- By Zoya Mateen
- BBC News, Delhi
Rapper Shubh’s Indian tour was canceled recently
Last month, popular Punjabi rapper Shubhneet Singh’s upcoming India tour was canceled after tensions erupted between India and Canada.
The reason was a controversy that erupted over an old social media post in which he shared an incorrect map of India. The Canada-based singer (known to his fans as Shubh) has been accused of supporting the demand for Khalistan, or a separate Sikh homeland – a sensitive subject in India, which saw a violent insurrection on the movement of the 1980s.
Canada has the largest population of Sikhs outside the Indian state of Punjab and is home to popular Punjabi diaspora musicians who split their time between the two countries – touring, producing or simply visiting India, where they have a huge fan base.
Hence the diplomatic row – sparked by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau saying his country was investigating “Credible allegations” that could link the Indian government to the murder of a Sikh separatist leader are worrying musicians who live in both countries. (India has denied the allegations and stopped issuing visas to Canadian citizens.)
Shubh, for example, has asked people to “refrain from labeling every Punjabi as separatist or anti-national”, but he still faces criticism and some Indian cricketers – including former captain Virat Kohli, who once called Shubh “his favorite artist” – have unfollowed him on social media. Another Indo-Canadian rapper AP Dhillon, who has millions of fans, also faced calls for a boycott on social media after posting about musicians having to “guess and triple our every move” after the cancellation of the Shubh concert.
Both Shubh and Dhillon are part of a generation of young hip-hop musicians in Canada who have taken the Punjabi music industry by storm over the past decade. Their songs – with chords infused with funk, hip-hop and hard rock, as well as Punjabi lyrics and imagery – speak to both the Sikh diaspora as well as wider audiences, and often at the top of international music charts. Earlier this year, actor and singer Diljit Dosanjh became the first Punjabi to perform at the popular Californian music festival Coachella.
Image source, Getty Images
Indo-Canadian rapper AP Dhillon has millions of fans
Industry experts and participants are closely monitoring the feud between Delhi and Ottawa – analysts say ties are now at an all-time low.
“Whenever countries come into conflict, whether soft or hard, one of the things that is affected is cultural trade, as we have seen with our neighbor Pakistan,” says Nirmika Singh, former editor-in-chief of Rolling Stone India, who now runs a talent management company.
Cultural collaborations between Indian and Pakistani musicians and filmmakers have stopped during the last years.
Some, however, believe that the Punjabi music industry – both in India and Canada – is far too big to be affected.
“Everything that’s happening is purely political and a living relic of today’s cancel culture,” says Punjabi songwriter Pali Gidderbaha.
“Listeners don’t care what happens at the diplomatic level – all they want is a good tune and good entertainment. And Punjabi music always delivers.”
The numbers seem to confirm it. In 2022, four of the top 10 most streamed songs in India were in Punjabi and included tracks by Indo-Canadian rappers such as Dhillon and Gurinder Gill, according to streaming platform Spotify. It’s impressive – and that’s part a bigger change – in India, where Bollywood songs traditionally dominate the music charts.
The nature of Punjabi popular music itself has been influenced by the dual culture in which it is embedded.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Punjabi folk singers like Amar Singh Chamkila were extremely popular among Sikhs in Canada. Musicians like Daler Mehndi also regularly toured the country.
As the community grew, a new generation began blending modern hip-hop sounds with elements of traditional Punjabi music.
Many have also used music to highlight political issues, highlight their identities, and deplore religious violence.
Image source, Getty Images
Sikhs represent 2% of the Canadian population
But critics have accused some Punjabi musicians of glamorizing violence and spreading hedonism. Rapper Sidhu Moose Wala – who was murdered last year – has often made headlines with songs evoking Sikh militancy and accused of glorifying gun culture.
Experts say some of the difficult discussions come from the vocabulary of hip-hop itself.
“Hip-hop is the music of resistance. It has been seen as a vehicle for the sociopolitical and economic realities of Black Americans, as well as a vehicle for satire regarding disparities in America,” say scholars Harjeet Grewal and Sara Grewal who are working on a book that explores Sikh hip-hop in the global diaspora.
For Punjabis who grew up abroad, music is also an important way to reflect on their identity.
In Canada, the number of Sikhs increased in the 1970s, when the Khalistan movement began to gain ground in India. Immigrants and their children not only had to build a new life, but also faced racism and mistrust.
Many hip-hoppers use their songs to talk about these experiences and how, in street parlance, they rose through the ranks.
In the video for Dhillon’s hit song Brown Munde, he and other rappers are shown doing blue-collar jobs – as mechanics, in a food delivery kitchen and on construction sites.
“An artist can connect to their inherited culture while expressing their lived experiences of racism and discrimination. The same music is also used to express joy and satire,” the Grewals explain.
Image source, Sidhu Moosewala via Instagram
Moose Wala’s Murder Shocked Fans Around the World
Canadian filmmakers Rupen Bhardwaj and Sukaran Pathak, who have worked with artists like Dosanjh and Moose Wala, say the music attempts to show the darker, harsher realities of urban life.
To an outsider, this may seem confrontational and provocative – but the music brings together Punjabis who may have “let their geographic distance from home lead to estrangement,” the duo add.
However, Sumail Singh Sidhu, a historian of the radical Punjabi intellectual tradition, says that some of the inflammatory content could also be a result of the “alienation” that young Punjabis face in a foreign country.
“Instead of having an organic connection to Canadian society, many people are simply thrown into it from a young age, making them vulnerable to a sanitized, linear conception of being Sikh,” he says. adding that wanting to “belong somewhere” could trap them “in a persecution complex.”
Ms. Singh says “the personal becomes the professional” in hip-hop, putting musicians in a difficult situation.
But she adds that it is also important that they are aware of the political issues.
“During episodes of high political tension, a lot of reason and rationality are suspended and people are provoked by everything. So artists must be sensitive to the situation.”
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