[Reader-list] issue of authorship in oral traditions

[Deepak Kadyan]

Hi,
i am a recepient of independent fellowship 2007 and working on 'popular musical traditions and configuration of jat identity in haryana1900-2000'. this is my third posting in which i intend to bring out the issue of authorship in folk traditions.
 
in this posting i'm looking at two figures Mehr Singh(1917-46) and Pundit Dayachand(n.d., but a contemporary of Mehr Singh). 
 
Mehr Singh, a jat by caste,  broke away from the traditional themes and composed raganis(narrative mode of svang which became prominent inthe first half of 20th century and major contributor to this form being Lakhmi Chand, whom i discussed in my last posting). Mehr Singh acknowledged lakhmi Chand as his master but never composed on his lines. As i have mentioned in my previous postings that oral tradition doesn't follow a guru-shisya relationship and thus has scope of innovation. Mehr Singh bets into colonial army in 1937 and as anecdotes goes, Mehr Singh was singing when the wife of English officer heard him and asked her to husband to relieve Mehr singh of all other works and entertain the regiment. it is from here that the popularity of Mehr singh rises to being one of the most popular singer in Haryana. the other aspect of Mehr singh is that he never performed on stage with other artiste of his times, partly because he was in colonial army and thus hardly got any
 cahnce to do so. before analyzing the contents let's also understand why he has acquired a cult status in Haryana. During the second world war,he became a soldier in Indian National Army, founded by Subhash Chandra Bose and it is believed that Mehr Singh performed in front of him as well and was thus entrusted with the job of entertaining the recruits and in one of the compositions Mehr Singh describes the grand reception that was meted out  to Bose by Hitler. Mehr Singh died in Singapore in 1946.
 
the other character in this story is Pundit Dayachand, a brahmin by caste,  recruited in 1941 in colonial army and his rise to prominence also takes  similar trajectory as that of Mehr singh. but the difference is that whereas Mehr Singh died, dayachand returned safely and from here starts the problem. 
 
It is asserted by jat scholars that Dayachand on his return appropriated the compositions of Mehr Singh  and started compiling his compositions, though few in number, by meeting the soldiers who had herad Mehr singh and also meeting older generation, who had listened to Mehr Singh prior to his recruitment. A similar attempt was made by the son of dayachand and published a compilation of his compositions.
 
Nonica Datta in her book, 'Forming of an identity: A social history of Jats', very aptly brings the tension between jats and brahmins in the first half of 20th century and demonstrates that jat identity emerged out of intra-hindu tension than posing any antagonism to muslims.
 
this aspect continues in the second half of c.20th too, and jats slowly but steadily rises in the social ladder. But, let's come back again to the issue of authorship in such circumstances. the answer to such questions is to contextualize the two figures and putting them in their socio-cultural miliieu and then ascertaining those aspects in their compositions.
 
mehr singh, a jat by caste and an unlettered person, composes on everyday issues like the relationship between husband and wife and the longing of man foe his woman when he is in army. thus much of the compostions of mehr singh revolve around the longing of man for his woman and the relationships that he brings out are husband-wife, jija-sali, devar-bhabhi and has a jocular aspect to it as well and some of them are highly double-entendred. But, i encountered one composition which evokes lord krishna and has  striking metaphors which in comparision to his other compositions, would suggest thia it is not by him.
 
Dayachand, a brahmin by caste and occupying the top of social ladder, has some of his compositions that evoke gods and his language is too poetic. the reason for this could well be that the sphere of oral tradition in haryana  has for long been dominated by brahmins and it is only in the past two and half decades that jats have occupied some hold with the emergence of cassette as mass commodity. the previous generation despises to th commercialization of traditional music.  
 
It is one of the instances of contested claims of authorship in oral traditon and is marred by such instances, some of which are pointed out by Kathryn hansen in her work, 'Grounds of Play: the politics of nautanki theater in UP' and shows that right from 1920's when the oral was acquiring a fixity into text in the form of chapbooks, there were warnings on the covers of these cautuioning the reader against the cheap stuff and claiming theirs as the most authentic one.
 
Deepak Kadyan
   

       
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