Jail House Rocks With Bhangra-Rap

[Jahnava Nitai Das 2]

Jail House Rocks With Bhangra-Rap

 

OXFORDSHIRE, ENGLAND, October 11, 2002: Multiculturalism finally entered the grim world of England's famously-austere Victorian prisons on Thursday, but it marched to the sweet tones of the sitar and sang in Hindi. Two Jalandhar boys -- one behind bars, the other strutting the world stage as creator of bhangra-rap -- brought India to hundreds of petty criminals, murderers and white collar criminals in the first Asian music festival inside a Western high-security prison. The concert, part of Britain's prison reform and rehabilitation drive, took Steve Kapur into Her Majesty's Prison Bullingdon. South Asian prisoners are doubly benefited, said Katy Lewis of the the charitable Irene Taylor Trust, adding that research had found "Indians don't normally participate in prison events, but such a festival also helps the white prisoners understand their culture." Some of the Hindu prisoners (there aren't many) have formed a bhajana group.

 

[Jndas: Indian culture brought to the prisons? ISKCON has devotees in cities such as Los Angeles who go to the prisons and teach Bhagavad Gita to the prisoners in hopes of reforming them with spiritual knowledge. I think people in such a dire situation really need the teachings of the Gita, not Bhangra Rap.]