Maanya Anand Week 10

While I was looking for various punjabi Dalit singers and their songs, I continuously kept coming across the most popular one, Ginni Mahi. What was interesting was that her music is called Chamaar Pop. She emerged as a popular singer after 2016 when there was a violent attack on the Dalit community in Punjab. Her music has become like fight songs for the Dalit protestors who are seeking to break this caste mould and make themselves free from this long drawn caste persecution. Ginni Mahi also states how proud she is of her Dalit roots and she writes and sings these songs with pride for her community.

There were 2-3 other singers also that I came across who first were only writing for their community but were soon writing also from a political viewpoint. Singers like Raj Dadral and Roop Lal Dheer were initially only writing songs to represent their community but after the murder of Sant Ramananda of the Ravidasia community, their songs started to become politically motivated to represent the needs and requirements of their community to move out of long standing oppression.
Something interesting that I also saw was that some mainstream singers also belong to the schedule and Dalit castes. Diljit Dosanjh, probably one of the most popular names in the Bollywood and Punjabi industry belongs to the Dosanjh Kalan which is a Schedule caste of Phillaur. Moreover, Daler Mehndi who has been the most popular face of the Punjabi music industry for years together is in fact a Dalit.

FAN BABA SAHIB DI- GINNI MAHI       

 First the meaning of a few Punjabi words –

Shabad is the term used by Sikhs to refer to a hymn or paragraph or sections of the Holy Text that appears in their several Holy Books. .

A Gurpurab in Sikh tradition is a celebration of an anniversary of a Guru's birth marked by the holding of a festival. Like on guru Nanak’s birthday.

‘Gurpurab hai Kanshiwale da’ is a music album released in 2016 has songs sung by Ginni Mahi - a Punjabi folk, Dalit music, rap, and hip-hop singer from Jalandhar. Kanshiwale refers to KanshiRam,  a dalit social and political leader – mentor of Mayawati the former chief minister of UP.

‘Fan Baba Sahib di’ is a song of this album. Lyrics by Pamma Bakhlauriya.Music director is Amar. Ginni Mahi’s family has always been Ambedkarite, and growing up with his politics and philosophy has shaped her music. 

Song is sung in the praise of Dr Ambedkar.

The song starts like – People throw stones only on those trees that have sweet fruit. False accusations are raised only against those races/communities whose men are courageous. He was the messiah of our race understanding our pain. (Here I think the word ‘quam’ that means a nation in general is being used for dalits.The sense of nation is in tribal sense here.) She says listen to what Bakhlauriya’s  art describes.

I am daughter (dhee) of Baba Sahib who wrote the constitution. I am a fan of him and think like this.We prosper on what he wrote and the whole world admits it. With his sacrifice he changed our destiny. He our messiah. He is incomparable(There is no one like him).No warrior (yodha) would be like him.  His thinking was very high and the whole world salutes him.He was a lion (babbar sher)  with a fierce pen.  He fought for our rights. Changed our destiny. He is the messiah of our community and the whole world admits it. People bend and salute Bhimrao’s high intellect that made him achieve his goal.

Seeing the  desparate state our community  was in, he raised his voice. He bravely faced adversity for our sake without care  and raised the  us trodden people (fallen petals)to great heights.  

Rarely a mother gives birth to a great son like him. So pens truly Bakhlauriya and Mahi gives it voice.