Many of us know Rampur as THE Indian village made legendary by the movie Sholay. In real life, the village/town was one of the much talked about, media-hyped subject of the 2009 general elections. It was Jayaprada’s constituency, where she stood as an SP candidate, and all of us watched her dramatic and slightly funny battle with the general secretary of her own party. In the end she won, overcoming stiff opposition (which also allegedly circulated her nude pictures, btw) from her own party. I read an interesting article today, not so much about the caricatured town/village/constituency, but about the actual values the place identifies with, and how even in real life, it somehow manages to portray the will and the ethos most parts of India stand for.
Most of us have heard of Rampur (Sholay, Rampuri knives, etc.). More recently we have heard about how it symbolizes the brazen uncouthness prevalent in the politics of the north Indian hinterland. Those who know a bit more understand it as an electoral constituency where the bigoted and violent Muslim community has occupied political space in the recent past. Mr. Razak Khan (click the title of this post for the article, EPW, June 20-26, 2009) however points out what Rampur actually symbolizes is to be understood from the issues voiced in the vernacular newpapers, in the tea stalls and paan-shops, and the biryani places in the by-lanes of the area.
Most opinions voiced in these forums, he says, are quite the reverse of the caricatures painted of the town. The vernacular press bemoans the loss of the Ganga-Jamuna Tehzeeb of the local area, mainly due to the intrusion of outsiders. Outsiders here mean more than anyone else, political parties which have tended to polarize communities during electoral times, and given free reign to local lumpen elements (whose numbers are on the rise in the muslim community due to rising poverty and unemployment). Hordes of such elements roam around the streets in motorcycles and jeeps, and like to refer to the sitting MP as a ‘Nachaniya’.
Mr. Khan asserts that such rhetoric has never been used even by the most ‘radical’ maulanas in the area, and was instead ‘fed’ to the political elements by the English press. The local people have instead, viewed her as a Zahin Khatoon (a learned and respectable lady), and she was returned to her seat on the plank of her developmental work done in the area. Jayaprada apparently also has a strong appeal among the female voters of the area, who contrary to popular stereotypes, have a strong voice in the local administration of the area.
Mr. Khan signs off by asserting that the election results voice the preference of the local people for secular issues, rather than the secualr leaders who claim to espouse them. Being an optimist, I would like to believe him.