From the slums of Dharavi to rural Punjab, there is a new music in the air

In different pockets of the country, cutting across boundaries of class and caste, young rappers are giving a strong local and political direction to the genre

In a narrow alley of India’s largest slum, Dharavi in Mumbai, hip hop crew 7Bantai’Z is working on soundproofing its “studio” — a tiny room on a makeshift mezzanine floor. For the last four years, the group of seven, mostly college students, has been belting out rap songs to bring about social change and alter people’s perceptions of Dharavi.

Far away in Delhi, songs of caste discrimination, racism and student safety emanate from a university campus. In another part of the national capital, a Sikh youth talks of drugs and guns. And in Tripura, a native voices his concern for