Hate masquerading as popular music is being sold on the streets of Uttar Pradesh, and millions are consuming it with relish.
Popular purveyors including Upendra Rana, Sandeep Acharya and Prem Krishnvanshi whip up mass frenzy with Hindutva. Whether for a religious procession, a festive occasion like Ram Navami, a political rally, or a song in praise of the Hindu Yuva Vahini, these singers fill up the air space with hatred. Lyrics such as “Dharm ki khatir aage badhke ab hathyar uthhavo (Raise arms for the sake of religion)” and “Insaan nahi ho salo, tum ho kasai, bahaut hua Hindu-Muslim bhai bhai (You are not humans, you are butchers, enough of this Hindu-Muslim brotherhood)” often border on a call for genocide. Some like Acharya go a step further, mouthing lines like, “Aisi koi gali nahin jahan Hinduon ki chali nahin (There is no lane where the Hindus have not called the shots).” The songs have no melody, the visuals are garish, and the singers appear untrained. It is the divisive, even genocidal, lyrics of the songs that have a finger on the pulse.
Claiming to be votaries of Hindu nationalism, and fans of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, the YouTube channels of these singers have hundreds of thousands of subscribers. Leading the charge in western Uttar Pradesh is Upendra Rana. He is based in Rasulpur village of Dadri, the township where 52-year-old Mohammed Akhlaq was brutally killed by a mob in September 2015 on the suspicion of slaughtering a calf. Rana whips up songs that ask the youth to pick up arms to protect their religion. A fan of the Chief Minister, Rana is hugely popular among local politicians, who often invite him to functions and rallies.
A folksinger in his early years, Rana realised after the lynching in Dadri that an easier way to popularity was to belt out Hindutva pop, string together messages of ‘us’ and ‘them’ in songs, and project Muslims as the eternal outsiders. Till the mid-2010s, he mainly catered to the Rajput/Kshatriya audiences, singing “Thakur kaum badi mardani hai (The Thakur community consists of real men)”. As he moved with the times, his Rajput fascination ceded ground to Muslim antipathy. Now, he counts rabble-rouser Yati Narsinghanand, the chief priest of the Dasna Devi temple, as his mentor, and is often seen performing before Narsinghanand’s public addresses. His frequent calls to violence and social boycott of Muslims have got him more than 4.78 lakh subscribers on his YouTube channel. Interestingly, Narsinghanand was among the first to call for a social boycott of Muslims in the region and ensured that the Dasna temple was out of bounds for minorities. In 2021, a teenage Muslim boy was thrashed for entering the local temple premises to drink water from a tap.
Rana has to keep the hate flowing, for he has a lot of competition. Each singer of this genre is vying to outdo the other. For instance, when Krishnvanshi sang “Hinduo ka hae Hindustan, Mullo jao Pakistan (India is for the Hindus, Muslim go to Pakistan),” his popularity reached a new high. Once an aspiring Hindi playback singer, Krishnvanshi found the route of Hindutva pop a definite guarantee to instant fame. His “Hum sher hai bhagwadhari (We are lions clad in saffron)” garnered more than 4.6 lakh views on YouTube. Krishnvanshi, who often dedicates his music to the Chief Minister, even composed a special song for him on his birthday. The message is no longer subtle.
Acharya is even more upfront . He threw an open challenge to the minorities by singing, “Kisi ke baap ka nahin Ayodhya (Ayodhya doesn’t belong to anyone’s father).” The song has been watched by one crore people on YouTube. His songs have been quite the rage in eastern Uttar Pradesh over the last couple of years, especially during Ram Navami.
Laxmi Dubey began her career as a journalist with a local Hindi newspaper before changing track. She now sings songs which she claims promote Hindu nationalism. Dubey provides the complete package. Dressed in saffron, she sings aggressively, strikes postures to go with the lyrics, and is happy to display swords, batons and guns in the backdrop. If music can divide, Dubey’s can create an irreparable rift. Her channel has 3.59 lakh subscribers.
With the masses consuming hateful lyrics with no compunction, the government’s silence sends a signal of validation. Hindutva pop comes at a price.
