How Local Folk-lore and Songs in Hindi Heartland are Celebrating Modi and Balakot

To make any message work in India, you don’t need top end communication methods.  You need to make something a mass movement.  It then takes on a new life of its own.

While the Congress and opposition feel they can employ suave looking and smooth-talking spokespersons to conjure up talking points that defy every logic in an attempt to win TV debates, the folks in the Hindi heartland are coming up with their own folk-lore and songs in local dialects – Bundelkhandi, Bhojpuri, Awadhi etc.

While suave Congress spokespersons try to win points in English TV debates, locals in Hindi Heartland are dancing and singing to Modi's tunes. Listen and enjoy. Click To Tweet

Despite the cynicism and questioning that Congress was trying to push in India – specifically in the English media – the rural people are clear about what happened in Balakot.

They believe the Army and the Government of the day about the narrative of what happened.  As – in a war – how it should be.  For, wars are not just fought on the ground but also in the minds.  And every narrative is designed to win that the war on the ground for the soldier.  Something that the intelligentsia of India have completely forgotten.  Or chosen to ignore.

So let us see some examples of local expressions of the geopolitics and love for Modi, despite the machinations of the opposition.

First is this old gentleman who starts off impromptu on his own in an unscripted – probably locally written song.

Another song discusses how India killed 300 of the Pakistani Jehadis as the revenge for 40 deaths – चालिस के बदले में हमने तीन सौ को मारा – a sentiment which mirrors the song from the old gentleman above.

Another song expresses the feeling of many who are now certain that Pakistan can be given a bloody nose.  So the lyrics go – पाकिस्तान का भस्म लगाएंगे शिव रात्रि मनाएंगे.  As journalist, Rahul Pandita, who has spent a lot of time in Bihar and nearby states asserts, the following song is playing all over Bihar these days!

The folks songs in local dialects that work are the ones which capture the main catch-phrases popular in the rural areas, along with the expressions.  So “Theek hai” (ठीक है ) and कबीरा सा रा रा रा रा रा रा have become popular additions to every song.

Ultimately, it is about making everything into a movement.  And, until now, it seems that Modi doesn’t have much to do to make his work into a “movement”.  People know what he has done and are not afraid of speaking – or rather singing – their hearts and minds out.