The country salutes: ‘Jai Bhim, Jai Bhim!’

Today, on the birth anniversary of  Babasaheb Ambedkar, PARI features two sets of grindmill songs by Walhabai Takankhar and Radhabai Borhade of  Majalgaon in Beed district. These songs of  pride, of affection for their leader, of riches and joy, are a part of an April series of couplets on Dr. Ambedkar and caste issues

When we visited Walhabai Takankhar’s house in Majalgaon in early April, she could barely remember the songs she sang when the Grindmill Songs Project team first visited her 21 years ago, in 1996. Rotating a grindmill again, she said, might bring back the forgotten melodies.

So her daughter-in-law brought a plateful of wheat grains and reassembled an old grindmill – two stones, one on top of the other, with a stout wooden handle in the middle. Walhabai sat down at the mill, poured in a handful of the grain and started to grind – and with the circular movement, some of the melodies did come back.

Her ovi – or grindmill songs – are featured here, along with songs by Radhabai Borhade. These songs speak of significant events in Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar’s life. When they were recorded in 1996, both Walhabai and Radhabai lived in Bhim Nagar (Radhabai now lives in Savargaon village of the same taluka).

Bhim Nagar is a predominantly Dalit hamlet in Majalgaon, a taluka village. For the Grindmill Songs Project, it has been a wellspring of ovi about Babasaheb Ambedkar, the revered national leader and statesman, voice of the oppressed and the marginalised, and architect of India’s Constitution.  To observe his birth anniversary on April 14, PARI is featuring grindmill songs about Dr. Ambedkar and caste issues throughout this month.

In the first audio clip here, Walhabai and Radhabai sing six couplets. The first tells us about Bhimraj drinking water at Aurangabad station from a glass of gold that is cleaned with a silver scrubber.  The ‘gold’ and ‘silver’ in the verse symbolise the progress and prosperity that is possible through education – which Babasaheb emphasised.

The second ovi opens with jasmines and chrysanthemums placed in a glass (the flowers indicate beauty), but then an evil eye befalls Bhimraj in college in Aurangabad.

In the third couplet, the performer refers to a golden pen in Bhimraj’s pocket and says that the country has a new salutation – ‘Jai Bhim’. The pen alludes to Dr. Ambedkar’s education and progress as an intellectual.

The fourth verse is about Bhimrao’s arrival and the call going from village to village to enrol every child in school. The reference to an adorned umbrella here is probably a rhyming devise.

In the fifth and sixth ovi, the singer is happy that Babasaheb has come to their home to meet her. She tells the neighbouring women to bring glasses of milk and bowls of sugar to celebrate his arrival and to offer them to her guest, who she thinks of as her brother. The call to the neighbours to bring milk and sugar indicates that the women who composed these songs and sang them were from poor families and such commodities were not easily available in their own homes.

O woman, for the golden glass a scrubber of silver 
Bhimraj drank water in the station of Aurangabad

Jasmine and chrysanthemum flowers in a glass
When at college in Aurangabad, Bhim came under an evil eye

O woman, there is a golden pen in the pocket of Bhīmrāja
In the pocket of Bhim,  the country salutes with ‘Jay Bhim!’

Bhimraj has arrived, a flower adorns his umbrella
In every village the call echoed: ‘Put children in school!’

O, my neighbour, please bring milk in a glass
My brother Bhim has come as a guest to my house

O, my neighbour, please bring sugar in a bowl
Bring sugar in a bowl, Bhim has come to meet me

Beyond Delhi, the house of Ramabai’s mother 
O woman, a gift of blue clothes is offered to Bhim

What do you see that is blue in Delhi city?
Rama is wearing a Paithani sari and standing next to Bhim

In the city of Delhi, there are four glass jars
Ramabai adds beauty to the photo along with Bhima

In the city of Delhi, there are eight glass jars
My king Bhim went and visited the Dalits

I had a dream, what did I dream about?
O woman, my Bhim wrote the Constitution in the Delhi court