Yet another Haryana folk singer killed: When success is life-threatening
On Thursday, a folk singer in Haryana, who had gone missing since January 14, was found dead in Rohtak district’s Baniyani — the native village of chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar.
The singer has been identified as 40-year-old Mamta Sharma, who performed at religious gatherings. Sharma’s son Bharat said his mother went missing after leaving home with her associate Mohit Kumar to attend an event in Gohana.
According to Kumar, while they were on their way, a car met them at Lahli village. Sharma left in that car, telling Kumar she would join him in Gohana after an hour. However, she went missing after that, following which a police complaint was lodged. No arrest has so far been made in the case.
This is not the first murder of a folk singer in Haryana. Reports of violence and threats against artists have become all too common in the past few years.
In October 2017, 22-year-old Harshita Dahiya, a popular performer, was shot dead in Panipat while returning from a show. Her brother-in-law later confessed to the murder. Dahiya had released videos on social media talking about the harassment she had been facing.
On January 3 this year, another Haryanvi singer and dancer Aarti Bhoria had registered a police complaint in Rohtak against a rival, claiming she was using hired criminals to issue rape and death threats to her.
In 2016, artist Sapna Choudhary attempted suicide, allegedly due to the online harassment she had been facing. A police complaint had been filed over Choudhary over some lines in her song that were allegedly derogatory to a caste.
Another singer, Lalita Sharma, had been killed in 2015 along with her husband when she was seven months pregnant. Her seven-year-old son had been the witness in the case, in which a domestic help and his accomplice were arrested. In 2012, Binu Chaudhary, a popular singer, was murdered. Police had later arrested a former lover for hiring sharpshooters to kill her. Pasi Nayyar was another singer who was killed on her way to a show.
Most of these artists performed a modified form of the Haryanvi folk art of Ragini. The art traditionally involved public performances of poems on socio-cultural or religious themes. However, in the past few years, the lyrics have become risqué, and the stage has moved from village chaupals to the online space, too, with social media playing a big part in making an artist popular.
However, the fame and money these artists earned seem to be the very factor that pushed them into harm’s way.
Haryana, with its skewed sex ratio and high rates of gender crimes – the state reported the highest number of gang rapes in 2016, 2015 and 2014 – is not a friendly place for women. In the past few weeks, it has been rocked by a number of rape cases, turning up the heat on CM Khattar.
In a deeply patriarchal society, a woman earning her own keep, and even supporting her family financially, is seen as an aberration, a threat to the established order.
To add to that women involved in the performing arts are often seen as "bad girls", those who are willing to present themselves to the public’s gaze, stepping out of the four walls of the "home" and the protection that it offers to their "modesty".
To a regressive, patriarchal mind, the rules of conduct with such women – who have their own identities – are different, they are not entitled to the respect that another man’s daughter, sister or wife deserves.
Folk artists often perform on public stages to an overwhelmingly, and often exclusively, male audience, who seemingly lack the ability to distinguish the artist from the art, conflating the suggestive nature of the songs with the identity of the singer.
This is a potentially lethal mix, the woman is both a challenge and a temptation to patriarchy, while also consigned to a position deserving less than respect. Any kind of strain on top of it – professional rivalry, personal relationships – predictably ends in violence.
The murderers of Mamta Sharma are yet to be arrested. However, her killing is yet another example of how a working woman is at risk in a society that refuses to treat women as equals.
Also read: Why 'Nirbhaya like' rapes continue to haunt India