It was my first year of post graduation at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) when I came across Gaddar for the first time. That was more than four decades ago. The Janata Party had come to power and several flowers of democratic rights suddenly blossomed as it were, after two years of emergency.
Of the several student groups sprouting at the university, I joined the Radical Students Center (RSC), a small student group that discussed struggles launched by the poorest of the poor across the country. The RSC believed in creating a new humane order for the peasants and workers in the country. Around this time, we were exposed to the activities of a cultural group called the Jana Natya Mandali. It relentlessly propagated the people’s struggles against oppression in rural India.
The chief architect of that mandali was a short, well-built, plucky man with a beard and a stick in his hand, always wearing a dhoti like Mahatma Gandhi. His name was Gaddar, a radical folk singer and balladeer.
Gaddar was an engineering student in Osmania University who gave up his studies while some of his classmates went on to become experts in different fields of engineering.
I had an opportunity to meet one of Gaddar’s close friends and classmate – then a professor of aeronautical engineering in Washington University, Seattle – in 1999. I was there to cover the World Trade Organization’s Seattle Ministerial Meeting. That meeting collapsed like a pack of cards in the face of fierce and violent anti-globalisation protests. A day after the meeting, I stayed in the professor’s home discussing Gaddar. I vividly remember what the professor said – he felt sad when he thought of Gaddar because he was a fine student and could have been teaching in any of the best universities today.
Yet, Gaddar, dedicated his life to the cause of awakening the rural poor through his powerful folk songs – telling them that they can be independent one day, away from the feudal oppression that is aided and abetted by the state and its police machinery.
His songs are electrifying. They would force one to think about their role in the society – whether they can do anything for uplifting the lives of the rural poor and tribals.
To say that these songs, composed and sung by Gaddar, had enormous capacity to force you to think about the rural oppression of peasants and the tribal communities is an understatement.
Gaddar mesmerised everyone with his group of three to four singers. For my brother, Gaddar’s famous song ‘Rela Re, Rela Re’ is a morning ritual. There is not a moment when my 78-year-old brother would not sing this particular song of Gaddar. It is a folk song that explains the daily existence, struggles and world view of tribal communities .
Each song is a gem in itself. A moving song about the police’s struggles ‘Oh Police Anna’ describes how there is no difference between your life, their daily plight and our struggles.
Another song ‘Nindu Amasanadu Oh Laccha Gummadi’ explains the birth of a girl, how valuable it is and how she carries her daily life. ‘Bhadram Kodo Ku’ cautions the city-bred officials to behave properly in the villages. He had also composed a song on the plight of people in Telangana ‘Amma Telanganamma Akali Kekala Ganamma’. Of course, his ‘Lal Salam’ (Red Salute) song is etched in our memories.
Similarly, another song ‘Nannu Kanna Tallularo’ (the mother who gave birth) reveals the role of a mother and her contributions that need to be celebrated.
Meeting Gaddar is something that one cannot easily forget. He was the ultimate expression of humility, tenacity, determination, perseverance and courage. We owe our special debt to this radical folk singer and balladeer who was also responsible for organising several cultural movements.
Recently, I saw Rahul Gandhi wholeheartedly embracing Gaddar and forcing him to sit with him on the dais during his Telangana leg of the Bharat Jodo Yatra. I felt that it was a moving gesture rarely seen these days. Yesterday, when I heard that our Gaddar passed away a few days ago, I cried like a child.
But his song ‘Lal Salam’ came to my solace once again. We can proudly sing salam Gaddar. You have not gone. You are part of us, embedded in us, and a key part of our hopes for a better world, Gaddar anna.