[Reader-list] Underbelly of poorvanchal - 2

[shubhra nagalia]

THE UNDERBELLY OF POORVANCHAL– Part 1

Media representation of communal conflict
Mau riots, october 2005.


In an informal interview with an old friend, a lot of
his growing up experiences slowly wove a story of life
and culture of semi urban townships of poorvanchal,
which structure the psychology and attitudes of urban
youth from these parts of India. Amongst the many
dimensions of this informal interview, regarding
caste, sexuality, power and so on, I am writing down
one story from the eyes of a teenage boy. This is a
true and personal story which gives us a glimpse into
the grisly, dark and distorted truth that shapes the
thoughts of young boys and girls and informs their
beliefs, behavior and attitude. It is the particiation
of this youth that is the subject of enquiry in
situations of communal violence.The psyche shaped by
brutal growing up experiences of social reality
structure the behaviour of young men and women in
situations of tension, conflict and mobilisation.
Perhaps for most of the boys and girls that grow up in
kasbaa townships it is normal, ordinary everyday
knowledge but what is not so clear is the profound
influence it has on the remaining life of most of
these young people.

‘Me and knowing my caste’
This was my first visit to a kasbaa-township area in
poorvanchal (Azamgarh and Mau region). We were used to
staying with our father, who was doing a transferable
job. This time he got posted to a far off Southern
state and decided to leave us in his home town and get
us admitted to a missionary school of the town. We 
were to spend the summer in the village that year.

In our village there were two tolas (clusters) of
Brahmins, of which one consisted of just our extended
family of 8-10 households, The second tola also had
about 8-10 households, 3 kayastha households, 15-20
thakur households, Ahir basti, one muslim household
and a little further on, in front of us, Harijan tola.
Often our uncles and grandfathers would shout and call
someone from the threshold of Harijan tola for any
work that had to be done. Verbal abuse of people from
Harijan tola by brahmins was a part of normal everyday
discourse of the village. Harijan tola was the main
source of landless agrarian labourers who worked on
our and other dominant landed babusahebs’ land.

One of my father’s younger brothers was well known for
being well read and a graduate in science in first
class. Not only that, he had topped in the university
which made him reasonably respected in the village.
Recently he had finished PCS training and had come to
the village for a short holiday. His well known hobby
was to collect all the children and quiz them and tell
them interesting tidbits and recent inventions in
science. That evening also the same thing was in
progress. He asked from us children, a question from
mathematics which neither me, my elder brother nor any
child of my uncles could answer since it was of
relatively higher standard. Suddenly, the quiet,
unobtrusive and shy Sumair bhai volunteered – “Kaakaa!
Hum bataain?” (Kaakaa, should I answer?). All eyes
turned towards him. Sumair was in class 10th and was
the elder son of Ramlaal from Harijan tola, who used
to plough our land. Happily uncle encouraged him to
reply. Sumair bhai gave the correct answer to the
question. Uncle patted his back in appreciation and
told all other children to learn from him.

Sumair bhai, from Harijan tola, paid a heavy price for
not only answering correctly but more so for daring to
answer when all Brahmin boys could not do so.
I learnt later that my elder uncle’s sons beat up
Sumair bhai very badly on his way back from school,
all the while abusing and warning him from daring to
compete with upper caste children. They humiliated his
ability and desire to study. This was narrated to us
by our elder uncle himself, not without a trace of
pride, although it was marred by lines of worry on his
forehead because “Ab pehle jaisa jamaanaa nahi raha
bhauji. Chamaar saalen bhi bad gaye hain.” (The times
have changed now. These low caste chamars have also
gone forward in society). He also said that somehow
Ramlaal had been managed and the case had been
dismissed but the nuisance of Birjua and Bansi was
creating a lot of ruckus. I should mention here that
Birjua (who is no more now) was a communist activist
and my uncle is from jansangh. That area falls under
reserved electoral constituency.

I was entering my 12th year and this was my first
exposure to the question of caste.   

In about 3-4 months I had forgotten this episode and
visited the village again. I met Sumair bhai again.
The marks of wounds were still visible on his face.
When I asked him about it, he evaded it and did not
say anything. I came back to town. In less than a year
from then, around holi, I found out the sequel to this
grisly chain of events. Birjua could not be managed,
probably for political reasons, but bansi had
definitely been managed. How? Bansi’s elder son was
accused of eve-teasing the daughter of one of my
uncle’s on her way back from school. As punishment,
not only was Bansi’s son badly beaten up but in the
dead of the night, Bansi’s house was set afire and was
burned to the ground. The original plan was to burn
all family members alive but somehow the information
got ‘leaked’ to the Harijan tola and the family left
their house and had fled. Birjua had raised a lot of
noise and ultimately an FIR had been lodged and some
of my male relatives had to temporarily leave the
village and abscond  although they were reasonably
confident of managing this small inconvenience. I was
stunned and could not help remembering the disturbing
images that were engraved in my mind from what I had
seen a couple of times in the village. It was these
very boys whom I had seen indulging in obscene acts at
the tubewell, at least a couple of times, with that
very cousin who had now accused (or had been made to
accuse) Bansi’s son of eve-teasing her.

Later what happened was even more tragic. The FIR led
to nothing and remained buried under files. Bansi
conceded defeat and apologized and came back to the
village. Although Sumair bhai passed high school with
good marks, he stopped further studies and took on a
job as a peon at the nearby mill. One thing did result
from all this. Sumair bhai never ever again worked in
the house of a Brahmin. I don’t know to this date if
he was forced to drop his studies due to economic
reasons or because of his public humiliation for being
educated. Today also he is silent on this issue. My
cousin is now married and has three children. Even
today I wonder if that accusation had any truth in it
or not? Or maybe Bansi’s son also had seen these
‘protective brothers’ doing to her what I had seen at
the tubewell on my way back from school. 

His ‘seeing’ was different from mine. I had to
suppress and forget those images, but he had to be
punished for having seen it. He has aged prematurely
having toiled all these years at the lands of those
very people.

The paradox of this ‘reserved constituency’ is that
these upper caste criminals are the ones who always
win pradhani elections in panchayat elections. These
very people have joined hands with Mayawati, the
leader of dalit party (BSP) and now chief minister of
Uttar Pradesh to keep their dominating power
consolidated. How empowered will dalits be with such a
political alliance will be clear enough in the coming
months and years. Needless to say, this ground
education into the real caste configurations informs
much of the relationship between members of these
castes despite opportunist political alliances for
short term electoral gains at the top.      
  
        



 
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