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Sambhaji Bhagat

Sambhaji Bhagat is a Balladeer (lokshahir) from Mumbai, Maharashtra. He was born in a cobbler family in Panchgani, Mahableshwar, a hill station of Mahrashtra. He works as a teacher in Sadhana Vidyalaya in suburban Mumbai.

As a school boy, Bhagat was swayed by the drills of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh. But his heart and mind somehow failed to walk in tandem with the RSS idealogy. His feet carried him away from the drill sessions. From the far right, he landed straight into the lap of the leftists. He was in his teens by then, but the leftist ideologies proved to be too 'dogmatic', and he quit. From the far right to the far left, Bhagat took on a new path that made him find his true identity. He went back to his roots.

Bhagat has received no formal training in singing but has a lilting voice that can mesmerise listeners for hours. Bhagat is a teacher but others in his troupe are not so fortunate -- Asaram Umap who handles the dimdi (a small hand held drum) and flute is a rag picker; Sandeep Lokhande, the dholak exponent makes his livelihood as an instrumentalist; Babasaheb Atkhile is a promising young lad who also performs the role of a troupe coordinator. This motley group would not have not come together had it not been for their inspirational anchor -- Bhagat.

If there was to be a ballad that voiced the thoughts of the millions of poor Indians whose voices are rarely heard, it would have to be Sambhaji Bhagat’s composition. A bitingly sharp satire on the Establishment, the song, written more than a decade ago, is always contemporary. Sambhaji is constantly changing it, incorporating the latest political situation, the latest ad jingle. It started off as an expose of the Ayodhya movement—today, it mocks the many Babas on TV as much as it shows up the ugly face of development.

"Every political party has an Ambedkar plank to serve its own agenda. The so-called Dalit leaders of today are jokers who have made a mockery of Ambedkar's ideology. Through our songs and performances we are trying to undo the damage done by the self-serving entities on the underprivileged section," says the Dalit Lokshahir (people's poet), a teacher by profession and bard at heart.

"Those in power have ensured that the Dalits do not come together. Though Dalits constitute the single largest community, the dominant powers are thriving on the divide and rule policy. The so-called Dalit leaders have been weaned away from the community by giving them lucrative positions and eventually they became part of the establishment," says Bhagat.

Bhagat's songs are peppered with no holds barred anti-establishment lyrics. The words are sharp but mellifluous in his tongue and are meant to cut through the ignorance of his people. He has not even spared his initial mentors -- the right wing outfits for their regressive religious ideologies.

"Once when I performed at my native Panchgani, my friends who went onto become leaders in the RSS were shocked to hear me say things which they knew was true but would never publicly accept," he says.

In keeping with his goals, Bhagat is planning a Dr Ambedkar Vichar Prasar Kendra, a think-tank to help the Dalits. He also plans to run a radio station that would air Dr Ambedkar's speeches and songs based on his ideologies.

"I find it extremely satisfying that even in this age of TV, I can get audiences of 10,000 to 15,000," says Sambhaji. He ascribes his popularity to the way he calls a spade a spade. "Everyone knows the way the BJP criminalised religion, the way the Congress has ruined the country, but no one has the guts to say it in public," he says.

For him, there are no holy cows. His pointed, hard-hitting barbs have got him into unpleasant situations, since he doesn’t always perform behind closed doors. At the height of the Ayodhya movement, his satire on Advani’s rath yatra enraged some boys in Worli. His drummer started to flee, but Sambhaji told him to stand his ground. More recently, in Bangalore, RSS members in the audience started shouting while he was performing. “I told them, ‘Main Babasaheb ka baccha hoon.’ They understood that I was no liberal or socialist. They know only Ambedkarites can match them on the street.’’

Sambhaji uses traditional folk forms like pavada, lavni as well as koli songs, recalling his childhood memories of performances in his village by Matangs as well as Brahman bhajan mandalis. The forms strike a chord with audiences; the content is what stuns them. Gasps followed by loud aughter and applause are common during his shows.

Awards have come his way, including one for his weekly column ‘Ran Halgi’ in the Marathi daily, Samrat. There have also been offers from TV, but Sambhaji has greater ambitions—he wants to run his own radio station. For someone who lives in the decrepit Siddharth Vihar Hostel, Wadala that’s quite a dream. As Sanober says, “Had Sambhaji written just one song in praise of the CM, he would have got a flat from the CM’s quota. But then he wouldn’t be Sambhaji.’’