To rally support, Anti-CAA protesters use music

Protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the city have usually manifested themselves along three lines: marches, sit-down protests or candlelight vigils. On Sunday, however, protesters took to music to rally supporters to the cause.

Two musicians, a theatre artiste, a writer and a well-known city music band, teamed up for a concert called 'Music for Harmony' at Banashankari on Sunday evening. The aim of the concert, according to Dwiji Napm, who helped organise a music concert, was to celebrate Indian pluralism.

"For some time now, we have been seeing this move towards unitarianism, a movement heightened by politics. We decided to use music as a means to instead showcase the diversity of our culture," he said.

Among those who took part were Kannada-language playback singer M D Pallavi, writer Zui Kumar Reddy, classical musician Gurupriya Atreya, theatre artiste Kafeel Jafri and Thermal and a Quarter, an Indie rock band.

The works of these diverse artistes, representing a mixed bag of genres, were able to effectively offer a metaphor on India's pluralistic nature, Napm explained.

According to the Hum Bharat Ke Log campaign, which was behind the event, the concert was free of charge and attracted about 350 people.