{"id":865753,"date":"2025-08-16T21:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-08-17T02:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/16\/this-indian-rapper-is-spitting-bars-about-climate-justice-caste-and-indigenous-rights\/"},"modified":"2025-08-16T21:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-08-17T02:16:11","slug":"this-indian-rapper-is-spitting-bars-about-climate-justice-caste-and-indigenous-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/08\/16\/this-indian-rapper-is-spitting-bars-about-climate-justice-caste-and-indigenous-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"This Indian rapper is spitting bars about climate justice, caste, and Indigenous rights"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p>In her latest rap song, Madhura Ghane, known by her stage name Mahi G, walks on a barren, drought-stricken hill where a large, leafless tree has fallen to the ground. In the following frames, with the background music slowly rising, the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MVUt97fjJVk\"> video<\/a> shows close-ups of Indian laborers \u2014 men, women, and children \u2014 working at a brick factory in Maharashtra. As the background tempo reaches a crescendo, Mahi G fires the first few bars about brick kiln workers, sewage cleaners, and construction workers toiling under the scorching sun. \u201cThe one whose sweat builds your house himself wanders homeless,\u201d she raps in Hindi. \u201cBut who cares about the one who died working for you in the sun?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mahi G\u2019s song \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=EfKylgi-E04&#038;list=RDEfKylgi-E04&#038;start_radio=1\">Heatwave<\/a>,\u201d which was produced in collaboration with Greenpeace India, dropped in June, just as the country was <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/heat-wave-hot-india-climate-temperature-weather-85bab3f13c7bbf16f972ecf51fe9dd9b\">reeling under<\/a> soaring temperatures. Last year, more than 100 people <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/india-heatwave-deaths-heat-stroke-climate-change-880f26e3b8eeb066d2db2308502783d2\">died<\/a> across India because of an extreme heat wave during the summer. Prolonged heat exposure can lead to heat strokes, a risk disproportionately borne by outdoor workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>In India, those workers typically occupy the lowest rungs of the social hierarchy. The country\u2019s caste system divides people into four main groups based on birth. Those who are placed outside the system \u2014 referred to as Dalits \u2014 are often relegated to the most hazardous jobs. Members of tribes or Indigenous communities \u2014 referred to as Adivasis \u2014 also fall outside this structure and face systemic discrimination. Successive governments in India have evicted Adivasis from their ancestral lands to clear the way for exploiting mineral resources.<\/p>\n<p>Mahi G\u2019s music primarily speaks to the experiences of Dalits and Adivasis. She belongs to the Mahadev Koli tribe, a community found in the western state of Maharashtra, and lives in Mumbai. She has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@mahig_\">released<\/a> 12 songs so far since she first began rapping in 2019.\u00a0 Nearly half of them are about climate justice.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Heatwave | A Song for Climate Justice by Mahi G x Greenpeace India\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/EfKylgi-E04?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Growing up, the 28-year-old rapper witnessed her community struggle to access clean drinking water. \u201cIt always made me sad to see women walk long distances to fetch water,\u201d she said. As an Adivasi woman, her drive to research and write about the environment comes from a deep, personal space, she said, and she chose to rap about sociopolitical issues because \u201cyou can talk about a big issue in a short, powerful, and aggressive way.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>India\u2019s mainstream hip-hop scene has been mostly dominated by upper-caste male artists, primarily from Maharashtra and Punjab, a northwestern state. But in recent years, a handful of Dalit and Adivasi rappers have broken into the mainstream, using their music to challenge caste hierarchies, critique government policies, and spotlight social injustices.<\/p>\n<p>Among them is Arivu, who shot to fame with his track \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=ldVe-28DVsQ\">Anti-national<\/a>,\u201d a bold critique of the Indian government led by Narendra Modi, a right-wing Hindu nationalist, whose party and supporters routinely <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hrw.org\/news\/2019\/12\/13\/dissent-anti-national-modis-india\">label dissenting voices as anti-national<\/a>. In another song, Arivu lays bare <a href=\"https:\/\/thewire.in\/culture\/what-arivus-enjoy-enjaami-tells-us-about-the-cultural-resistance-to-caste\">feudalism and its contemporary manifestations<\/a> while paying homage to his grandmother, a landless laborer in a tea plantation. The video has garnered more than half a billion views on YouTube.<\/p>\n<p>Mahi G\u2019s videos haven\u2019t had that level of reach, but she draws support from activists and nongovernmental groups working on environmental and social justice causes. Her videos typically garner tens of thousands of views, and one song about Bhimrao Ramji Ambedkar, a social reformer and architect of the Indian constitution, has more than\u00a0300,000 views. But the music hasn\u2019t made much money so far. She hasn\u2019t monetized her YouTube channel and is instead funding her music through her salary as an engineer at a private company.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHeatwave\u201d is not the first time Mahi G has used her music to talk about climate justice. In her first rap song, \u201cJungle Cha Raja\u201d \u2014 King of the Jungle \u2014 Mahi G explored the relationship between tribal communities and the natural environment, highlighting how they have long worked to protect it. In another song, \u201cVikasacha Khul,\u201d she raps about the cost of development \u2014 how the building of roads, skyscrapers, and shopping malls has come at the expense of forests, lakes, and clean air.<\/p>\n<figure>\n<p>\n<iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Jungale Cha Raja | Official Music Video | Mahi | Rapboss\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ghEmGa3MhPw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n<\/p>\n<\/figure>\n<p>Rappers like Mahi G and Arivu are often making music that challenges the political establishment at great risk to themselves. In 2023, Umesh Khade and Raj Mungase, two rappers from Maharashtra, <a href=\"https:\/\/scroll.in\/latest\/1047066\/maharashtra-another-rapper-booked-for-alleged-defamatory-song-about-politicians\">were jailed<\/a> after the right-wing political party ruling the state alleged they had made defamatory statements about their politicians. Despite these concerns and looming threats, Mahi G said the response to her songs keeps her going. Her music has compelled people to think about the environment and has helped them realize that they don\u2019t want industrialization that destroys forests, she said. Even though her community members, who are often new to rap, do not understand her music, she said they have appreciated her work to spotlight climate change, which has directly affected their lives. Shifting rainfall patterns and depleting water resources have taken a toll on the Mahadev Koli tribe\u2019s ability to sustain themselves.<\/p>\n<p>Asim Siddiqui, who teaches at Azim Premji University in southern India\u2019s Bengaluru city and works on the educational and cultural politics of youth, said that rappers from lower-caste and Indigenous communities who have been historically marginalized grow up in contexts where they are intimately connected to their social and natural environment. Ecological destruction or social injustice has a personal impact on their emotions and identity. \u201cIt becomes obvious for them to bring out these themes in their musical expression,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Siddiqui said that singing was historically stigmatized in India as a degrading occupation and, therefore, confined to lower-caste communities. But once India gained independence from British rule and embarked on its nation-building project, \u201csome of the music traditions got classicized and later commodified, which excluded singers and performers from Dalit and Adivasi communities,\u201d Siddiqui said. Hip-hop provided access to marginalized communities across the world, he added, as it enabled young rappers like Mahi G to tell their stories through music.<\/p>\n<p>For Mahi G, music is a platform for activism. \u201cMy rap focuses on protecting natural resources,\u201d she said. \u201cIf you can\u2019t plant a tree, at least don\u2019t cut one down.\u201d These basic principles form the core of her message.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<\/div>\n<p> Haziq Qadri<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/grist.org\/arts-culture\/indian-rapper-climate-justice-caste-and-indigenous-rights\/\" class=\"button purchase\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In her latest rap song, Madhura Ghane, known by her stage name Mahi G, walks on a barren, drought-stricken hill where a large, leafless tree has fallen to the ground. In the following frames, with the background music slowly rising, the video shows close-ups of Indian laborers \u2014 men, women, and children \u2014 working at<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":865754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24960,871],"tags":[6494,11037],"class_list":{"0":"post-865753","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indian","8":"category-rapper","9":"tag-indian","10":"tag-rapper"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=865753"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/865753\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/865754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=865753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=865753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=865753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}