In the heart of Punjab, a region in northwestern India, there is a village of barely 1,000 inhabitants, in the middle of a rural and neglected area of the country. Mehsampur looks harmless. However, this small town seems to have transformed over the years into a crossroads of vice, a mixture of alcoholism and the search for easy sex.
In 2018, a docufiction, soberly titled Mehsampur, was filmed there, recounting the horrors of a place that the authorities seem to have forgotten. But in the memory of lovers of local popular music, this name is not about to disappear. It was there, on March 8, 1988, that the singer Amar Singh Chamkilahis wife Amarjot Kaur and two of their musicians were murdered in the street in the middle of the afternoon.
Amar Singh Chamkila was due to perform at a wedding a few hours later. But a gang of armed bikers, still unidentified today, decided otherwise. On this day, the most famous singer of Punjab music would die at the age of 27 and leave behind him an entire mystery. Who wanted him dead? A rival singer? A local mafia? Religious authorities?
Massacres and bloody partition
In the 1980s, popular music from Punjab began to be exchanged recorded on audio cassettes, through a loose network, between pirate recordings and more official releases. But it is not the latter that really touch the hearts of the public. At that time, songs circulating secretly or produced by small independent record companies abounded and allowed their authors and performers to tour throughout the region.
Their status is precarious, but some – the most strategic – manage to extricate themselves from precariousness. Amar Singh Chamkila is one of them. His specialty: duets. When he started out, he searched for a long time for the voice that would accompany him over the long term, the one with which he would feel an alchemy that would be transmitted to the public.
Amarjot Kaur, a young singer then little known, became her partner on stage, then in civilian life. They married on May 23, 1983, for love of course, but also to seal their professional association. Amar Singh Chamkila writes the texts, his specialty, and the couple tours tirelessly in Punjab, sometimes giving more than 365 concerts in a year.
This region of the world is incredibly complex. In 1947, when the British Raj fell, India becomes independent. Punjab is then cut in two, one half passing into Pakistani territory. The civil and religious war that begins caused several million deaths. In the Indian part, the Hindus and the Sikhs reinforce their base with great blows of massive displacements of the population and policy of purification. Same thing in Pakistan, where Punjab becomes Muslim.
Ten years later, the face of the region has completely changed and tensions remain. So much so that in 1984, the Sikh insurrection demanding the autonomy of this small part of India started again. When the country’s Prime Minister, Indira Ghandi, was assassinated on October 31, 1984, the Sikhs of Punjab, from which the murderer came, suffered a series of reprisals with massacres and pogroms. In the mid-1980s, their cultural and political influence on Punjab nevertheless remained major, raw. And beware of those who dare to challenge it.
sing of poverty
It is in this bloody context that the career of Amar Singh Chamkila is gaining momentum. Unlike many artists tolerated by the authorities, he decides to sing frankly about the difficulties of rural daily life, the ravages of colonialism, its lasting consequences, the cultural contradictions it has caused. With his wife Amarjot Kaur, he notably recounts extramarital love affairs, a taboo under the strict conservative yoke.
Thanks to their growing notoriety, they have the opportunity to go on tour in Canada and the United States, where they delight the Indian diaspora.
The other secret of the musician’s success lies in his closeness to his audience. He never hesitates to perform at major free concerts, or in small villages on the occasion of weddings, local festivals. It does not wall up in an ivory tower, quite the contrary: it is based on authenticity, on the desire to chronicle reality.
In Punjab, he became the biggest record seller in the history of local music. In 1985 he and Amarjot Kaur released three acclaimed albums: Baba Tera Nankana, Talwar Main Kalgidhar Di Haanthen Naam Jap Le. Alcohol, adultery, sex, poverty and religion are major themes.
Amar Singh Chamkila is also known for his film scores. In India, the Bollywood industry stagnated a little in the mid-1980s, lost in the accumulation of similar scenarios, but retained its influence. The titles “Pehle Lalkare Naal” and “Mera Jee Karda», both present on the soundtracks of films released in 1987, complete their domination of the Punjab music market. What to make jealous?
Even today, several music players of the time swear that a strong resentment towards Amaz Singh Chamkila and his hegemony in the market would have run rampant, with some competitors accusing him of monopolizing sales. Add to that the complaints of the most chaste and harshest ears: it takes no less for him to be summoned before a Sikh religious committee responsible for judging the seriousness of his musical offenses.
The appearance takes place at Golden temple in Amritsar, in the Punjab, a Sikh spiritual high place, a sacred and imposing enclosure, from which the authorities reign with severity. The singer asks forgiveness there for his sprains of propriety, reminds the committee of his most reasonable texts, such as the success Talwar Main Kalgidhar Di Haan. He emerges free, but the warning is crystal clear.
Different credible tracks
A few months later, Amar Singh Chamkila travels to Mehsampur. A young man from the village who emigrated to Canada makes his big comeback to get married. March 8, 1988 is the pre-wedding ceremony. Chamkila and his band, including his wife, are to perform there. They arrive at 2 p.m., get out of their vehicle. What follows is blurry.
Several motorcycles, each ridden by two men, burst into the street, stop at their height, and machine-gun the group, killing four people and silencing the voices of Amar Singh Chamkila and Amarjot Kaur forever. It is almost accepted that the motivations for this assassination are politico-religious. Given the context, the threats received and the status of the musician, the track of the act sponsored in high places is not fanciful, on the contrary. But would it be too simple?
Several researchers and historians also evoke a hypothesis involving the family of Amarjot Kaur. The latter has always sung without the blessing of her parents, very conservative. Dishonor, his choice to unite with Chamkila, a member of the chamar community and therefore of the Untouchables, lower caste, would be a credible motive. From there to kill their own relative?
Finally, there is always the trail of rival musicians, supported by the professional entourage of Amar Singh Chamkila, who swears in each interview that jealousy would eventually have its skin. It is unlikely that a version close to the truth will soon come to light.
In Punjab, peace seems to have returned, in appearance. The utopia of an independent Sikh state is now distant, but it would take little to rekindle the flame of independence. The region is one of the poorest in India, and the desire to maintain a social status quo pushes the authorities to favor union, not to dig up the dead. Nor their killers.
Who murdered Amar Singh Chamkila, musician and great voice of Punjab?