An anthem against violence
Bengaluru-based musician Pallavi M.D. has forged a unique collaboration to drive social justice in India
mentioned that she identifies as an introvert and in her teams, without realising, she seems to prefer or overly identify with other introverts. This comes in the way of team structure and cohesion. Affinity bias also shows up based on factors relating to age, gender, social class, race and personality. What these biases lead to is an in-group versus out-group culture. This impacts an employee’s morale, ability to show up in authentic ways and leads to a feeling of discrimination. In organisations where there is a pressure to respond in a certain way, and similarity bias, innovation suffers. Diversity and inclusion take a beating when teams or organisations fall for similarity bias.
The good news is that teams can be made aware of this, and diverse views and opinions are heard.
Another bias that shows up often is confirmation bias. This manifests in the ways that we seek out information, opinions and even evidence that supports our beliefs and hypothesis. As a result, what happens is that we may end up selectively paying attention to information, retaining data that fits with our beliefs, and not acknowledging evidence or facts that contradict our beliefs and even choices. This, in turn, dilutes the effectiveness of the decision-making process. At workplaces this often shows up in the context of the kind of questions that are asked, which team member’s feedback is preferenced and underestimating or downplaying contradictory pieces of information in order to avoid dissonance.
In my organisational work, what I have recognised is as we choose to build psychological safety and openly address unconscious and subconscious biases, employees begin to get better at checking themselves when they fall for this bias. One way to address this is to get feedback from across team members. This process of seeking evidence and diverse different opinions can help us in not falling for bias.
Organisations need to make a mindful investment in working with employees to recognise the biases so that leaders can become aware of their own blind spots.
Sonali Gupta is a Mumbai-based clinical psychologist. She is the author of the book Anxiety: Overcome It And Live Without Fear
Violence can come in many forms for women. Violence is a plate of food flung against the wall. Violence is being unable to discuss what’s worrying you without being afraid of defensiveness and anger. Violence is the expectation that you will work quietly in the background without expressing your needs or frustrations. And of course, there is violence of the literal sort; the kind that leaves bruises on your body.
Bengaluru-based musician Pallavi M.D.’s latest Kannada single
addresses all these forms of violence. It is an anthem—sung with extraordinary power and a subtle sense of anger by Pallavi, a trained classical musician who has also composed the song—that carries not only a message against domestic abuse but also, for lack of a better term, an action point. With words by Kannada poet Mamta Sagar and additional vocals by musician Vasu Dixit, it is addressed to everyone vulnerable to violence in the home. You should not be afraid to talk about it, sing or complain about it, it says. Do something about it, you don’t have to keep quiet because it is not your shame.
The song is part of a creative collaboration between Pallavi and Nyaaya, an organisation that is creating an open-access, digital resource that provides simple, actionable, and accessible legal information for all Indians. “When Nyaaya approached me to compose songs, specifically written and recorded with the purpose of them being nuggets of information about legal rights of citizens and their access to justice, it seemed deeply challenging and at the same time, necessary,” says Pallavi. “The challenge was to package legal jargon into hummable, easy-to-hear-and-understand songs that would also be calls to action.”
is the first song in this series called
of which the first three are ready, says Pallavi over WhatsApp from Europe, where she is touring across cities with frequent musical collaborator Andi Otto, a German sound artist. Some of the other issues that have been touched upon in her work with Nyaaya are child marriage and right to education.
“Music can be a powerful medium to bring about social change. From my childhood, I remember the songs
and which drove home the message of unity in diversity for a lot of people from my generation. Music can be used to move, to unify and to pacify,” says Pallavi, who thinks while music can exist for its own sake, musicians and artists should respond to the world around them.
In recent years, independent music in India has seen a resurgence of protest songs tinged with social activism. Chennai-based Madara, aka Rahul Negi, has released songs about the gruesome deaths of 16 migrant workers on a train track in 2020, and before that, songs protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA). Kashmiri rapper Ahmer, whose 2019 debut album
produced by Sez on the Beat, was called “scorching” by
is a cult classic among Kashmiri youth. Tamil rapper and lyricist Arivu’s work has addressed caste and systemic injustices, climate change, and the CAA.
With Pallavi’s songs for Nyaaya, there is an added element of not just talking about injustice but providing solutions too. These anthems are for everyone who has felt helpless, befuddled by the legal system, and unable to confront it in a still deeply feudalistic and hierarchical society. Nyaaya assures us that it may not always be so.