Donkeys of Bajanthris

Donkeys of Bajanthris It was election in Karnataka and Gipsy was riding his donkey through each and every constituency.  But when they reached Terdal constituency they have seen a wonderful scene.  Gipsy’s donkey was very pride   till then as he thought he was the only donkey in the world, but he melted when he saw hundreds of donkeys are coming each having a rider.  Surprisingly they all were going to the polling booths. The donkeys don’t have votes, but their masters have.   Terdal Assembly constituency  of Karnataka has its own band of donkey riders. They are called  Bajanthri which literally means a player of a village band.  But they have taken donkey rearing as their means of earning.  They are settled in the villages of Jamkhandi  Taluk of Bagalkot  district.  They own hundreds of donkeys. They migrate seasonally to villages in Belgaum district  bordering to Maharashtra . They and their donkeys work in brick kilns. June to December they and their donkeys take rest. One who are unable to hire vehicles  depend Bajanthris to load their  small loads of various materials such as sand, bricks etc. About 70 to 80 families of Bajanthris are there in the five or six villages   of Jamkhandi Taluk.  Most of these families reside in villages surrounding Rabakavi and Banahatti. Population of the donkies all over the villages is about 3000. Every year they migrate to Kullolli, Yediyur, Manjri and Chinchli villages of Belgaum district located about 80 kms from their villages. They go to these villages normally   eight days after Diwali and return in mid-June or the first week of July depending on the onset of monsoon. Kiln owners pay them a sum of money ranging from Rs 20000 to 30000 as advance for the next season. Outside the polling booths all the donkeys were tied to some trees or some were made stand in gangs near the booths , when the Bajanthris were casting their votes.  Gipsy don’t know other donkies’ language  but his donkey knew the other donkies’ language.  All those donkies want to vote, but their names  were not listed. POSTED BY  S.SALIMKUMAR