The Rohida Conversations

questions in the public perception. This podcast, however, questions this; not to negate this perception but to engage and see how music, as an active medium of love and harmony, does so.

I will also try to understand where else music is being employed in contemporary times.

Bhakti, Sufism, and saint poetry are well-admired musical traditions that have long histories of resisting caste hierarchies and religious orthodoxy through values of faith-oriented egalitarianism.

In 2016, in Rajasthan, India, a cultural organization called Rajasthan Kabir Yatra, and the Rajasthan State Police Department collaboratively took the initiative to start Project #TanaBana to celebrate these traditions. They organized music festivals at the sites where incidents of communal violence took place, as a placemaking exercise.

In this podcast, I study the impact of #music as a #mitigation strategy to counter hate. I speak to various artists, organizers, scholars, journalists, and lawyers to understand the anatomy of #otherization beyond acts of violence and how music can or cannot engage with the deeper issue of otherization.

In the process, I interrogate the efficacy of the state and the non-state actors to use music instead of or along with constitutionally guided tools such as education, awareness, accessible policing and justice.

Through conversations with artists and organizers, I explore the potential of these traditions in mitigating hate and bringing people together on shared traditions, heritage, and lives. I examine processes such as otherization, social ostracization, and ex-communication that affect inter-mingling and camaraderie among a diverse pool of people. I also explore the people’s faith in the vitality of these traditions, not only as a utopia but also as a community-rooted strategic tool to maintain a harmonious or, at times, working relationship in society.

This bi-weekly podcast will be in three languages: English, Hindi, and Rajasthani. Starting from March 28th, 2025, a new episode will be released every second Friday. You can tune in for the podcast on Spotify or Youtube. Stay tuned!

Art work Ananta Dutta