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PART
- II
Chaupal
as
Multidimensional Public Space
(I)
Chaupal in Indian context in general and Mithila in particular
What is chaupal? The chaupal is a common place, (constructed, semi-constructed, open space, the shadow of Banyan or peepal tree or a place in the orchard) owned by the all villagers. Even if the place belongs to some individual, he does not pose his authority to the panches. No individual or family can claim to have the individual ownership of the place identified as chaupal. It is place where villagers of all rank, age, castes, and faith sit together and discuss serious and non-serious issues. It is place where usually the village elders and traditional panches sit to solve the individual or communal disputes. Sometimes the chaupal has no fixed venue. The place where the village elders and panches sit to sort out some disputes or to take some collective decisions for the welfare of the villagers is called the chaupal. The chaupal is often identified with banyan tree.
As already discussed above, the concept of chaupal is not new to the Indian tradition; it has its root in the Vedic period. The Vedic administrators, perhaps, devised this universal system to maintain communal harmony and to ensure justice in every geographical and political area for every person with his satisfaction but within the limit of traditional as well as societal norms. Chaupal is place where all four doors or directions are open for everybody. Nobody, in its essentiality, can be denied the admittance of this place. It is a stage where everybody has the freedom irrespective of being associated with race, caste, religion, gender etc., to play the character without any fear and gets recognized by the jury members in a just and cordial atmosphere. I have substantiated my paper with the first hand examples of the villages of Mithila – a place located in the far away from the Indian big cities and modern world in eastern state of Bihar. The region is vast plane stretching north towards Nepal, south towards the Holly Ganga River and west towards Bengal. Present-day Mithila is covered by the districts of Champaran, Saharsa, Muzaffarpur, Vaishali, Darbhanga, Madhubani, Samastipur; parts of Munger, Begusarai, Bhagalpur and Purnea. In Maithili language a chaupal is called chaupari. The word chaupari has multiple meanings. It is used as seminary of scholars or students, as sacred place where some deities or other good spirits possesses a shaman or a diviner, a sacred place with the magical ability to cure the problems or diseases of the visitors. But one thing is common in all forms of the chaupari: it is open for everybody. It is a public place and anybody, male or female, young or old, member of high caste or lower caste, well educated or most illiterate, can visit in order to get his/her problem listened and also to get the justice (or reward) in a fear free atmosphere. I have observed a shaman behaving as a Chief Justice, Dharmadhikari in the chaupal when in trance during the dispute resolution. The disputants’ come to him, touch the sacred soil of this place and as soon as the impersonator reaches into trance the disputants narrate their problem truthfully. Unlike modern courts they don’t cook any story. The advocates, wearing black coats and white tie or any legal agent, has no role to play here. Cases or the causes of dispute are narrated in a very natural and realistic style. Both the involved parties keep doubtless faith on the judge – a person in trance, and the place. No unnecessary story or history of cause is cooked. Only truth is narrated before the deity. The shaman in trance listens to the truth of both the disputants in the open space in front of many people who are assembled their for various reasons and gives his judgement which is usually acceptable to the both the disputants. If required he takes the help of other people sitting there. In Mithila, chaupal is also called bramhaasthan, devasthan, gahwarasthan, mahankarasthan, devithan etc. People are associated with it culturally, socially and emotionally. It is secular because of its sacred characteristics. During my fieldwork I collected one Udasikirtan about Ramvanvas, banishment, episode in which a small reference of chaupari comes:
Hamra
Rama lakhan dunu bhai
Banma
ke bhejalak ge dai
Kinka
bina sunna rasoia
Kinka
binu chupadi
Sita
bina sunna rasoia
Laxaman
bina chapadi
Banma
ke bhejlak ge dai.
(We do not know who is responsible for awarding banishment to our dearest Rama and Luxmana. In whose absence the kitchen is looking empty; who has caused the deserted look of the chuapari (chaupal)! The kitchen room is having a deserted look in absence of Sita and people have stopped visiting the chaupal because Luixamana has to gone to the jungle with his brother Rama. Dear, do you know who has sent our Rama and Luxmana to the jungle?)
The place or seminaries where traditional gurus used to teach their disciples are also called chaupari in Maithili language. In early thirteenth century there was a great scholar of Indian philosophy in the village of Sarisabpahi in Madhubani, Bihar – Mahamhopadhyaya Bhavanath Mishra. He had a rare distinction of being a non-suppliant. Not only that he never asked for anything but he flatly refused the presents made by others, including the King of Mithila. Though a prey to the proverbial poverty of pandits, he was contented with what meager resources he had. It was therefore that he was better known in the public by an alias of his, Ayachi. He was a great philosopher gifted with originality of thought.
People claim that there were over ten thousand students reading under his guidance in his native village, Sarisabpahi. He had a small piece of land; he was using it as his chaupari – seminary, locally known to the people as Ayachika chaupari. It was a real public space where the entry was open for all the bonafide, sincere and brilliant students of the region. The system of imparting education was a four-tier one. The great master gave lessons to ten selected extraordinary top ranking students, who, in their turn, trained ten students each and they taught ten students, who again taught ten students each. The King of Mithila never interfered in the academic activities, decision-making and selection of students in Ayachika chaupari and granted the autonomy of this seminary. The selection of students was democratic and it always took place without any bias. Is it not a wonderful example of public space in ancient Mithila?
In order to choose the qualified grooms, the people of Mithila initiated a tradition of Vivah-sabha (marriage mart), probably in 14th century AD. The Maharaja of Mithila once again sanctioned this idea and accordingly 14 villages were identified to hold such sabhas: Saurath, Khamgadi, Partapur, Sheohar, Govindpur, Fattepur, Sajhaul, Sukhasaina, Akhrarhi, Hemnagar, Balua, Baruali, Samsaul, and Sahsaula. While Saurath maintains the tradition, all other villages have discontinued holding the marriage mart. Almost every year, during suddha or auspicious days for the settling of marriages, thousands of Maithil Brahmans gather here. It is obligatory for every person desirous of marriage to get a certificate called asvajajanapatra (non-relationship) from a panjikara (genealogist), stating that there is no “blood relationship” (of course, fictitious blood relationship), as per the prescribed rules of prohibited degrees, between the two contracting parties. There is a fixed sitting place – dera – for every village in the sabha. The timing and number of days etc. are decided in a general meeting of the scholars and pandits of Mithila in a complete democratic atmosphere as according to the traditional astrological diary – pachanga. Usually it is held for seven to 15 days every year or sometimes twice in a year during the auspicious period (months). After reaching at the dera the father or guardian of a bride starts searching for a suitable groom with the help of his relatives and a ghatak (middleman). The negation takes place in a complete democratic manner. The grooms also arrive at their respective deras. Here everybody is treated equally and given opportunity to negotiate with the guardians of appropriate groom of the bride in a democratic style in the sabha, public space. It appears to be influenced with the concept of chaupal.
As soon as we talk about chaupal it gives complete picture of traditional or conventional panchayat systems that have the capacity to keep real civil society in ordered or arranged style in Indian village.
(II) Chaupal and Mahatma
Gandhi
Mahatma Gandhi stands out in history as one of the greatest mobilizers of masses. It is one of the miracles to many of his biographers as to how he endeared himself to the millions of countrymen of various categories. His simple life, close association with the villagers, the sincerity with which he led them to social action, the idiom that he spoke, the loin cloth that he wore were genuine expressions of Gandhi’s profound conviction to identify himself with the poorest of the poor. Mahatma Gandhi’s own life became an exemplar of not only higher values of life but also the fountainhead of a new source of inspiration and passion for collective action. He decided to begin his journey of freedom struggle from the villages of India. His Gramaswaraj and Hindswarj are in fact rooted in Chaupal. He always wanted that power should be given to he local bodies of villages. In 1931 when he visited England in connection with the Second Round Table Conference, he was asked at Oxford, “what is the greatest obstacle in the way of Swaraj?” he replied, “It is the British officers’ unwillingness to part with power and our incapacity to wrest power from unwilling hands.” The whole concept of Panchayati Raj was evolved on the Gandhian principle of Gram Swaraj in which the village was made the centre for planning and implementation of development activities. In his ashrams and camps as well as in Khadi spinning and weaving centres his prayers and meetings and dining all held in a chaupal like atmosphere. The untouchables and the Brahmans all were eating together in a common place. All use to clean their toilets themselves. He opted to choose the conventional Indian measures for creating an atmosphere of civil society. He visioned Rama rajya instead of liberal society. Non-Hindus and a section among his admirers failed to understand what Gandhi meant by Ram Rajya. He said, “By Ram Rajya, I do not mean Hindu Raj, I mean by Ram Rajya, a Divine Raj, the Kingdom of God.” His faith in God was unshakable. His God was not a personal god. Ram, for him, the almighty God which guides to noble action and whose presence can be felt everywhere. The Ram Rajya he was promoting was an ideal social order where an ideal king rules over his subjects without any distinction whatsoever. Truth, dharma and justice will be the dominant characteristics of such a society. Both the Pandit and the poorest of the poor will have equal say in the governance. Nobody will be discriminated against anybody.Gandhi’s Ram Rajya was not a utopia where idealism alone will prevail. There was much in common, if one can stretch it, between Plato’s Ideal Republic and Gandhiji’s Ram Rajya though Tolstoy’s influence on Gandhiji could also be discrenible in formulating his vision of a new society. The major difference between the appraoches of Gandhi and Plato is that while Plato is philosophical Gandhji is pragmatic and down to earth a
realist
.
For Mahatma Gandhi rights and duties are complementary and a citizen who is not conscious of his duties has no right to think of his rights. He believed, “There can be no Ram Raj in the present state of iniquitous inequalities in which only a few roll in riches, while the masses do not get even enough to eat.” Does this Gandhian passion for social justice remain a far cry? No one knows. In the modern context a king like Ram, Gandhiji’s ideal king, is the Custodian of not only the physical domain of the people but also the inspirer of his people of higher reals of spiritual attainments. To him, a real devotee of Ram is he who feels the pains and sufferings of the poor and the helpless. He rightly preferred to use Narsimha Mehta’s devotional song, Vainav jana to tene kahiye jo pira parai jane re. He initiated changes that could really groomed the way for civil society in a conventional but innovative manner. Coming to his ashramas all people, mainly those with rural background felt to come in the native atmosphere and made themselves ready for freedom struggle in a peaceful manner. It was his connection with the rural setups that made truly the Father of the Nation, Rastrapita. He took three major initiatives: first, motivated people to fight for freedom struggle in a peaceful and non-violent way; second, created an atmosphere through his experiments for women’s freedom and participation in all walks of life; third, fought for the evil practices of the traditional Indian society such as untouchability, child marriage etc. People liked his experiments. Men and women all became the committed members of his movements and swadeshi initiatives to get freedom from the colonial rule of India in peaceful and non-violent measures. Even non-literate Indians had no problem to understand his objectives of non-violence, satyagraha, civil-disobedience movement, self rule and spinning and weaving Khadi clothes. During my recent fieldwork in Mithila I collected a wonderful folksong from an octogenarian non-literate woman:
Ham
nai pahirab meelak saari
Ham
ta charkha katbai na
Baat
karab gramswarajak
Gandhi
ke sunbai na
Ham
nahi pahirab meelak saari
Hama
ta charkha katbai naa
Hamhu
katbai piyo ji katthinha
Dunu
mile katabai na
Ham….
(We will now never wear the mill-weaved saree, we would rather spin thread on spinning wheal. We will talk about the possibility of Gramsvaraj and listen to Gandhi. I will spin and request my dear husband also to spin; we will spin together.)
Naturally Gandhi was treated as the pradhan, mukhia or chief of the chaupal of India – a truly semi-global village. As early as 1936 he remarked, “I would say that if villages perish India would perish too. I believe and repeat times without number that India is to be found not in few cities but in its 7,00,000 villages.” His role was crucial in awakening the most dormant and stagnant sector of Indian society, i.e., villages of India.
Gandhi’s Gramsvaraj was not the resurrection of the old village but the formation of fresh independent units of villages having a self-sufficient economy. Self-suffiency in basic needs was one of the fundamental conditions of Gandhian village reconstruction. Food, clothing and other basic necessities should be produced at the village itself, which would lead to full employment of almost each able-bodied person and would prevent the rural – urban migration in search of employment and better opportunities.
Illustrating the idea of Gramswaraj Gandhi speaks:
“My idea of village swaraj is that it is a complete republic, independent of its neighbours for its vital wants, and yet interdependent for many others in which dependence is a necessity. Thus the village’s first concern will be to grow its own food crops and cotton for its cloth. It should have a reserve for its cattle, recreation and playground for adults and children. Then if there is more land available, it will grow useful money crops, thus excluding ganja, tobacco, opium and the like. The village will maintain a village theatre, school and public hall. It will have its own water works ensuring a clean water supply. This can be done through controlled wells or tanks. Education will be compulsory upto the final basic course. As far as possible, every activity will be conducted on cooperative basis. There will be no caste, such as we have today with their graded untouchability. Nonviolence with its technique of satygraha and non-cooperation will be the sanction of the village community. There will a compulsory service of village guards who will be selected by rotation from the register maintained by the village. The government of the village will be conducted by the Panchayat of five persons annually elected by the adult villagers, male and female, possessing minimum prescribed qualifications. They will have all the authority and jurisdiction required. Since there will be no system of punishment in the accepted sense, this Panchayat will be the legislature, judiciary and executive combined to operate for its year of office. Any village can become such republic without much interference, even from the present Government whose sole effective connection with the villages is the exaction of village revenue. I have not examined here the question of relations with the neighbouring villages of the centre, if any. My purpose is to present an outline of village government. Here there is perfect democracy based upon individual freedom. The individual is the architect of his own government. The law of non-violence rules him and the government. He and his village are able to defy the might of a world. For the law governing every villager is that he will suffer death in the defence of his and his village’s honour.” His imagination of “Self Government” came to reality in 1992 when the Indian Parliaments gave rights, power and duties to the Gram Panchayats through 73rd amendment in the Constitution. Here the Panchayats are defined as “institutions of self- government.” The Act provides for a three-tier Panchayati Raj system at the village, block and district level with a fixed tenure of five years. Seats have been reserved in favour of SC/ST and women so as to enhance their participation. The Act also provides for setting up a Finance Commission and an Election Commission.
(III) Chaupal and Bhoodan/Gramdaan
movement
As a true or the best disciple of Gandhi, Vinaoba Bhave also tried to create an alternative agrarian civil society using the traditional system of India. He used the basic concept of Chaupal to begin his bhoodan (gift of land) movement in India in 1951. It was a very unique approach for alternative development. The major aim of this movement was to bring about a peaceful agrarian revolution in the country. The bhoodan movement consisted of collection of land from bog zamindars or landlords as gift and distribution of the same to the landless persons. According to him in a just and equitable order of society, the land must belong to all and that was why he did not beg for gifts but demanded a share to which the landless or poor are rightly entitled. For him the real owner of the entire land of this universe is nobody but almighty Gopala alone: Sabai bhumi Gopal ke. A therefore has no right according to Vinoba to get the ownership of the land. What they can do is to use or cultivate the pieces of land as per their requirement. It was an initiative to propagate the right thought, by which social and economic maladjustment could be corrected without serious conflict. Later, he went one step ahead and started motivating people to donate the entire village land as gramdan. This was a wonderful approach to create a real and just civil society in an alternative style. He gave his slogan of jai jagat: hail to the world. Like Mahatma Gandhi, Vinoba also decided to begin his journey from the village. And to get his entry into any village he took the help of chaupal and its panches.
In 1958 his followers came to know about a village in Munger district in North Bihar. This village, known as Berain, was a village of backward and underprivileged communities. The villagers did not have proper food and shelter. No job opportunity, no land to plough. Their economic condition was so wretched that many of them had to live on theft and robbery. Such behavior of people defamed it as a village of thieves and notorious people. Discussion and discord frequent quarrels, mutual jealousies marred the village, occasional conflicts permeated the social life of Berain. The villagers usually stole standing crops etc. There were 83 families before 1958. 36 families owned about 11 acres of land. Of these only one family had little over 4 acres and three had about 2 acres. People of Berain provided the necessary labor force for the big absentee zamindars. The favorites were given land on batai, share cropping. They were working as agents for the zamindars to manage cheap labor for cultivation and to help generate disharmony among people so that they might not unite. So long as there was discard among them, the zamindars were free to rule and control them. The rebel laborers were ill-treated. All of a sudden there was a famine-like situation in the village. It was difficult to manage even subhuman standard food one time a day. Some young men realized the grim situation of utter helplessness in Berain. Realizing the game plan of the zamindars they were collected in the village Chaupal and decided unanimously to approach the sarvodaya workers. In those days the bhoodan and gramdan movement was at its peak. The sarvodaya volunteers were moving from one village to other asking for land of one kattha in a bigha from the landowners for the landless people and organizing people for a change in the society to alleviate their pangs and to teach them how to stand against exploitation by peaceful means. On the request of the youths of the village they visited with Vonoba Bhave under the leadership of Laxmi Sahu, a sarvodaya leader and the Chairman of Khadi and Village Industries Commission of India on February 4th, 1958. The villagers warmly welcomed their visit with drums and other musical instruments. The next day i.e., on 5th February almost entire village: men and women, young and old, big castes and small castes, all gathered on a Chaupal and meeting took place under the banyan tree to listen to Vinoba and his associates. The lectures of Vinoba created a deep impression on them. It was finally decided to declare Beraian as gramdan village. In a way Berain was declared first gramdan village in Bihar in 1958. A new beginning initiated to create a just, democratic and fearless civil society by the peaceful measures. The sarvodaya workers, with the help of villagers created job opportunities in the for of charkha spinning, weaving, oil-pressing, collective farming; awareness on hygiene and sanitation, Basic school and other facilities and now within few months all starving villagers were able to eat their two meals and live in harmony without any fear. That tool place because of the inspiration of Sarvodaya workers made it a model village. Many leaders and dignitaries of India and other countries visited this village to see the alternative model of development. Jayprakash Narayan, Sri Krishna Singh, the then Chief Minister of Bihar, Dr. Jakir Hussain, Vice President of India and many representatives of England, America Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Ghana and other countries visited and praised the efforts of villagers. Once I visited this village with my father who is a Gandhian in 1981.
Vinoba’s experiment however did not work completely. It has many reasons. Emergency posed by Late Smt. Indira Gandhi compelled Jayprakash to join the active politics but Vinoba continued doing his experiments without any political intention. Many of his committed workers saw their disinterest in the Gramadan and Bhoodan movement. Government also did not take any serious step to patronize this great approach of alternative development. Vinoba was getting old. So it actually could not bloom the way Vinoba wanted it to grow but the concept was acknowledged and praised everywhere in the world.
(IV) Chaupal and Hindi Literature
In Hindi literature many writers have made attempts to make people aware about civil society using Chapal as platform for conveying the message of change. Here I have taken three examples: two short stories – Pancha Parameshwar by Munshi Premchand, Panchalight by Phanishwarnath “Renu” and one novel Baba Bateshwarnath by Nagarjuna. The conventional panches are treated as god because in their decision both the disputants come with the hope to get their problem (dispute) solved. In most of the cases their hopes are fulfilled. Interestingly both the parties go back as friends after the decision given by the panches. Such situation is hardly seen or observed in constitutional courts in India or elsewhere in the world. All decisions are given in the Chaupal. The Indian villagers are emotionally as well as socially attached it. Premchand has used this relationship in his story, Pancha Parameshwar very effectively. His intention is to propagate the message of egalitarian society through it in India. And the story was well received. Even today it is an integral part of school curriculum. That shows the significance of it.
Phanishwarnatha “Renu”, known as anchalik kathakar, country writer, has tired to show how change, if required, is accepted in the conventional society in India through his well-known short story, Panchalite. Briefly speaking, it is a story about a low caste youth in a typical north Indian village who only knows how to operate and repair patro-max. This man falls in love with a village girl who does not belong to his caste and elopes with her to some unknown place. He comes back to his village after a few month but the panches sit in the Chaupal and do not sanction their marriage as social. They order him to live outskirt of the village. He abides by the decision and constructs his hut in the last boundary of the village. All of sudden, the head of Gram Panchayat dies. The villagers and his family members decide to give a big feast in his memory. A huge number of people from the village and neighbouring villages are invited. Interestingly nobody knows how to operate panchalite. The village elders are now helpless because a feast of such time cannot be organized at night without proper arrangement of light. Now this man is summoned in the Chaupal before the panches. He is said to operate the panchalite but this man put a condition before them, “I will do this job if the panches are ready to accept my marriage as socially sanctioned and also permit me to once again construct my house in the village. “ “I should also be permitted to dine with the village elders”, he concluded. The panches finally takes unanimous decision to admit him with his wife in the village. He is also allowed to dine with the villagers.
This story shows, as has been stated earlier, how the conventional society accepts the change in its fore fold. The author tries to convey the message of unity, individual freedom to choose life partner without any caste prejudices etc., in a very convincing style. As the Indian people are rooted with the tradition of panches and Chaupal, he uses it as a platform to reach to the audience.
Nagarjun in his novel, originally written in Maithili and later translated into Hindi, Baba Batesharnatha, tries to explain the cause of the lower castes and landless community of a particular village of Mithila. This village, however, is representative of almost all the villages of India. A small banyan tree is planted in a gairmajarua aam, common land in the village by a lower caste youth. This tree becomes a public space where everybody come and shares his pain and pleasure. It is also used a Chaupal. In the novel, this tree has been used as a grand old tree with a divine merit. It talks like an old man and tells the story of zamindars’s exploitation of poor and lower caste people. It talks also about Gandhian approach and freedom struggle, it talks about creating a democratic society. This experiment of Nagarjuna liked by the readers in India.
(V) Chaupal
and radio and television
Popularity of chaupal influenced the creative people to develop and transmit some programmes addressing development issues such as health, hygiene, community awareness drive on literacy, numeracy, untouchability, gender equality etc., through chaupal. Right frm the very beginning, the All India Radio (AIR) has been airing such programmes. Most famous among them is called chaupal. Here, in this programme, men, women – of course from villages – participate and share the news and information with their fellow village brothers and sisters. This is even today one of the most interesting programmes of the AIR. Television has also been transmitting such programmes.
(VI)
Chaupal in Indian
cinemas
Many creative and intelligent directors and produces of Indian cinemas have very minutely read the psychology of the villagers of India and tried to used chaupal as a platform to convey their message of any form: gender equality, child labour, relationship, bad impact of caste system and untouchability jut to name a few. An innovative example of using chaupal as a platform to initiate change in order to create an atmosphere of women’s freedom in a conventional society is seen in a well-known Hindi Cinema, Ashta. Mansi, a role played by Rekha, is a beautiful lady and a homely housewife of her Professor husband, Amar – a role played by Om Puri. She has a charming school going girl child. This family is a typical lower middle class urban family in India. The lady wants to buy many things for her husband, baby girl and for herself but the family income does not allow her to buy all that she desires to buy. Once she comes closure to a well-off neighbouring lady. She lives a very happy life and owns all possible luxuries – car, ornaments, costly clothes etc. Mansi admires her and dreams to have all that this lady owns. She repents on her poor economic status. The neighbouring lady is smart enough to read her psychology. Playing with the daughter of Mnasi, one day she comes to her house, enquires about them. Mansi likes her generosity and they are become very friendly.
One day she takes Mansi and her daughter in a market. Mansi’s daughter selects a costly sandal. Mansi too likes it but she does not buy as it is beyond their imagination. The lady immediately buys that pair of sandal for her the baby girl. Initially Mansi opposes it to accept that gift from her but after a little persuasion the lady manages to convince her to accept this. Now, a new chapter begins.
With her behaviour and costly gifts, she creates a sense of guilty consciousness in Mansi’s mind. She wants to have money so that she can live her life in a happy way. The neighbouring lady also buys some costly items for her. One day she takes her to a rich man who wants to have always-new women for his sexual urge, a role played by Naveen Nischal. This man reads her palms and creates a compulsive atmosphere and she ultimately surrenders herself before him, knowing that she is doing wrong. He develops physical relationship with her.
Mansi comes back to her house and repents for the entire episode. She does not want to repeat this incidence again but once trapped, it is hard to get rid off such trap. The neighbouring lady now takes her to the rich man regularly. She also threatens her if she does not go to the rich man she would let her husband know the entire episode. Helpless Mansi succumbs herself to her out of fear and societal prestige. Many times she thinks to confess all that she has done before her husband but social fear does not permit her to do so.
Poor Mansi gets an opportunity after her husband’s journalist friend comes to their house from a remote village and shares his wonderful experience of how traditional justice given to a lady in a village chaupal by the elders and traditional panches. He narrates that in a remote tribal village a poor man with no means to cultivate and no opportunity to earn his livelihood decides to go to some urban city to earn but he has no money to travel. He goes to a village moneylender requesting him to lend a few hundred rupees loan on interest. The moneylender wants something, which can be mortgaged. The poor man has nothing to be mortgaged. The moneylender suggests if he can mortgage his wife he may take the loan and his wife would be returned as soon as he comes back and return the money, of course with interest. With little hesitation he agrees to his proposal and mortgages his wife. He goes to the urban city finds a job, earns and comes back to his village. On his return, he is informed that his wife is pregnant and the baby in her womb is moneylender’s baby. He returns the money to the moneylender and says he is willing to accept his wife not the baby because the baby (in the womb) is not his baby it belongs to moneylender. The moneylender however is willing to wave off his entire loan and keeps the lady as his wife but for this also he is not agreed. Finally they go to the chaupal and request the panches for justice. It is a very hard issue to be settled. The meeting goes for many hours. The panches ultimately ask with whom she wants to live. Now she breaks her silence:
“My husband has used me, say my body and mind, as a commodity. He has mortgaged me to get money. I am a human being; naturally I had gone to the house of moneylender with my emotion, flesh and womanhood. He has loved me, cared for me, which brought me much closer to him – mentally, physically and emotionally. We have shared our moments together and as a result I am now expecting a baby. The baby, I am expecting, belongs to the moneylender who is ready to accept me as his wife with my baby. My husband mortgaged me as ornament or a piece of land. Now once again he wants me to go to his house so that in future also he can use me as commodity. I, if allowed, would love to live with the moneylender as his wife because he has given me emotional healing, social recognition and worldly things.”
Hearing her argument and getting it confirm from her first husband, the panches of chaupal give a historic decision and allowing her to live with the moneylender.
This story shows how the film media has used chaupal to initiate change in the society and honor the individual freedom of a woman, an essential element of civil society. This story encourages Mansi to confess the entire situation before her husband. She tells him the truth and as expected he forgives her as he knows Mansi has done this but her intention was not bad.
Similarly, in a recent Hindi Cinema, the GodMother, the young director has made a good attempt to use chaupal for propagating the role of women equal to men in all fields. He has tried to give the message that if need be an innocent and soft spoken housewife of a lower middle class family from a village can play all the tricks and weave good and bad plots to sustain her position and also very skillfully she can take revenge.
In the film, an honest village Sarpanch is killed brutally by his rival group with the help of professional killers and guns. The innocent wife of the slain Sarpanch now decides to jump in the politics. She does it. Knowingly, she develops her nexus with the professional killers, rowdy elements, and political guns and also begins smoking, drinking etc. She takes the help of anti-social elements in order to take revenge from the killers of her husband and to create a position of woman in the politics.
The young director has perhaps taken the responsibility to paint the role of a female politician as a strong character who may take any tough, legal or anti-social, decision or direction to show her work in the society or the nation.
(VII) Use of chaupal in Indian judiciary: Lok
Adalat:
Delay in judgment, created, and it is still creating a sense of havoc, helplessness in the mind of common people, mainly poor and those living in the remote villages. In countless number of litigations both the parties were willing to sort out their problems, but because of lawyers vested interest and the unnecessary technicality of the official process of the courts they were not allowed to do so. In the states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh many accused spent more than 20 years in jail without any judgment. And when final judgment came they were found innocent. Such situations compelled the social thinkers, judges, legal experts and specialists of our constitution to think for an attentive method by which the pending cases should be finalized immediately and chief Justice Bhagwati has rightly observed that courts in India should not be guided by any verbal or formalistic canons of construction but by the permanent object and purpose for which the Constitution has been enacted. He too has made law as a tool of social transformation for creating a new social order imbued with social justice. He made a prophetic observation, which has inspired the poor, the weak and the destitute to seek protection of the court against exploitation, injustice and tyranny. Chief Justice Bhagwati highlighted the new swing and significance of judicial process in these wards:
“Today a vast revolution is taking place in the judicial process, the theatre of law is fast changing and the problems of the poor are coming to the forefront. The Court has to innovate new methods; and device new strategies for the purpose of providing access to the justice to large masses of the people who are denied their basic human rights and to whom, freedom and liberty has no meaning. (Quoted in Road of Justice, Public Interest Litigation and Media, p.2; 2001.)
And some other legal experts are of the opinion that too Indians need to resurrect the judicial conscience on the line of social philosophy envisaged in the Indian National Charter, rather than to the live of erstwhile British Colonial rulers. It has now become imperative for the Courts that their decisions are animated with the philosophy of human rights enshrined in the constitution. What is expected from the Courts is that Courts weave a home-spun jurisprudence shaking its link from Anglo-Saxon jurisprudence by making law and legal institutions the delivery system of human liberty, social equality and social justice. The harsh reality is that only privileged classes have been to approach the courts for protecting their vested interests. It is only for the moneyed who have so far had the golden key to unlock the doors of justice. To once again quote Justice
Bhagwati:
“The time has come when the courts must become the courts of poor and struggling masses of this country. They must shed their character as upholders of the established order and status-quos. They must be sensitized to the need of doing justice to the large masses of the people to whom justice has been denied by cruel and heartless society for generations. The realization must come to them that social justice is the signature tune of the constitution and it is their solemn duty under the Constitution to enforce the basic human rights of the poor and the vulnerable sections of the community and actively help in the realization of the Constitutional goals. This new change has to come if the judicial system is to become an effective instrument of social justice, for without it can not survive for
long.”(ibid).
And finally chief Justice Bhagwati worked seriously on the idea of Lok Adalat, and the result may magnetic. In a single day, I witnessed how he finalized more than 396 cases in a small mela like function in a small district town Giridih – of Jharkhand during his tenure as Chief Justice of India. The idea, philosophy and mode of functioning of Lok Adalat is cent percent similar to traditional judiciary’. And the atmosphere in which decisions are taken before giving the judgment is very much similar to mahachaupal (the great chaupal).
(VIII) Chaupal as a forum for the politicians to get public support
Many politicians have used chaupal in last 55 years as a platform or catchword to get the public support. Famous among them are Choudhury Charan Singh and Choudhury Devilal. Choudhury Charan Singh always did his politics in a chaupal like atmosphere and behaved himself as the elder of chaupal. This practice worked well with him and he could always managed to maintain his political supremacy in his constituency and neighbouring regions. Choudhury Devilal also played the same politics. He was truly regarded as the Tau, big uncle, in Haryana, Punjab and western Uttar Pradesh. He used to run his chaupal during his tenure as Deputy Prime minister in a five star Hotel in Delhi.
Maheder Singh, the founder of Bhartiya Kisaan Union (BKU), developed his personality as a savior of the farmers of northern in India, and now when the famous south Indian leaders such as ex- Prime minister H.D. Devegoda has joined him, he has developed his image as a unique leader who represents the countless number of farmers of India. Very brilliantly he uses all the metaphors of the chaupal – the hookah, the safa, the dhoti, and the words spoken by him are the words of a village folk or a village elder that he speaks in the chaupal. Tikait is very successful in his mission and he has achieved many successes for himself and also for the group of people he has been working. In him farmer see their honest representative everywhere.
Very recently, Sheila Dixit, the Chief Minister of Delhi, has announced the achievements of her Government during the last four years. She listed the construction works that her Government did under her leadership in a heading, entitled, “Facts at a glance”, and claimed to have constructed following infrastructure for the common citizens of Delhi. In the details of development she claims to have constructed chaupals in various localities of Delhi. These chaupals are created mainly for rural poor and among the rural poor also attempts are made to construct the chaupals for the Harijans in order to create the atmosphere of social justice for them through their participation. The list of infrastructure is given in Table-A.
Table-A
(Facts at a glance)
|
S.No.
|
Item
|
Nummber
|
|
1.
|
Flyovers
|
44
|
|
2.
|
Subways
|
18
|
|
3.
|
Buildings
|
80
|
|
4.
|
Chaupals
|
55
|
|
5.
|
Community
Centres
|
24
|
|
6.
|
Socio
Cultural Complexes
|
02
|
|
7.
|
Colonies
provided roads/ drains
|
412
|
|
8.
|
Colonies
provided piped water
|
416
|
|
9.
|
Colonies
provided electrified
|
430
|
List
giving the name of each chaupal
would make it clear how political mileage is taken with this platform.
Given below is the list indicating the names of all 55 chaupals,
constructed by the ruling National Congress in the city of Delhi:
Chaupals
in urbanized villages reconstructed/ renovated:
1.
Amberhai
2.
Begaram chaupal (Chhoti),
Bndapur
3.
Tula Ram chaupal (Badi),
Bindapur
4.
Khayala chaupal
5.
Harijan chaupal, Bagdola
6.
Ghonda
7.
Brahman chaupal, Tondkar,
Narela
8.
Balmiki chaupal, Pana
Udyan, Narela
9.
Harijan chaupal,
Paposiyana, Narela
10.
Harijan chaupal,
Paposiyana II, Narela
Chaupals
in progress:
11.
Kakrola
12.
Palam
13.
Harijan chaupal, Palam
14.
Balmiki chaupal, Nawada
15.
Ambedkar chaupal, Hastsal
16.
Yadav chaupal, Hastsal
17.
Tyagi chaupal, Hastsal
18.
Balmiki chaupal, Hastsal
19.
Harijan chaupal, Dabri-I
20.
Dabri-II
21.
Baghel chaupal, Basai
Darapur
22.
Bijwasan
23.
Shadi Khampur
24.
Bhagtan Mohalla, Ghonda
25.
Harijan chaupal, Tahirpur
26.
Khizarabad
27.
Panchyat Ghar, Gokulpur Thakran
28.
Harijan chaupal, Gokulpur
29.
Harijan chaupal, Johripur
30.
Malikpur
31.
Dhaka
32.
Harijan chaupal, Badarpur
33.
Harijan chaupal, Jasola
34.
Kotla Mubarakpur
35.
Himayunpur Village
36.
Masjid Mor
37.
Kalusarai Village
38.
Peera Garhi
39.
Balmiki chaupal,
Mahiapalpur
40.
Harijan chaupal,
Mahipalpur
41.
Balmiki chaupal, Shahbad
Mohammadpur
42.
Jatav chaupal, Shahbad
Mohammadpur
43.
Harijan chaupal, Bijwasan
44.
Tanwar Mohalla, Basai Darapur
45.
Okhla Village
46.
Village Samaspur Jagir
47.
Mandoli
48.
Balmiki chaupal,
Sultanpur Majra
49.
Harijan chaupal, Saboli
50.
Tughlakabad
51.
Jasola
52.
Pochanpur-I
53.
Pochanpur-II
54.
Shiv Mandir Road, Kakrola
55.
Harijan chaupal, Taimur
Nagar
The list suggests the immense significance of chaupal
for the survival of the politicians. With chaupal they can
always approach the villagers and create their strong vote bank.
(IX) Delhi Slums and chaupal
The people living in the slums and squatters of Delhi are the people of villages who have come here to get the job to sustain their livelihood. The politicians in Delhi have been using them as vote bank. In return they have also united and formed many small groups with a pradhan (head) of every group. These groups have been negotiating with the government functionaries and also with the politicians to get the infra structural and other benefits.
(X) Others platforms
Similarly, Mahila Mandals (Women’s groups), Thrift and Credit Groups, Self Help Groups (SHGs), Milk Cooperatives etc., in rural and urban India have also been following the trend of chaupal. The spectacular success AMUL in the state of Gujarat tells the story of the concept of milk cooperative and grooming of Mahila Mandals in India and confirms that through this way women’s development is possible.
References:
Board of Editors. 2001 Role of Judiciary, Public Interest Litigation and Media. New Delhi: Pondicherry Central University and Indian Institute of Human Rights.
Bandyopadhyay, D. 2002 “Panchyats in Karnataka: Two Steps Back.” Economic and Political Weekly (August 31- September 6, 2002), vol. XXXVIII No. 35, pp 3572-73.
Jha, Viswanatha. 1997 Chaupal Jati ka Sach. Darbhanga: Maharaja Luxmishwar Singh Research Society.
Habermas, J. 1984 The Theory of Communicative Action v.1: Reason and the Rationalizsation of Society, Cambridge: Polity.
Habermas, J. 1987 The Theory of Communicative Action v.2: Lifeworld and System. Cambridge: Polity.
Habermas, J. 1989 The Structural Transformation of the Public Sphere: An Enquiry into a Category of Bourgeois Society. Cambridge: Polity.
Adorno, T.W. (Ed.) 1991 The Cultural Idustry: Selected Essays on Mass Culture. London: Routledge.
Calhoun, C. (Ed.) 1992 Habermas and the Public Sphere. Cambridge: MA., MIT Press.
Vijaya, N. 1988 The Role of Traditional Folk Media in Rural Areas. New Delhi: Publishing House.
Mueller, N. 1973 The Politics of Communication. London: Oxford University Press.
Hamelink, Cees. 1983 Cultural Autonomy ion Global Communication. New York: Longman.
Bhagwat, Durga. 1958 An Outline of Indian Folklore. Mumbai: Popular Book Depot.
Mathew A.F. 2001 “Interface of Culture and Communication”. The Eastern Anthropology, vol. 54, No. 3-4.
Parmar, Shyam. 1975 Traditional Folk Media in India. New Delhi: Geka Books.
Gellner, Ernest. 1994 Conditions of Liberty: Civil Society and Its Rivals. London: Hamish Hamilton.
Putnam. 1993 Making Democracy Work: Civic Traditions in Modern Italy. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Newspaper
Sunday Times of India, New Delhi, December 29, 2002 “Constructing Delhi Brick By Brick: Milestones set up during the last four years. (An advertisement of Urban Development & Public Works Department, Govt. of NCT of Delhi; p. 15)
In case of any enquiry or further dialogue, kindly consult Dr. Kailash Kumar Mishra in the following
E-mails:
kailashkmishea@indiatimes.com
kailashkmishra@hotmail.com
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