8. Character of the Satnāmi movement.
Several points in the above description point to the conclusion that the Satnāmi movement is in essence a social revolt on the part of the despised Chamārs or tanners. The fundamental tenet of the gospel of Ghāsi Dās, as in the case of so many other dissenting sects, appears to have been the abolition of caste, and with it of the authority of the Brāhmans; and this it was which provoked the bitter hostility of the priestly order. It has been seen that Ghāsi Dās himself had been deeply impressed by the misery and debasement of the Chamār community; how his successor Bālak Dās was murdered for the assumption of the sacred thread; and how in other ways the Satnāmis try to show their contempt for the social order which brands them as helot outcastes. A large proportion of the Satnāmi Chamārs are owners or tenants of land, and this fact may be surmised to have intensified their feeling of revolt against the degraded position to which they were relegated by the Hindus. Though slovenly cultivators and with little energy or forethought, the Chamārs have the utmost fondness for land and an ardent ambition to obtain a holding, however small. The possession of land is a hall-mark of respectability in India, as elsewhere, and the low castes were formerly incapable of holding it; and it may be surmised that the Chamār feels himself to be raised by his tenant-right above the hereditary condition of village drudge and menial. But for the restraining influence of the British power, the Satnāmi movement might by now have developed in Chhattīsgarh into a social war. Over most of India the term Hindu is contrasted with Muhammadan, but in Chhattīsgarh to call a man a Hindu conveys primarily that he is not a Chamār, or Chamara according to the contemptuous abbreviation in common use. A bitter and permanent antagonism exists between the two classes, and this the Chamār cultivators carry into their relations with their Hindu landlords by refusing to pay rent. The records of the criminal courts contain many cases arising from collisions between Chamārs and Hindus, several of which have resulted in riot and murder. Faults no doubt exist on both sides, and Mr. Hemingway, Settlement Officer, quotes an instance of a Hindu proprietor who made his Chamār tenants cart timber and bricks to Rājim, many miles from his village, to build a house for him during the season of cultivation, their fields consequently remaining untilled. But if a proprietor once arouses the hostility of his Chamār tenants he may as well abandon his village for all the profit he is likely to obtain from it. Generally the Chamārs are to blame, as pointed out by Mr. Blenkinsop who knows them well, and many of them are dangerous criminals, restrained only by their cowardice from the worst outrages against person and property. It may be noted in conclusion that the spread of Christianity among the Chamārs is in one respect a replica of the Satnāmi movement, because by becoming a Christian the Chamār hopes also to throw off the social bondage of Hinduism. A missionary gentleman told the writer that one of the converted Chamārs, on being directed to perform some menial duty of the village, replied: ‘No, I have become a Christian and am one of the Sāhibs; I shall do no more bigār (forced labour).’
[1] This article is based principally on a paper by Mr. Durga Prasād Pānde, Tahsīldār, Raipur.
[2] Bilaspur Settlement Report (1888), p. 45.
[3] Some of Mr. Chisholm’s statements are undoubtedly inaccurate. For instance, he says that Ghāsi Dās decided on a temporary withdrawal into the wilderness, and proceeded for this purpose to a small village called Girod near the junction of the Jonk and Mahānadi rivers. But it is an undoubted fact, as shown by Mr. Hīra Lāl and others, that Ghāsi Dās was born in Girod and had lived there all his life up to the time of his proclamation of his gospel.
[4] Ibidem.
[5] Luffa acutangula.
[6] Solanum melangenum.
[7] Some of the Bundela raids in the north of the Province were made on the pretext of being crusades for the protection of the sacred animal.
[8] From Mr. Durga Prasād Pānde’s paper.
[9] This text is recorded by Mr. Durga Prasād Pānde as follows:
“Bhāji chhurai bhānta chhurdi
Gondli karat chhonka
Lai bhāji ke chhurawate
Gaon la marai chauka.
Sahib ke Satnāmia; ‘Thonka.’”
Or
“We have given up eating vegetables, we eat no brinjals: we eat onions with more relish; we eat no more red vegetables. The chauka has been placed in the village. The true name is of God; (to which the pair replied) ‘Amen.’”