Sound and Fury: The voices creating aggressive Hindutva’s soundtrack | Eye News, The Indian Express

Sound and Fury: The voices creating aggressive Hindutva’s soundtrack | Eye News, The Indian Express

Written by Mansi Dua |New Delhi |Updated: January 20, 2019 7:59:56 am

Sound and Fury: The voices creating aggressive Hindutva’s soundtrack

The phenomenon that stridently highlights that “Hinduism is under siege”, ironically, surfaces around the time the BJP comes to power with a massive mandate in 2014.  

Playlist of rage.

Laxmi Dubey grew up in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh, in a family of singers. By the age of seven, she was singing bhajans on stage and at small gatherings. “We were not this aggressive. I remember singing ‘Hindu-Muslim bhai bhai’ in school, but now I am angry at what is happening,” says the 28-year-old singer. Anger is the hallmark of Dubey’s music; it is reflected in the bristling orange colour-scheme of her videos, and the lyrics that urge her audience to dramatic violence: Khoon se tilak karo, goliyo se aarti. That’s a line from her hit song, Har ghar bhagwa chhayega, which has been watched 20 million times on YouTube since 2017, when she uploaded it. Her songs, composed to a melody-less repetitive beat, speak — in the same breath — of Hindus beheading enemies and worshipping Lord Ram.

Dubey is among a group of singers — mostly members of “upper caste” communities from small towns in the northern heartland — who evangelise a militant form of Hinduism through their songs and videos. Almost all of them have bypassed traditional media to find their audience through the internet. The songs pledge to ban cow slaughter, build a Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya, and pulverise Pakistan by the firepower of the new Hindu, who is often urged to rise and protect his religion.

In Bihar’s Chhapra town, 22-year-old Saurabh Pandey’s phone buzzes with requests to upload Hindutva songs on his YouTube channel. The self-proclaimed kattarwadi(staunch) Hindu is in his final year of B.Sc and manages the Deva Music channel (over 1.7 lakh subscribers) along with his brother. They curate a mix of Bhojpuri songs, which clearly target the minority community (making “Pakistani mullahs” chant Ram’s name is a recurring wish). Pandey is unapologetic about stirring hate against another community.

“That’s what people demand. Had we been doing anything wrong, YouTube would have blocked our channel,” he says.

Playlist of rage: Laxmi Dubey.

Pandey, who was a BJP worker till a while ago, says that such songs became popular around 2013-14. They are now played at political rallies and shobha yatras. A number of these songs are also remixed to make them dance-worthy. “People listen to them in programmes organised by Hindu organisations, and during festivals like Ram Navami and Hanuman Jayanti,” Pandey says. He hints at the political support for his work. “Only people with a strong backing can do this work.”

Sometimes, the soundtrack of rage spills over into the streets, with grievous implications. In March last year, Ram Navami celebrations in Bihar, West Bengal and Telangana took a violent turn when armed Hindutva rallies played “provocative anti-Muslim” songs while passing through Muslim areas. Eyewitnesses told news reporters and the police that Sandeep Chaturvedi’s Topiwala bhi sar jhuka ke Jai Shri Ram bolega was one of many such songs played in Bengal and Bihar. Chaturvedi, 23, who is also a Bajrang Dal member, does not believe his song is provocative.