The Ballad of Bant Singh
A Qissa of Courage
Nirupama Dutt
Speaking Tiger
Pages: 214
Price: Rs 250
Reviewed by Kuldip Dhiman
On the ill-fated night of 6 January 2006, Bant Singh,
a folk-singer and crusader of the oppressed was passing through the fields of
Jhabhar village on his bicycle. Presently his path was blocked by seven young
men. He realised he was in danger because these upper class boys had attacked
him twice earlier. Before he could do anything, four of them struck him and dragged
him to the edge of the irrigation canal. “There they put his legs on the
embankment wall. A rough cloth was thrown on him as four of the men pinned him
down. Two raised the metal handles and brought them down with all their
strength on his shins. The pain stunned Bant but he still tried to raise
himself and shouted, ‘What are you doing? What have I done for you to hit me?’
One of the boys struck him with even greater force and hissed, ‘We are just
doing a job that has been assigned to us. Today, you will not get away!’ Blow
upon blow, and the bones of Bant Singh’s legs were splintered beyond repair.
Then, sure that Bant had been irretrievable incapacitated, they swung him about
and began attacking his arms.”
This
horrendous incident is from veteran writer, poet, translator and journalist
Nirupama Dutt’s book
The Ballad of Bant
Singh, which I received on the very day some Jats of Haryana launched their
stir demanding a special backward status. In a matter of days, they spread
arson and anarchy all around paralysing the entire state. As I read the book, I
found it hard to miss the irony of the whole situation. On the one hand, we
have a large population that has been socially oppressed for thousands of
years, and on the other hand, there is a better placed social section that is
now agitating to gain the selfsame reserved status which was given to the
downtrodden to allow them to catch up with the rest.
Nirupama
Dutt’s book is about a man from a disadvantaged section stretching his hands out
to justice and in turn having them cut off. What was his crime for which he was brutally
attacked and left for dead?
Six
years ago, Bant Singh’s daughter Bajleet, who was then a minor, was gang raped.
Outraged by the despicable act, he rightfully
sought justice. In order to stop
him from reporting the matter to the police, he was offered money and gold by
the culprits as if violation of his daughter’s honour was a kind of minor road
accident in which the defaulter offers money as compensation. In rural areas,
the poor sections are taken for granted, and sexual crimes against their women
are not seen as crimes at all but rather as a favour done to them. When Bant
Singh refused, he was threatened with dire consequences. He did not care about
such threats, her pursued the case and as a result, three of the accused were awarded
life imprisonment.
“Bant
Singh’s was that rare case,” writes Dutt, “in which a Dalit had defied the
sarpanch of a village to seek justice in a court and had succeeded in having
the culprits sentenced to life imprisonment. And for this, he and his family
had to pay a very heavy price. This is because a Dalit had actually succeeded
in getting an upper-caste Jat man and two others convicted of rape.” This could
not be digested by the powerful landowners, and they decided to make an example
out of him. The idea of retribution is very strong among the landowners. They
seek revenge even among their own caste and it can run through generations. And
Bant Singh was from a lower caste, he had to be dealt with severely and
immediately.
Dutt’s
powerful narrative is a mix of biography and documentary, although at times the
documentary aspect becomes longer than necessary. As Bant Singh is also an
accomplished folk singer, Dutt has deftly made use of folk songs and poems to
tell the story. However, one notices the tendency to read more than what was intended
in folk literature, and to see everything from one world-view.
The
book portrays the hell Bant Singh, Baljeet Kaur and his family went through at
the hands of the rich and powerful. Although they were physically and
emotionally tormented, they did not cow down.
When
you watch him speak and sing on the television, you find a cheerful man without
a trace of self-pity. The head bows to him in respect to his indomitable spirit,
and also bows down with shame because such inhumanity continues in this age in
the world’s biggest democracy.
http://tribune.epapr.in/753826/SP_29_April_2012/SP_20_March_2016#dual/4/2
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