Samipya 1991 Vol 08 Ank 01 02

Author(s): Pravinchandra C Parikh, Bhartiben Shelat
Publisher: Bholabhai Jeshingbhai Adhyayan Sanshodhan Vidyabhavan

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Subaltern as Poets : Folk Songs of the Bhits of Southern Rajasthan : C. 1878–1915 *
Makrand Mehta + In recent years subaltern historians have added new dimension by fooussing their attention to the oppressed sections of Indian Society. This is, indeed, an encouraging sign. But one could still argue that most of the sources, whether government records or newspaper reports were, after all, created by the officials and writers who had little or no links with the masses inhabiting the remote forests and rural areas. The question, therefore, is : To what extent could these sources be relied upon in order to under. stand the consciousness of the subalterns such as the adivasi peasants ? In this respect, their folk literature provides new insights. For instance, the Bhils of Southern Rajasthan, although they were illiterate, had a rich oral tradition; they created and recited folk songs in a group. Seen and appreciated in their totality, they reflect their own sensitivity-feelings of joy, hope, despair, self-assertion, anguish, etc. A study of such an oral literature including the proverbs, riddles, and even sports has a potentiality to develop the subaltern theme further. The objective of this paper is to narrate and understand the folk songs of the Bhils of Southern Rajasthan, namely, Dungatpur, Sunth, and Banswara bordering the Rajasthan Gujarat regions.2
A large number of these Bhils had lived for centuries in the forest areas of this region, then known as the Rewa Kantha. They had ruled these territories, and although they had been pushed into the jungles following the various Muslim invasions during the 13th and the 17th centuries and also during the Madatha invasions, they had ståll "burst forth like a half quenched flame" to assort their right and their independence, 3
The British rulers claimed that the Bbils Had become mild and submissive on account of the government's "strong and kissdly" policy. But at the same time the British records described them as "criminal tribes". In this later respeat the British were right, for, the Bhils, apart from being cultivators and watehmen, also oporated as eattle-lifters, thieves, and bandits. They had preferred these occupations to begging. They also drank a lot. “Everywhere the drunkenness is the Bhil's besetting sin', the Gazetteer observes, "and, for drink they barter all the grain in their house and they have to borrow at ruinous rates, or steal". The Gazetteer adds: “From his indiscriminate fondness for flesh and his want of reverence for life, the Bhit holds a vety low place among the Hindus, and though his touch does not defilo, bis is one of the few classes from whom a high caste Gujarati Hindu will not take water". * Paper presented at the second International Seminar on Rajasthan at Udaipur,
17-21 December, 1991 + Hon. Prof., Gujarat Vidyapith, Ahmedabad Subaltern as Poets : Folk Songs of the Bhils of Southern Rajasthan
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