What are you listening to these days? What have you been watching? The ongoing nationwide protests against the implementation of the anti-muslim Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) and the proposed National Register of Citizens NRC) – and the state-backed police brutality on students that has followed – have sparked off some beautiful, urgent art: songs and poems, many of them performed on the streets, shot by fellow protestors on their mobile phones. The various local versions of "Bella Ciao", the Italian anti-fascist hymn. The guys singing Faiz Ahmad Faiz's "Hum Dekhenge" sitting atop a mountain. An elderly man dancing to the chants of Azadi with the backdrop of Gateway of India. The singing fishermen in Kerala on a 'water march'. The residents of Shaheen Bagh calling out homeboy Shah Rukh Khan's silence on the situation with humour by singing some of his famous film songs with changed lyrics.
We are revisiting pre-existing songs of dissent and revolution from every where: Coke studio, Pakistan to the Indian People's Theatre Association songbook to Bollywood. Independent musicians are coming up with new music that to add their voices to the movement.
This is a list of songs and poems that have been created as a direct result of the protests and have all been released in the span of last three weeks or so. By the time this piece will be published, there will be some more, and then some. Plus, a recommendation of documentaries that are relevant.
With a video made of "WhatsApp forwards videos in the public domain", the Bengaluru-Delhi based noise rock band uses megaphone effects and garage punk electric guitars, and a refrain that goes: All these decisions are based on religion.
With its easy indie pop sound, the Pune-based band has lyrics that serve as a warning: School college nahi, suna hai detention camp bann rahe hai.
The no-frills and simple "Go Protest" has a message for the government: Sab ko dheere dheere ho raha ab shak hai.
The rage of the moment finds an outlet in the rage of metal music in this anthem by the multi- award winning folk/groove/thrash metal act from South India.
The Delhi-based band and hip-hop duo bring down fascism by combining reggae vibes, Bollywood retro and sharp lyrics.
Rap artist Rahul Negi's Tukde Tukde Gang has something say about everything: from the JNU feel hike to opposing the CAA/NRC.
Rap meets blissed-out electronica meets a Lata Mangeshkar sampling in this new track by New Delhi based indie duo.
The writer, lyricist and stand-up comedian's poem – with a punchline that gets into the heart of the matter – has become a clarion call in the protests opposing the CAA/NRC.
Taking it forward from Grover's "Kaagaz Nahi Dikhayenge", Puneet Sharma's poem – recited on the first day of the Gateway of India protests – makes a necessary point beautifully: My country and I are close enough. Who the hell are you?
Recited in his distinct cadence, this poem by Aziz — the actor and musician who come up with the calming, powerful "Acche Din Blues" and "Pehlu Khan" last year — is an ode to "the brave girls of Jamia".
At the protest organised at Carter Road in Mumbai's Bandra, where a number of filmmakers had come together, Bhardwaj read out lines from a poem he wrote. The delivery is almost tender, the words sting: Sach bhi itna jhootha lagne lagta hai, jhooth bhi itna sacchai se bolte ho.
It may be a good time to watch/revisit Anand Patwardhan's seminal film that documented the madness that began it all: the destruction of the Babri masjid in 1991.
There is an eerily prescient moment in Rakesh Sharma's damning documentation of the involvement of the Gujarat government in the Godhra pogrom of 2002 that links it to the present day: A muslim man dreads the day he has to prove his love for India with a piece of paper, and breaks down in front of the camera.
You may have seen this 40 second clip doing the rounds on social media. Shehnai legend Bismillah Khan — a beedi in hand — talking about how nowhere in the world matches the fakiri way of life around the ghats of Benaras, thereby setting a wonderful example of the Ganga Jamuni tehzeeb. The film, by Gautam Ghose, is available for paid viewing on the National Film Development Corporation website.
The Oscar-nominated film about the "Euromaidan" protests of Ukraine in 2014 served as a model and inspiration for young protestors in Hong Kong. Maybe there is something for us to learn from it as well.