“Munni badnaam hui darling tere liye, le jhandu baam hui darling tere liye”
I am sure you would have heard the song, a peppy number from the Bollywood movie Dabbang and some of us would have even danced to it on several occasions. But how many of you have judged it for being sung in Hindi? Anyone? None? What if I tell you that this song is a rendition of a song originally composed in Bhojpuri? Does it bring distaste to your mouth? I wouldn’t be surprised if it does. It is fairly common in India to be judged for speaking Bhojpuri.
There are many instances when Bhojpuri speaking folks are ridiculed and even looked down upon to be unintelligent. I am sure a lot of my Bhojpuri speaking friends might have faced this. I have come across people who on hearing me speak in Bhojpuri or coming to know that I speak Bhojpuri, do not refrain from telling me how “down market” it is to be speaking the language as it is the same as what a lot rickshaw pullers in India use to converse among themselves; which is obvious considering that it is their mother tongue. I wonder if people say the same to other people when they speak in Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, French, and Dutch etc. When people from other states of India or other parts of the world shouldn’t be ashamed of speaking in their mother tongue, then why should one be ashamed of speaking Bhojpuri?
The next thing they do is ask me if I know one of the slimy item numbers in Bhojpuri which they probably heard somewhere and then say that is all what Bhojpuri songs are about right? Ever wondered, is Munni Badnaam all about Bollywood music? No, it is not, there is always more to it. Bhojpuri has a culture of rich folk music which is yet to see the daylight in commercial Bhojpuri music. Any regional language and its songs derive its essence from the daily lives of the masses and so does Bhojpuri. The numerous chaitas, kajris, birhas, sohars tell tales of the common man, one who worked in the fields, one who went to a city to work in mills, one who became an officer, one who is a child bride, one whose husband is an alcoholic, the ones who were taken to the Caribbean islands as indentured laborers and many more. A lot of these popular Bollywood songs are actually “inspired” from the Bhojpuri folk songs. There is an entire system of classical music that backs the folk songs. Listen to Malini Awasthi if you don’t believe me (well she has sung in a lot of Bollywood movies as well).
It is unsettling to note that the very people who ridicule Bhojpuri and state the stereotypes are unaware about the facts regarding Bhojpuri. They don’t even know that all people who speak in Bhojpuri are not from Bihar and not all people from Bihar speak in Bhojpuri (they constantly keep calling people Bihari when they mean to insult them).
As mentioned on Wikipedia:
Bhojpuri is an Indo-Aryan language spoken in Bhojpuri region of North India and Nepal. It is chiefly spoken in the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh, in the western part of state of Bihar, and the North-Western part of Jharkhand in India. Bhojpuri is also spoken in Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana, Suriname, Jamaica, Fiji and Mauritius. In fact it is one of the national languages of Guyana, Fiji and Suriname.
It is stupefying how people decide to judge Bhojpuri speaking masses when they have no idea about their culture. And then the moment when Aamir Khan uses it in one of his movies in a ridiculously flawed grammar, it catches up and everyone is seen trying to use it. What happened when your fellow countrymen conversed in the language? Why do we as people need validation to a language from a celebrity before regarding it with due respect?
Now, let’s take a look on the opinion- Bhojpuri speaking people being down market, menial, rickshaw pullers, etc. It makes me sad that we Indians can’t respect a person for his or her occupation. Can you do without a rickshaw puller on a hot summer afternoon in India? Well he is earning a wage of dignity and you have no right to judge him.
When I closely look at the judgmental attitude against Bhojpuri, I notice a class conflict. Before you launch into an attack to label me as Marxist, Communist, Naxalite, Maoist etc., have some patience and please read ahead. Historically, states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar have stayed economically and socially backward coupled with low levels of literacy and education. This led the people of these states to seek jobs as migrant laborers on fields, mills and as indentured labor on plantations. As time passed, the pace of growth in these regions did not catch up with the rest of the nation and people went ahead to render their services as maids, office boys, rickshaw pullers etc.
And take my word, even today, no industry in this country can run without their efforts. But do you know what happened as they got access to resources? They worked hard, much harder than a lot of us to reach the best positions in the world. If you do not believe me, check the statistics for any of the national entrance tests in India, Universities and all where you think your elitism resides, these people have left their mark by being among the brightest and a majority. As this happened, a lot of people who were in positions of affluence since long were not able to come to terms with the fact that someone who could have been their domestic help is their boss at work today. You cannot deny there is a class conflict. So they resort to ridicule these people on the basis of their language which is a dialect of Hindi, but not Hindi.
India as a nation is tremendously diverse and that is what our beauty is. Why not appreciate it and try to learn from the experiences of people who are linguistically, regionally or may be racially different from us? So, next time when you meet someone who speaks Bhojpuri, try not to judge and see them as people with real lives. Try to learn about their folk music from them, the food which their region is famous for (ever tried “Litti Chokha”?). And yes, the 40 million Bhojpuri speaking populations, please continue to be proud of your roots.
