Saturday, April 18, 2015

Meet the musicians challenging India's rising inequality and untouchability...

In early April 2015, three courageous and revolutionary musicians from Kabir Kala Manch — Sachin Mali, Ramesh Gaichor and Sagar Gorkhe — will have completed two years of unjust incarceration in Maharashtra, a western-Indian state.

Kabir Kala Manch, which means Kabir Arts Forum, is a young cultural troupe whose songs and plays often critique the state. They were among the performers at Horata, a cultural resistance festival that the media and arts collective Maraa organized in Bangalore in October and November 2014. But the Bangalore police expressed concerns about the participation of the Kabir Kala Manch, accusing them of being involved in “anti-national” activities. The location of their show had to be changed to a venue that could accommodate police presence.

“Since December 2014 and even earlier, there have been assaults on the freedom of expression — a constitutional guarantee — of writers and singers like me,” said Sarath Naliganti, a young Dalit political activist, who also sang during Horata. “But the Indian government is hardly curbing the rising frequency of such unacceptable actions.”

For the last 30 years, Sambhaji Bhagat, a frequent co-performer with Kabir Kala Manch, has been singing at various protests against the increasing indifference of the state and society towards the socio-economically marginalized. His songs highlight the violence faced by Dalits, who are considered to be outside India’s caste hierarchy and even treated as untouchable in India. Bhagat pens verses about the excesses of the corrupt in the government and the few people who enjoy privileges at the expense of the majority. Full story...

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