There is no small talk as Padma Shri awardee Kaluram Bamniya, a well-known Kabir singer, takes the stage at the morning workshop of the Sacred River Festival in Ahilya Fort, Maheshwar, Madhya Pradesh. He starts with Kabir’s Tera Mera Manwa Kaise Ek Hoi Re as he plays the tamboura and is accompanied by a manjira and a dholak player. That’s all he needs to wow his audience. There are many foreigners among the listeners. They cannot understand the words but relate to the clarity of Bamniya’s simplicity and sincerity which is apparent as he sings Hum Pardesi Panchi, Sadhu and Chadariya Jeeni.
Bamniya has always sung from his heart; impromptu and unrehearsed. “Only when I hold the tamboura do I know what I am going to sing,” he says. His grandfather and father did that too—invoke Kabir and propagate the secular saint poet’s teachings at gatherings big and small, in their village Kanheriya, in Madhya Pradesh. But only at lower caste festivals. “We were not allowed in the bhajan gatherings of the upper castes. They didn’t want us around them,” says the soft spoken singer who was awarded the Padma Shri last year.
“I thought it was a hoax because I had never applied for any award or requested anyone to consider me,” he recalls. When his name was announced on television, his phone kept ringing through the night. He and his wife, Tulsi, travelled to Delhi to receive the award. It was the first time Tulsi sat in an aeroplane. “She was so nervous, she wouldn’t let go of my hand,” he laughs. “I guess she finally realised that her husband is worth something.”
When he was but a child, Bamniya learnt to sing from his father, often accompanying him to village performances. He remembers the time his father was diagnosed with tuberculosis and the family land had to be sold off to pay for treatment. The little boy was forced to work as a goat herder at the age of 14, earning `30 a month. But no matter the hardships, Bamniya stuck with Kabir. Even when he worked as a bonded labourer for 14 years—Kabir was the solace that stayed by his side.
In 1984-85, Bamniya was invited to sing at a festival in Nagpur. The press was impressed by his talent and gave him rave reviews the next day. He started singing for Akashvani and Doordarshan. In 2006, Shabnam Virmani of the Kabir Project organised a performance by Bamniya at the India Council for Cultural Relations in Nepal, giving him an international platform for the first time. Ever since then, Bamniya has performed across the country and also in Pakistan. “People love Kabir there,” he says of the neighbouring country.
The Kabir bard’s mission is to keep singing about his inspiration. “I have dedicated my life to him and will continue do so. I want people to actually sadho (listen and imbibe) his teachings to make this world a better place.”