About old, regressive Bollywood songs

Many old songs are turned into memes and reels these days. While the song plays in the background, social media influencers, even known celebrities, perform some act, or simply lip sync.

For example, many were creating reels on the song Akela hun main, iss duniya me…

But there is this song that has triggered many “modern thinking” women, especially leftist feminists:

Tadpaoge, tadpalo, ham tadap tadap kar bhi tumhaare geet gayenga

– Are you going to torment me? Then torment me, but even while being tormented, I’m going to sing paeans to you.

The sheer widespread acceptance for this song, especially the fact that many influencers are lip syncing it, has disturbed progressive women who think that such songs encourage patriarchy, male dominance, and the subjugation of women.

One feminist influencer explained how cleverly, mostly male lyricists, used to write such songs to gaslight women.

She gave examples of songs such as

Tum apne charano me rakh lo mujhko, tumhaare charano ka phool hu main, main sar jhukaye khadi hu preetam, ke jaise mandir me lo diye ki

– Keep me near your feet, I’m a flower to be offered at your feet, I stand before you with my bowed head, I’m the flame of a lamp in your temple.

Tumhri daasi, janam ki pyaasi, tumhi ho mera singaar preetam, tumhare raste ki dhool lekar, main maang apni sadaa bharungi

– I’m your slave, I thirst for you, you are my adornment and beauty, I will use the dust in your path as vermilion on my head.

Tumhi mere mandir, tumhi meri pooja, tumhi devtaa ho

– You are my temple, you are my devotion, you are my deity.

To be frank, if you simply focus on the words, especially when you are translating them, they may seem revolting to the sensibility of modern readers, both men and women.

But these songs were mostly written during the times when husband was still considered “bhagvaan” and total surrender to your husband wasn’t looked down upon even among educated, modern women.

Remember that it was okay to spank the wife in America and other European countries even till the 1970s.

This particular scene is often shared on social media:

In The Mayor of Casterbridge (Thomas Hardy) it is considered normal to sell one’s wife to pay off debt.

Besides, such language was used to express extreme love, rather than moral, physical and spiritual surrender. In English literature, you may have often come across the phrase, “I’m your humble servant” — did it mean the person was actually someone’s servant? No, it was just an expression.

“Yours obediently” is still used to sign off letters.

With some effort, you can also find male equivalents of such songs in Bollywood.

Ik but banunga tera aur pooja karunga

– I will make your idol/statue and pray to you.

Chaahe bana do, chaahe mitado, mar bhi gaye to, denge duaen, ud ud ke kahegi, khaaq sanam, ye darde muhabbat sehne do

– You can make my fortune, or you can destroy me, even if I die in the process, I will give you my blessings, my ashes, while floating in the air, will plead that let me endure this agony of love.

Tujhe dekha, tujhe chaha, tujhe puja maine, bas itni khata hai meri, aur khataa kyaa

– I saw you, I desired you, I prayed to you like a devotee, this is my only mistake, I have done nothing else.

Isn’t this the same thing? A complete surrender?

This is how love was expressed in the songs, and even through many dialogues.

Sure, they don’t cater to our current ethos, but it doesn’t mean when such lyrics were being written, there was some bad intention in them.

Yes, people were conditioned that way, but the songs were written to show extreme form of love and surrender.

We don’t see such songs these days because I don’t think we have the vocabulary to express true love these days. Love these days is transactional. It is more violent. You can say it is more expressive, but in its true sense, love these days is violent and mercantile.

That’s the reason that people these days cannot relate to such lyrics.

Besides, it is silly to morally and ethically evaluate people who lived in another time and were a product of that time.

I know, you’re going to say that this can be applicable to every atrocity that happened in the past, and I agree with you.

I’m not endorsing what Hitler did or what the Mughals and Europeans did in India, because some atrocities and indiscretions are transcendental and unequivocal — they were bad then, and they will be bad now.

But some opinions — especially manifested through literature and poetry — are time-based, and they cannot be judged based on our current perceptions.