Songs and Sensibilities

Gaddar, a poet and a communist revolutionary, died on August 6

- Brahma Prakash

GADDAR'S life experiences and struggles were woven into songs. Ask him about his life and he will narrate those experiences in songs. Ask him about his family, he will break into songs. His village becomes the metaphor of the songs and transcends those local boundaries to tell the stories of caste-ridden Indian villages. Ask him about his mother, and he will sing about his mother Lachumamma. While singing, he will turn his mother into a social mother while maintaining her social and cultural locales. Keshav Kumar has rightly pointed out how Gaddar has translated terms like 'working class', 'new democracy', 'revolution', 'classless', and 'capitalist society' into concrete life experiences of people. From capitalist exploitation, caste system, and labour exploitation to police atrocities and garbage bins, he has songs for everything.