JALANDHAR: When division on caste lines in Punjab especially in rural areas has been deepening, a good part of Punjabi songs have acted as a catalyst in the phenomena. After dozens of songs have been churned out eulogizing "jatt", his superiority in the past over two decades, this also caused a reaction among dalits with several songs coming out in the last three years revolving around a lower caste - as counter assertion of caste identity.
Even several Punjabi singers who consider themselves as true "servants of mother tongue Punjabi and its culture" have been singing songs to establish superiority of the jatt clan through music. "Do cheeza jatt mangda, daaru ghar di bandook baran bor di" and jatt jattan da te bholu narayan da bai gallan sachian kare" were sung by established singer Pammi Bai, several years ago.
Late Surjit Bindrakhia's song - ni toon jatt di pasand, jatt ne vihauni hai - conveying that everything happens according to a jatt boy's wishes, remained a huge success for several years and was played during marriages and other celebrations for dancing even by non-jatts.
Jazzy B sung "kehra jamm pia soorma jehra jatt di charrai nu roke", "jattiye jatt jugadi junde" by Veer Devinder and Miss Pooja's "crorepati jatt" by Raj Sidhu reflect that jatt is a synonym of overall superiority. Infect if something considered bad in society is associated with jatt, then it can be a worth following trend as Gavu Hunjan went on to project "jattan nu parrai hundi zehar vargi". In the same song, he even projected heroism as a Class-X student catching hold of his woman teacher as a lover "dasvin de vich badmashi shuru kar lai, math vali madam di baanh yaro farr lai".
However around five years ago, some dalit singers started the inverse trend and songs woven around a lower caste became a rage among socially and politically-awaken dalits. The trend was started around four years ago when singer S S Azad sang "ankhi putt chamaaran de" in a function at Ludhiana. The song got very popular through video-sharing site, and then other singers also started coming up with new number having this key word. This trend reached new heights in 2010.
Singer Vijay Momi in his album titled "Take over the world" has six songs using this word - "chamaar agge kaun khad-da, munde haan chamarran de asin", "duniya te vakhra he tohr hai chamaraan da", "chamaar kalla", among others. Female singer Anmol Virk's album, two years ago, used similar expressions - "buri nazar na lage kade vi putt chamaraan nu".
Punjabi songs deepening caste rift
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Punjabi songs deepening caste rift
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Punjabi songs deepening caste rift
