Indian female folk singers’ participation in political communication: a study of digitally circulated Chunavī Garīs

This paper explores how women repurpose the folk genre Gārī (or Gālī) for making critical political commentary through digital platforms like YouTube. Focusing on a subgenre named Chunāvī Gārīs (election-related Gārīs), the paper studies how the performers critique political figures and address public concerns through these songs. It further investigates the dynamic relationship between political leaders (targets of satire), performers (critics), and the audience (faceless mass of voters). The paper incorporates performers’ viewpoints through semi-structured interviews to include their perspectives and interpretations. To analyse viewers’ responses, the study employs 19 self-devised potential categories of sentiments, subsequently umbrella-grouped into three larger chunks of categories (labelled ‘overall sentiment’): ‘positive’, ‘negative’, or ‘irrelevant’. The study also examines how, through these songs, women extend their political thought beyond female-centric issues, positioning themselves as full citizens interested in the broader sociopolitical landscape. Additionally, it examines how the absence of direct representations of existing Indian female political leaders in these songs, coupled with their substitution by generic licentious portrayals, reinforces sexist stereotypes by casting aspersions on women’s political aspirations.