TWENTY FIRST CENTURY WOMEN IN INDIA – ARTICULATION OF EVERYDAY PROTEST THROUGH HIP HOP

Abstract

Indian Rap Music is unique, different from American Rap. As of yet, very little research has been done on this phenomenon of an increasing number of young urban Indians finding and creating their identity through Rap. What is of particular anthropological interest is that marginalised voices that were never heard before, or were afraid of being heard, are now giving technologically informed expression to a new set of contemporary ideas in an innovative urban folk form, challenging established mores and conventions, cliques and vested interests. These include artists from working class backgrounds, those who have not received the privilege of higher education or have to struggle to receive it as well as those whose entry into the fields of art and culture has traditionally been restricted. The focus of this article will be on women Rap artists in India. Indian women have had to constantly negotiate deeply entrenched patriarchal structures in the field of culture and more so in the field of Rap, which is associated with free flowing, blunt and hard-hitting lyrics, putting these women out of the comfort zone of societal expectations.