Humour and Songs of Protest

Social protest over time has continously adapted and revisited its role against those in power.
Parallely the power as a response takes up ignorance or suppressive position against those in
social protest. Talking in the contemporary urban context of Indian narrative, the power has
experienced a saffronised transformation, this transformation is not an immediate but a one
growing as an anti-establishment movement by the conservative right wing Hindu organisations
and political parties like RSS and BJP. The power after being transeffered to these organisations
has resulted in changed Political, economical and religious dynamics of the country. The
changed power demographies has also refelected in the instruments of Social Protest, In this
paper I will attempt to read collectively and individually two Important tools of Urban protest
i.e., Humour and Music with specific illustrations from the Sahiri Tradition’s Sambhaji Bhagat.

“Yet protesters cannot always use humour. In strongly polarized settings, humour is one
of the first victims. Seriousness and a strong emphasis on the righteousness of the claims
inhibit laughter and joy. It is not without reason that revolutionaries (along with
scientists) have been labelled humourless. Indeed, much social protest is fuelled by anger
and fear, which leave little room for more frivolous thoughts: the sense of humour varies
strongly among classes, groups, and time.” (Giselinde Kuipers, Good Humor, Bad Taste:
A Sociology of the Joke (Berlin [etc.], 2.006), p. 230.)
Humor and redicule belongs to the powerful instruments of dissent and are often used as such in
social protest. Puns, punch lines, and jokes can articulate discontent; visualize injustice. Another
Important quality of Humour in social protest is advantage is to disarm the formal modes of
response to injustice by the masses. Mobilization is also exponential when Humour engages with
any Social Protest. Criticism expressed in a joking manner is also more difficult to refute by
rational arguments. But at the same time this refution of rationality problematises the
conversations between the protesting bodies and the power/ governing bodies. Humor appeals to
all-human feelings and it’s engagement with a social protest mobilises great force against the
injustice. Humour can lower political barriers and at the same time boost up a sense of collective
together. Safadr Hashmi’s Street theatre especially ‘Kursi,kursi,kursi’(1975) carry strong
redicules against the then Indira Gandhi government. The play narrates the story of a king whose
throne moves with him when he attempts to give it up in favour of an elected representative.
Other political performances such as Machine, plays on the distress of small peasants (Gaon Se
Shahar Tak), on clerical fascism (Hatyare & Apharan Bhaichare Ke), on unemployment (Teen
Crore), on violence against women (Aurat) and on inflation (DTC ki Dhandhli) by Janam(Jan
Natya Manch) represented serious concerns of the middle and lower classes through elements of
humour culminated with street theatre which also turned out as a strong political instrument
against companies and the government. This developed style became a symbol for cultural
resistance against the authoritarianism.
Sambhaji Bhagat

Maharashtra’s tradition of ‘shahiri’ is several centuries old. In the last few decades of the 18th
century, under the influence of Mahatma Phule’s Satyashodhak Samaj, it was transformed into a
musical weapon of the masses, against the caste system. Among the shahirs of the past and
present, Sambhaji Bhagat is the most discussed, he continues to perform his songs of dissent in
slums and neglected neighbourhoods across Maharashtra. At the same time he moves out these
spaces and performs for Movies like ‘Court’, which also received the National film Award in
2015. The sahiri tradition speaks with the anti-caste conscience. Sambhaji Bhagat traces his
ideological standpoint as Ambedkarite, which is clearly reflective in his style of work. Sambhaji
has contributed extensively in widening the horizons of Dalit art, his association of humor and
music performs a dual function for the aural imaginary of the communitiy and the communities
located outside a) he provides an aural imagination of the contemporary politics from the
oppresed dalit class prespective, where the Shahri becomes the representative of the former b)
the practioners of the form focuses on the political value of the aural tradition with social
upliftment and awareness of the oppressered been the primary purpose of their art practise.

“Aural imaginary is more akin to (yet still distinct from) the psychoanalytic “sonorous
envelope” described by David Schwarz as “a fantasy of a thing and a threshold crossing
space,”42 which remains tied to the “oceanic fantasies” or the sonorous womb of the
mother’s voice, notions that have been elaborated on by Kaja Silverman (acoustic
mirror), Mary Ann Doane (sonorous envelope), and Julia Kristeva (maternal voice) as
exemplary of objet petit autre.Though fruitful, the concepts, however, fail to
acknowledge the political economic and neocolonial context for listening or to account
for how race is structured”within that process.” (Touching Listening: The Aural
Imaginary in the World Music Culture Industry by Roshanak Kheshti)

The Sahiri tradition is a move away from the popular traditional and classical schools of music
and engage mostly with the political context of listening and social existence. Sambhaji’s style of
music enabled the people to engage with the complexities of oppression in a simplified
humoristic manner. This traditon also lay as an example of the intersection between music and
ideology, thus making it protest as well as an educative tool. Sambhaji’s songs and conversations
in between carry a strong anti-caste flavour. This intergrates the so called propagated separation
between art and politics, he says ‘as a shahir my art is my politics.’ Sambhaji Bhagat’s style and
execution of the form has made many Shahirs to re-think their own approach towards art.

Another depature that Sambhaji takes while performing his songs is the departure from the
dependency on musical aesthetics. He discusses elaboratly with his audience about the politics
behind his songs, which is an important move away from the normalised traditional
performances.