Rekhiyo Jugajug Aage: A Reading of Caste and Gender in the Aaradhivani of Kachchh

Abstract

This article attempts to read and analyse the aaradhivani of Kachchh in terms of caste and gender. The first section explores the genre and looks into the narrative style of Rekhiyo Jugajug Aage Aarth, a performance text that is deeply tied to Dalit spirituality in Kachchh. The second section looks at this narrative ethnographically, and it further studies its historical development and circulation in different media: oral, written and digital. It intends to understand the functionality of the performance. It will examine the question of authorship as it emerges through the circulation of such texts. In the third section, with the close reading of the text, I will examine the problematized ideas of caste and gender. Chamars or Shudras are at the bottom of the Hindu caste hierarchy. I argue that this Dalit narrative challenges this social structure and older ideas though radical perspectives so as to subvert caste hierarchy by means of narrating the great deeds of Meghwar (Dalit) sants. It also seeks to study the transactionality of caste and region across a pan-Indian imaginary.