The Casteless Collective

I found out about The Casteless Collective this morning in The Guardian.

According to the report,

the band sings about manual scavenging, LGBTQ issues, violence against women, and more – the issues are serious, but not the songs. One is the Tamil version of the “Knock knock, who’s there” joke; it talks about corruption, land grabs and voting rights. The songs have elements of intrigue, humour, melancholy, playfulness and incredulousness tinged with sarcasm. The band’s aforementioned beef song is a take on the belief that beef is a diet of the Dalits; the blue flag being waved at the concert represents Dalit resistance, as it was the flag of BR Ambedkar, architect of the Indian constitution and a Dalit…

Isaivani sees people talking openly about the pain of being discriminated against. She perceives the overt support and encouragement from upper caste people as a positive impact of their music. “One cannot take on issues as an individual,” she says with conviction. “Through the Casteless Collective, our unified voice will bring about changes.”

They come from Chennai, and Pa Ranjith, a film maker, founded them with Tenma and Isaivani.

The article by Jency Samuel, in The Guardian, explains much more about them, what they do, and why they do it.