It poured that evening. On the first floor of the Mandiram, Raghav Shreyas Foundation for Arts in Basavanagudi, rain hammered the old Mangalore-tiled roof. Inside, a small gathering sat huddled in the cosy room. The old house, with its unmistakable Bangalore character, had no conventional stage, no fancy lighting. There was just an artiste, his voice, and a room full of people listening.
For Dhammarakshit, this intimate setting was something of an experiment. The Mumbai-based Ambedkarite lok shahir is more accustomed to performing with a group of 10–15 singers in the energetic, collective format of shahiri jalsa. This solo concert, revolving around the poetry of the ‘Sathyasodhak’ (truth-seekers), was quieter and more reflective. It also required him to step outside a form in which he is most comfortable.
He began with voices that have travelled across centuries: Ravidas, Kabir, Chokhamela, Soyrabai, Tukaram and Mahatma Jyotiba Phule. The songs questioned caste, hierarchy, ritual and the ownership of knowledge. Kabir’s “Nirbhay nirgun gun re’ sat naturally alongside the words of saints whose spiritual search was intertwined with their struggle against social injustice.
For Dhammarakshit, these are not simply bhakti poets. He sees them as part of a longer mukti (liberation) movement tradition, a lineage of people who challenged the social order of their time.
Among them was Soyrabai, the 14th-century Mahar saint-poet and wife of saint Chokhamela. She and her husband were denied entry into the temple because of their caste. Yet Soyrabai’s poetry went far beyond devotional expression. In Vitaal,she writes, ‘Dehasi vitaal mhanti sakal, Atma to nirmal shuddha-buddha’ questioning the idea of ritual impurity attached to menstruation. She observes that the body is considered impure while the soul remains pure.
Her best-known abhang, ‘Avagha rang ek zala’, has entered the classical music world through the renditions of artistes such as Kishori Amonkar, but Dhammarakshit points out that the radicality of Soyrabai and other saint-poets remains relatively unknown.
He says what survives as a beautiful song and what gets lost from the original thought is something he is interested in investigating.
Dhammarakshit grew up in Satara as son of a Lok Shahir (folk singer). His earliest musical memories came from his father, who sang Ambedkarite songs and patriotic compositions. His understanding of music as a means for social questioning developed later, through his association with the Muktivadi Sangathan in Satara. Study circles, film screenings and readings deepened his thinking around caste, class, religion and gender.
Dhammarakshit founded Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch as a cultural movement for human liberation
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Special Arrangement
He began his activist work around 2008. In 2014, a group of artistes, activist-friends and he founded Yalgaar Sanskrutik Manch as an “alternative cultural movement for human liberation”. Its work has taken shahiri, theatre and music into streets, communities and mainstream cultural spaces.
Lok shahiri itself has an interesting history. Emerging from traditions of travelling and marginalised singer-poets who performed at festivals, fairs and even upper-caste celebrations, it gradually became a powerful tool for Dalit expression and protest. Its strength lies partly in its topicality, as it responds to the prevailing situations in society and country. It’s never a solo performance, which is why Dhammarakshit had reservations about this performance in Bengaluru, his first solo. A number of singers and musicians come together to share a stage. The artiste-activist says that the form flourishes particularly around movements and protests. The current political atmosphere is fuelling new songs and performances across the country.
The form is evolving. Today, Yalgaar’s performers sing in both Marathi and Hindi, write new songs and carry the tradition into contemporary contexts. “It is not something frozen,” he emphasises. Its subjects change because the society around it changes.
That evolution also led to the Nirmik Cultural Centre, registered as a society in 2021 by some of Yalgaar’s members. If Yalgaar is primarily a cultural movement and performing collective, Nirmik is an attempt to create a more permanent infrastructure: a space for rehearsals, readings, workshops, research, and training. Dhammarakshit says there is no shortage of cultural spaces for some ideological traditions, but Ambedkarite and Dalit-Bahujan artists often struggle to find places to rehearse, meet and create. “We understand the need for structural work as well. We need dedicated spaces.”
Access remains a challenge. Permissions can be difficult when the work is perceived as “political”, and the group is conscious of being watched. Dhammarakshit is reluctant to let that halt his work.
Perhaps that is why the Basavanagudi evening felt significant. In a small room, while rain fell outside, centuries-old songs just flowed freely.
For Dhammarakshit, music is not about telling an audience what to think. It is about leaving something behind, “small seeds” in people’s minds that might make them pause, question their own positions, and perhaps see another person differently.
