A 28-year-old youth hailing from Uttarakhand has garnered significant attention on social media with his rap song on casteism named ‘Jaat Kya Hai’ (What is caste), a soundtrack on ill practices which practice prejudice based on caste system in the society, was released two days ago. The song has garnered more than 17,000 views on YouTube.
Rahul Negi, who goes by his stage name Madara, has been singing rap songs on various social issues like child labour, education and several campus-based issues such as those from national capital’s Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Rahul’s past tracks have been widely appreciated across the board for touching issues which are not a common choice for artists from the same genre. In his recent track on casteism produced in collaboration with music production house Seven & Seven, he has received appreciation from Bollywood personalities like Swara Bhaskar and politicians like Jignesh Mewani among several others.
Speaking about the track Jaat Kya Hai, Rahul says, “I chose to sing on casteism issue because I had seen it happening in my family and close surroundings while growing up in Uttarakhand. Later when I shifted to Delhi, I saw prevalence of casteism there as well, owing to which I grew frustrated. It helped because I always write my songs when I get frustrated with any issue.”
Rahul said, “During childhood in Uttarakhand, my family members were indulged in this evil practice. They would point out towards the Dalits and say not so good things about them. As an inquisitive person from childhood, I used to ask them the reason behind it on which they told me that they do bad things. But after growing up I realised that it’s us who do bad things and they are the ones who clean them. Despite that, they face all the discrimination.”
{{/usCountry}}Rahul said, “During childhood in Uttarakhand, my family members were indulged in this evil practice. They would point out towards the Dalits and say not so good things about them. As an inquisitive person from childhood, I used to ask them the reason behind it on which they told me that they do bad things. But after growing up I realised that it’s us who do bad things and they are the ones who clean them. Despite that, they face all the discrimination.”
{{/usCountry}}Rahul, who gained popularity with his latest track named ‘Tukde Tukde Gang’ based on JNU episode, claims that it is when he saw casteism in his close circle in an urban space like Delhi, he decided to make a song about it and began researching the subject.
“I read books by Baba Saheb Ambedkar, Arundhuti Roy and others on the subject before penning down the song. As I keep myself updated on various current affairs and incidents happened in country, I mentioned many gruesome incidents of castiesm in my song including one in which an 8-month-old pregnant Dalit sanitary worker was beaten to death by an upper-caste family just because she touched their dustbin,” he said.
Rahul says it took him a month to write the song and produce the final track which in his words is a ‘dark track with connotations of real incidents and pictures of incidents of atrocities against Dalit in the song’s video.’
Some of his lyrics in the songs include questions like, “Kyun Aaj Bhi Ek Jaat Mandir ki Thekedaar, Kyun Aaj Bhi Ek Jaat Karti Gutter Saaf,” and “Aaj Bhi Eklavya ke Angoothe Kat te Roz Hain.”
“My music producer Nischay Sharma and I both hail from upper-caste but we produced this track because we have witnessed casteism happening in our close surroundings which is just sick and frustrating. After the track was released, we got a lot of appreciation from public and different personalities through call and on social media platforms,” Rahul says.
On making more similar songs in the future, he said that his next song will be based on depression and will release in August.
“It would be followed by 2-3 more songs which would be on some so-called social media influencers who use expletives and abuses in their videos under the garb of nationalism,” says Rahul.