Sofia Ashraf’s Rap Has A Note of Dissent Against Eco-Malpractices

Sofia Ashraf’s rap which went viral recently is imbued with a new sense of dissent against eco-malpractices.

Spreading The Word Through Rap

• Rap is a powerful discourse, a “pop sociology” articulating its discontent with a situation
• Sofia Ashraf’s use of rap to articulate an issue signals a new kind of campaigning
• A local issue becomes a global issue, as music creates a new imaginary

There is something about freedom which demands that it reinvents itself frequently. Freedom demands that you recite it differently or sing it differently. There is a merging hybridity, a new merging of forms which strikes a chord across the world. In fact, protests and politics have always been tinged with music. The Velvet revolution in Czechoslovakia has its roots in a music conference. Jazz was among the most formidable forms of dissent in the Nazi era. Woodstock and Vietnam go together in the memories of every peacenik.

Today music and digitality play a similar role in Indian politics. An Indian citizen defines himself more as a consumer, a judge of services. He wants a recognition of his dignity and he feels citizenship requires rituals of accountability. He feels he can and should question the bureaucracies, corporations, and parties around him. This citizen seeks to emphasize and make new demands. He will not settle for the old entitlements.

One saw an articulation of this in the early days of AAP. One sees it in a different way in the new NGO and civic politics. The use of rap first adopted by the Indian diaspora to articulate their existential situation has now become an extension of NGO politics.

Challenging the Status Quo

Rap is a powerful discourse and it is literally a “pop sociology” articulating its discontent with a situation. It is usually a quick, sharpened analysis with a call for action. Body and voice combine to articulate a different quality of message which is both intensely personal and yet acutely sociological.

A ready example is Sofia Ashraf‘s Kodaikanal song, challenging the multinational Unilever to clean up its act. The speed of the politics and the acuteness of the message has to be emphasized. Ashraf’s song gathered two million views on YouTube within four days of release.

Yet the nature of the text is important as it challenges the expertise of scientists and the squeaky clean image of Unilever. Ashraf is clear that not all the Surf in India can wipe Kodaikanal clean. She is asking Unilever to apply international standards of pollution control in Kodi where mercury was contaminating the locality. The message is quick and the authenticity was backed by reports appearing in Frontline earlier.

Music of Protest

There is a realism and a touch of poetry we must grasp and enjoy. The realism comes from Nityanand Jayaram and the Vetiver collective who have been fighting for Kodi for the last few years. There is an authentic political struggle and a professional reportage in the background. But the message gets new power, obtains a new sense of energy from Sharaf, a former ad executive.

Sharaf has a professional honesty and an everyday candidness which is impressive. She begins as a skeptic initially impressed by Unilever’s data but as ordinary narratives and everyday suffering increase, she realizes that rap as the music of protest created a different message with a different meaning. Between the quiet commitment for Nityanand Jayaram and the almost puckish enthusiasm of Sharaf, a new kind of politics is conveyed. Deeply caring yet infinitely playful.

Unilever retreats and reacts with a speed Lever had not bothered with before. It gives a different edge to the message, adding poignancy which the bureaucratic responses of Unilever cannot match. Unilever which once could afford to be pious now sounds hesitant, even empty.

A local issue becomes a global issue, as music creates a new imaginary. It was not due to enhanced information. It was a change in the narrative, in its reach. It is not a compendium of statistics but a simple request of an intelligent David telling a Goliath to set the record straight. Rap as a musical politics is a genre whose time has come. Nothing can be more musical than justice and yet nothing can be more poignant than the battle against injustice.

(Shiv Visvanathan is a social science nomad.)