As the year draws to a close, we pick six songs that have served as a musical protest against different social injustices India and the world witnessed in 2020
Kabir Naik stands in front of trees felled at Mollem
The issue has made headlines internationally, with papers like The Guardian in the UK covering it in detail. But closer to home, the threat that the Mollem National Park is facing after the government sanctioned railway tracks and highways to cut through it has found muted mention in the media, with local activists staging a fight instead.
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Mollem marta ulle, a Konkani track that 17-year-old rapper Kabir Naik has written and performed, takes up the cudgel on their behalf. The title translates to 'Mollem calling' and Naik tells us that the song acts as an appeal that the forest is making to citizens to utilise whatever talent they have to save their heritage, land and identity. "The most dangerous thing [about the government's plan] is the fragmentation of the national park into different parts, which will be devastating for the wildlife there and lead to about 60,000 trees being felled," the rapper says about the issues he brings up in the track, the video for which is intersected with a Q&A session where he delves into them in further detail. But he is not the only artiste to have highlighted social injustices in this eventful year.
Here are five other songs that turned music into a form of protest in 2020.
Southern discomfort
Arivu
June 19 marked yet another day of police torture in India, but this time to a fatal end. A father-son duo were allegedly thrashed to death while in custody at Shantakulam in Tamil Nadu. The incident sparked protests and enraged local rapper Arivu enough for him to write Hashtag justice, a track which asks, 'Who is the real criminal?' before providing the answer — 'The murderous police.'
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US and them
Lil Baby
When Black Lives Matter protestors hit the streets of Atlanta in the US after George Floyd's brutal killing in May, local rapper Lil Baby wasted no time in penning his own thoughts on the matter and released The bigger picture, within three weeks of the incident. The song shows how police brutality isn't just confined to small towns in South India, but is as much of a reality in large American cities.
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Anger crops up in this song
Farmers stage a protest at the Delhi border. Pic/PTI
Singers Kanwar Grewal and Harf Cheema have released a track called Pecha that has all the trappings of a Punjabi tune including dhol beats, but don't expect to dance the bhangra to this one. It's suited more for Shiva's dance of destruction, given the palpable anger about the new farm laws, and a stern warning to the government — we can burn you like the crops on our fields.
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Mumbai meets Delhi
Delhi Sultanate
Mumbai act Swadesi has built a solid reputation as a politically conscious rap group, as has Delhi Sultanate all the way in the national capital. The two joined forces to release Kranti havi, a track that expresses solidarity with the anti-CAA protestors who rattled the government earlier this year. But it also picks holes in other policies such as the GST law and different state governments banning beef.
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Stronger together
Odhikar, an Assamese song that various local artistes have collaborated for, sounds more like a tune that someone might have composed during the country's struggle for independence from the British. Its rousing chorus is a clear call for solidarity, except that the lyrics aren't pointing a finger of blame at any coloniser, but at our own government for bringing in the CAA and NRC.
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