by Braden Chapman & Jake Low
Bloodywood warns wife beaters and rapists that they will “Bring the Beatdown” onto them with “Dana Dan,” an anthem for the victims of male oppression in India
** INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH SPOTLIGHT
Introduction
In 2022, India overthrew China as the country with the largest population. As of 2022, India currently has a population of 1.417 billion. Even though India has the largest population in the world, we want to focus on three people. New Delhi, India, is known as the capital of the country. But to us and many others it is the home of a very popular Indian metal band, Bloodywood. “Formed in 2016 by multi-instrumentalist Karan Katiyar and vocalist Jayant Bhadula. They later rounded out their permanent lineup with the addition of rapper Raoul Kerr. The band sings in a mixture of Hindi, Punjabi, and English” (TV tropes, 2023). The band has continued to expand since 2016. They have invited numerous people to join them on tour to display their skills. What people first thought would be a very niche group, has turned into a very popular metal band across the globe.
Foundation
“Dream no small dreams for they have no power to move the hearts of men” (Goethe). This quote has been extremely influential on the band. It has allowed them to do something that many thought would be impossible. Karan Katiyar, the group’s guitarist, said that the band started out in a small house in the middle of New Delhi. They began to record covers of various songs and used the house as a studio. He said, “I used to track the entire song at home and come here to do all the vocals, because I didn’t want Jayant screaming at my house. I’d recently quit my job and I didn’t want my parents to know I’m doing some kind of weird stuff that involves people screaming” (Katiyar, 2021). He later goes on to discuss how the group used to stay in the house for multiple days at a time. They would do this to prefect the song, as well as make the video for the song.
“So, the one thing that I’ll probably never forget about this place, there’s limited space to sleep so me and Karan laid on the floor. There is just one blanket so either we keep the blanket under us or above us to keep us warm. It wasn’t even a blanket it was a curtain” (Jayant Bhadula, 2021). The group came from nothing. Doing whatever they had to do to make their dreams come true. That is why the quote from Goethe was so important to them, they knew that they had to dream big to make an impact on the world.
This is where the foundation of the band began, in a run-down house in the middle of New Delhi, India. It started off mainly as an internet band, covering various metal songs that they would post online. The group even covered other genres of music to hopefully find their own unique sound, yet they always tried to make those other genres sound metal. They wanted to find a sound that no one had heard before, something that would stand out to people the moment that they heard it.
“After a lot of trial and error, our first real hit was Mundeya Toh Bach Ke Rahi” (Katiyar, 2021). The metal remake of the original song that Bloodywood did brought them a lot of attention. Several media pages at the time wrote stories about the song and it began to spark more attention. People from all over the world began to take notice of the band, telling them how they had never heard of anything like this before. This is the unique sound the band was looking for. After the song blew up, the band then found their final full time member Raoul Kerr and the band was officially formed.
Bloodywood’s take on Social Change
“Folk metal band Bloodywood crafts songs that navigate complex and important issues like political corruption, mental health, and oppression. They also have a distinctive sound that blends traditional Indian instruments and rap with the intensity of metal” (Fong,2023). The band’s first album is titled Rakshak, which means savior in Hindi. The title is discussing the group being a savior from the social issues and injustices going on in India. Before the band released their first album, the band’s first original song was titled Jee Veery, which was meant to address issues of mental health and suicide. The song connected with various fans, some even saying it saved their lives, and the band saw that they could spark social change based on their music.
Bloodywood’s first album, Rakshak, has various songs within the album that draw upon various social issues. The first song on the album is titled “Gaddaar”, and it discusses the hatefulness of politicians and them abusing their power. The term Gaddaar means traitor in Hindu. The song begins by stating, “I see a state turning to faith, faith turning into hate, hate turning into votes.” Here the group is discussing how politicians get people to buy into their beliefs. They then turn people on one another to receive votes. The song later states, “We’re here to pull apart the politicians and the God clan.” As you can see the group is rebelling against the governmental system that takes place in India. The song also calls out the discrimination against non-Hindu Indians.
Throughout the album there are various songs that draw upon other socio-political issues in India. The ninth song on the album, for example, is called “BSDK.EXE”. BSDK is shorthand for Boshdike, which is often used as an insult in Hindu. The insult means, “you’re related to a whore” or “you’re a whore’s husband.” The song calls out journalists and Indian media companies for being shills for the upper castes. The song is claiming the journalists in India only help to further the divide of wealth and social status between the elite castes and the lower castes. Another song that discusses similar issues is “Chakh Le”. This song addresses the caste system and its inherently evil and oppressive nature, which will be discussed in the next section. The last song on the album that we wanted to focus on is “Machi Bhasad”. This song calls for the oppressed people in India to revolt against the oppressive elites and “grab the power by the neck”, as the lyrics state.
“When you listen to the songs there is a sense of protection, but not in the sense that there will be a savior coming to save you,” explains Jayant. “It’s more like you are your own savior, you have the strength within you to meet challenges. If you look at the artwork, this is what I took with the kid and the elephant – the elephant is the representation of the strength within this fragile creature” (Travers, 2022). The group has been extremely impactful and have embarked on a journey to create positive social change in India. They discuss very important topics about socio-political issues relevant to Indian society that people in other parts of the world can relate to, and many already have.
The Caste System
“In South Asia the caste system has been a dominating aspect of social organization for thousands of years. A caste, generally designated by the term jati “birth,” refers to a strictly regulated social community into which one was born. Some jatis have occupational names, but the connection between caste and occupational specialization is limited. In general, a person is expected to marry someone within the same jati, follow a particular set of rules for proper behavior, and interact with other jatis according to the group’s position in the social hierarchy” (Britannica, 2023).
In India, there are five castes that are broken down into various subcategories. The top of the caste is set aside for Brahmins; they are typically priests. They are looked at as the highest caste you can be since they are seen to be sent from the Gods. The next caste is Kshatriyas; this is set aside for kings, rulers, and warriors. It is basically seen as the elites and wealthy. The next caste is Visyas; this is set aside for merchants, craftsmen, landowners, and skilled workers. The next caste down is Sudra (or Shudra); this is set aside for farm workers, unskilled workers, and servants. The last caste, which is at the bottom, is Dalit. They are seen as the untouchables, this is set aside for street sweepers, human/ animal waste removers, dead body handlers, and outcasts. The top of the caste system is the wealthiest. The bottom of the caste is the poorest. Yet, the caste you are in is assigned at birth and there is almost no way to move up or down the caste system. The people at the top of the caste often look down on the lower castes. This is one of the forms of oppression ingrained in Indian society and culture that Bloodywood has spoken out in many of their songs.
An Overview of Sexual Violence in India
As we mentioned previously, there are five different castes, or jati, in Indian culture. The lowest of these castes being the Dalit, or untouchables, often face horrendous persecution by the castes above them. From what we’ve discussed this means that they have little to no protection by law enforcement who only act in service to the higher caste members, and many do not have access to health care. The Dalit are so low in the social hierarchy that they are often separated or outright excluded in diagrams whereas the four other castes are organized in pyramids. But they are still considered to be a part of the caste system. Indigenous tribes in India like the Adivasis are not even included in the caste system as they are viewed to be beneath everyone.
Another thing to note about Indian culture is that it is incredibly patriarchal. Men in India hold much more political and social power even among female members of their own castes. All of this put together has unfortunately led to a culture of rampant domestic violence, rape, and sex trafficking of women in girls in India. The latter two of the three often seeing Adivasi, Dalit, and Shudra women and girls being raped and/or sex-trafficked by members of the higher castes, whereas many women and girls from all castes are victims of domestic violence from their husbands or fathers.
In an article by Equality Now, we get to see the chilling statistics as well as more cultural insights about the patriarchal societal and judicial norms in place in Indian society and culture. The article (titled “Sexual Violence in India”), states that
“There were 32,033 reported rape cases in 2019, with 33,356 in 2018. According to official crime data, there were 3,486 reported cases of rape against Dalit (Scheduled Caste) women and girls in 2019, and 1,110 reported rape cases against Adivasi women and girls (Scheduled Tribes).”
Keep in mind that, again, these are only the reported cases. When explaining why so few resources are available to these women, the article states,
“Survivors of sexual violence face huge barriers in accessing justice, including community pressure to drop the case, discriminatory attitudes of police and judicial officers, insufficient legal aid, and discouraging conviction rates. These challenges are often magnified if the survivors are members of India’s marginalized communities, particularly if they are Dalits, Adivasis, or Muslims.”
The women of these marginalized groups can do very little to obtain justice because the caste system has made them particularly vulnerable to predatory men from their own caste but especially from men of higher castes. The Indian culture has been built in a such a way that Indian society overall is incredibly patriarchal; when discussing why people commit acts of sexual violence, equality now explains that.
“Sexual violence is a crime rooted in control and patriarchy, including male entitlement. In India, society often still shifts blame onto survivors, shaming a survivor and her family into silence. This is especially true among those who are already marginalized within Indian society, leaving them particularly vulnerable to sexual violence. This culture of shame follows survivors into law enforcement, the court system, and hospitals, further silencing survivors’ voices.”
However, women of these marginalized groups are not the only women in India whose abusers escape justice. Women from all of the social castes are unprotected from marital rape from their spouse under Indian law, as Equality Now explains that “One of the major gaps in rape laws in India is the failure to criminalize marital rape. Laws which explicitly allow marital rape under the law treat women as the property of their husbands and render them vulnerable to sexual violence and abuse within marriage.” (Equality Now, “Sexual Violence”…, 2022).
And due to their being a culture of shame surrounding rape that is perpetuated by law enforcement, hospitals, judicial officers, and other entities all shaming the rape survivor and their family. Many rapes in India go unreported because the marginalized groups in India have virtually no support from law enforcement, their local judicial systems, or even medical institutions. Despite the Indian Supreme court ruling the practice unconstitutional, many jurisdictions still use what is called a “two-finger test” which Equality Now speaks about in their article “Two-Finger Test: The Indian Supreme Court’s Important Reiteration Of Ban”, saying:
The unscientific and traumatizing two-finger test is still being used as part of the medical examination in several South Asian countries. This test involves a medical practitioner inserting two fingers into the vagina of a rape survivor in an attempt to determine if the hymen is broken, as well as to “test the laxity of the vagina”. The test is often used to declare rape survivors as “habituated to sex”. The medical evidence of past intercourse is used to cast doubt on the rape allegation, either to suggest a survivor lied about the rape, to imply that the rape wasn’t harmful, or to suggest the moral impropriety of the survivor and therefore her lack of entitlement to justice. (Equality Now, “Two-Finger Test…”, 2022).
These are in reference to the cases that get reported, and as mentioned previously, many rape cases do not. Even though supreme court in India has established that “The law specifically provides that the previous sexual experience of the victim is not relevant in sexual violence cases. Indian law also has a specific provision prohibiting the defiance [sic] from adducing evidence or asking questions in cross-examination relating to the general immoral character, or previous sexual experience, of the victim while proving consent or the quality of such consent,” (Equality Now, “Sexual Violence…”, 2022), these laws and Indian Supreme Court rulings about what practices are used when investigating rape cases very rarely are these enforced due to the corruption of local law enforcement as well as the shame that the families of rape survivors are made to feel simply because their female relative was the victim of rape, but it is often treated as though it is the victim’s fault and if the victim is of a lower caste, the judicial system just sweeps them aside or flat out ignores them.
With all of that in mind, we will be using this to take a deep dive into one out of several politically charged songs by Bloodywood that aim to address important issues in Indian culture. This song is called ‘Dana Dan” and in Hindu, it means “Bring the beatdown”. It addresses the rape crisis in India and calls out the Indian patriarchy speaking out on behalf of the faceless, nameless victims of Rape, Domestic violence and human sex-trafficking that the Indian medical institutions, law enforcement agencies, judicial system, and Indian society as whole, have ignored and made invisible. In the next section of this essay, we are going do a close lyrical analysis of Bloodywood’s song “Dana Dan” and how it addresses these issues of sexual violence and misogyny in Indian society.
Lyrical Breakdown of Bloodywood’s “Dana Dan”
As we’ve mentioned previously, Bloodywood as artists have never shied away from addressing serious topics in their songs. And despite having only one full length album in their discography as of this essay being written, one of the ten songs addresses mental health issues such as suicide and depression with messages of hope for those dealing with said issues (“Je Veere” ), one addresses dealing with loss in a positive way (“Yaad”), and three are about pulling yourself out from a dark place and rising above your limits (“Zanjeero Se”, “Aaj” and “Endurant”). The remaining out of the ten songs off Rakshak address one or more socio-political issues relevant to the Indian people. Those five songs–as we’ve mentioned previously–are “Gaddaar”, “Machi Bhasad”, “Dana Dan”, “Chakh Le”, and “BSDK.EXE”. However, while all these songs are important in terms of the way that they address issues of social inequities and injustices, both the lyrical content of “Dana Dan” and the music video that Bloodywood put out for the song with incredible visual imagery to complement the lyrics. We will begin with an analysis of some of the song’s lyrics (a link to the full song’s lyrics can be found under the “Works Cited” page of this essay) followed by a brief overview of the music video for “Dana Dan”.
With all of that out of the way, let’s dive into the first lyrical passage we’ll be analyzing, the first verse of the song, rapped by co-lead vocalist Raoul Kerr:
I put a fist through the face of a rapist/ And yeah, I tape this/ For the viewing pleasure of the nameless faces he disgraces/ And yeah one day I may change his kind with my mind, but/ I won’t bow to the beast, never make peace/ It feasts only if you’re gonna let it eat/ So the wife beater ’boutta get a beating on the beat/ I’ma get ’em at the home and the street/ Dead mеat, delete, going off likе a time bomb/ White heat, choke ’em out like a python/ Bonafide homicide then we’re gonna ride on/ Up into your mind and then we’re gonna fight on/…
Raoul raps about filming the violent beatdown he gave to a rapist, and he filmed it for “the nameless faces he disgraces,” the nameless faces he’s referring to of course being his victims. The rapist from this line in the verse essentially functions as a token to collectively refer to all rapists–a representation of the evil that all rapists commit when they victimize those on which they prey. Additionally, he raps about saying he will never “bow to the beast” and won’t “make peace only if you’re gonna let it eat/“The wife beater ‘boutta get a beating on the beat”. What Raoul and Bloodywood are saying here is that they will not sit by in silence while the rest of the members of their society stand and watch these atrocious acts be committed against the women of their country. “You’re gonna let it eat” is essentially saying that by not addressing the problem, you are allowing it to flourish and get bigger and stronger and the remainder of this verse, specifically “And yeah one day I may change his kind with my mind” that precedes the bars we just mentioned, acknowledges that, yes one day words may be enough to stop rapists and wife beaters, but as of right now, we’ve let the beast feast for too long as a society, and now the only way to address the problem is to slay it because their culture has let this wound of the patriarchy fester and become necrotic. It needs to be amputated for the country to be healthy again.
As we mentioned in the previous section of this article about sexual violence in India, there are virtually zero avenues that victims of rape and domestic violence in India can go through to get justice for themselves and they are often blamed for their own victimization by the very people meant to serve them (hospital workers, judicial officers, and law enforcement officials). With no way to obtain justice from a system that perpetuates the cycle of sexual violence and allows the predatory members of their society that victimize women and girls for their own pleasure and power, especially if they are of lower castes, the only solution they are left with is one of militancy.
The next segment of the song’s lyrics we’ll be looking at are all sung (actually “growled” in the metal, harsh-vocal style of gutturals) in Hindi by the band’s other co-lead vocalist, Jayant Bhadula. We will show the phonetic English spelling of the original Hindi lyrics first, with a side by side of the English translation for comparison. It is worth note to mention all of Bloodywood’s songs that have to do with socio-political issues have their most poetically profound and overtly critical lyrics toward their own government and institutions that contribute to the issues the song centers around sung–or in many cases, growled–in Hindi by Jayant. I believe this to be intentional because the people most likely to be affected by these lyrics the most are going to be people from their own country who speak Hindi, and what better way to call out and demand change from those evil and corrupt individuals in places of power and influence than in their native tongue? Without further delay, we will show you exactly what we mean by all of this by analyzing the pre-chorus, chorus, and post-chorus of “Dana-Dan”:
| Hindi Lyrics (Phonetic English Spelling) | English Translation of Original Hindi Lyrics | |
| Pre-Chorus | Dekh jakade bhitari haivan Dekh mitt gaye sabhya ke nishaan Dekh parde ke saamne ka saadhu Kaise parde ke peechhe jaake bann gaya shaitaan Laaton ke bhooton ka maran Naape guddi, dhar ke gardan | Watch as he lets the demon possess him Watch his civility turn to ash Watch how an apparent saint becomes a monster behind the curtains If words do not change them grab them by the neck and… |
| Chorus | De dana dan, de dana dan, de dana dan, de dana dan De, de, de [2x] Dana dan, de, de, de Dana dan | Bring the beatdown [repeated over and over again] *Colloquial saying roughly translate to “Bring the beatdown”, but literally translates to ‘Give it to you’ in English |
| Post-Chorus | Laaton ke bhooton ka maran Laaton ke bhooton ke bajegi joot | If words do not change them They can taste my boot |
This section is meant to illustrate the evil in the hearts of the men who abuse women both sexually and physically. The pre-chorus creates this portrait of the wife-beater and the rapist as evil and demonic beings that hide in plain sight through clever façades and deception to paint themselves as good and even godly men to onlookers and passersby but internally they are really corrupt, violent, predatory creatures that only show their true colors behind closed doors. The last part of the pre-chorus as well as the whole both the chorus and post-chorus function as a violent and yet genuine warning from the men in Bloodywood to men in India who abuse women and exert forceful and unwanted dominance and violence over them (and likely around the world as a whole) saying what they as men will respond to their violence with violence through clear and explicit language. They are laying it out plainly that they will beat the ever-loving hell out of any man who rapes or in another way abuses a woman. I also think there is some sonic irony in the way that the phrase “De Dana Dan, De dana dan…” sounds when he is singing it as it sounds very much like “Die, done-a-done, Die, done-a-done…” and since all three of the main members of the band (the other three are live, touring musicians only) speak both Hindi and English, there is no way this wasn’t intentional, and this next section of lyrics we’re analyzing helps provide some evidence of this cross-lingual word play by Bloodywood.
The third set of lyrics we’ll discuss is the second verse with Raoul rapping the vocals once again. This one section differs from the previous verse of his in that instead of recounting the story of a violent intervention he had with a rapist serving as a warning to would be rapists and abusers, he warns them of the violence yet to come if they do not change their ways, while also making the whole of Indian society aware of their responsibility to end the cycle.
“Consent” better get with it or get got/ Gotchu in my sights motherfucker it’s a head shot/ You up on the spot, a new start or rot, yeah/ Not all men, yes, all men need all men for what we’re solvin’/ Can’t be what it’s been but we’re evolvin’/ You see for yourself now get involved in/ Talking all in, do more, boy, it’s a war/ Chainsaw to the dead weight, leave it raw/ Bloody galore as we clean out the core/ Yeah, we do it for her, so we kick in the door/ It’s anarchy up in the patriarchy and we’re lovin’ it/ We done asking nicely, so now we here thuggin’ it/ No man and no woman, it’s the people that are runnin’ it/ Listen for that engine, ’cause now we’re gonna be gunnin’ it/
In this section we get the explicit language of men who are fed up with the endless cycle of sexual violence that has ravaged their country and its women making it crystal clear that no longer will they watch as their mothers, their sisters, their aunts, their cousins, their daughters or their neighbors be victimized without fear of retaliation from the men in their lives against the abusers. When Raoul raps “‘Consent’ better get with it or get got/ Gotchu in my sight’s motherfucker it’s a headshot/You up on the spot, a new start or rot, yeah/…” he is quite literally saying, “If you force yourself upon someone/do anything sexual to them without consent or with someone who is unable to consent, you will die. Change your ways, or rot.” Every subsequent line from this verse from “Not all men…/…” to “…/…gunnin’ it” is a direct call for the people of India to do their part and recognize that “all of us are responsible for creating the change from a massive patriarchal rape culture to one of gender equality and safety for all.” The line with “not all men” refers to a common saying used to dismiss ideas of rape culture (in America and other nations as well, not just India) that is meant to express that “Not all men rape or are monsters” as if it changes the reality that some men do and leave a sea of traumatized victims and broken families in their wakes.
But the rest of that line and the next few that follows it, “… yes, all men need all men for what we’re solvin’/ Can’t be what it’s been but we’re evolvin’/ You see for yourself now get involved in/ Talking all in, do more, boy, it’s a war/…” say that we need all the good men to fight in the war against this patriarchal scourge of sexual violence if we are ever to evolve into a better, safer society that women can coexist with men in without fear of being in constant fear of being violated and victimized. While on the same token, the lines “…/It’s anarchy up in the patriarchy and we’re lovin’ it/ We done asking nicely, so now we here thuggin’ it/ No man and no woman, it’s the people that are runnin’ it/ Listen for that engine, ’cause now we’re gonna be gunnin’ it/” paint the picture of what they as a society need to do in order to achieve this paradise where women and girls need not live in constant fear, and one of the main things that needs to take place is that men and women need to unite together in this fight because no single man alone, nor any single woman alone can fight this fight, it has to be the men and women of India united as a people to stand up against the rapists, wife beaters, and sex traffickers.
The fourth and final section of lyrics we’ll discuss before making a brief analysis of the music video for “Dana-Dan” is the bridge, which is also performed by Raoul, concludes the song with a message that it is not too late to join the fight if you’ve sat on the sidelines, nor is it too late for the men who have victimized women and girls to change their ways and rejoin society. Then he finishes the final verse by reiterating the message of the first.
Now if you strayed, time to turn back/ And run with the pack/ It’s time to fight, yeah, yeah, we got the ammo to stack/ Fuck every man for himself, it’s every man for every man and everybody else/ Everybody else/ I raise a fist for the nameless faces he disgraces (Rise)/ Raise a fist for the nameless faces he disgraces/ And yeah, one day I may change his kind with my mind/ One day I may change his kind with my mind/ I raise a fist for the nameless faces he disgraces (Rise)/ Raise a fist for the nameless faces he disgraces
And yeah, one day I may change his kind with my mind/ One day I may change his kind/ But until then…
We already touched on how the first few lines are an invitation–more of a demand, really–for the bystanders and those who’ve yet to change their predatory behaviors to rejoin society and fight to end the rape culture in India with the lines “Now if you strayed, time to turn back/ And run with the pack/ It’s time to fight, yeah, yeah, we got the ammo to stack/…”. When he wraps the lines Fuck every man for himself, it’s every man for every man and everybody else/ Everybody else/ I raise a fist for the nameless faces he disgraces (Rise)/ Raise a fist for the nameless faces he disgraces/ And yeah, one day I may change his kind with my mind/…” he is saying, again, “no longer do you have the option to sit on your asses while this shit continues, you need to be part of the solution now, so rise!” Yes, one day they may be able to change these peoples’ ways with their hearts and minds, but right now they need to be shown by force–deadly force, if necessary–that their sexually predacious, patriarchal tyranny will not be tolerated by any members of Indian society any longer as they unite as one.
After that last line, it cycles back into the chorus, essentially saying “Until you predatory men will listen to reason, can be reached with words, or something changes in the way sexual assault is handled in India, we will be forced to continue literally taking matters into our own hands, so expect a beatdown,” because nothing else seems to work. As we’ve mentioned previously, though, we will wrap things up by looking into the symbolism in the music video for Bloodywood’s “Dana-Dan”.
The Symbolism in Bloodywood’s “Dana-Dan” Music Video
The last thing we will discuss in this essay is the symbolic imagery used in Bloodywood’s music video for this song. The song features background dancers–all of whom are women–dancing along in traditional, festive Indian garb. The band members mime beating a rapist down with their fists throughout the performance and all of them look pissed, especially Raoul and Jayant when they are performing their respective vocals, but even more so when they are doing the mimed beatdown when Jayant sings the “De Dana Dan” part of the chorus (this is the part that translates to “bring the beatdown” from Hindi to English). Perhaps the greatest use of imagery however is when the footage cuts to the background dancers who implement their own dance-y version of the mimed beat down into the choreography of their traditional dance.
The true pièce de résistance of the entire music video, however, is the female dancer that is always in the foreground of the group of classical Indian dancers. This woman is painted blue and wears makeup and facial ornaments that make her resemble Kali. Not only is Kali the goddess of death, destruction, and rebirth in the Hindu religion, but she is also seen as a guardian and protector deity. Why is this important, though? Aside from the inclusion of Kali, a guardian and protector deity being incredibly on theme with the album Rakshak being the Hindi word for “Guardian/Protector/Savior,” it is important because there are two main messages Bloodywood is trying to send with their song “Dana-Dan”. The first is that for the cycle of sexual violence to be broken, there needs to be death, decay, and destruction for Indian society to be reborn into a better, safer, and healthy society for women and men to coexist in peacefully and without fear. The second is that everybody needs to rise up and be guardians and protectors of women from the predatory men that would see them beaten raped and sold into sexual slavery. All these things are exactly what Kali as a deity represents to the Hindu religion and to the people of India as a whole.
We hope you all enjoyed reading our essay on Bloodywood and learned something about both the international Metal scene and global issues of socio-political importance. It was a blast getting to write about these guys and we hope you enjoyed learning about them as much as we did writing about them! Until next time, farewell, dear reader.
References
“Bloodywood (Music).” TV Tropes, tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Music/Bloodywood. Accessed 3 May 2024.
“Bloodywood – Dana Dan (Indian Folk Metal).” YouTube, YouTube, 18 Feb. 2022, www.youtube.com/watch?si=5uHlQJvt3zxBmvXi&v=a65A626Ed20&feature=youtu.be.
“Bloodywood – Raj against the Machine (the Documentary).” YouTube, YouTube, 22 July 2020, www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIvzfULOJ70.
“Bloodywood – Dana-Dan.” Genius, genius.com/Bloodywood-dana-dan-lyrics. Accessed 3 May 2024.
“Demographic Trends.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, inc., www.britannica.com/place/India/Demographic-trends. Accessed 3 May 2024.
Fong, Vania. “A Conversation with Bloodywood’s Raoul Kerr on Songwriting and Music Being a Force for Social Change.” Asia Pacific Arts, 21 May 2023, asiapacificarts.org/2023/05/20/a-conversation-with-bloodywoods-raoul-kerr-on-songwriting-and-music-being-a-force-for-social-change/.
“Sexual Violence in India.” Equality Now, 12 Nov. 2021, equalitynow.org/learn_more_sexual_violence_in_india/#:~:text=Sexual%20violence%20is%20a%20major,2019%2C%20with%2033%2C356%20in%202018.
Travers, Paul. “Bloodywood: ‘The Theme of This Band Is That It Has to Be Something That Adds Value to This World.’” Kerrang!, 17 Feb. 2022, www.kerrang.com/bloodywood-indian-metal-rakshak-theme-of-this-band-something-that-adds-value-to-this-world.
“Two-Finger Test: The Indian Supreme Court’s Important Reiteration of Ban.” Equality Now, 4 Nov. 2022, equalitynow.org/news_and_insights/two-finger-test-the-indian-supreme-courts-important-reiteration-of-ban/.