Cultural Expression of the

Adivasi women’s revolutionary movement

Sushila

Contents

 

Sadhana, a male comrade wrote the popular novel "Rago" which deals with the social oppression of an Adivasi Gond girl, her resistance to that oppression and her integration into the life of an armed revolutionary. He wrote it on the basis of his experiences while working in Dandakaranya , at a time when the tribal women’s movement was still in an embryonic stage.

Almost a decade later, the adivasi girls of DK are themselves composing songs in Gondi to express their oppression and anguish and their path to liberation. From the hills in Balaghat and Abhujmadh to the banks of the Godavari and Pranhita rivers the forests are resounding with songs not only about revolution in general but also about women’s condition and their aspirations. This cultural outpouring of young women squad members joining together to compose songs is spreading. Young girls can always be found in villages jostling each other while standing to give chorus when these songs are being sung.

An old but popular song that has been adapted in the various dialects of Gondi as it has spread from area to area is the Kamalakka song. This song has played an important role in spreading awareness among village women. Written as a dialogue between a village woman – Kamala – and a peasant organisation leader – Sangham Pandu – It begins –

Madvimir, Madkamir kamalakka

What have to say, speak Kamalakka

How much can I tell, sangham Pandu

What can I tell, sangham Pandu

Then Kamala laments about the marriage forced upon her by her elders and parents and then goes on to vividly describe the slave like labour she performs in the house of her in-laws and husband and her utter neglect. She describes her work –

I labour all day, but then my in-laws

Call me a lazy daughter-in-law!

To collect the leaves, to bring the firewood it is the daughter-in-law,

To fetch the water, to cook the food, it is the daughter-in-law

To make the toggu, to cook the gruel, it is the daughter-in-law,

To clear the stumps, to gather and sweep it is the daughter-in-law.

I get in the darkness, Sangham pandu

And pound and pound the grain

Till the sweat flows Sangham pandu

I slave in the house, I slave in the forest,

Cutting the paddy, cutting the Kohla I do well.

Yet, girl you may not thresh they say,

I looked after the house, bring the needs from the hills,

But I cant go near the grain store

I breed the hens , I breed the pigs,

But he eats without asking his wife and children

Near the panch, near the ritual if we go,

What do women understand they say

What sin have we committed sangham pandu

I cannot go anywhere, Sangham pandu.

He takes the cows and bulls and sells them off

He drinks and spends the money, my man

He never brings anything, not even clothes

As if he doesn’t know he has a wife and children

This song very popular among women, young and old, poignantly brings out the unending, unrecognised toil that is the fate of tribal peasant women

The patriarchal family, the subordinate position of women in the family and her lack of rights is a theme repeated in many of the songs on women. Like in this song written by the squad women in North Baster two years ago :

The red flower, sister, is flowering

Let us follow the path of the red flower and struggle…..

In the village, the elders, sister

The elders threaten and suppress us sister

In the house mother and father

Without listening to mother and father we cannot go anywhere

They marry us off sister…..

You bring up the sons and daughters

You do all the work in the house

But the man has the right to the house

The children too are the father’s right

Sister, the sons and daughters get the father’s name,

Sister the house too is in the man’s name

Wherever sister, we are seen as outsiders

Wherever we look everything is in the man’s name…..

In the flag song too, the lack of rights over crop, land, house is emphasised:

You give birth to girls and boys, but your name is nowhere sister,

The store is full of paddy, but girls cannot get it, sister

At a tender age, they are performing marriages sister,

If she says she wont go, they are beating her sister….

We look after the crop, we look after the harvest, but we have no right sister

Even though woman looks after the cattle and goats, her name is not there, sister

Sister on the land

Even if she looks after the hens and pigs, the girl has no share

The land and sky are equal, women and men are equal

The social oppression faced by girls due to some of the traditional customs and superstitious beliefs are also repeated in many songs. Like forcible marriage practiced quite commonly, the practice of forcing women to remove the blouse once they get married in parts like Gadhchiroli:

At a tender age they marry off sister,

If she says she wont go, they are beating her, sister

They are bringing grown-up wives for small boys sister

Without asking me they married me, my parents,

They took the liquor and fixed it up the elders

The MADIA CUSTOM IS DIFFERENT,

The men don’t have the custom

The custom of removing the blouse

At marriage they remove the blouse

They put the haldi and take off the blouse

They make me the daughter-in-law of the madkamirs

The feelings of a young girl forced into marriage have been poetically expressed in this song which goes like this:

In the darkness of no moon

In the light of full moon

In the deep forest I am alone,

I put my foot forward, I take a step backward

Wherever I step it is dark, brother

Their only daughter, this bright beauty,

This beautiful face they have ruined, brother

They have forcibly married me off, brother

The imagery in the song expresses the depths of despair that young girls feel due to the outmoded customs and practices. In the end when she realises that women must organise themselves and struggle to end these conditions, she says:

Yes, brother yes, I have heard your view

I will no longer stay in this darkness

I will go forward towards a red dawn

The songs emerging from the revolutionary women’s movement are clear about the way forward, towards equality. They reflect what progressive young tribal women view as the only concrete way to achieve their goal of emancipation from social exploitation and oppressive tribal traditions – the path of building women’s organisation and joining the armed struggle or supporting it to establish a new democratic order. Thus the flag song ends by saying:

The land and sky are equal, women and men are equal

If our troubles have to go

Join the struggle sister

Let us build a Red army and win power

Let us build our liberated areas in the world

The red flower songs ends in this way:

Sister in the forests of Dandakaranya

Let us take the struggle for new democratic revolution forward

All the people must unite sister

We have to build our raj (power)

Hold the red flag in your hand sister

Let us also join the war sister

At the same time songs on other issues concerning women have also been written , sung and become popular. This one song deals with the atrocities of the police on women and the people’s resistance to them. Taking the background of the rape of the nuns in Jhabua district of MP it strings together a series of incidents. It goes like this:

In the rule of this police, in the rule of this Government

There is no security for sisters

There is fear in the village, there is fear in the forest……

The tehsildar with the eyes of a cheetah, the ruler of Narayanpur

Reached Vedmakot, and summoned a meeting

Like a cat he slipped and tried to molest Kamaladidi

The people enraged went to Narayanpur,

They took out a procession, did a chakka jam

Women of the Christian faith, who nursed children

The goons of Jhabua district, with the lotus symbol

This Congress Govt is false, they entered within

And raped them, the whole country was enraged

There was a strike in Antagadh …

All these songs are structured in the forms of their traditional songs — the re re la, or re la setting the tune. Hence these songs are easily remembered and easily sung. The growing women’s movement has also spawned a cultural movement.

 

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