Art often comes out of tumultuous situations, and if the current political climate is anything to go by, the BJP can claim to have given this country many pained artists since 2014, the most recent one being Rahul Rajkhowa.

A master's student in political science from JNU, his rap video against the downsizing of seats in JNU went viral in May, he has now come up with an indie ditty against mob lynching.

© Facebook/Rahul Rajkhowa

“In my video I try to cover lynching on the Hindu side and the Muslim side both, I am not trying to take sides. But because I am a JNU student I am still getting a lot of hate from BJP/ RSS people man because they think that I am from JNU so I must be leftist. So, my YouTube and Twitter is ablaze right now.”

“But thankfully I get way more appreciating comments, the hate comments come for a bit but these are paid trolls no, so you can't take them to heart. And people come to my defence also.  I like it man, people should be debating and it is fun that way.”

The band, Paperboat, is on an album launch tour next month in places like High Spirits in Pune, Raasta in Bombay, Piano man in Delhi, Landsdowne, Hard Rock Cafe in Chennai over a span of 3 months. A big fan of blues music, his idea is to make groovy music with memorable lyrics that make you think.

Mob lynchings have dramatically increased in the past 2 years as the polarisation of one community against another continues. But the central India has only seen increased violence now, something that has been rampant in corners of the country. In a Facebook post, he talks about his personal experience with mob violence in Assam.

“So when I saw all this happening again I thought, I have to write a song, this is what I do.   People on my FB timeline were still sharing pictures of parties and Instagram selfies, we have to make people aware”, he says. 

And when majoritarian politics divides, art shall bring us together. Like the departed genius Carrie Fisher said “Take your broken heart, turn it into art”.