Inspiration on the doorstep in London’s East End.
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This context of struggle and
being a warrior and being a struggler
has been forced on me by oppression. Otherwise I would be a sculptor, or a gardener,
carpenter–
you know, I would be free to be so much more...
“Committed
to Life”, Asian Dub Foundation
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The contradictions of Europe’s
rage for ethnic exoticism take centre stage in an interview with Pandit G of Asian
Dub Foundation, a UK band serving up a searing mix of jungle rhythms, rap and ‘traditional’
sounds steeped in social justice
The global music
industry makes a fortune by mixing various strands of music, often traditional, with
genres like hip-hop or techno. Is this a replay of classic capitalist exploitation–extract
raw materials, package and sell them back to the “natives”?
People have always mixed music from elsewhere and turned it into their own style.
For example, bhangra [now very fashionably sampled] is really an indigenous form
of Punjabi folk music created in Britain (see p.49).
The early migrants from the Asian subcontinent largely came to Britain to work in
cotton and textile mills after the war, particularly in the mid-to-late 50s. Many
came from Punjab, which straddles the border with Pakistan. So a generation coming
right up to the late 60s was listening to Punjabi folk music but mixing it with the
dominant music form of the time, rock. That meant using electric guitars, drum kits
as well as traditional instruments. What used to be a big musical troupe could be
replaced with technology and just three or four members.
But on the opposite pole, you always find people out to exploit ethnicity or exoticism.
In Britain, why do musicians like Kula Shaker [a neo-hippie rock band] need to go
to India to find inspiration or symbolism? Why couldn’t they have gone to places
like Southall [an Asian neighbourhood] on their doorstep in London?
What do you think of “Asian Kool”–or the current rage for Indian-inspired music
and fashion?
We could be talking about Asian Kool, Caribbean Kool or African American Kool. The
people pushing this kind of thing have recognised that there is no strong white Western
notion of cool amongst youth. Largely black identity is mixed up with being anti-establishment.
Exoticism makes this idea sell a bit but it’ll only be forgotten in a few years’
time.
In the UK, you’ll see people in the streets wearing their little bindis on their
foreheads and thinking they’ve made an anti-racist statement. But they wouldn’t talk
with Asian people working in a cornershop. By focusing on the exoticism, people can
say, “These Indians don’t mind being poor because they’re spiritual.”
What do you think of the “New Asian Underground”–a tag often attached to Asian
Dub Foundation (ADF)?
It’s an easy sound-bite to market the music. But we have to take a British perspective
because of the history of colonialism. White society in the UK largely sees the Asian
community as being homogeneous. Yet the handful of musicians that make up this “Asian
Underground” can be Muslim, Hindu, Christian, Sikh or Buddhist and [originally] come
from a geographic area three times bigger than the UK.
“We ain’t ethnic, exotic or eclectic. The only ‘e’ we use is electric,” rhymes
a line from an ADF song. Do you ever feel the burden of representing an ethnic community?
We only represent ourselves. There is a line precisely on that from our album, Rafi’s
Revenge: “Culture is always on the move. There is no fixed point.” We can also hold
this up to white society, which imagines an ideal time when there was some pure British
society–which never was. Just like there was never a pure Indian society.
We won’t accept any pigeonholes. The tag that gets used most to describe us is: political
band. We get journalists saying, “Once you get through the politics, the album isn’t
bad.” We believe that everything is political. Five Asians gettin’ on stage, playin’
guitar and sampler, is political.
You’ve said that ADF has never been directly censored because of its strong anti-racist
political platform*, but how can the mainstream media and music industry indirectly
stifle a group’s message?
A backlash is slowly set up. First the media presents radical music as something
new. Even though what’s new is that the political platform is reaching a wider audience.
But by reaching more people, you upset the status quo, which doesn’t sell advertising
copy. So what does the press do? They set you up as celebrities, isolate you and
then try to crush you.
It wouldn’t be direct censorship from the record company–you’d just find that your
record isn’t available in the shops. You don’t get any tour support. There’s many
ways of stopping a band from reaching a broad audience.
*Among its many anti-racist
activities, ADF has spearheaded the international campaign to free British citizen
Satpal Ram, who many believe has been unjustly imprisoned for defending himself against
a racially motivated attack by six men in Birmingham in 1986. For more information:
www.asiandubfoundation.com
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