[Reader-list] Popular Music and configuration of jat identity in Haryana 1900-2000

Wed Apr 25 00:31:45 IST 2007

Hi,
  I am recepient of independent fellowship-2007, and the topic of my research is 'Popular Musical Traditions and Configuration of Jat Identity in Haryana 1900-2000'. This is my first posting delineating the major lines of investigation, which, i shall be exploring in the coming months.
  I am an M.Phil(History) student at Department of History, University of Delhi.  

  This research seeks to examine the relationship between popular musical traditions and the forging of a jat identity in north India in general and in Haryana in particular. The processes of identity formation and self-perceived notions of community will be analyzed and discerned through the prism of popular culture and as to how a community viewed itself and what its aspirations have been over a period of time. Popular culture thus provides insights into the aspects of a society that have hitherto been veiled from the archives, but this is not to negate the importance of archives in this study and will make its presence felt wherever necessary. 
  This study will be divided into two parts. First, before analyzing the notions of community as manifested in popular culture, it would be of importance to investigate the popular musical traditions itself. In the first part, a history of popular musical traditions in this region will be traced; as such traditions are a constitutive part of popular culture wherein notions of community are manifested. In the second part an inquiry into the construction and articulation of notions of community in popular musical tradition, and transformation therein, at different historical junctures will be conducted
  The history of popular musical traditions present a thread of commonality running across all forms of popular musical traditions in north India, but this study intends to present its uniqueness in the context of Haryana, and its differences from and similarities with the forms present in other regions. The history of popular musical tradition posits an inextricable issue of the relationship between oral tradition and print culture. This becomes more so when written documents and manuscripts have survived from about late seventeenth century, a case in point being Maulana Ganimats masnavi (a narrative in couplets) composed in 1685A.D, and also compilations in the works of colonial ethnographers like R.C. Temple and others. It is matter of inquiry as to how this documentation impinges on oral tradition, does it provide fixity or permit intervention, and notably oral tradition kept its dynamic nature of constant interaction with the society and developed newer forms. This
 documentation continued in twentieth century as well and got compiled in huge volumes, sometimes with the initiative of state institutions like Haryana Sahitya Akademi, and also with the efforts of individual enthusiasts. This constant documentation preserves oral tradition on the one hand but loses out on the forms of performances. Though the latter are also being preserved with the emergence of cassette culture in last two decades of c.20th, but such medium in which the process of archivization is taking place, has its limitations too. An aspect of this archivization was made possible by the student stipendship programme, in which many aspects related to oral tradition and its intersection and interaction with technological changes were discussed, and some of the issues will be discussed at length in this research.
  The major forms of oral traditions, performed in this region, are swang/sang (to impersonate), bam lahri (a tradition associated with the singing of shiva-parvati epics performed mostly by ascetics i.e. sadhus), alha, and nautanki. An important aspect of popular culture is that it doesnt follow guru-sisya (mentor-disciple) relationship and thus there is no fixed school or style of performance. This, in a way, provides more flexibility in terms of innovation i.e. enabling creation of altogether a new form out of the existing tradition. Thus, instead of a particular style of performance, there are certain personalities/performers, which come to define performance and, thus, oral tradition. Bansi lal(1800-33) documented by R.C. Temple, Ali Baksh(1854-1899), Ahmad Baksh, Pandit Deep Chand(1900-1924), Lakhmi Chand(1920-45), Mange Ram(1950-70), and Jagannath(1970-80), are a few of the major performers this region has witnessed, and their references are present in the oral
 traditions of neighbouring regions as well.
  An important aspect of this study would be an analysis of the sites of performance and circulation of this oral tradition. One such site is the akharas( lit. a wrestling arena, but here, it refers to a space for rehearsals and practice), influential until mid twentieth century, and all the above mentioned performers too either had their own akhara or were associated with others. Akhara became the space where performers came and sat and practiced. Though no formal training was imparted and much of it was a matter of watching and learning, but akhara developed its own rules and notion of a master and, thus, an in-built hierarchy. A major exception to this akhara tradition is Mehr Singh( d.1944), a jat by caste, and a recruit in colonial army, who produced an entirely different kind of oral tradition, completely breaking  away from traditional themes. His compositions reflected more of everyday issues like devar-bhabhi and jija-Sali relationship. Since he himself was in the
 army and away from home, he experienced a mans longingness for his family and dear ones which, traditional themes rarely brought to the fore. Another site for circulation that was available to oral tradition, was the colonial army, where Mehr Singh had an indisputable authority; and even nowadays, there are people in the army and police who perform just for leisure- there is even a delhi police officer who performs in his village. There is also an older generation of performers who perform on certain occasions and have preserved the styles of people like Mehr Singh. For instance, Ramphal, a jat by caste, in his early 70s, has his performances, eagerly awaited by the audience. His singing is not a mere rendition, but a performance in true sense, so impressive is the way the way he gets animated during the performance and dances like a teenager with energy and enthusiasm much higher than that of professional singers. Whereas Mehr Singhs compositions are few in number and
 appeal to more intimate issues, Lakhmi Chand, on the other hand, took traditional themes to newer heights, not only in terms of performance but also in terms of compositions. Lakhmi Chand is accredited with more than two and half thousand compositions and according to an anecdote, he composed more than thirty five raginis in a matter of three hours in one performance which are available in urdu manuscript and published as well. The history of oral tradition, thus, gets intertwined with the history of these prominent performers, and major structural and performative changes, whether in terms of musical instruments, rhythms, intonation, appropriation of symbols or content constitute another strand of this relationship between performers and performance.
  Akharas, in the early decades of twentieth century, encountered opposition from arya samaj. Arya bhajanis too adopted popular musical traditions in propagating their agenda, but were successfully countered and thus arya samaj couldnt spread its influence in Haryana as it was able to do so in Punjab. Thus, oral tradition had diverse sites of circulation, performance and contestation. Another such site was high schools and colleges, where this tradition was forged into a means of cultural assertion, and was well received by youth.
  Since Haryana has a strong tradition of Sufism, it would be an interesting inquiry to discern the symbiotic and interactive relationship between sufi tradition and popular culture.
   Haryana, till independence, had muslim nawabs (e.g. Nawab of Pataudi, Jhajjar; Nawab of Jind; Bhiwani) and they patronized traditional performing castes like mirasis and kanjars which consisted of female performers as well. The social composition of oral tradition in Haryana is different, as it wasnt dominated by any particular community. Brahmins, jats, muslims, lower castes all participated in this tradition, though muslims disappear from the scene in the wake of partition. Whereas traditional performing castes had an elite patronage, the popular musical tradition developed its ties of dependence, and networks of patronage through communitarian solidarity.
     It is also of significance to note the cultural and regional origins of these oral traditions. Dhanpat, a performer, was taken to high court in 1950s on the charges that his composition titled Leelo-Chaman,  dishonoured the family of the complainant as their daughter leelo, a jat woman, was left behind in Pakistan and later on married Chaman, a muslim man. It is interesting to note that, the center of action in many themes are the regions which now are in Pakistan, thus, suggesting a larger cultural landscape of musical tradition and an interplay of multiplicity of identities. 
  This study will be incomplete without an ethnographic mapping of this region. Since, jats are not limited only to Haryana region, they inhabit major chunks of U.P., Rajasthan, and  a sizeable population existed in Pakistan as well in pre-partition period, and though now there is a category of muslim jats, mainly in areas like sialkot, pathankot and eastern pockets of Pakistan. The influence and popularity of popular musical tradition can be discerned from the fact that AIR Rohtak and sometimes Delhi station receives requests from Pakistani soldiers to play their favourite compositions, and it is Mehr Singh who is most popular in these demands. These letters are preserved by the authorities for six months after which they are dumped but such special requests are preserved since they show an interest in Haryanas culture. Thus army acts as a major site of circulation of this musical tradition. This point is further buttressed by a research paper titled Pakistan me basa
 ek Sanakritik Haryana (A Cultural Haryana settled in Pakistan), which discusses the continuity of cultural practices and other traditions in the areas that are inhabited by the people who migrated from Haryana in the wake of partition and the ways by which locals have also been influenced through popular cultural practices.
   It is notable that despite having a sizeable muslim population Haryana remained unscathed from communal violence in the wake of partition, the reasons for which lies partially in the syncretic culture of Haryana, which has historical medieval cities like Hisar (settled by Firuz Shah Tughlaq), Panipat, Kalanaur (the place where Akbar was coronated, a few kilometers away from my ancestral village). This syncretic culture is manifested in the language of popular musical traditions which consists of words from Persian, urdu, rajasthani, Punjabi, hindi, and this is visible in everyday language as well. It would be of interest to discern the notion of jat community in the wake the multiplicity of jats and the notion of being a jat in the collective memory of jats of Haryana and see as to how do they relate themselves to jats from other regions.

  This study seeks to use a variety of sources ranging from archival material to oral traditions and personal interviews. This study intends to make use of all the documented oral tradition in the form of text and cassettes as well. A process of documentation of sufi tradition, which is so strong in this region will be initiated. Major journals and magazines published by academic institutions like Haryana Sahitya Akademi( Harigandha), M.D.University Rohtak, Kurukshetra University and other important pamphlets and papers will be used extensively. A historical insight is discernible in Haryana Tilak( 1920-1972), a weekly journal, available at the Teen Murti library. Another source that is indispensable is the compilations of Arya Samaj Bhajans and other similar texts relating to the activities of arya samaj in this region. Amongst other textual sources are diaries, personal letters, memoirs and compositions of prominent political leaders like Chotu Ram, Chajju Ram and others
 merit analysis.  A composition by jat Harphool which until now was available in India Office Library only, has been compiled and published by an enthusiast in Chandigarh also forms a part of textual sources. All these textual sources would be used in conjunction with the archives available at the National Archives, some of which I already have started accessing; Haryana State Archives at Chandigarh, and major districts settlement and gazetteer records and military records also constitute an important fragment of the sources.  Publications from other regions will also be a matter of consideration since this oral tradition has been documented and published in regions like Rajasthan and U.P. For instance Komal Kothari has done extensive work in the context of Rajasthan and bears strong resemblance to the popular musical traditions in Haryana as well. An attempt would also be made to collect all the masnavis and other literature surviving from seventeenth century and later
 period for example Maulana Ganimats masnavi Naurang-i-Ishq. Another important search would be of medieval archives although it may not be directly related to popular music but would provide rare insights into the socio-cultural milieu and also the political apparatus as it remained a region of strategic importance to Mughal Empire, and later to colonial rule in terms of manpower and labour supply to army. But, this aspect at present is limited to collection only and an attempt at weaving them into a larger narrative can be undertaken at a later stage.  
  As pointed earlier this study seeks to use the letters received from Pakistani soldiers lying with AIR and personal collection of correspondences between people who left Haryana and were constantly interacting through correspondence. There are stories of people who often come to visit their ancestral houses in Haryana and also many have donated their property to needy ones in this region. An important aspect of this study would be the documentation of centers of local centers of powers which was in the hands of nawabs and exploring networks and patterns of patronage.  In conjunction with this, interviews will be done with the people who migrated from Pakistan and are settled in towns like Kahanaur, Kalanaur (mostly Punjabis and jats from Jhang region) will be conducted so as to get a glimpse of the cultural landscape of these popular musical traditions. These would be accompanied by interactions with major performers in this region of which a part is already covered in an
 earlier programme.
   All of that which isnt documented is available in the form of cassettes and VCDs, thus it will also serve as an important source in understanding popular music and its relationship with a particular community. It is striking to note that despite all the documentation and compilation of this oral tradition, no performer resorts either to text or cassettes for references and even a commont person is able to tell its composer and the larger context of which it forms a part. This study, thus intends to integrate oral tradition and oral tradition in the narrative of jat identity.

  Deepak Kadyan

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