Gandhi in the songs, folklore of Orissa

There was a resurgence of interest in Gandhi after 1920, judging by a marked rise in literary output in Odiya journals. They were mostly authored by little known, small time authors and poets. Composed mostly as songs and bhajans, they projected Gandhi as a new avatar (incarnation) who had been born to liquidate evil from earth and whose birth signaled the arrival of a new age.

A poem entitled Gandhi Avatar O Gandhi Bhajan or Bharat Swaraj-Purana (1921) depicted Gandhi as the “partial incarnation” of God. The poem noted how the ‘almighty’ had informed devotees that Gandhi would be born in the pious land of Gujarat with which he had been associated earlier (as the Krishna avatar). He also assured the devotees that in his Gandhi avatar, he would improve the lot of Indians through the wheel of the charkha and weave Hindus and Muslims ‘in one thread’.

The poem blames “foreign rule”, “modernity” and “western civilisation” for creating anarchy in Indian society and eroding its “traditional values”. It exhorts people to take the name of Gandhi along with Tilak and Gokhale continuously and get involved in the making of Swaraj by discarding anything associated with British/western culture.

Another collection, Gandhi Mahatmaanka Gita (songs about Gandhi Mahatma, 1921), described the Gandhian ‘spinning wheel’ as the Sudarshan Chakra which helped people to become economically independent and help them overcome miseries of life.

Interestingly, it referred to the “cow” as the “God” of the Hindus and held the “Hindus” responsible for cow-slaughter as they – after utilising the cow in cultivation – finally, disposed them off to the butcher. Thus, while cautioning the “Hindus” not to sell cattle and absolving the “Muslims” of the “sin” of cow-slaughter, it advocated “Hindu-Muslim” unity.

Another book of poems, Kali Bhagabat (1933), was woven around the theme of “Age of Kali”. Kali Yuga, as conventionally understood, was seen as the last and the most degenerate of four Yugas or eras, which appears after the termination of three preceding Yugas called Dwapara, Treta and Satya. Kali Yuga literature invariably reflected a sense of acute anxieties prevailing everywhere in society due to terrible failures on the part of the people to conform to the right ritual and conduct, i.e. dharma.

A wandering Vaishnavite mendicant, Abhiram Paramhansa, appears to have been the author. He moved around the villages of coastal Orissa and preached to the “illiterate and uneducated” people the message of Gita and Bhakti through bhajans and songs during 1927-33, a phase coinciding with the Civil Disobedience Movement.

The book was proscribed by colonial authorities and he was sentenced to imprisonment for a year on the ground that the text sought to excite “hatred, contempt and disaffection” against British authorities.

Defined as the “story of strife and salvation” by the author, the poem is in the form of dialogue between Lord Chaitanya and “King Mana” or the mind personified. The narrative refers to Chaitanya’s ‘prediction’.

The poem dwelt on how foreigners were bent upon destroying Swaraj, and then proceeded to valorise the virtues of Congress satyagrahis and the Mahatma. The repeated reference to Mohan in the text and its identification with the person having mahat (noble) and atma (soul) is symbolic of Gandhi’s leadership.

The prescient poem predicted the unfolding of an ‘Indian drama’ over the 1939-42 period. As predicted, in this “Indian drama”, the satyagrahis would be grouped under the leadership of Mohan who would command the armies in the first war against George V. The Indian drama or the war in India would end with the Emperor along with all foreigners quitting and returning to their own country.

Yet another poem, Sangeeta Jobra Karakhana (1921), on Gandhi written under the pen name of NirdhumDhumaketu Mistry, illustrated an interesting reference to how a childless couple was blessed with a son after organising Gandhi puja.

When some of the relatives of this couple were arrested because of their involvement in the Satyagraha movement, the couple held Gandhi responsible for their imprisonment. This spelt doom for the family.

These popular poems and songs around Gandhi sought to imagine Gandhi in diverse ways: as an avatar; a partial incarnation of God; the conqueror of Kali or as a messiah, whose arrival saw the dawn of a new Satya Yuga.

The theme of reward/punishment is also visible in some of these tracts. Thus, any defiance of Gandhi resulted in floods.

The Congress network in Orissa in the 1920s were non-existent but these folk songs carried ideas about Gandhi to the people.

The post-Civil Disobedience Movement (1930-34) in Orissa witnessed progressive deepening of the anti-British struggle which climaxed with the Quit India Movement in 1942. During the 1937 elections, petitions addressed to Gandhi were discovered in ballot boxes in Jeypore estate (Koraput district) backed by widespread rumour among tribals that if they cast their vote in the yellow box (colour of Congress), then Gandhi would be their Maharaja and they would not have to pay any rent in future.

Similarly, mobilisation of tribals in the estate was facilitated by the circulation of brief letters, drafted by Gandhi gumasthas and Gandhi naikos who headed the rural units of Congress organisation.

These “Gandhi notes” called upon people to assemble at particular points for picketing at haats and markets. Similarly, Gandhi khatoli (small wooden apparatus on which an image of Gandhi was installed) kept moving from village to village in Koraput district in 1939. People in the village kept the khatoli for a few days and made offerings to the khatoli before passing it on to the next village.