Tukaram was born in the beginning of the seventeenth century in a small village called Dehu, about 25 km away from Pune. His life journey spanned forty-two years. Born in the Shudra Kunbi community, he lived in very adverse circumstances and created his own world due to his inner talent and by doing a lot of self-introspection. Overcoming every adversity due to his infinite compassion for the entire human race. Without any Guru or guide and without any authority, like a giant tree grown from a strong seed, he used every opposition and adversity to grow his creative personality.
During the entire life of Tukaram (1608-50), in the 13th century Maharashtra, many sects of Warkaris, Naths, Mahanubhavs and Sufi saints were trying to rebel against the fundamentalist and liberal sects that had been going on since the time of Yadavas and against the Brahmin caste supremacy that had been going on for more than 5000 years. During the same time, the Mughal invaders from the north had expanded their empire up to the north-south border of Tapi river. And due to the internal wars of the Bahamani Empire, the entire Deccan India had turned into a battlefield for more than 300 years against the Adilshahi, Qutubshahi and Nizamshahi.
Tukaram was born in the region between Bhima and Nira rivers. This region too had turned into a war zone. He got married and started farming like a common man doing traditional farming. And due to the severe famine of 1629-30, his family and he had to go through a very difficult time. He had lived almost every kind of experience in his forty-two years of life, and his poems reflect that. And that is why even though it has been four hundred years, his poems, which are called Abhangs, are still alive in the memory of Marathi people of Maharashtra and other places.
The collector of Nashik was the elder brother of Rabindranath Tagore. So Rabindranath Tagore also used to come to Nashik to live in Mumbai because of his brother. So he has also translated some part of Tukaram’s Abhangomeka into Bengali language.
When farmer families started to need only two meals a day due to farming, they were forced to join the army and started participating in wars, which Tukaram has also praised in his Abhangome.
Despite the Muslim rule, there was almost no religious tension in Maharashtra because the native Hindu Marathi chieftains were the real power. But looking at the abhangs of Tukaram at that time, it seems that the Sanatani Brahmins have caused more trouble than the Yavans (Muslims). And Babaji Dixit of Tukaram’s guru tradition, his guru Keshav Chaitanya and Tukaram’s Aadguru Raghav Chaitanya, Hindus, Muslims, Jains, Lingayats, Mahanubhavs, Warkaris, Brahmins, non-Brahmins, Marathis, Telugus and Kannadas were all his devotees. Not only this, there were some Muslim names too. And they were considered Muslim Awliyas. In this way, Tukaram’s philosophy in the south, especially religious tolerance, is an important contribution of Saint Tukaram’s liberal vision.
A large part of Tukaram’s Abhangome is about taking up arms against caste and religious bigotry. Tukaram did the historic work of connecting with the liberal and revolutionary tradition of that time, established new values in Marathi, risked his life and due to this, despite being a Shudra, he has achieved the position of Sadguru of all. Such a great poet has not been born in Marathi language till date.
The most painful and shameful thing for all Marathi language lovers is that the English devotee Alexander Grant published the 45000 abhangas of Tukaram in 1869 for the first time. And the same saga was published in 1973 as authorized by the government. By the way, Tukaram devotee and Warkari Trimbak Kasar has tried to collect the scattered abhangas of Tukaram Maharaj for the first time, a hundred years after his so-called secret existence, by going from village to village and listening to the people who were available orally.
Only a part of Tukaram’s Abhangome is available. The rest has been lost in the clutches of time. And due to this Brahmin conspiracy, so much of the talented literature and knowledge of the Bahujan Samaj could not come out.
Today, the government is also imposing some restrictions on freedom of expression. But there is countless evidence of the stifling of expression due to the caste superiority in our country for more than five thousand years. And the act of destroying and corrupting the literary works of Tukaram Maharaj by the Brahmins and the so-called censorship of the government today appears to be a new form of the same mentality. That is, the struggle of liberalism against the fundamentalist Brahmin caste superiority continues even today.
That is why my friend and eminent Marathi scholar Ashok Shahane had written 60 years ago that “It is the misfortune of Marathi language that after Tukaram and Dnyaneshwar, no other literary figure has been born”. And the writers who are doing Kaamathi (cooliegiri) at present will keep writing till their death. And Marathi readers have to read with great difficulty.
This is true that four hundred years ago, Dnyaneshwar, who was half his age, and in the beginning of the seventeenth century, Sant Tukaram made important contributions to the Marathi language. It is true that today, a thousand years after his death, Sant Dnyaneshwar and four hundred years after his death, Sant Tukaram have been ruling the hearts of the common people of Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. No matter how many kings and emperors have come and gone in the three states, but even today, if anyone has real power in the minds of the people, it is the revolutionary saints like Sant Tukaram, Dnyaneshwar and Basava Anna.
And according to Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia, it has been more than five thousand years. In this country, the fight of liberalism against the fundamentalist Brahmin caste superiority is going on today, despite the so-called AI, despite the revolution in almost every field of science, the struggle between fundamentalists and liberals is going on in more or less the whole world. And this is the reason why in the last phase of the twentieth century of religious tolerance, once again Sanatani Brahmins have started to flourish in the Sangh, Hindu Mahasabha and Tablighi, Jamaat-e-Islami, ISIS and Al Qaeda Boko Haram of the Muslim religion and hundreds of octopuses like fundamentalists, Zionists of Jews and Buddhism in all established religions, despite this so-called science and AI, to save the fundamentalist Brahmin caste superiority. Donald Trump getting elected as the President of Latin America, Germany, France, Italy and America. And what is the proof of the election of a Hindutva party like BJP for the third time in India, the largest democracy in the world?
And all Tukaram, Kabir, Nanak Dev Ji, Mahatma Basveshar, Machhindranath-Gorakhnath and the present day Mahatma Gandhi, Vinobaji, Rishi Arvind, Swami Vivekananda, Raman Maharshi, Periyar, Mahatma Jyotiba Dr. Ambedkar, Rabindranath Tagore have been hijacked by the Sanatani Brahmins and their philosophy has been used in a distorted manner for the last forty years. They are using it for their political interests. And why are we, who consider ourselves secular, progressive people, feeling helpless despite having such a huge tradition? And looking at the examples of murders of some Christ-Gandhi like Martin Luther King Jr., Dr. Narendra Dabholkar, Comrade Pansare, Professor Kalburgi and Gauri Lankesh like scientific minded people by fundamentalists, it seems that on the pretext of the death anniversary of Saint Tukaram 395 years ago, all of us who consider Tukaram Maharaj as our ideal, instead of accepting the solution by just singing hymns on his death anniversary or birth anniversary and offering flowers on his photo or tomb, should follow the philosophy given by him as he speaks (one behaves as he speaks). The last representative of this kind, Mahatma Gandhi, was murdered 77 years ago by the supporters of Sanatan Dharma like Tukaram Maharaj. So on the 395th death anniversary of Sant Shiromani Tukaram Maharaj, I and all of you have to take a pledge that whatever happens, we will never let the flame lit by Tukaram Maharaj and Mahatma Gandhiji against the fundamentalist Brahminic caste superiority die out. This is my humble tribute.
Dr Suresh Khairnar is Ex. President of Rashtra Sewa Dal
