UNCHAINED MELODY

In H-Pop, Kunal Purohit grapples with the divisive power of music

- Bhanuj Kappal

H-POP: The Secretive World of Hindutva Pop Stars

by Kunal Purohit

HARPERCOLLINS

₹499; 306 pages

In 2019, journalist Kunal Purohit found himself in Gumla, a sleepy town in southern Jharkhand where, as he puts it, "nothing noteworthy happens." But, in 2017, something did happen. That year, a Ramnavami procession-traditionally "a demonstration of peaceful coexistence" between the town's Hindu and Muslim residents-sparked off communal tensions. Later that night, some Hindu men returning from the procession lynched and killed a local Muslim man they saw with a Hindu woman. Two years later, as Purohit talked to locals to understand what triggered the confrontation and violence, he came across an unlikely potential answer: the incendiary music blaring out of the procession's PA system, brawny bass beats laid over lyrics like "toss the mullah's cap to the ground".