Ronki Ram (Dr.)
Dept. of Political Science
Punjab University, Chandigarh – 14, India.
Guru Ravidass, one of the famous untouchable saint- poets of the 15 th-16 th century, is by far the most revered among the scheduled castes, especially Chamars/Chambhars/Charmakars of northwest and central India . Although they occupy the very bottom of the social hierarchy, the Chamārs and other Untouchable groups who worship Guru Ravidass do not passively accept their inferior status. Their worship of Ravidass is the manifestation of a dissident socioreligious ideology. The mere mention of his name evokes a sense of confidence and self-respect among them. So much so that a large number of them prefer to be identified as ‘Ravidassia’ rather than be known by their customary caste titles colored with derogatory connotations. Although in the past Ravidas’s low status may have presented a problem, his present-day admirers strive to affirm it, not deny it. They are popularly known as Ravidassia Dalits or Ravidassi Adharmis. In Punjab some of them are often confused with the Dalit Sikhs.
Guru Ravidass is known as a leading star of the Bhakti movement, especially the nirguna sampradaya or sant parampara (sect or tradition of devotees of a formless God) of the later medieval centuries in Northern India . He was a cobbler, saint, poet, philosopher and social reformer. Together with Namdev and Kabir, Ravidas is one of the few Bhaktas to cross language barriers and become important in several parts of India . His popularity can be known from a variety of names attributed to him by his followers in different regions and languages. He is known as Raidasa, Rohidasa, Ruidasa, Ramadasa, Raedasa, Rohitasa, Rahdesa, Rav Das and Rab Das. His poetry has universal appeal. It is full of radical fervor and boundless love for the formless God. Although the poetry of Ravidass is rich with references to the adoration of and longing for God, it also gave significant space to the “hope for a better world and a fight against exploiters, power-holders and oppression going on under the name of religion. His poetry reflected his vision of the social and spiritual needs of the downtrodden and underlined the urgency of their emancipation. He, therefore, is regarded as a messiah of the downtrodden. They revere him as devoutly as Hindus revered their Gods and Goddesses, and Sikhs their Gurus. They worship his image and showed their faith in his spiritual power. His hymns were recited every morning and night, and his birthday was celebrated as a religious event. They raise slogans like Ravidass Shakti Amar Rahe (the spiritual power of Ravidass live forever) during his birth anniversaries.
Ravidass was born in Chamar caste, also known as Kutbandhla, one of the Scheduled Castes in Uttar Pradesh. Chamars are known by their profession of leather and tanning. They were oppressed and their touch and sight were considered polluting by the upper castes. Ravidass revolted against this inhuman system of untouchability. He adopted Bhakti as a mode of expression for his revolt. His Bhakti-based method of revolt was very novel and daring. It was novel because of its emphasis on compassion for all and absolute faith in God. The principle of compassion for all reflected the egalitarian traits of his social philosophy and struggle. His concept of the absolute faith in the formless God showed the apathy of the elites of his times towards the plights of the downtrodden for whose emancipation he had to seek refuge in no one else but God. His method was daring in the sense that he choose to imitate the Brahmins in order to symbolize his revolt which was not only highly objectionable but was equally deadly for a Shudra of his times. He challenged the tyranny of Brahmins and defied them by wearing Dhoti (cloth wrapped around the waist), Janeue (sacred thread) and Tilak (sacred red mark on forehead) that were forbidden for the untouchables. Though he attired himself like an upper caste, he did not hide his caste. He continued with his hereditary occupation of making/mending shoes. He, probably, tried to show that while adopting the prohibited dress and symbols of the upper castes, the lower castes could still keep their identity intact. Thus Ravidass provided an alternative model for the emancipation of the Dalits much (six centuries) before the articulation of the concept of sanskritization. What made the image of Ravidass a catalyst in the emergence of Dalit consciousness was his being a Shudra and at the same time a saint of very high repute.
The process of sanskritization facilitated the ambitious lower castes to improve ‘its position in the local caste hierarchy’ by pretending to look like the higher castes that enjoy ‘great prestige’ in the hierarchically organized Brahminical social order. Since the caste is given and cannot be changed, the lower castes were left with no option but to imitate the culture of the upper castes. What made the emancipation project of Ravidass different from that of the sanskritization was his emphasis on acquiring social respect without crossing over the caste boundaries. He did not want to pretend to appear like an upper caste to ride the bandwagon of social prestige. On the contrary, he exhibited his protest against the social oppression by putting on the prohibited dress and symbols of the upper castes. By imitating the appearance of the upper castes he did not want the lower castes to abandon their caste to climb up the ladder of the caste hierarchy as in the process of sanskritization. The lower castes need not to be assimilated into the fold of higher castes. They had to, rather, assert for their human rights by challenging the caste hierarchy while being firm in their very caste group. He wanted to dismantle the norm of varnashram dharma (fourfold division of Hindu society based on graded rank system in caste hierarchy) by showing that lower castes were not beyond the pale of spiritual knowledge on the one hand and on the other that Brahmins were in fact hollow figures pumped up with false pride and hypocrisy. In fact, he used caste to cut the steel frame of caste based social order – the only way of Dalit emancipation.
Thus, Ravidass gave a new meaning to Bhakti by projecting it as a method of social protest against the centuries old entrenched structures of Brahminical domination. He rejected all forms of religious rituals and sectarian formalities. He also commented graphically on the cursed and abject living conditions of millions of fellow downtrodden. Some scholars were of the opinion that though the devotional songs and hymns of Ravidass reflected the sufferings of the downtrodden, they lack the reformatory zeal and bitter condemnation of Brahminism and caste system that animated the poetry of Kabir and Tukaram. Though there is a difference in tone between the poetry of Kabir and Ravidass, both convey the same message. The poetry of Ravidass is known to be full of humility and devotion. But at the same time it is equally imbibed with reformatory zeal and concern for the downtrodden. Instead of bluntly snubbing the arrogance of higher castes, he undertook to raise the dignity of his own caste and profession, so that the higher castes could come to realize the shallowness of their self-imposed superiority. He advocated self-help for eliminating sufferings of the Dalits. His vision for self-help is clearly reflected in one of the legends about his refusal to make use of a Paras (a mythical stone that turns iron into gold) to get rich. He lent purity and respect to kirat (manual work), which also found special mention in the teachings of Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikh faith. In fact, Ravidass’s life and poetry provided a vision to the downtrodden to struggle for their human rights and civic liberties.
The Bhakti approach of Ravidass was a non-violent struggle for the emancipation and empowerment of the Shudras. Though he combined humility with Bhakti, his concept of formless God reflected an altogether different picture. Ravidass’s God was not humble at all in the typical sense of the term. He was graceful. He was not indifferent to the downtrodden. His God was rather bold who was not afraid of anyone. He elevated and purified the so-called untouchables. Aaisee lal tujh binu kaunu karai.Gareeb niwaaju guseea meraa maathai chhatar dharai… neecho uooch karai meraa govind kaahoo te na darai [refrain My Beloved, besides you who acts like this? Protector of the poor, my Master. You hold a royal umbrella over my head]. Ravidass further said Meri jaati kut bandhlaa dhor dhouwanta nithi baanaarasi aas paasaa. Ab bipar pardhan tihi karih danduouti tere naam sarnaaie Ravidass daasaa [My Caste is Kutabådhal ā ; I cart carcasses constantly around Benares . Now Brahmans and headmen bow down before me, Ravid ā s the servant has taken refuge in Your Name . It is in this context that his non-violent struggle based on Bhakti assumed special importance for the emancipation of the Dalits. He did not only adopt non–violence in his struggle against the social oppression, but also motivated the oppressors to abandon the path of violence. His low caste but high spiritual status posed a challenge to the Brahminical structures of domination. The traditional Brahminical institution of varnashram dharma failed to confront Ravidass’s pragmatic and revolutionary reasoning based on equality, dignity and fraternity. Instead, the Brahmins attempted to undermine his low caste profile by appropriating him in the Hindu fold. They concocted stories to project him as a Brahmin in his previous life.
According to one of such stories, Ravidass was a Brahmin in his previous birth. But due to his bad habits of meat eating and the untouchable status of his co-wife he had to be born as a Chamar. Another story tells that Ramananda, his so-called Guru, cursed him in his previous life to be born in a family of untouchables on account of his accepting offerings from a local money lender who had dealings with leather workers. This itself indicates the degree of purity-pollution behaviours observed even by Brahmin ascetics. Moreover, this account also reinforces conventional opinions of Chamars as being extremely polluting. Ramanand curses his disciple not for taking food directly from Chamars, but from a person who merely does business with them. Yet even such indirect contact is enough to render the food impure. The story does not end here, however. It further informs that the baby Ravidass refused to accept the milk of his low caste mother. He accepted the milk of his mother only when Ramanand supposedly reminded him of his misbehavior in the previous life. Another story about his co-option in the Brahminical fold narrates that he had a golden sacred thread under his skin, though it was invisible on his body. When Brahmins declined to eat while sitting in the same row with him during a feast given in his honor by Jhali, the queen of Chittor, he left the room. But as they sat to dine, they found an image of Ravidass appearing at the side of each of them. The story also tells that he cut open his chest and revealed the sacred thread that lay within – a clear proof of his being a real Brahmin.
Thus challenged by the surging popularity of Ravidass, among the lower and upper castes alike, Brahmins knitted layers of mythological narratives about his mythical high caste in his previous life. This was done, probably, to preclude the lower castes from rallying around his name. Yet another device adopted by the twice born to diminish his popularity was to present him as a Guru of the Chamars only. This was the final masterstroke to minimize his influence on the society as a whole. Though Ravidass was himself a Chamar, his egalitarian social philosophy won him many disciples among the upper castes too. Jhali, Queen of Chittor; Mirabai, Rajput princes and daughter-in-law of King of Mewar, Sangram Singh; Prince Veer Singh Dev Vaghela of Rewa of Madhya Pradesh; and Prince of Kanshi were the most prominent among them.
Dalit activists and academics condemned the process of Brahminisation of Ravidass. They ridiculed the so-called Brahminical narratives and interpretations about Ravidass and also refused to accept Ramanand as his Guru. Ravidass never mentioned the name of Ramanand in his most authentic bani recorded in Adi Granth. Instead he mentioned the names of saint Jaidev, saint Namdev and saint Kabir. Some radical Dalits claim that his Guru was Sardanand, and emphasize his ability to defeat Brahmins time and again in debates. Thus the process of Brahminisation had not only failed to assimilate Ravidass in the fold of the upper castes, it further strengthened the bond of the Shudras with him. The latter took pride in being known as Ravidassias with Ravidass becoming the paragon of their struggle for social equality and dignity.
Ravidass envisioned an egalitarian model of state for ensuring human rights and civil liberties for all alike. He called his ideal state as Begumpura (free from sorrows). In his ideal state no one would be discriminated against on the basis of caste and religion and everyone would be free from the burden of taxes and worries of food. His ideal state would be free from the graded system of caste hierarchy. There would be no segregated colonies for the downtrodden and they would be free to move around without caste prejudice. In other words, in Begumpura the evil of untouchability would cease to exist. Though Begumpura was an ideal state as visualized by Ravidass, it was not a mere figment of his mind. In fact, its articulation was based on in-depth understanding of the socio-economic and political conditions prevailing during his lifetime. He lived during the period when Shudras were doubly oppressed by their political masters along with the members of higher castes; and by the Brahmins, the custodians of Hindu religion.
He had no hope from any quarter regarding the improvement of the conditions of the downtrodden. In one of his hymns he thus articulatedDardu dekh sab ko hasai, aaisee dasaa hamaaree. Ast dasaa sidi kar talai, sab kirpa tumhari. [Everyone laughs seeing my poverty, such is my state. The eighteen perfections are in the palm of my hands, all through your grace]. In fact, his entire poetry echoed a loud protest against slavery on the one hand and boundless love and devotion to the formless God on the other. He believed that God created all human beings and resided in all of them. If the same God pervaded the entire humanity, then it is foolish to divide the society on the basis of caste. He thus condemned the division of mankind on the basis of caste. He said Jo ham shehri so meet hamara [whoever is my fellow citizen, is my friend]. It is in this context that the egalitarian social philosophy of Ravidass expressed in the mode of poetry became the manifesto of the Dalit consciousness in Punjab . The establishment of a large number of Ravidass Deras by the Dalits in Punjab and in other parts of India over the last few years is a case in point. Ravidass became very popular among the Punjabi Dalit Diasporas as well, who have also constructed Ravidass shrines in order to assert their separate caste identity.
Posted onwww.ambedkartimes.com ( February 20, 2008 )