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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

Badshah’s men say India doesn’t get the hip-hop game. Truth is, misogyny is their normal

That Badshah is misogynistic is not a particularly illuminating observation. The misogyny is a creative condition of his music, as fundamental to it as the buzzy beat drop.

One of Bollywood’s most popular hip-hop performers learned last week that you cannot treat a government body with the same indifference as a diss comment on YouTube. 

Badshah has landed on the wrong side of the Haryana State Women’s Commission over his song Tateeree. The body has ordered his arrest, seizure of his passport, and called for a boycott of his performances. The song—featuring schoolgirls in uniform dancing atop a bus, with lyrics comparing them to mares—had triggered an FIR and a formal summons to the rapper. 

To his credit, Badshah immediately performed contrition. He pulled the song from all platforms, issued a statement, and put up a video seeking forgiveness as “Haryana ka beta”. Then, when the commission’s hearing date arrived, he decided not to show up. 

What warranted all of this? The music video, whatever remnants of it are still available on the internet, is hardly Badshah’s most provocative. But it is the lyrics that leave no room for interpretation. “Aaya Badshah doli chadhane, in sabko ghodi banane” (Badshah arriving to ride them all like mares). Set against the dancing schoolgirls, the lyrics instruct the eye on how to look.

Renu Bhatia, the commission’s chairperson, did not mince words. Known to have a flair for the dramatic, she said that Badshah’s actions were unforgivable and the insult to the daughters of the state was completely intolerable. 

Naturally, Badshah’s defenders—of which there are many—have been swarming comment sections with the energy of men who have never once questioned what they stream. Their responses range across two directions. First, Tateeree was a diss track, a shot........

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