Can avoid, but not ignore them Jats!

Nonika Singh

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More than two decades ago when I met the man who is now my husband, I paid little  heed to his caste. To me, he was no more, no less than a charming and educated suitor. That I had never known anyone from his community was beside the point too. Over the years as he has worn his identity of being a half Jat from Haryana up his sleeve with pride and glee, I have stood both awed and peeved by what I call his jaatpana. I have invariably marvelled at this ‘mad’ streak that treads the fine line between courage and audaciousness.

Unapologetic and unashamed about who they are, by now I have lost count of the number of times he has tried to regale me with this joke which I bet by now is part of Haryanvi folklore. The joke goes like this: A Jat farmer was fed up of rats in his house. Unable to find a way to get rid of them, he decided to teach them a lesson and set his house on fire. To explain his brash behaviour, what he said is too chaste to lend itself to translation. Suffice it to say the joke sums up their impetuous characteristics to the T. 

A sample of this foolhardiness was evident when the state was up in flames during the Jat agitation, when many of them took to the ghar phoonk dekh tamasha. Sane voices like that of actor Randeep Hooda, who is as brusque and blunt as the rest of his ilk, did try to rein them in. But the damage was done. The Jats had lived up to the popular acronym: just avoid them. 

Only if we could. India can’t manage without the Haryanvis, Jats very much included. Love them, hate them, be it on the battlefront or sporting  arena, men and women from this small state have brought far too many laurels for the country and can only be ignored at our peril. If Haryana’s sportspersons won 22 medals out of the total tally of 66 at the Commonwealth Games, a similar sporting script was written at the Asian Games. Instead of preening in their glory, jokes have already begun to circulate. One meme shows a kid drinking milk straight out of the bucket to impress upon why Haryana is a medal factory. Yet another suggests: now people are demanding reservation in gold medals, too.  

Laugh at them or laugh along with them, they reserve the right to laugh at their own selves. Now I know why my other half prefers to not go to town with the other half of his caste identity. For who would like to be associated with uppity Rajputs who are offended by something as trivial as a film (read Padmavat)? Real men, and women too, to paraphrase Henry Ward Beecher, always find excuses for others but never excuse themselves.

All barbs drawn with sugar-coated humour, they are ready to take on and take down not just their adversaries but the ultimate enemy of mankind: ergo the ego.