The singers and poets of rural India

Five women sing a Bihu song or two as they work in paddy fields in Assam’s Jorhat district. The first few in a series of songs that together archive the many shades of agrarian life in the region

Afiya Khatun, a singer and Youtuber, has had her identity questioned on social media and a police complaint filed against her for singing a song in Assamese. Despite this, she persists in her art

Identifying as neither Hindu nor Muslim, Adivasi musician Amjad Murad Gond carries on the family tradition of singing qawwalis at the dargah of Hazrat Pir Qamar Ali Durvesh in Maharashtra

In Chug village of West Kameng district, Karchung is the honoured wedding singer

A little girl from Matang community singing for alms with her parents in the villages of Maharashtra, grows up to be a revolutionary Shahir. Playing ‘dimadi’, a small percussion instrument and singing Bhim geet, she spreads the message of Babasaheb. Here is her story on the occasion of Ambedkar Jayanti on April 14, 2024

In Assam’s Jorhat district, musicians from the Chutia community sing and play Bihu 'naam' (songs) – a tradition that has continued over generations. The beat of the dhul and the clash of the taal, mix with lyrics that switch between romantic love, joy at the abundance of new paddy, folktales and more

Sukumar Biswas is a coconut seller, a daily wage worker and a musician who sings about his homeland

An Adivasi poet from Gujarat, Vajesinh Pargi, died on September 23, 2023. From the margins of mainstream Gujarati literature to which he was relegated, he wrote powerful poems about hope, hardships, and hunger. A tribute to the fine poet who wrote in Panchmahali Bhili and Gujarati

A lone folk singer takes the Alha-Udal (Rudal) epic across the state, singing in fields, wedding parties and home events. He recalls a time when he was much in demand, but says now interest is dwindling in this long musical – an 800-year-old story of a warrior duo

Folk songs acquired a new meaning during the freedom struggle as the drum-beating messengers and singers also spread the message of rebellion against British rule

In Murshidabad, West Bengal, Kohinoor sings for the rights of women, labour, farming and more. Her music brings people together and bolsters solidarity

In West Bengal’s Beldanga, Kohinoor Begum sings about the exploitative work of rolling beedis

Satyajit Morang is from the Mising tribe in Assam. In this video he sings a love song in the Oinitom style, and talks about herding buffaloes on the islands formed in the Brahmaputra river

The 25-year-old musician sings about an inclusive Assam in the jhumur style of music, accompanied by the madol, jhumur dhol and flute

On his birth anniversary, a tribute to Shahir Atmaram Salve, whose fiery poetry shaped the Namantar movement in Marathwada in the 1970s-80s. His songs stir the struggle for Dalit rights even today

On Ambedkar Jayanti, Shahir Atmaram Salve’s poetry exhorts the listener to give up the old ways and follow the path shown by Babasaheb

This youngster in Jorhat performs songs of jhumur – a folk art form in several states of eastern India. Those he sings, though, have evolved across generations in the tea garden communities of Assam

At celebrations and commemorations during the winter months, young men and women from Chhattisgarh's Gond community travel together to perform the Hulki Mandri and Kolang dances, and sing Rela songs

Maniram Mandawi, a flute-maker from the Gond Adivasi community in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district, recalls a time when forests were rich in animals, trees and bamboo for his signature 'swinging flute'

In Kalahandi district, Duleshwar Tandi – ‘Rapper Dule Rocker’ – a tuition teacher, construction worker and occasional migrant, expresses anguish through this song at the plight of migrants in the lockdown

Several hereditary harmonium repairmen – now a very rare occupation – from Jabalpur, MP, were trapped in Renapur, Maharashtra, for over two months due to the lockdown. They tell PARI how they coped

Parai artists Manimaran and Magizhini are tapping into social media to continue performing under lockdown, and spreading awareness about Covid-19 through talks and recorded videos

Ajit Shelke or ‘Rapboss’ sings powerfully in this Marathi rap song about the acute distress of farmers in Maharashtra: ‘I see there is now only one option to choose, Around my neck, do I hang the noose?’

The Adivasis of the Niyamgiri hills of Odisha won a victory in 2013 against mining, but the threats to their ancestral land remain. Rajkishor Sunani, poet-activist, sang about this at the recent Niyamgiri festival

Raju Chowdhury of West Bengal's Bishaypur village is a storyteller, a feverish singer, an impersonator. His income is modest, the work is hard. This film features his stunning dance as the imaginary Tara sundori

A moving poem, along with a video, on the anguish of farmers who marched 180 kilometres from Nashik to Mumbai from March 6 to March 12, 2018, with the desperate hope of being heard, and with determination too

Barsha Garai of Shyambati village in West Bengal’s Birbhum district is the only girl of her age training with veteran Baul musician Basudeb Das, and singing philosophical Baul songs since she was four years old

Students of the zilla parishad primary school in Nandgaon village in Pune district sing of equality and a freedom yet to be achieved in this country of 1.3 billion – a reminder for Children's Day, November 14

That’s the title of a poem an outraged and anguished Suyash Kamble wrote after witnessing the violence at Koregaon Bhima on January 1 this year. The prolific 20-year old Dalit poet from Shiradwad village in Kolhapur district wants to be a journalist, because, he says, ‘… a good journalist will never be silent’

In the seven audio songs here, Adivasi girls from a residential school in Farsegarh village of Chhattisgarh's Bijapur district sing of trees and fields, friends and families, of dressing up and dancing, and the tricolour

A chance visit to a primary school in Malthan village of Pune district during the children’s play hour leaves us with their sense of joy

The Baul culture of music is distinctive, with a syncretic philosophy of life. In the film featured here, Basudeb Das Baul, a practitioner and teacher from Bolpur in Birbhum district, speaks of this way of life and art form

Shahir Atmaram Salve was a Dalit poet from Majalgaon taluka whose work has not received due recognition. His son Pradeep sings us a revolutionary song by Salve from a compilation titled 'Thingi' – or spark

In the villages of Uttarakhand's Kumaon region, Holi festivities are a time for women to dance and let their songs echo amid the mountains. A photo story for a PARI series on International Women’s Day

During the harvest festival in January, Santal women in Chirchirya hamlet in Bihar sing about their way of life while men play the instruments, and there is a feast and some mahua as well

Adivasi boys in Edamalakudi's primary school in the Idukki Hills of Kerala robustly sing an ode to a doctor in competition to the earnest 'Potato song'​ sung by the girls in their class

The songs and dance by the Santal, Munda, Oraon and Ho preserve their languages and bring in an income

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Adivasi girls in Edamalakudi sing a unique song in English in honour of the potato that they don't eat, in a village where no English is spoken