My latest single and video release, Chardi Kala, was featured in FirstPost. Below is an excerpt, and read the full article here.
Brooklyn-based musician Sonny Singh has been vocal against social injustice since he was a teenager. So, it comes as no surprise then that when he dropped his solo album at 40, he found it impossible to do so without addressing "the social movements of our times." He's talking about the women in Shaheen Bagh, who protested through the winter of 2019 and the start of 2020 against the Citizen Amendment Act (CAA); and the farmer unions, who have been camping at Delhi's borders in Singhu and Ghazipur, to protest three farm laws almost exactly a year later.
Clued into the fragile political climate in India, Singh claims that his work would be "irrelevant" if it overlooked these "historic" uprisings — something he feels even more strongly about, after acquainting himself with the core philosophy of Sikhism. His album is titled Chardi Kala, which roughly translates to ‘eternal optimism’. "These farmers, who have been camping at the Delhi borders for the last few months, their steadfastness... their resolute response to the government, is nothing short of inspirational. That's what Chardi Kala is... it's not that we're always happy. That's not how the world works, but it's the attitude that your spirit is always rising. And if your spirit is rising, then others will rise with you," Singh tells me during a video call.