We connect caste to the music we stream and the pride we carry, tracing how power moves through South Asian culture from temple traditions to Punjabi pop. We sit with Sikh commitments to equality, name how caste discrimination shows up in Canada, and look at how Dalit artists use music to document life and fight back.
• Defining caste as a system of birth-based hierarchy and why the four-varna model misses lived reality
• Naming Dalit as a reclaimed identity and why caste persists despite being outlawed
• Linking Sikh Heritage Month to the gap between equality in doctrine and caste in social practice
• Explaining how caste travels into the diaspora through migration, capital, and community institutions
• Pointing to Canadian and US examples where caste discrimination is formally recognised
• Outlining Brahmin gatekeeping in Carnatic music and how access to instruments and spaces is policed
• Highlighting Dalit music as resistance through folk traditions and projects like The Casteless Collective
• Tracking Punjabi pop’s global rise and the normalisation of Jatt identity as “just Punjabi”
• Questioning what caste signalling does to listeners seeking identity in Canada and beyond
• Sharing ways to listen differently by asking who is centred and who gets erased
Thank you for listening, you can hear Ravia every Thursday on 97.9 FM or through our live-stream at www.theuniversalradio.com
IG: @theuniversalradio
