ABSTRACT
Throughout history social, political and cultural movements have influenced and enriched each other; and in every major movement, music has been a popular mode of protest. But the music of protest, irrespective of its time, space and cause of origin, has certain common characteristics primarily in terms of the ideals upheld and the messages conveyed by them, thereby bearing a universal humanitarian appeal.
Kabir Suman (or Suman Chattopadhyay as he was popularly known before he converted to Islam) is perhaps the only popular songwriter and singer in India in the present times who has been creating music for decades with a strong social and political purpose. Inspired by the Naxalite Movement in India (specifically Bengal) in the 1970s, the struggle for democracy in Nicaragua in the 1980s and being highly disappointed with the leftist government which ruled Bengal between 1977 and 2011 and the rise of the right-wing fundamentalism in India, Suman created his own music of protest which was so unique in every way that it eventually created a new genre of Bengali music. His creative consciousness, which was born out of different political movements from various parts of the world, fathered a cultural movement in Bengal which not only inspired certain social and political beliefs among a large section of the then young population of Bengal but also brought about a permanent change in the musical culture of Bengal by setting new parameters of appreciation for Bengali music.
