By Zoya Mateen | BBC News | India |
It has been more than a month since rapper Sidhu Moose Wala was shot dead in the northern Indian state of Punjab. But he is still making headlines. Some of this is because of the way he died and the ongoing police investigation.
But his music is also continuing to make waves.
In June, Moose Wala’s last song SYL was removed from YouTube in India after the government lodged a legal complaint. The posthumously released song talks about decades-long dispute over sharing river water between Punjab and the neighbouring state of Haryana, while also touching upon some other controversial subjects like Sikh militancy.
It’s fitting that his legacy of asking hard questions continues even after his death.
In a career spanning just four years, Moose Wala wrote several powerful lyrics that explored the history and current state of Punjab. Critics say the state has an unsavoury side, involving a gritty gangster culture, corruption and rising unemployment and his music spotlighted that.
His fans see him as a man who was engaged with social realities. But what set him apart from his contemporaries was that he also offered a divergent vision of how Punjabis perceive themselves and his ideas were often considered unsettling and incendiary.
His affinity for guns and attempt to force listeners into complex and sometimes even uncomfortable conversations – like YSL – made him the subject of intense scrutiny.
“There is no doubt that he was a man of contradictions,” says Harinder Happy, a journalist based in Punjab. “But his style spoke to the times and to living in a post-modernist society where everyone has the right to assert their identity the way they understand it.”
Moose Wala was also deeply rooted to his home and village in a state where thousands are looking to immigrate to foreign shores in search of a better life.
Read the full story, ‘Sidhu Moose Wala: The unsettling legacy of the rapper’s protest music’ (BBC, 6 July 2022), here.
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