Beyond Borders: Arjun Kar’s songs of hope in troubled times

When Arjun Kar, a ‘people’s musician’ and street poet of Kolkata, made a resolute decision to visit Bangladesh, two reasons compelled him: first, the death of his grandmother who had once lived east of the Radcliffe line before migrating to India and second, a yearning to witness the scramble toward a ‘new Bangladesh’, a land and people in the process of redefining themselves after the fall of Sheikh Hasina’s authoritarian regime in the wake of a student-led mass uprising.

A staunch supporter of the July-August uprising, Arjun penned and composed protest songs supporting the movement. Yet in the months since a flood of misinformation has overcome India’s media landscape. Not one to trust the prescribed narrative, the wandering bard, who counts the free-spirited civil rights activist and songwriter Pete Seeger among his greatest inspirations, grabbed his scuffed guitar case and hit the Jessore road.

“I came in search of my roots in a troubled time during visible hatred, especially in the media and online.” Arjun said in an interview with Prothom Alo on 10 December. Music has always been Arjun’s antidote to hatred, and he has spent over a decade sharing songs of lament, resilience and joy on city sidewalks and squares of forgotten villages.

It’s incredible, and surely a sign of the times, that during his one month as a ‘rolling stone’ in Bangladesh, Arjun did not encounter a single incident that singled him out as a Hindu or an Indian—not even a slur, let alone any form of hostility.

"What I heard and what I saw were entirely different," he said boldly.
In a time of tension with media reports bent on glaring provocation, the story of Arjun’s journey of friendship and his overwhelmingly positive experience is prescient and essential.

"Even when I just asked for tea, people could instantly identify me as West Bengali from my accent, yet everyone was welcoming," he said. “Everyone received me so cordially that I feel completely at home. The hospitality amazed me,”

"Not even for once they gave me any skewed look or made any slightest change in their behaviour that would lead me to feel insecure,” Arjun continued, dispelling fear and distrust based cautionary assessments of the general population in Bangladesh.

While dismissing the media frenzy as “ridiculous”, Arjun, whose folk-inspired conversational lyrics always speak for the poor and common people, was quick to remind us that he was not alone in dispelling the myths of communalism.

Many people from India, especially West Bengal, and across the world, supported and celebrated the July uprising in Bangladesh. Furthermore, and as frequently heard in his songs, Arjun advocates for collective empowerment for all who are oppressed.

“The struggle for freedom anywhere in the world is my struggle. Be it in Bangladesh, Palestine or Lebanon…”

During his visit, Arjun explored Dhaka city, attended several concerts, and spent a few days in his ancestral village home.

Despite having never travelled to Bangladesh before, Arjun maintained close ties to friends and distant relatives, emphasising that connections and bonds continue across borders of all sorts. This was reflected in his ecological activism when Arjun was compelled to stand against the chopping down of ancient trees. “When we launched a movement against felling of trees along the historic Jessore Road, we had coordination with activists from the Bangladesh side and planned a joint protest on both sides of the border.”

Even if it has taken all these years to cross the border, it was clear that Bangladesh was waiting for him all along! The first surprise started with hearing his song being rendered at ‘Sanjeeb Sandhya’ on 20 November while strolling at TSC on the Dhaka University campus.

Hearing his own lyrics "Ora parbay na kere nite amader ghor, amader e jomin, amader jongol" and composition drew the astonished Arjun into the crowd. Organisers were equally astonished to spot Arjun Kar himself in the audience and took him to stage to sing the same song.

“I can’t really describe the feeling of hearing my song here. I was profoundly moved.”

Although his guitar and harmonica hardly ever leave his fingers, and his songs are most commonly heard in random side streets and crowded tea stalls, a few lucky residents had the rare opportunity to hear Arjun Kar live-in-concert. The veteran performer never fails to give his audience a gritty and electrifying experience.

In Dhaka, Arjun met new friends and was warmly welcomed into the music scene. Dhaka University Cultural Union arranged a busking event for Arjun at Teacher's Student's Center at Dhaka University. Aniruddha Anu, the curator and music director of Hatirpool Sessions hosted Arjun's musical show in Alliance Francaise. Deepak Suman, a prominent theatre persona, asked him to perform at Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy. Arjun and his friends from Dhaka are now planning to collaborate on more music projects, so watch this space.

After performing solo for almost a decade, 31-year-old Arjun recently co-founded a band, ‘Ministry of Barricades’, in Kolkata which predominantly sings resistance songs.

Arjun never visited his ancestral home in Tangail’s Mirzapur upazila, and, in the midst of a momentous moment in Bangladesh’s history, this personal journey, one of hundreds of thousands undertaken on both sides of the border, became a milestone in the young artiste's life.

The story of Arjun's family echoes the heartbreaking incidents of the migration after Partition, during which millions of Hindus and Muslims crossed borders amidst widespread riots.

Members of his extended family moved to India beginning in the mid 60’s and continuing with the ebbs and flows of historic violence, “But the word Bangladesh would always resonate in our family stories. The international border and politics could never sever the ties so deeply rooted.”

Several families, both Hindu and Muslim, now live on the land that once belonged to Arjun’s family. They live in harmony.

“It was like homecoming. I was overwhelmed with emotion. I met friends and contemporaries of my grandfather. Met my father’s friends, and, most importantly, collected a handful of the soil of the land of my ancestors.”

It is a land that has changed many hands, but its history is far from forgotten. When Arjun’s grandfather left for India, he settled some Muslim families on this land.

“Our family had a Durga Mandap in our yard. My grandfather requested the Muslim family not to slaughter cows or construct a toilet in the exact place. After all these years I found that the family here had transformed the place into a flower garden. It was a moving example of tolerance and respect.”

Arjun Kar was speechless that the family, even after so many years, respected the words of his grandfather.

He visited another village, the ancestral home of his recently-passed grandmother.

“In Mirzapur, I came across a days-long kirtan (devotional songs) ceremony. I’ve recorded videos to show people of my country that communal harmony is still in place in Bangladesh.”

In a stark contrast to what propagandists make-believe about the situation in Bangladesh, Arjun said he only saw love and harmony here.

Bangladesh has won Arjun’s heart so much that he wished he could stay on longer.

“I’m a bit sad to leave Bangladesh. I would have stayed longer if I did not have a show in Shantiniketan on 14 December,” said Arjun, adding that he wants to come back again and again to Bangladesh.

Arjun Kar returned to Bengal West by road on 13 December to attend an event hosted by his “Transcultural” collective, known as HiHiRi PiPiRi (of the Shantal origin story), positioned within the Bengal Biennale at Santiniketan.

Their event was expressly “dedicated to amader opar Bangla bondhura currently excluded from India.”  They placed a green square behind the Biennale logo, to the effect of creating the Bangladesh flag.  An additional “Free Palestine” imposed over-top.  That day, he was tasked with the impossible: to convey to his peers what he had witnessed during his travels, in brave loyalty to folk music's capacity to mediate across divides.

Despite all his good experience in Bangladesh, Arjun is aware of communal undercurrent in this part of the world. He knows there has always been a sense of insecurity among religious minorities.

“Communalism or fundamentalism are always here and also in my own country. This is a problem in this region. But sensible people from both sides must not incite this. Instead, they should spread love. Communal political forces in both the countries will try to stoke fear and hatred to capitalise on it but sensible people must fight it.”

“There are two options - hatred and love. We can only spread love,” Arjun added.