The musician Bono has said that music can change the world because it can change people. That is exactly what a 19-member Tamil ensemble called ‘The Casteless Collective’ is doing in Chennai. It was formed by Kabali director Pa Ranjith under the banner of the Neelam Cultural Center. Ranjith advocates for social justice through his films.
The band started off with only Gaana artists. Gaana is a style of Tamil folk music that is deeply rooted in Chennai’s Dalit community. It is commonly played at funeral proceedings and has a lot of stigma attached to it. Recently, it has transformed to shed light on the existing casteism in India. It reflects on the life and hardships of the people who live in the urban slums.
In an interview with T.M. Krishna, the band talked about the dichotomy between South Indian classical music (Carnatic music), which is mainly practiced by Brahmins (upper caste). While Carnatic music is generally lauded, Gaana is treated as untouchable. The band talked about how their instruments were widely stigmatized because they were played at funerals. People expressed fear when they even saw them outside the processions because they believed it would ‘invite death’ into their lives.
Gaana music is also extremely popular in Tamil cinema. However, it has been stripped of its true identity by the industry’s attempts to sexualize it. The band, through their music, wants to make people aware of what the art truly stands for: upliftment of the lower classes.
The band expanded to include genres such as rock, hip-hop, and rap. Promotion of social disparities through rap subculture had especially become popular with the emergence of the movie Gully Boy, which was based on the lives of the Naezy-Divine rapper duo in Mumbai. The band now includes four rappers, seven instrumentalists and eight gaana musicians.
One of their songs, ‘Quota Song,’ acts as a response to the protest by upper caste people who are against reservation for the backward castes. In their debut album Magizhchi, they address a plethora of social issues that exist in India like homophobia, farmer suicides, honour killings, the beef ban and many more.
Through their music, they challenge the status quo and aim to make India in the truest sense of the word, casteless.