From Dekho re to Behna Chet Sake toh Chet, how women’s folk songs shape movements in Rajasthan

Songs have always been powerful agents of social communication. Political and social revolutions create them, and despotic regimes ban them. Every country and institution needs a song to identify with. Similarly, women in rural India explore and express their identity through folk songs. An exploration into the rich repertoire of Rajasthani songs shows how the people of the desert state have a song for every season, situation, and time of the day.

Beyond celebrating seasons, deities, and festivals, these songs give a voice to the struggles and aspirations of the women who are otherwise hidden behind veiled identities. Sung collectively, these songs bring women together. Through this agency the women have built on the musical platform, they have created contemporary folk songs beyond ritual and tradition on the many movements that have taken shape around them.

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They have given strength to revolutionary ideas using their talent of codifying crucial messages in simple verses.

A rural woman’s song is the closest medium of expression that she has access to.

Patriotic pride and Independence movement

One of the most representative songs of Rajasthan, Kesariya Balam, celebrates valour through the famed love story of Dhola Maru. The song also drives home the feeling of patriotism through tones of homeland nostalgia.

There are lesser-known songs that invoke patriotism while hinting at women’s independence. In her book, Voices from the Inner Courtyard, Nita Mukherjee mentions a song about Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to the city and how he brought the charkha to every home. The lines are “Jakadia Street mein sabha banaai, sab duniya dekhan kun aai. Shahar Gandhiji aaya, ghar ghar charkho lyaaya.” (Gandhi has called for a meeting on Jakadia Street, and everyone has come to attend it. He has come to our city and brought the charkha into each home.) The charkha was a powerful symbol of the role women played in the freedom movement. The charkha itself represented independence and is a popular motif across many women’s songs.

The time of awakening

If Kesariya Balam is a representative song of Rajasthan, Behna chet sake toh chet continues to be the one song that represents the women’s movements in the state. The song, composed by women of rural Ajmer, has travelled to many national conventions as a powerful expression of women’s solidarity.

When the government launched the Women’s Development Programme (WDP) in Rajasthan in the 1980s, women’s self-help groups were gaining strength across villages. A first-of-a-kind Mahila Mela organised in the campus of Barefoot College in Tilonia in 1985 brought together 1,000 women from all over Rajasthan and India. In a prabhat pheri (early morning procession) ritual, groups of women from different states would sing songs and invite others to join them. Their songs united them across the language barrier. Folk instruments of dhol and bankia played alongside giving more energy to this procession. Many songs that were protests against violence on women and calls for equality, rights of the girl child, and identity were created during the mela.

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It was around this time that Naurti Devi, Billan Devi, and Mangi Devi, along with other women friends, created Behna chet sake, which, besides being a call for action, is a celebration of their work, camaraderie, and friendship. The lyrics focus on the need to get work, the importance of women’s groups, of solidarity, and of meeting aspirations in the time of awakening – Zamano aayo chetan ro. In a poignant stanza, the lyrics define the power of the collective: “Gaon ki sab behna cheti, dharti palto khaayo” — When only a few women became aware, it didn’t make a difference. But when the consciousness of all the women of the village awakened, they turned the world around.

Specific details of the women’s movement are embedded in the song. When Naurti sings, “Manmarzi ko kaam laakar aaj recorda todi,” she encapsulates the story of the struggle for equal minimum wages, where she mobilised her fellow women labourers in the early 1980s. The minimum wage at that time was Rs. 7, and 500 women working at a site were underpaid. They won the case in the Supreme Court, and the government had to change a law to ensure women labourers get full wages. Naurti celebrates this historic battle in her song. She then went on to break many records and caste barriers in becoming the Dalit sarpanch of her village, Harmada.

“Every challenging situation that came before us — violence, child marriage, social evils, alcoholism, labour — it found its way into our songs. I never went to school in my childhood, so I couldn’t read or write; hence, I expressed myself through songs,” Naurti shares and sings a song describing the worth of a rural woman’s labour. A translation would give us, “I have been up since 4 and started my day with grinding the grain. My back hurts a lot, but who should I share this pain with?” The song goes on to list the various intense tasks done by women throughout the day. “We women wake up early and start all this back-breaking work. Who is there to listen to us, to validate our work? But when we sing and others on the outside understand us, people at home start paying heed as well,” Naurti explains the change in perception her songs bring.

Bisalpur dam rehabilitation

The 1990s agitation in Tonk district around the construction of the Bisalpur Dam, which submerged many villages, saw women create songs of disillusionment and despair. “Bandho Bisalpur ko ban gayo re, doobe mhaaka khet- kuvaan, dan khoto aa gayo re,” became popular in rallies and meetings and would often be the first song to start the day’s agitation. It means, “The Bisalpur dam has submerged my field and my well. It has heralded bad days.”

Activist Indira Pancholi, closely associated with the struggle, says, “Women know how to express succinctly while targeting the right emotion and keeping the factual detail intact. This helps in mobilising people. In that time, we used to hold meetings through the day, and by the evening, a song would be ready, giving the crux of the day in just 15-20 lines.” Indira also describes the immense specificity of these songs. “‘Dekho re Kothayari ka khel, kha gayo cement, pi giyo tel’ was a song that called out the rampant corruption during the dam building process,” she explains.

Literary campaign & Panchayati raj

When the Lok Jumbish (People’s Movement for Education for All) project was launched in the state in 1992, many songs to encourage the education of girls were created. Writer-researcher Ann G. Gold writes about songs she heard in Ghatiyali village of Ajmer district in that time, “Self-defined consciousness- raising songs and slogans — heartfelt productions of mobilised women — hurl themselves melodically against the surrounding culture of gender discrimination, to which uneducated herdgirls’ songs sorrowfully allude.”

With the Panchayati Raj Act of 1992 that reserved 33 per cent seats for women, women in grassroots organisations composed songs celebrating the move. “Paaso palat giyo…” shares how women will now become leaders of their villages. The refrain ‘tables have turned’ promises a new world to them. Women also created songs about government schemes like MGNREGA and helped communicate the details to other women in an easy-to-understand format.

The RTI movement

The campaign for the Right to Information that began in Beawar in 1996 and continued all over the country until the law was passed in 2005 was supported through slogans and songs. Social activist Aruna Roy, a driving force of the RTI movement, highlights the contribution of women to the movement in various ways of agitation and advocacy. “The RTI was a very difficult concept to translate to common people, but we managed to communicate it through song. Every human being understood what the RTI meant in terms of their own lives. Sushila, Bhuri Bai, Chunni Bai, Koyali Bai, Seeta Bai, and other women composed songs for the struggle,” she says. Many songs created by Sushila Devi directly question the authorities. “Darpo Mat Mhe Toh Mhaako Haq Maanga,” tells the government that all they want is their right. They’ve not asked for any favours — they’ve brought their own food, bought their tickets and come to the protest site to explain their demands, so why is the government scared of them? Parodies of songs on the tunes of popular bhajans were also created for greater relatability. Each discussion in a dharna would be followed by singing. In this way, the songs kept the atmosphere vibrant and energetic.

Activism and songs have always had a deep connection with each other. A rural woman’s song is the closest medium of expression that she has access to. Similarly, women’s groups and their songs have been vehicles of activism because of the familiar idiom they communicate in and the collective upsurge of energy they generate. As Naurti says, “Just as artists express what they feel, we women too have that acumen. When we step out of the house and experience freedom and solidarity, we absorb the world around us. When I become alert and aware, I will speak, I will ask, demand, express, and fight for my rights. This echoes in my song.”