Gondi Folk Song by Rohidas Ghodham on Indira Gandhi's Assassination

in Audio
Published on:

Mayuri Pralhad Patankar

Mayuri Pralhad Patankar is a research scholar based in Delhi. She writes about literature, shrines and folklore of the Vidarbha region of Maharashtra.

Kachargarh, February 2017

Song 2 – Indira Gandhi’s Assassination

 

The revival of the Kachargarh pilgrimage has been instrumental in bringing together different adivasi traditions annually. Rohidas Ghodham speaks Gondi, Marathi, Hindi, and Telugu and is a talented and respected folk singer who has been performing in the Gond community of Maharashtra for more than three decades. These folk songs composed by him are representative of a range of emotions and an aesthetic view refined over years to tell stories of everyday life. The songs presented here were recorded during the Kachargadh Jatra held in February 2017. Ghodhamji presented these songs in response to Sunher Singh Taram and Ushakiran Atram’s request at the Dhanegaon branch of the All India Adivasi Sahitya Sangh, Gondia district.

 

These folk songs are highly innovative as they incorporate recent political events in the traditional form of oral performance. Each of these songs is reflective of different aspects of the Gond community. 

 

This Gondi folk song touches on important political events in the life of Indira Gandhi and ends with the event of her assassination. Sung in the tone of a eulogy, the song seeds the political event in public memory while deploying local metaphors and highly visual imagery to highlight the event.