Bhikari Thakur, popularly known as "Shakespear
of Bhojpuri" was born in a barber-family on 18th
December,1887 at Kutubpur ( Diyara) Village in
Saran District. Name of his father and mother was
Dal Singar Thakur and Shivkali Devi
respectively. He had a younger brother named
Bahor Thakur.
He went Kharagpur to earn livelihood. He had
earned much and but not satisfied with the job.
Ramlila had impressed him. He went Jagannath
Puri. till the time, he has been converted to
another person.
He established Dance Party in the native village
and began to play Ram Lila, sing songs and took
interest in Social-works. Now he writes dramas,
songs and books etc. Language of the books was
simple and attracted many. Books were published
from Varanasi , Chhapra nad Howrah.
He was awarded Padmashree by The Govt of
India. His literary creations including
Dramas ( Bidesiya, Beti-Bechawa,Bidhawa Bilaap
etc.) and songs are praised and used to sing
even today. He died in the age of 84 years on
10th July,1971.
Bhikari Thakur - The Shakespeare of Bihar
Bhikari Thakur is best known for the creation of the twentieth
century theatre form Bidesia. Bhikari Thakur was a barber (a
backward Caste) who abandoned home and hearth to form a group of
actors who dealt with issues of confrontation: between the
traditional and the modern, between urban and rural, between the
haves and the have-nots. Appreciative native Bhojpuri audiences
consider Bhikari Thakur as the incomparable founder father,
propagator and exponent par excellence of this form. He was a
folk poet, a folk singer, a folk dancer and actor.
The narrative of Bidesia has been made so
effective through the medium of vibrant dances and pleasing
music and based on such life-like stories that it presents a
realistic picture of the poor joint families of the region.
The Bhojpuri taste is so theatrically
inclined that it will not hesitate even to undertake long
journeys to witness a performance. Like in many other folk
forms, the female roles in Bidesia are played by the male
actor-dancers. Normally they wear dhoti or shirt trousers but
they sport long hair and make it and ornament it like women's
hair. Dance forms an integral part of this form, in fact it’s
the essence of the performance, which starts with dance in order
to attract a large audience. Once this is done the Bidesia
starts. The actors, besides dancing take on female roles in
different dramatic contexts. Inspite of the advent of various
other modes of entertainment, Bidesia remains the most popular
and refreshing relaxation for the Bhojpuris. Through his plays,
he gave voice to the cause of poor laborers and tried to create
awareness about the poor situation of women in bhojpuri society.
He always stood and spoke against casteism and communalism in
the same cultural tunes. People from this region are very fond
of and feel proud of his contribution to the local cultural
traditions. His plays and his style of theatre are very popular
for their rhythmic language, sweet songs and appealing music.
His plays are a true reflection of bhojpuri culture. Almost all
of his works focused on the day-to-day problems of lower
castes/classes. He used satire and light-hearted comments to
maximum effect to put forward his views on social ills and other
problems plaguing Bhojpuri society.
He was born on December 18, 1887 at the
village of Kutubpur in the district of Saran, Bihar. His
mother’s name was Shivakali Devi and father was Dalsingar Thakur.
He belonged to a naai (barber) caste, one of the most backward
castes in Indian society. The traditional work of his caste was
cutting hairs and assisting brahmins in marriage as well as in
death ceremonies. They were also used by dikus to send and
distribute ceremonial (in cases of marriages and deaths) and
other messages in the village and nearby areas. They acted like
postal workers in the traditional-feudal village setup.
In one of his works he says: “Jati Hazzam
more Kutubpur mokam… Jati-pesha bate, bidya naheen bate babujee”.
In this he speaks about his own caste and regrets that his caste
people are distributing letters to all without knowing the
importance of the letter, or the alphabets. He clearly
understood the power of education and continuously chided his
people for being illiterate and bounded by jajmani
(patron-client) relations with the dikus.
Among the masses of Bihar and other Bhojpuri-speaking
areas, he needs no introduction. But the so-called mainstream
‘culture’, like always, has conspired to keep mum about his
contribution, actively avoiding even mentioning his name. Hence,
there are no serious documented accounts of his works till now.
He is greatest flag bearer of Bhojpuri language and culture.
Bhojpuri is widely spoken in major parts of Bihar including
Jharkhand, some parts of eastern UP and Bengal. He is not only
popular in this linguistic belt but also in the cities where
Bihari workers migrated for their livelihood. Many criticized
him for upholding feudal and Brahminical values, which to some
extent may be true. Despite the support and legitimation of few
brahminical and feudal values in his works, he always pioneered
the vision of a just and egalitarian society and this is the
difference we have to understand. No vision of egalitarian and
subaltern society can be even imagined under these idiotic and
nonsensical shadows of Brahminical values.
Though his plays revolved and evolved around
villages and rural society, they still became very famous in the
big cities like Kolkatta, Patna, Benares and other small cities,
where migrant labourers and poor workers went in search for
their livelihood. Breaking all boundaries of nation he, along
with his mandali, also visited Mauritius, Kenya, Singapore,
Nepal, British Guyana, Surinam, Uganda, Myanmar, Madagascar,
South Africa, Fiji, Trinidad and other places where bhojpuri
culture is more or less flourishing.
Bidesia, as a vibrant mode of a regional
cultural expression, rugged and unsophisticated in form and rich
in variety, is a powerful expression of cultural heritage of
weaker section of society. Bhikari Thakur, through his artistic
talents and bitter experiences, developed it by picking up
elements from Ramlila, raslila, birha yatra and other
performative elements and molded it into a totally new and
wonderful style known now as bidesia. Bidesia means migrated
people, who left their home in search of livelihood, but in the
larger context Bhikari’s bidesia not only migrated from the
lands but also from their culture also. Many people get confused
between the bidesia style and his play Bidesia. Actually, he did
all his plays in bidesia style which is very similar to nautanki,
but later his theatrical style was known from his famous
production Bidesia.
He has written as well as directed and
performed ten major works; beginning with a non-serious
vasant-bahar based on the dhobi-dhobin dance he saw somewhere.
After Thakur’s death in 1971, his theatre
style and use of bhojpuri language are continually being abused
by the music industry in producing bhojpuri songs and plays
replete with sexual innuendo. This is like a counter-revolution
of the brahmin-bania combine against all the ideals that Bhikari
Thakur propagated through his art. The dikus have no relations
based on social reality and always aim to get maximum monetary
profits on the basis of cultural vulgarity. This market forced a
shift from Bhikari Thakur’s socio-economic oriented plays to
mere sexual fantasy and cheap entertainment. This reflects the
creative bankruptcy of dikus against which we dalit-bahujans
should come forward and play a vital role to safe guard our
anti-diku legacy in which Bhikari Thakur is one of the big stars
in the galaxy of Dalit-bahujan revolutionary artistes.
His major productions include: - Bidesia,
Bhai- Birodh, Beti-Viyog or Beti Bechba (seller of daughter),
Kalyuga Prema (Love in Kalyuga), Radheshyam Behar (based on
krisna- radha love), Ganga-asnan (ceremonial bath in ganga),
Bidhwa- vilap, Putrabadh (killing of son), Gabar- Bichar (based
on an illegitimate child), and Nanad Bhojai.
1. Bhai-Virodh (opposition from
brother)
This play deals with the theme of joint
family, which is a very prominent feature of Bihar’s rural
society. Three brothers are separated due to lack of confidence
and respect for each other on the instigation of a person
outside their family. However, at the end they realize the
importance of living together but not before a lot of harm had
actually taken place.
2. Beti-Viyog or Beti- Bechwa (seller
of daughter)
This play is considered a very progressive
play. Bhikari Thakur through this play criticizes the
wide-spread custom of selling young girls in marriage to much
older men. This custom prevailed in Bhojpuri-speaking areas
until recently. The protagonist is a young girl whose father
sells her to an older person.
3. Kalyuga- Prem
Through this play Bhikari Thakur talks about
the bad effects of drinking. The lone wage earner of the family
is a drunkard and often visits prostitutes. This extravagance
soon leads to the pauperization of his family. His whole family
including his wife and son suffers tremendously because of the
bad habits of the head of the family. Later in the play the wife
and son decide to confront him but to no avail. Later being fed
up with his father’s immoral ways, the son runs away from the
family and goes to Calcutta to earn money to eventually return
and rescue his mother.
4. Ganga-Asnan
Malechu is from a village. His wife wants to
go to bathe in the Ganga but his mother is too old to do so. The
wife finally prevails and they set out but not after loading
much luggage for his old mother to carry on the way. Before they
reach the Ganga a quarrel ensues and Malechu beats up his
mother. At the banks of the Ganga, his mother gets lost in a
fair. In the same fair, his wife is seduced by a sadhu with the
promise of giving her a son. Malechu finds her in the nick of
time and epiphany dawns on the both of them who then find the
mother and beg her forgiveness. The story is a critique both of
the distance between parents and their children in a situation
where old parents are completely dependent on their children and
also of the tantric culture of sadhus who most often are conmen.
5. Vidhwa-Vilap (The weeping widow)
The story is about how widows are treated
within their homes. It is seen as an extension of Beti-bechwa
for more often than not young girls married to old men; spend
most of their lives as widows. The story reflects the hatred and
seclusion a widow has to suffer in brahminical society for no
fault of her own.
6. Gabar-Dichor
It the story of an illegitimate son of
Garbari and Galij’s wife. Galij returns from the town to find
the village gossiping about his son’s parentage. He wants to
take Dichor back to Calcutta with him. But both Galij’s wife and
Garbari intervene. A quarrel ensues as each of them claims
Dichor as their own. The panchayat is called and they decide
that Dichor be divided into three pieces. A man comes and maps
Dichors body and agrees to do the job for four annas a piece.
The mother relents refusing to pay and giving up all claim on
the son. The panchayat sees the light and Dichor is allowed to
stay with his mother. Almost all his plays took their themes
from society but were molded in Bhikari’s new progressive and
revolutionary style. When asked why he took to theatre, Bhikari
answered, “I used to watch Ramlila and Raslila. When in Ramlila,
Vyasji gave sermons to people; I also thought I could also give
sermons to my people”. This dream came true and till his last
day he served his people through his sermons, which unlike diku
sermons were based on real life. But our legendary cultural
figure is no more among us. He breathed his last on July 10,
1971 after giving us a new lease of life.
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