”

What these young artists observe is that people even pass comments like the Constitution is written keeping in mind only ‘[Ambedkar’s] his people’. “But it is a collective document, and that’s what we tell the people,” Dhamma says.

He and his friends are also telling others how they have misconstrued Ambedkarism. “To people who are stuck in hero-worshipping Babasaheb, we say they are behaving exactly opposite to what he taught. We haven’t yet fulfilled his dreams, and we feel sad about it,” he adds.

(Edited by Humra Laeeq)

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