In July last year, popular actor-director Aamir Khan visited a remote village in the Mansa district of Punjab with the sole objective of meeting a physically challenged folk singer, named Bant Singh, who only has stubs for arms. Khan, whose objective was to learn more of Singh’s life story for a television serial on real life heroes, is merely one of many celebrities visiting this village for discussions with Singh. One of Punjab’s most well-known social activists, he has been raising awareness about the pernicious ills of Indian society through folk songs which have captured the imagination of people across Punjab.
Newspeg. Bant Singh has now taken up the cause of farmers beyond Punjab to fight the power of landlords and usurers, as also criminals targeting women. Recently he visited Pune to release a book on this subject authored by social activist Mukta Manohar. An icon of Dalit pride and renaissance, Singh wants the benefits of globalisation to reach the common people of village India, to reduce income disparities and inequality.
Direct speech. “Upper caste villagers in Punjab are known to snatch land from poor farmers. We are fighting 32 different cases for farmers. My organisation, the Majdoor Mukti Morcha which has over 50,000 Dalit farmers as members, is ready to fight for individuals in other parts of the country confronted with similar problems,” says Singh.
History. A lower caste Mazhabi Dalit Sikh farmer and troubadour residing in Jhabar village in southern Punjab, Singh suffered the extreme mortification of his daughter’s rape by powerful upper caste men in his village. Braving threats of violence and spurning all payoff offers, he filed charges resulting in life sentences for three of the criminals in 2004. But on January 7, 2006, he was waylaid by a gang of seven criminals who severely beat him with iron rods. Barely alive he was taken to Post Graduate Institute, Chandigarh, where both his lower arms and one leg were amputated because gangrene had set in. Nevertheless Singh is unbowed. “Even if handicapped I still have my voice. I will sing till I die in my fight against injustice,” he says.
Future plans. Singh is all set to take his musical crusade across India and overseas. Presently he is collaborating with musicians from France, the US and Canada to produce an album of his songs with lyrics describing the thousand unnatural shocks suffered by Dalit farmers across India. Also on his agenda is a national drive to encourage women to fight for their rights. “Millions of women including my wife Harbans Kaur, who were house-bound until a few years ago, are now stepping forward confidently and agitating against injustice and apprehension through our movement,” says this doughty crusader.
The Force be with you!
Huned Contractor (Pune)