Page 190 - Communication Processes Volume 3 Communication Culture and Confrontation

Memory and Social Protest 165

Table 5.1
Empirical Sources of the Characters

Character Area Ancestral caste Ancestral link
Reshma Mokama Bhumihar a. Ajab Singh (brother)
Kshatriya b. Ranjit Singh (father)
Chuharmal Anjani village Dudhvanshi a. Bihari (father)
b. Bansiram Surma (Dudhvanshi)
c. Chuharmal (Dudhvanshi)
Source: Mahadev Prasad Singh. 1982. Reshma–Chuharmal Ke Geet, Biso Bhag.
Calcutta: Loknath Pustakdaya.

middle-aged couple travelling with me while visiting Mokama for the
study. To my question about the Chuharmal and the fair organized in
his memory in the Tal area, the man replied, ‘This is the fair organized
by the Dusadh where only lower-caste people go.’ I asked: ‘How can I
go there after reaching Mokama station?’ To this he irritably replied:
‘Are you also Dusadh? It doesn’t seem so from your face.’ I replied:
‘No, Bhaisaheb! I am going there for research.’
The conversation revealed that the person was of Bhumihar caste
and owner of many trucks. This conversation made me feel excited
about how a social memory had become a symbol of identity of a caste
or community and how the psyche of higher castes had received and
retained it.
This social memory is the one of Reshma and Chuharmal. The folk
tale of Reshma–Chuharmal is not a worn out folk tale for the com-
mon man. It is alive even today, its hero is very well alive in people’s
memories. The sacred complex of Chuharmal has a fair held in his
name in Mokama Tal area every year for two to three days in the month
of Chaitya (March–April). People come here in lakhs to worship the
Dusadh hero. Propitiatory rites, magic, invocations and incantations
are designed to please Chuharmal. The place is located to the south
of Mokama station at a distance of about 12 km. In a nearby village
named Mor one finds a large statue of Chuharmal erected without the
neck. During the season of crop-cutting, the first of the plants reaped
are offered to the statue. This is a standard ritual in the worship of
Chuharmal. People come here and pray for the fulfilment of their
wishes. Lower castes have faith that the wishes expressed during the
worship come true.