Delhi club in trouble over caste-named event

The Piano man is a popular jazz club based in Safdarjung which regularly hosts jazz events in the capital. Recently the club decided to host an event, which turned around to be the biggest controversy for the band and the club both. The name of the band was announced 'Bhangijumping', to which certain communities have taken offence as derogative and demeaning.

The word bhangi is considered a slur used to describe ‘dirty addicts’ and upper castes have used it as an insult, for each other as well towards the Bhangi community to dehumanise them and reduce their identity to something associated with ‘filth’.

In acknowledgement to this, the constitution of India protects the different communities. especially the said 'lower' classes, under Prevention of Atrocities act, which prevents the commission of offences against the members of the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes.

However, not every individual is aware of this law, like the owner of The Piano Man, Arjun Sagar Gupta, who accepted the request of the band 'Bhangijumping' to showcase in his club on 5th June. But as soon as he released the name of the band and the event, Dalit communities came forward to protest against it claiming it was a direct insult to their identity.

When the Dalit community took to social media to oppose the event and the implied mockery, they were greeeted by casteist and explicit slurs like 'Chamar bhangi sale', 'Gutter saaf karne wali' (Chamar Bhangi, the ones who clean manholes) and 'Go back to cleaning toilets now', 'Ambedkar ki najayaaz aulad,' (Ambedkar’s bastards). The women Dalit Bahujans were stalked online and slutshamed and sexually harassed.

In his defence, Gupta said "I was unaware of the legal and social connotations of the word and had never intended to hurt any community or individual. I accept the ignornace on our part and have apologised on Facebook for it."

He further stated that the 3 individuals who had used casteist slurs in their comments were not his acquaintance. "They may have liked the official club page but do not have any direct link to us. It is unfair to attribute any such activity to us," he said.

When asked why the offensive comments were not removed instantly, he explained "We are business people. We are not on social media 24x7, hence we did not know the going-ons on the page. However, as soon as we got to know about them, we deleted them."

Gupta stressed on spreading awareness about the social implications of using such casteist words, as many people are still not exposed to this reality.