Chapter 6

Trends in Migration and Folksongs:

Continuities and Changes

Migration has been a perennial phenomenon in the Bhojpuri region. However, the nature
of migration has undergone change from the post-slavery indentured labour system to the
present-day migration energised by neo-liberal spatial and structural transformations.
Unlike in the 19th century, when Bhojpuri men used to migrate to Calcutta (now Kolkata)
and thence to plantation colonies, today they are migrating to Delhi, Mumbai, rural
Punjab, etc. During the indentured era, possibilities of return were very thin and
communication ties with the homeland were almost absent. In present times, with the
advent of information and communication technology, especially mobile phones,
migration has not remained the same.
Even the left-behind folk/women are neither the people ‘enmeshed in tradition’ nor
are they ‘untouched by change’; with changing times, they have changed and their
folksongs have changed (Narayan 1993). They respond to changing social contexts and
one should not neglect responses that correspond to ‘urbanization’, ‘mechanization’, and
‘cash economy’ (Blackburn and Ramanujan 1986). For instance, there are interesting
changes in the content of folksongs collected half a century ago by Bhojpuri folklorist
Krishnadeva Upadhyaya and the ones I collected during my fieldwork in the Bhojpuri
region in 2014. For example, in the old Bhojpuri songs, migrants travelled in paniya ke
jahaj (boats or ships), while in the present-day folksongs migrant men travel in Bolero (a
sports utility vehicle)! This journey from boat/ship to Bolero is marked by both changes
and continuities. It tells us about the cultural and material transformations of a migrant
society in which migration continues to be relevant.
In this chapter I have done a comparative content analysis of folksongs collected half
a century ago and those collected recently. Through ‘informed interpretation’1 I would
like to present an account of how the changing nature of migration has changed the
metaphors of Bhojpuri folksongs. The folksongs under consideration are women’s genre

1
See Chapter 1.
 125

songs as I could not collect men’s genre folksongs from the visited villages because of
my gender location. I will examine here whether and how changing times have affected
the content of the songs with migration motif. I seek to explore the ‘metaphoric
correlates’ of change and the processes of modernisation.2
There are seven sections in this chapter. The first section discusses how the nature of
out-migration has changed post independence and how it has affected women. The
second section analyses the reason for the persistence of Bhojpuri folksongs with
migration theme. The third section discusses a new motif of mobile phone that has
become popular in present-day folksongs. The fourth section talks about how the
changing mode of intercommunicative services has entered folksongs. The fifth section
discusses how the direction of Bhojpuri out-migration has changed and how it has
affected folksongs. The sixth section is about changing nature of power relationship in the
context of conjugality. The seventh section describes how two dichotomous categories,
continuity and change, co-exist in folksongs.

Bhojpuri Women: Still Left-Behind

Although the destination of migration has changed, it is still predominantly male

migration and the condition of the left-behind women more or less remains the same.
There is not a single household in my tiny village Dihari, which consists of 200
households, whose men folk have not migrated to earn livelihood. Delhi, Mumbai,
Kolkata, Punjab, Rajkot, Ahmadabad and Ludhiana are the favoured migration
destinations, whose names can be heard from women and children in this village. Every
other women I spoke to in my village, who came to know that I live in Mumbai, told me:
tun bambai rahelu, arey iho ta bambai gail baaden, kamaye, aapan phone lamar de diha,
kagaj pa likh ke, hum unka ke batayib [Oh, you live in Bambai [Mumbai], even he has
gone there to earn, leave your number on a piece of paper, I will give it to him].
The fieldwork in three villages of Bhojpur district made me realise that women are
still left-behind. The rural Bhojpuri society has still not developed the trend of men
migrating with their women and family. In villages where backward caste households

2
The concept of ‘metaphoric correlates’ is inspired by A K Ramanujan’s essay ‘Language and
Social Change: The Tamil Example’ (1999) in which he has explored the ‘linguistic correlates’ of
social change in Tamil language.
 126

have small landholdings to cultivate, young men migrate to earn livelihood, and few
senior men, women and children are left behind to cultivate and take care of this land.
Migrant men do come back in the seasons when more agricultural labour is required and
then go back. The money earned in the city by migrant workers is largely spent on buying
more land. The women in the villages are required to beget sons, so that few of them can
work on that land and the surplus ones should go and earn in the city to return finally in
old age with a pursuit of living a good life on their own land. The popular saying there
goes ‘khet aaur laika kam na hokhela [agricultural land and sons are never sufficient]’.
Even my father had that pursuit; he bought land from his savings of fifteen-year service in
the army, while my mother lived in her conjugal village with her parents-in-law and
cultivated that land. Due to some personal reasons my father had to take my mother along
with him later and his dream of going back and settling down in the village remains
unfulfilled. However, my father was an exception, because my uncles and other men of
my village went back to the village after spending a few decades in the city.
In this whole process of men’s migration, a woman’s life in the village remains more
or less the same. Her duty is to beget sons and take care of elders. That her life remains
unchanged is visible in that she still cooks on old style clay hearth. I could not find a
single gas stove in my village Dihari, whereas the remittance from the city is spent on
motorbikes, mobile phones and guns to empower masculinity. The money earned by
migrant workers in these backward caste peasant villages is hardly spent on education.
Parents still try to educate their sons, but spending on girl’s education is out of question.
Dihari has a primary school. Girls sometimes manage to go to school after cooking,
cleaning, feeding animals and tending younger siblings at home. I never saw them
opening books after they came back from school; they hardly possess textbooks and
notebooks.
At this juncture, I would like to recall stories of two women I interacted with closely.
First is that of a woman in Ratanpur (Bhangwatpur), the affinal village of my father’s
elder sister, Sonphi. This woman is Sonphi’s husband’s younger brother’s wife. She told
me that her husband is a sipahi (soldier) in the army for the last twenty years, but she has
not even seen Patna, the capital city of Bihar. Her husband, because of his army job has
got posting all over India, but he never took his wife or children with him even for the
sake of visits. He is currently posted in Nagaland, and when his wife asked him to take at
least the children along to the city where he is posted, he dismissed the proposition
 127

saying, ‘Nagaland mein nag-nagin hain, tum logon ko kha jayenge [there are serpents in
Nagaland and you people will be their prey]’.
I thought that this story might have changed with people of my generation. Since I
am almost thirty, cousins of my age in the village are all married and have kids. I met my
maternal cousin Sanjeev’s wife. This woman is seven years younger to me and already
has a son. Her husband Sanjeev has gone to Mumbai. There is a twist in the story. The
young and loving husband did not want to go because his wife wanted him to stay. She
was of the opinion that, ‘duaare pa kama, bahra mat ja [earn your livelihood in your
courtyard, do not leave]’. However, Sanjeev’s father, that is, my maternal uncle Basant,
forced him to migrate. He was of the opinion that he himself is capable of working on the
family farm land and his son in his early twenties would be a surplus labour here, and
hence should go and earn in some industrial city. Basant mama himself used to work in a
factory in West Bengal till his father was alive; after his father’s death, he came back to
cultivate his land and take care of the family. Land anchors the migrant; land brings him
back to the village. Migration continues undeterred from one generation to the other.
However, over-dependency on land is viewed as an economic mistake. The conjugal life
of young couples is never a concern for the patriarch and the senior women of the family.
In fact, it never occurs to them that husband–wife is a unit and should live together as a
couple. Though this issue of conjugality is a major feature/theme of folksongs, there is a
contradiction between the imagined life of folksongs and real life. The purpose behind
narrating this case is to emphasize that, even in the younger generation, the pattern of
men’s migration in which women are left behind remains unchanged, and the pain of
separation and longing continues.

Folksongs: Persisting Voice of Anxiety

Even in the contemporary era of mobile phones, when communication has become
instantaneous and frequent, folksongs continue to voice anxieties in rural Bhojpuri
society, because women who are left behind are left behind not just physically, but also
by the process of modernisation. They are hardly literate and they are firmly fixed in their
conjugal homes. They are excluded from the immediate migration networks. Thus, they
are often oblivious about the migration destination and the nature of work their men are
engaged in. The occasional return of a migrant is their only source of information.
Bhojpuri women try to stitch together their fear, fantasies and anger regarding migration
 128

through their songs. I am reminded of one of my informants, Laalti Devi, who said,
‘jawan beetal rahela, uhe geetwa mein aawela [the sufferings are the songs]’.
Bhojpuri women and society are still insecure and anxious about this predominantly
male migration. The result of this emotional insecurity is the continuity of folksongs in
which migration remains an important theme. Even if such songs are sung for
entertainment sake, the question remains as to the need for such entertainment in Bhojpuri
society. The anxiety and insecurity, no doubt, are the reason why women and people seek
ventilation through entertainment in these folksongs.
One is tempted to presume that, because of mobile phones, the left-behind women
can talk to their migrant husbands daily and, therefore, folksongs as a medium to express
their feelings have become less relevant. But, in the villages I visited, mobile phones are
considered as a valuable asset, but dangerous too. They are owned and controlled by men;
seldom do women keep exclusive mobile phones. Women, especially unmarried girls, are
not allowed to have a mobile phone of their own as elders fear that it might spoil girls, as
they might engage in illicit relationships. Married women are also under surveillance
while talking over mobile phone. I came across a folksong, to be discussed later, in which
a woman is demanding from her husband a mobile phone for herself with the promise that
she will use it to talk only to him. Another reason for this control over mobile phone
could be that it is a source of entertainment for men. Raunchy Bhojpuri songs and videos
are exchanged by men through mobile phones. Just as women are not allowed in men’s
exclusive spaces, like chaita performances, they are kept away from mobile phones, a
great source for men’s exclusive entertainment. For women, folksongs still remain the
important medium of entertainment and ventilation.

Naya Mobile, Naya Charger: Mode of Communication

Mobile phone is one of the most prominent and contemporary motif in Bhojpuri
folksongs. I had assumed that mobile phone motif is part of the popular songs produced
by Bhojpuri cinema and the cassette industry in urban centres. Therefore, I was surprised
to hear folksongs with this motif from women in the villages. Of course, there is a
significant difference between the popular songs and the folksongs sung by women in
village in terms of the tune and the narrative structure: popular songs are based on
Bollywood songs with Bhojpuri tadka (flavour), while the folksongs sung by women still
follow the discipline of genres even though their content is ‘modern’.
 129

In the following jhumar the woman protagonist is demanding a mobile phone from
her husband.

Appendix: Song 28

नाया मोबाइल नाया चार्जर ला द ीं ए रार्ा र्ी

साींझे सबेरवे रउरे से बतियाइम ए रार्ा र्ी
किनो सासू र्ररहें छाका उड़ाइम ए रार्ा र्ी
हलो हलो कह के बतियाइम ए रार्ा र्ी

[O my Raja ji, buy me a new mobile and a charger

Day and night I will talk to you only
Even if my mother-in-law is jealous, I will smack a six
I will say hello-hello and talk to you]
(Seema Kumari, Dihari, Bhojpur)

With the advances in communication technology, the mobile phone has become a gadget
with vast reach. For example, in Dihari, where there is no electricity or pucca road, there
are mobile phones in every house. However, as mentioned in the previous section, women
have limited access to mobile phone, which is usually controlled by men. Hence, it is a
rare privilege for a woman to own a mobile phone. In the above narrative, the woman is
demanding from her husband a naya (new) mobile phone and a charger. Here naya refers
to exclusive mobile phone because there are mobile phones common to the household and
is controlled by parents-in-laws or other male members. She is promising him that she
will talk to him exclusively (and will not ‘misuse’ it). She is also assertive in that she will
not care even if her mother-in-law is jealous of her talking to her husband. Just to poke
fun, when I asked Seema as to why a mother-in-law would be jealous, she replied that
whenever there is a phone call from bahra (where the migrant resides), the mother of the
migrant would like to talk to him more because she thinks that she has greater right over
her son, while the wife would want to talk to her migrant husband for obvious reasons.
So, there is a kind of competition between these women and obviously the mother of the
migrant has the upper hand because in rural Bhojpuri society greater value is attached to
filial bond over conjugal bond.
Another modern element in the above song is the metaphor of ‘smacking a six’. Till
now the jhumar songs I had read in anthologies were drawing from everyday domestic
and work life of women, while ‘smacking a six’ is a metaphor from an element of modern
life, namely, the game of cricket. It shows how modern elements are becoming part of
women’s consciousness.
 130

The following jhumar with mobile motif shows women’s awareness of cash
economy:

Appendix: Song 29

नाया मोबाइल नाया ससम डलवा द ीं ए रार्ा र्ी

रउए से बतियाइम ददलवा लाइम ए रार्ा र्ी
घटिा द ल बाकी बढ़िा बील
बझ
ु ािा कक महीं गाइल बा
बोल ीं ए रार्ा रउरा बोसलए में समठाई बा
कानों में बाल ओठों में लाल लगाइम ए रार्ा र्ी
रउए से बतियाइम ददलवा लाइब रार्ा र्ी

[Buy me a new mobile and a sim O Raja ji

I will talk to you only; I will lend you my heart
My heart is throbbing, the bill is increasing
It seems that inflation has increased
Please speak O Raja, your words are sweet to me
I will wear earrings and lipstick
I will talk to you only; I will lend you my heart]
(Sunita Devi, Bhairotola, Bhojpur)

The woman protagonist in the song is asking for a mobile phone and a sim of her own so
that she can talk to her migrant husband exclusively and in private. The woman is
showing her awareness about the inflation and hence shows her concern about the rising
bill. More importantly, she is talking about the importance of communication in conjugal
relationship and how that is a source of her pleasure, and is therefore urging her husband
to speak more and more. Another modern element in this song is otho mein laali
(lipstick). I have heard women referring to lipstick as othalaali in Dihari. In older songs
one can find a mention of traditional beauty products like taj-kachur to add fragrance to
hair and paakal panwa to add colour to lips.3
The mode of communication has always been a motif in Bhojpuri folksongs: earlier it
was chhithi (letter), now it has become mobile phone. The letter motif, however, has not
completely disappeared from the folksongs. Seema sang a song in which there is modern
mode of transport (four-wheeler) through which the migrant travels, but still uses letter as

3
My mother sang a jatsaari, ‘Tajwa pisiya-pisi maathwa banhwalin’ [I added fragrance to my
hair with tajwa]. Tajwa is also known as taj-kachur, a leaf which is used to wash hair just like
henna or mehandi.
 131

the mode of communication. The following section will discuss the mode of transport
motif.

Paniya ke Jahaj, Reliya Bairan, Bolero Gaadi

The women genre folksongs with migration motif in Krishna Deva Upadhyaya’s
anthology (collected in the early 1940s) do not give much information about the mode of
transport.4 However, few folksongs do indicate people sailing in a boat. For example,

Appendix: Song 10

नइया िोरे डूबो प्रभु बीचह रे धारावा, वरधी दहलेइर्ासु चोर

आरे िुहे प्राभो मारर डाले बीच बाटावारवा िीररया कइले बबछोह

[May your boat get drowned, may your things get stolen
May the bandits kill you on the way; you left your wife alone to suffer]
(Upadhyaya 2011: 289)

In this couplet from a long jatsaari song the protagonist, who is the wife of the migrant, is
cursing her husband who left her behind to suffer. In the narrative of which this couplet is
a part, the wife sends a message to her husband to come back, but the husband replies
ordering her to keep her chastity intact. She becomes furious over her husband’s reply,
and in return she curses him that his boat may get drowned. I came across another
jatsaari song in which the woman protagonist is requesting mallah, the boatman, to be
her messenger and carry a message to her husband. These narratives indicate that water
transportation was quite prevalent. L.S.S. O’ Malley has described how ‘Ganges, Gogra
and Gandak rivers have been highways for boat traffic from time immemorial’ and
thousands of people used to go to Eastern Bengal in search of employment via the water
routes (1930: 100).
Following is a very popular Bhojpuri folksong which highlights two important facts
about Bhojpuri migration; (i) men used to go to Bengal and (ii) they used to travel by
boat.5

4
Upadhyaya collected these songs from his mother Moorti Devi in Vikram Samvat 2000 which
would roughly be 1940s.
5
This song seems to be very old. It was popularised by folk singer Padamshree Sharda Sinha who
has been singing this song for around five decades. In a personal communication in 2009 when
she had come to perform in Bhopal, She told that when she had gone to Mauritius in the late
 132

पतनया के र्हार् से पलटतनया बनी अइह

पपया ले-ले अइह हो, सेनुरा बींगाल के

[O husband travel back in a ‘Ship of Water’ (boat)

becoming a paltaniya (armyman)
Bring me sindoor from Bengal]

The protagonist woman in the song is insisting her migrant husband to travel back by
paniya ke jahaj [literally, ship of water, a boat] and bring her sindoor (vermillion) from
Bengal. Sindoor metaphor can be interpreted in many ways: the simpler one, as Lakhpati
Devi says, the quality of Bengal’s sindoor is good; another interpretation is metaphoric in
that husbands are referred to as sindoor, which is the ultimate symbol of suhag (women
having husband alive) for caste Hindu women. Another point to be noted here is that the
woman is imagining her husband as paltaniya, that is, a military man. William Irvine, a
civil servant of Bengal, wrote in his book The Army of Indian Moghuls (1903) that, in the
17th and 18th century, men from Bhojpur and Buxer migrated to be part of the Mughal
army and the trend continued with the British Indian Army as well. We notice how
migration from Bhojpuri region existed much before the indenture era.
The colonial Bihar was well served by the East Indian railways (O’ Malley 1924).
There is a popular kajri, which is part of Ram Naresh Tripathy’s song collection from
rural areas in the early 20th century,6 in which train is presented as a metaphor:

Appendix: Song 37

रे सलया बैरन पपया को सलए र्ाए रे , रे सलया बैरन

र्ौने दटकसवा से पपया मोरा र्इहें
पानी बरसे, दटकस गल र्ाये रे , रे सलया बैरन

[The enemy train is taking away my husband, the enemy train

The ticket on which my husband is travelling
May there be rain, may the tickets gets destroyed, the enemy train]

1980s, she found that this song was quite famous over there among the Bhojpuri diaspora.
Another source, www.kavitakosh.org, an online enclyopedia of Hindi and regional poetry and
songs, credits the authorship to the Bhojpuri folk composer and singer of colonial Bihar,
Mahendra Misir.
6
Malini Awasthi, a famous Bhojpuri folk singer from Uttar Pradesh, told me in an interview in
Bhopal when I was a reporter with NaiDunia newspaper that this song first appeared in the
collection of Pandit Ram Naresh Tripathy in the 1930s.
 133

The folksongs I collected in 2014 mention four-wheeler vehicles as important means

of transportation. Following is a very interesting jhumar which I got from Seema Kumari,
the 15-year-old daughter of my second cousin Jogindar, who is a migrant worker in
Mumbai.

Appendix: Song 30

चचठी-चचठी सलखी-सलखी भेर्म चोल प

रार्ा अइब कवना होल में

धतन र्न सलख-अ चचठी चोल प

हम ि आइम अचगला होल में

चचठी सलखी-सलखी भेजर्म साड़ी प

रार्ा अइब कवना गाड़ी में

धतन र्न सलख-अ चचठी साड़ी प

हम ि आइम स्कापी गाड़ी में
हम ि आइम बलोरो गाड़ी में

[I will write a letter to you on my blouse

O Raja on which Holi festival you will come

O wife do not write letter on your blouse

I will come on the next Holi festival

I will write a letter to you on my saree

O Raja in which vehicle you will come

O wife do not write a letter on your saree

I will come in Scarpi (Scorpio) Gaadi Vehicle
I will come in Baloro (Bolero) Vehicle]
(Seema, Dihari, Bhojpuri)

The woman protagonist in this song is trying seductive strategies on her migrant husband
to make him visit her. She is saying that she will write letters on her saree and blouse to
lure her husband. While the husband says that it is not necessary and that he will
definitely visit her during Holi, the festival of colours. Then the inquisitive wife asks him
through which vehicle he will travel back. He replies that he will come back in a four-
wheeler sports utility vehicle, Scorpio or Bolero. These vehicles are very popular in rural
areas of Bihar, as these vehicles are made for rugged road conditions. Rich peasants in
 134

Bihar own such vehicles for private purpose as well as transport business, and many men
from backward villages become drivers of these vehicles.

From Kalkatta to Dilli/Ludiyana

As mentioned earlier, the history of large-scale out-migration from Bhojpuri region dates
back to 19th century. Men then used to migrate overseas as well as to the port city of
Calcutta and other parts of West Bengal and Assam. Post indenture and post
independence the trend of male out-migration continued, but the direction of migration
changed from East to industrial towns and agricultural fields of western and north-
western states due to decline in employment opportunities because of closing down of
industrial units in West Bengal and Assam (Roy 2011).7
This change in the migration destination has found place in the folksongs very
prominently. The folksongs from Upadhyaya anthologies, collected more than half a
century back, mention migration destinations like Kalkatta [Bhojpuri-Hindi name of
Calcutta, which is now Kolkata], purbi banijiya [east], etc. The folksongs collected from
the villages mention the new migration destinations. For example,

Appendix: Song 34

फूलवा चगरे ला चपल प गमक आवेला

पापा अइसन बर खोर्नी टे न्सन रहे ला
र्ाके डडल -लुचधयाना में बसल रहे ला

[The flower fell down on the sandals and is spreading aroma

O papa, you found me such a groom who gives me tension
He often goes and lives in Delhi-Ludhiana]
(Shail Kumari, Dihari, Bhojpur district)

The protagonist mentions that her husband gives her a lot of ‘tension’ by going to and
living in Delhi and Ludhiana. Interestingly, the migratory movement from Dihari village,
from where I got this song, is more towards Delhi and Ludhiana. Generally, every village
follows a migratory pattern: men usually migrate to a place where some people from their
village have already migrated and are earning livelihood.

7
Besides Delhi, Ludhiana and Jalandhar in Punjab and Faridabad, Gurgaon and Karnal in
Haryana attract male labour force from Bhojpuri region (Roy 2011).
 135

Folksongs indicate the inter-state small distance migratory patterns as well. Men
from rural Bhojpuri region also migrate to nearby urban areas like the capital city Patna,
where they can find service jobs like driving vehicle, etc. In the following jhumar, the
protagonist is cautioning her husband to be careful in Patna city. She is demanding a saree
and warning him not to bring the other woman.

Appendix: Song 31

पाटना सहररया बाड़ा भार हो अकेले मति र्इह बलमु

पाटना के सडड़या चमकदार हो सवतिया र्तन ले अइह बलमु
सवतिन के बोसलया करे र् में घुसी र्ाला सुन ए बलमु
खईबो र्हर मरर र्ाइम हो पाछे पछिइब बलमु

[Patna city is big, do not go alone O husband

Bring me a shining saree from Patna, do not bring a co-wife
Listen O husband, co-wife’s words pierce my heart
I will poison myself and die, you will regret later O husband]
(Seema Kumari, Dihari, Bhojpur)

It seems that the sense of space has increased in the present-day folksongs. The name of
specific migration destination has been used less frequently in folksongs collected by
folklorists like George Grierson and Upadhyaya; usually bides and pardes or purub (east)
used to serve this purpose. However, the present-day folksongs mention specific
migration destinations like dili (Delhi), bambai (Mumbai), Ludhiana, etc. Usually, in
older songs, there was an ambiguity in terms of migration destination. The present-day
folksongs I collected seem to be less ambiguous and more specific. Also, women seem to
be asking ‘where’ question in the songs with ‘modern’ element. Here is a song as an
illustration:

Appendix: Song 30

चचठी सलखी-सलखी भेजर्म साया प

रार्ा अइब केकरा माया में

चचठी र्न सलख-अ धतनया साया प

हम ि आइम िोहरे माया में

चचठी सलखी सलखी भेर्म बोिल प

रार्ा अइब-अ कवना होटल प
 136

चचठी र्न सलख-अ धतनया बोिल प

हम ि आइम आरा होटल प

[(Wife) I will write a letter on my petticoat

O Raja for whom you will come

(Husband) O wife do not write letter on petticoat

I will come for you

(Wife) I will write a letter on bottle

O Raja to which hotel will you come

(Husband) O wife do not write a letter on bottle

I will come to Arrah hotel]
(Seema Kumari, Dihari, Bhojpur)

Unlike the protagonist of jatsaari, or the folksongs collected decades back, the wife here
has been portrayed as a knowledgeable aware person. She is aware there are hotels in
urban areas, unlike villages in the Bhojpuri region, where men and stay and eat. The left-
behind wife seems to be not so left-behind when it comes to certain basic information.

Changing Power Dynamics

The conjugal life is also characterized by power dynamics between the couple.
Obviously, in the Bhojpuri agro-pastoral society, like any other patriarchal society,
women are in a weaker position in the hierarchy of power. Their left-behindness makes
them even more vulnerable. The left-behindness has continued, however some new
developments have taken place. One such development in women’s lives is the right to
vote. In the villages, elections become festivals for women. Women, who usually sing on
every life-cycle occasion, can be seen wearing new sarees and singing in groups while
going to cast their vote. The following jhumar reflects how right to vote has enlarged the
scope for women’s assertion:

Appendix: Song 32

सखी हो ललका ररबतनया से माथ बान्हे के

सखी उर्रका ररबतनया से फूल करे के
सखी हो ललका बक्सवा में भोट डाले के
सखी हो सभ मुखखयवन के हरा दे वे के
सखी हो अइहें परदे ससया ि ना बोले के
 137

नस्िा करइहें नस्िा क लेवे के

सखी हो बोले के कदहहें मींुहवा फेर दे वे के
कफजललम दे खइहें कफजललम दे ख लेवे के
सखी हो बोले के कदहहें मुींहवा फेर दे वे के

[ O friend lets prepare our hair with red ribbon

O friend lets tuck flower of white ribbon
O friend lets go and vote in the red ballot box
O friend lets defeat all the mukhiyawan (head of village panchayat)
O friend when pardesi husband comes let’s not speak to him
If he will give something to eat, we will eat
But, when he asks to make love, we will deny
If he will show some fillim (movie), we will enjoy it
But, when he asks to make love, we will deny]
(Seema Kumari, Dihari, Bhojpur)

In this song, the woman is not addressing her migrant husband, but her women friends
[sakhis]. She is discussing the strategy to protest the migration of their men folk. The
protagonist is asking her women friends to get ready in their choicest make-up and hair
style to go and cast their vote in the election. She is asking her friends to unite and defeat
all mukhiyas (heads of village panchayat). This tells something about the constitutional
recognition of post 1990s Panchayati Raj institution. This system at least boosts women’s
sense of self-importance, because when people from their own village started contesting
election, they could see direct impact of voting procedure. They realised that their votes
are important. This sense of self-worth can be noticed in the narrative line of the above
song. The woman protagonist in the song is further strategising and asking her friends not
to speak to their migrant husbands when they visit and thus register their protest. Though
she is asking them to enjoy all the gifts he will bring from city as it is their valid
[conjugal] right, they should deny pleasure to their husbands who left them behind. One
can read this is as a song of solidarity of left-behind women.
There are other songs as well in which one can see the woman protagonist asserting
herself through ‘modern’ metaphors. For example:

Appendix: Song 36

पािर-पािर मींचगया में डडल के सेनुरवा

भरकइह र्तन रार्ा नाया र्ातन के
एक में भइया दल
ु ार दस
ु रे में बाबा
डेरवइह र्तन रार्ा नाया र्ानी के
 138

[There is senur of Dili on my forehead

Do not mess with it
I am darling sister of my brother and daughter of my father
Do not mess with me]
(Kamaluti, Ratanpur, Bhojpur)

The woman protagonist in the song is asserting that there is vermillion (senur) of Delhi
(dili) on her forehead and no one can mess with it, not even her husband. She is darling
daughter of her father and sister of her brother and hence she is a fearless lady.
In many older folksongs the woman protagonist has been shown revengeful towards
her migrant husband. However, the following jhumar collected recently is different; the
protagonist here is becoming physically violent with her husband.

Appendix: Song 33

रार्ा हो साड़ीया ले अइहा तछदटयादार में

पेन्हब पलेट मार के ना
रार्ा हो बाि पूछब बारह बर्े राि के
ओरचन में बान्ह के ना
रार्ा हो अइसन चटकन मारब िोहरा गाल में
सट र्इब दे वाल में ना

[O Raja bring me a fancy saree

I will wear it with pleats
O Raja I will interrogate you at midnight
After tying you with the cot
O Raja I will slap you so hard
That you will go and bang in the wall]
(Kalawati, Ratanpur, Bhojpur)

The woman protagonist generally abuses and curses her husband. But before going to the
field and my conscious engagement with folksongs, I had hardly come across any
folksongs in which she is slapping her husband. One can hear the changing tone with the
changing vocabulary of these songs, above song being an example. The component which
makes this song ‘modern’ is that the woman protagonist is demanding a fancy saree
which she can wear with pleats. Generally, in the Bhojpuri rural area, the traditional way
of wearing saree is different from the ‘modern’ way of wearing it. The part of the saree
which covers the bosom is worn in seedha palla so that the maximum area is covered
including the face. Wearing a saree with pleats in the bosom area gives it a fancy look and
is generally not done by older or middle-aged women. Usually, a woman is ridiculed if
she is wears saree with pleats, which is not considered modest. The scrutiny is not limited
 139

to saree, but undergarments as well, for example, when my mother used to wear a
brassiere inside her blouse, she was ridiculed. The woman protagonist in the above
folksongs is asserting that she will defy the prescribed ways of dressing and will dress
like a ‘modern’ woman.

Continuity and Change

According to Kirin Narayan (1993), some genres of folksongs respond to changing

realities of life more than others. For instance, the jatsaari genre folksongs are less
responsive to change; one can find in them the same narrative structure, similar
metaphors and choice of words irrespective of the source and the period they are collected
from. I sourced a jatsaari song from three different sources and locations. The first
version was collected by Krishnadeva Upadhyaya in the 1940s from his village Sonwarsa
of Ballia, a Bhojpuri-speaking district of Uttar Pradesh; the singer was his mother Moorti
Devi. The second version I got was from my 65-year-old mother Lakhpati Devi, who says
that she learnt this song both from her natal or conjugal villages in Bhojpur district, she
retrieved it from her memory and sang for me in 2012 in a small town of Madhya
Pradesh. And the third version was collected from my 90-year-old paternal grandaunt
Sugiya Devi in 2014; she has been living in her conjugal village Dihari for over seven
decades. The protagonist of jatsaari song in all the three narratives requests a traveller to
write a letter to her migrant husband. The letter writer denies this request saying he has no
paper or ink and, secondly, he has never seen her husband, so he would not be able to
identify him. The protagonist in turn offers her saree’s border as paper and her blood or
kajal as ink. Also, she gives a thick and romantic description of her husband describing
him as being handsome and well-dressed. One can read the similarity below:

Appendix: Song 13 Appendix: Song 3

मोरा पपछुवारा रे भीमला; मलहवा, तनरवामोदहया मोरा पपछुअररया कैथ भैया दहिवा
एक ह चचदठया सलखी दे हु; रे तनरवामोदहया हमरो समाद एक ले ले र्ा रे नएकवो

कथी के करबो रे कारावा कागादवा; तनरवामोदहया नाह ीं बाड़े सींवरो हो कोर ह कागर्वा
कथी के करबो मसीहनवा, तनरवामोदहया नाह ीं बाड़े मोरा पाले ससयाह रे नएकवो

आँचर फारर चीरर कारावा; रे कागादवा…
नयन कर्रवा मसीहतनया; करबो…
आस-पास सलखीले रे सनेसवा; तनरवामोदहया
बीचे ठदहयाँ बरहो बबयोगवा; तनरवामोदहया
िोहारा बलमुवा ना चीन्हलों, र्नलों…
कइसे कहबब समुझाई, तनरवामोदहया
हमरा बलमुवा के बड़ी बड़ी अँखखयाँ…
अस चले र्स बाबू रे , र्मीदरवा
[Bhimal, the mallah8 lives nearby
Please write a letter for me
(letter writer)
From where will I get a paper
From where will I get ink
(protagonist)
I will make paper of my saree border
I will make ink from kajal of my eyes
Write the message on borders
Write my longing in the middle
(letter writer)
I haven’t seen your husband
How will I be able to convey your message
(protagonist)
My husband has big eyes
He walks like a landlord]
(Upadhyaya 2011: 306-307)
8
A caste whose traditional occupation is to row boats.
9
A person of writing caste.
140
अींचरा फाररय-फार कोरह कागर्वा
अपने रकि के ससयाह रे नएकवो
अींगूठी-पींगुठी सलखखह कैथा भईया…
बीचवा में बरहो बबयोग रे नएकवो…
िोहरो बलम सँवरो चचन्हूँ न र्ानहूँ
केकरा के दे बो समुझाई रे नएकवो
हमरा बलम र्ी के काले-काले र्ुलुफी…
पवहीं सि होइहें साहे ब के नौकररया रे नएकवो
Kaith9 brother lives nearby
Please take my message
(letter writer)
Neither do I have a blank paper
Nor do I have ink
(protagonist)
I will make paper of my saree border
I will make ink of my blood
Kaith brother please write message on border
Write my longings in the middle
(letter write)
I have not seen your husband
To whom I will convey your message
(protagonist)
My husband has black hair
He must be having fun in his job
(Lakhpati Devi, collected in 2012)
 141

Why is jatsaari less responsive to changes in the social reality? More generally, why are
certain genres more open to the changing contexts than others? This could be because the
grinding mills with which jatsaari is associated has now become a rare object and this
genre is not popular among the younger generation of women as they do not much engage
in grinding activity like the previous generation of women did. Since it is only the older
women sing or knows jatsaari, there is hardly any improvisation in its content.
Jhumar genre songs, on the other hand, are sung during various occasions, especially
weddings, and are sung by women of all age groups. A lot of improvisation takes place in
jhumar songs because of the higher frequency of their performance and exchange among
women of different age groups. For example, the jhumar songs with modern elements
that I collected from my niece Seema were learnt by her when she went to her maternal
uncle’s village to attend a marriage. Marriage is an important occasion where women of
different age groups and residing in different villages meet, perform, exchange and
improvise songs.
The jhumar songs, which have undergone considerable changes, have even
incorporated many English words. For example, in the following couplet from a jhumar,
there are two English words, papa’ and ‘tensan’ [tension]:

Appendix: Song 34

पापा अइसन बर खोर्नी टे न्सन रहे ला

र्ाके डिली लुचधयाना में बसल रहे ला

[Papa you have found me such a groom, who gives me tension

He often goes to Delhi and Ludhiana and stays there]
(Shail Kumari, Dihari, Bhojpur)

The woman protagonist is addressing her father as ‘papa’ which is still not a norm in
Bhojpuri villages where father is addressed as babu or babu ji. She is complaining about
her migrant husband who has been giving her so much ‘tension’, because he leaves her
and goes to Delhi and Ludhiana. Also there are new words in Bhojpuri coined out of
English words. English words are phonetically modified in such a way that they sound
like Bhojpuri. Though this practice has become frequent now, it is not a recent
phenomenon. In the era of indenture labour system, the word ‘agreement’ became
‘girmit’ from which was derived ‘girmitiya’ (one who has signed the agreement). As an
illustration, I would like to talk about a folksong, versions of which I heard in all the three
 142

villages I visited. There is an interesting word laitbaar, which connotes something that
reflects light:

Appendix: Song 31

आरे सहररया बाड़ा भार हो अकेले मति र्इह बलमु

आरे के दटकवा लैटबार हो सवतिया र्तन ले अइह बलमु [Bold mine]

[Ara city is a big city, do not go alone O husband

Bring me a laitbaar teeka (bindi), do not bring me a co-wife]
(Seema Kumari, Dihari, Bhojpur)

The protagonist is suggesting her husband not to go alone in a big city. She is asking him
to bring her a shining bindi and not a co-wife. This word laitbaar which has been used to
signify a shining bindi is amalgam of two words, lait and baar: lait is a Bhojpurised word
for light and baar is from a Bhojpuri word barna, a verb which means to emit light.

Conclusion

The ontology of the thesis is that Bhojpuri folksongs responded to a social phenomenon
called migration, which thus became a prominent motif in Bhojpuri folksongs. In this
chapter I have tried to articulate how Bhojpuri folksongs have responded to the changing
nature of out-migration. It is seen that the changes have occurred in the form and content
of folksongs in terms of metaphors, language, choice of words, narrative style, etc. Also,
one can hear the tone of changing socio-political scenario in the folksongs sung by
women.
I would like to conclude this chapter by highlighting the limitation and scope for
further enquiry. This chapter is limited when it comes to men’s folksong genres. I could
not get hold of men’s genre folksongs because of my gender and social location in the
villages I went. Men were not ready to sing in front of me because I was a ‘daughter’ of
the village. Also making men sing in an artificial context without the occasion is a
difficult task for a woman researcher. The only songs which were supposedly men’s
genre songs I could get were from the diary of a local folk performer, Santosh. In the
diary there were few folksongs depicting contemporary changes. The following song is
one example:
 143

मार के र्वतनया के र्ाब ए पपया

अपने दहलाव पींर्ाब ए पपया

[You wasted my youth O husband

And went to Punjab O Husband]

However, I could not consider them for analysis as their genre could not be discerned;
they were only documented as gana number 1, 2, 3, etc. In the case of women’s
folksongs, I could identify their form and content as well as performance contexts.
The study of present-day folksongs of men’s genre can generate important insights
about the gender dimension. ‘Man’ as a category cannot be conceptualised as ‘left-
behind’ in the same sense as ‘woman’. Men enjoy greater mobility and more interaction
with the outside world; they have more access to grand narratives and communication
technologies. Also, these days, there are cultural productions by Bhojpuri migrant
workers in their migrant destinations. In Mumbai, where a large number of Bhojpuri
migrant workers inhabit, I have seen posters of birha (a men’s genre) nights by Bhojpuri
performers. They are producers as well as consumers of vernacular Bhojpuri music
industry in Mumbai and Delhi (Tripathy 2012). There is scope for a study on the ways in
which the Bhojpuri cinema and music industry, which caters to migrants, has affected the
form, content and performance of Bhojpuri men’s folksongs in rural Bhojpuri region.