I had seen Asian Dub Foundation in November '98 at the CMJ Festival's "Artists Against Racism" show at Tramps in New York. My first reaction: "they seem a little perturbed" and "they know how to work the audience." At this point, I didn't know much about the band, but I intended to find out what it was that the lead singer, Deedar Zaman, was vehemently rapping about in songs titled "Free Satpal Ram" and "Black and White."

The next day I headed over to Tower to get my copy of Rafi's Revenge (LP 1998). I was told by various people to look under genres ranging from reggae, to techno, to pop. This was no surprise; ADF's sound has been described as a hybrid of jungle, techno, and punk mixed with traditional Indian sounds. Ultimately, a store clerk fished it out of a brown box in the back room. Over the next few weeks, I read over the powerful lyrics and repeatedly listened to my favorite tracks, "Naxalite" and "Culture Move." At this point, I was ready to kick anyone's ass who dared call me a "cow worshipper" or "dot head" (a derogatory term formerly used to refer to a 'bindi' which is now a 'fashionably worn accessory' by Madonna and Gwen Stefani).

Six months later, April 1999, I was with my girls, Elisa and Sonjia, at the Bowery Ballroom in NY, waiting to catch the members of Asian Dub Foundation: Dr. Das, Pandit G., Chandrasonic, Sun J., and Deedar, at our informally scheduled time. The band started in 1993 at a community music technology workshop in Farringdon, England. Dr. Das, the bass player, and Pandit G., the DJ, taught at the workshop, and Deedar, the rapper, was a 14-year old student. Eventually, Chandrasonic, the guitar player, and Sun-J, the DJ and crowd rouser, joined up with the group to form what is becoming internationally known as Asian Dub Foundation.

Apparently they were out on a photo shoot, which we later found out was an interview for some internet TV company. According to Pandit G., the band was asked, "So guys, do you like Indian women or white women?" Needless to say, that interview ended right there.

ADF has no time to waste on people who assume that because they're signed onto a major record label, they’re after rock stardom. These five guys have an agenda, and this should be clear from listening to any one of their songs. When asked about their history, Pandit G. told us about ADF's first show. "The first concert ADF did was for a lad in White Chapel where the British National Front, the fascist party, was standing for election. A bunch of racists had stabbed a young lad named Khudas Ali, a Bengali youth, right on the street in front of everyone. There was a benefit for him, so we got up and did a gig, and from there it just continued."

It continued with one of ADF's most powerful songs titled, "Free Satpal Ram", which, in a way, set the tone for the band. The song is part of a campaign for Satpal Ram who has been serving seventeen years in prison for defending himself against a racist attack in England in 1982. During ADF's show that night, Dr. Das explained to the audience their role as musicians in the whole campaign. "Well, the campaign approached us to write a piece of music, highlighting the situation. We were already aware of it, and he's one of many people in Britain. Anybody could have asked us and we would have done something, because people of color get attacked by racists, and then they are the ones who are placed in doubt for defending themselves. That's happened too often."

When asking about their role as musicians in spreading a message, Dr. Das responded, "For us music has always been a potential vehicle for commentary, for criticism, for spreading information. It's like broadcasting except we're funkier than CNN. If you're making some funky sounds, it's a great opportunity to spread a little bit of information. And then it’s up to people, whether they take it further, whether they research it, whether they sign any petitions, whether they go on a march, or whether they just start talking."

ADF has definitely used their success as a platform for speaking up on issues that affect them and their surrounding communities. As stated by Pandit G., "You use your profile as a platform. We were on the Voice of America in Washington, D.C. You had to go in and it was like going to the airport security. They x-ray everything and check everything. But, to get on that to talk about Mumia and to talk about Satpal on the Voice of America, the leading propaganda organization of this country, I mean you've got to do it. You've got to do it, but you can't substitute yourself for real campaigns that are happening. We’ve got a given opportunity to be able to do this and that's what we use profile for."

Apart from touring and promoting their album, ADF has established an educational wing called ADFed in England. Pandit G. explained, "ADF education is us going full circle. ADF came out of the workshop through this organization Community Music. What we've done in the last ten months is we've managed to get funding from a variety of sources such as London Arts Board, a state funder. We go out and do workshops ourselves and we have tutors there. We have people who are activists and community workers on a management committee. It's a separate company. What we're trying to do is set up organizations that can live apart from us, who are independent, but can grow and develop ideas. We've had one workshop with a group called Asian Action Group, a ten-week music course. We've got one now in Brick Lane in the East-end of London and they're going to have a performance soon. Next one we're going to set up is in June, working with the Kurdish Worker's Association in North London, so we're going to mix up traditional music with a technology workshop. So, this is a growing process and when we get these artists, we don't necessarily want them to go into the music industry, but just to learn in a team about how to actually work together and come up with a piece of music to express themselves. And we put money in ourselves through ADF. It’s going to be something that we'll develop for the next generation."

ADF's choice to discuss politically charged campaigns and the everyday realities of racism and prejudice in their music has lead to a variety of responses from the public. When questioned about controversial responses, Chandrasonic, responded, "We haven't had as many as you might think. I think there's been complete misinterpretations I suppose, or really idiot, kind of narrow views of it. The most controversial responses have been actual people at gigs, like groups of fascists or something, throwing stones. It's happened twice. Once in a place in the center of London where a fascist party controlled a lot of people, and another in Italy where people didn't know us, and there were a few people for the far right at the gig."

In fact, the previous night at the Bowery Ballroom I noticed a man up in the balcony giving ADF the finger. Deedar, the lead singer, dealt with it by staring at him throughout a song, rapping hard lyrics and motioning toward him with his hand to come downstairs. He reflected on that incident when we talked to him the following evening.

"The worst thing about these shows is like yesterday we had some silly idiot up on the balcony swearing at us. He was telling us to shut up when we were in the middle of songs. We were trying to say something to the crowd, and he ran away after we came up. I wasn't too surprised about that."

The truth about ADF is that they are not only musicians, but activists in their own right. When asked why they have a political message in their songs, Chandrasonic challenged us with questions such as, "Why was it important for Stevie Wonder to make a record like Living in the City? Why did Otis Redding sing 'I Know a Change is Gonna Come'?" Seeing us struggling to understand, he expanded with, "Why do people sing about the world? Don't ask me why I sing about the world. Ask those who have no message, why they don't say anything, why they talk about things that are completely trivial. Don't ask me why. Ask them, why not?"

Debjani Roy