Sant Ram Udasi

A brief look at the Punjabi poet Sant Ram Udasi who came from a Mazhabi Sikh background, and became well-known for his active participation in the Naxalite movement.

Picture taken circa 1970 shows the garlanded poet and school teacher Sant Ram Udasi addressing a dharana of ‘Government Primary [School] Teachers Association Barnala in Dana Mandi Barnala, East Punjab.

Born April 20th, 1930, Sant Ram Udasi was a Sikh poet from a landless Mazhabi background. He wrote poetry that we today know as Dalit poetry. Dalit poetry emerged as a means of sharing the experiences, struggles and lives of individuals belonging to the Dalit community who have faced caste based discrimination. Sant Ram Udasi specifically emerged as a poet out of the Naxalite movement which encapsulated using Marxist language as a means of critiquing state or socially enforced means of the oppression – specifically for Dalits.

Many Dalit conscious writers and poets very overtly cite their caste and/or social class as the reasons for their own struggles. Sant Ram Udasi differed from other poets that originated from the Naxalite movement, in that he never overtly cited his own caste nor other castes as a basis for his own predicament in the face of an oppressive system – whether that is the caste system or the State’s use of violence, which often overlapped with caste themes. Despite everything, Sant Ram Udasi remained primarily a Sikh and a Sikh poet, as evidenced through his writings, unlike many Naxalite and Dalit conscious poets contemporary to Sant Ram Udasi.

During Sant Ram Udasi’s early years, he was influenced a lot by Sikhi and the Kooka or Naamdhari movement, and wrote specific praises in the form of a poem to Namdhari Guru Partap Singh:

I have come to reveal

My heart pierced by grief

Intoxicated in your love I have come to rekindle the lamps of union (Namdhari Guru Partap Singh)

In praise of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, he writes

Don’t call him guru of one sect

He is heir to common people, their

Critic of customs and

That’s why he is beloved of everybody

In his early years, Sant Ram Udasi gets disillusioned with Sikh sects after seeing their practices and customs have drifted away from the egalitarian principles of Sikhi, which empowed all castes. This realization and his own poverty, combined with his growing connection to the communist party he began to frame his worldview of competing classes, which is seen throughout his own poetry. His leftist ideology is clearly visible in his poems ‘Dunia Bhar de Kameon’, ‘Lalkar Mazdooran de Naam’, ‘Lenin de Naam’ or ‘Bourgeois de Tane Bane’ due to the language he uses to depict the oppressed and downtrodden common man.

Throughout these works, you can see a very folk tradition being projected into his poetry, and consistent with this folk theme is seen in how Sant Ram Udasi even sang many of his poems; a practice consistent with traditional folk culture. In Siri te Jat di Sanjhi Vithya de Naam, Sant Ram Udasi depicts both the Jat and the laborer (siri) as both being victims of exploitation and unfair treatment, and chooses the use words that unify both the Jat and the laborer/siri, rather than antagonize one or the other. He writes

Diesel drank our blood, drop by drop

Fertilizers eroded our bones

Mortgage papers of the bank

Eye the piles of grains

Both of them wish

You were dressed in tatters in our fields

My youthful crop

May you come out dressed in gold

From the godowns of the rich buyers

Despite coming from a Dalit background, there’s hardly any critique of the Hindu varna system nor direct critiques of the caste system. The words and subjects he chose to talk about was that of unifying the common and downtrodden person and giving them a voice as seen in the poem above.

In spite of having had drifted away and broken off from the Namdhari sect, there’s ample evidence to show he had never broke his faith for Sikhi. Sant Ram Udasi’s sympathetic nature towards the Khalistan movement further evidences this. Along with his fiery critiques of the Delhi government following Operation Blue Star, Sant Ram Udasi wrote ‘Dilliye Dyala Dekh’, a very moving critique of India in support of the Singhs who defended Harmandir Sahib during Operation Blue Star and the wider Kharku Singhs, who Sant Ram Udasi says are the brave men of the village who stood up against tyranny.

ਲਾਲ ਕਿਲੇ ਵਿਚ ਲਹੂ ਲੋਕਾਂ ਦਾ ਜੋ ਕੈਦ ਹੈ ।

ਬੜੀ ਛੇਤੀ ਇਹਦੇ ਬਰੀ ਹੋਣ ਦੀ ਉਮੈਦ ਹੈ ।

ਪਿੰਡਾਂ ਵਿਚੋਂ ਤੁਰੇ ਹੋਏ ਪੁੱਤ ਨੀ ਬਹਾਦਰਾਂ ਦੇ,

ਤੇਰੇ ਮਹਿਲੀਂ ਵੜੇ ਕਿ ਵੜੇ ।

Oh Red Fort of Dilli, you hold the blood of countless people imprisoned by you

The repercussions of your karma will be dealt very soon

The brave sons of Punjab’s villages have stood up,

Are the walls of Delhi large enough to contain the ire of these men?

This entire poem is about Aurangzeb martyring the 9th Guru – Guru Tegh Bahadur Sahib, Bhai Mati Das and Bhai Dyala, and the subsequent creation of the Khalsa by Guru Tegh Bahadur son and 10th Guru, Guru Gobind Singh. The Khalsa eventually reached Delhi’s Red Fort and was first taken by Baba Baghel Singh. This entire poem, timed after Operation Blue star is a very staunch condemnation of India’s action and an allegory to actions that happened, and will eventually happen that eventually turned into the period of militancy in Punjab. Sant Ram Singh Udasi took the Sikh stand, and it is clear without a shadow of a doubt he primary saw himself as a Sikh and consciously made an effort to make this the primary inspiration behind his writings. This was a stark difference to other writers, such as Pash (Avtar Singh Sandhu) who often wrote critiques of Khalistan and Sant Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, and like other Naxalite poets, were very direct and overtly political in much of their writings.

Having had combined the traditional folk culture of singing, Sant Ram Udasi utilized these traditional folk mediums to portray a message inspired by Sikh history to uplift all people through his moving poetry, while also foiling Dalit consciousness. Sant Ram Udasi stood alone and was unique in that he did all this without antagonizing others who he also viewed as being oppressed by the system. In this regard, Sant Ram Udasi’s story is very unique and largely untold, and should be understood in the unique Sikh perspective that Sant Ram Udasi had.