Page 182 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

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MeMory and Social ProteSt

Badri NarayaN

In this chapter I attempt to study an example of folk memory, the
popular myth of Chuharmal of the Mokama and Bhojpur region of
Bihar. The people’s memory of Chuharmal carries among the Dusadh
(a subordinate caste) a sense of victory over the Bhumihar (an elite and
dominant caste) of Bihar. It creates a sense of defeat among the elite
and feudal classes. Chuharmal is known as the hero of the lower castes
in central Bihar where his memory is kept alive by the common people
as a medium of social protest. As a result, feudal classes are trying
to erase it with the barrel of guns. A case study of Ekauni Kand will
illustrate this phenomenon. Such memories are the cause of increase
in social tension, class conflict, massacre and suppression. The popular
myth of Chuharmal accounts for four caste riots that took place in the
Aurangabad region of Bihar between 1970 and 1990.
The methodology of this chapter is based on participant observation
and field studies in the Aurangabad, Mokama (Nalanda) and Bhojpur
districts of Bihar at identified places. The process of eliciting and
receiving responses has been attentiveness to oral replies, symbols and
texts. Rituals were also given due attention, those practised by common
people in their everyday life, as well as those performed by the political
and religious discourses going on in that society.

Social Memory, Cultural Dialectics and Power

In contemporary society, memory is being used as much as a means of
dominance, as a lever of protest. Power and elite forces make effective