From Rangdāri Tax to Rangrezi: Chromatic Landscape of the Post-colonial

Abstract

Rangrez and Rangdār are two commonly used words in north India. ‘Rangrez’ is a painter/dyer, and in Sufi tradition is also a word for Allah. ‘Rangdāri’ is an illegal extortion tax, and the person who collects this tax is called the ‘Rangdār’. In all likelihood, ‘Rangdāri tax’ originates from the geo-political landscape of coal and mining regions of India (in districts which are now in the state of Jharkhand). The term is closely linked with the rise of mafia/gangsters in the region for usurping coal contracts and for effective/extra-legal management of coal workers from the mid-1940s and in the 1950s. The figure who collects this tax is called ‘Rangdār’. Both terms Rangrez and Rangd a-ri centre upon ‘rang’, which largely means colour across the South Asian milieu. Engaging with different terrains occupied by these terms, this article ventures into a less traversed domain of colours in the South Asian context. It uses this occasion to disentangle some of the knots present in the dark abyss of post-colonial political practices while looking back to the roots of the word ‘rang’ (colour). While tracking the historically changing meanings of the word ‘rang’, the article stumbles upon Sufi tradition and argues that this tradition has decisively structured the association of ‘rang’ with colour in South Asian context. Creatively mobilizing the darkness embedded in the word ‘Rangdāri’ tax, I extend my analytical frame to a larger question of addressing hierarchies which go into the making up of the post-colonial chromatic landscape. It is at this level, the figure of the ‘Rangrez’, shrouded in Sufi mystery, appears laden with a number of possibilities and creative tensions.