Recent Trends in Pakistani

Protest Songs: A Critical

Discourse Analysis
Dr. Sarwet Rasul
Background of the Research
 Pakistan has a long and rich tradition of protest music and
poetry. However, when it comes to protest songs on electronic
media, it is evident that Pakistan's protest music culture has
entered a new and exciting phase in the recent years.

 As compared to the only available heavily censored state

electronic media of the past, the emergence of private
electronic media channels and the new social media has
provided a far greater scope and flexibility to the young singers
and musicians to voice protest through music.

 With the growth of these media and Internet in Pakistan, the

singers and artists are more empowered than ever to engage in
free expression as a marker of their political and social
activism.

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 Media: New Social Media

Politic
s
Media Youth

Power

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Media Discourse
 The power of media has inspired many critical
studies in many disciplines: linguistics,
semiotics, pragmatics and discourse studies.
 Media affects how we learn about our world
and interact with one another and the world
around.
 Media power is generally symbolic and
persuasive, in the sense that media primarily
has the potential to control (alt least to some
extent) the minds of the audience directly but
their actions indirectly.

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Aim and Objectives of the Current
Research
 In this context the current research explores
the recent trends in Pakistani protest songs
from the linguistic and semiotic perspectives.
 It is examined how these songs linguistically

and semiotically create meaning on the levels

of text, discursive practices and social
structures.

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Criteria for Data Collection
 Protest songs
 Years 2011, 2012
 Popularity: Number of Views on You-Tube
 No Association with a Commercial Brand
 No Association with a Political Party

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Reconfirming Selection Criteria

Song Year Singer/s, Band Number of Viewers

Mein tou 2011 Bilal Maqsood/ 173,718

Dekhoonga Strings
Kia darta hai 2011 Shehzad Roy, (Djuice) 124,259

Abrar ki krn dey 2011 Abrar-ul-Haq 37,115

o

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Data Details
Song Year Singer/s, Band Number of Viewers

Aalu Anday 2011 Begairat Brigade 876,127

Apne Ulloo 2011 Shehzad Roy and 490,010

Wassu
Waderai ka 2012 Ali Gul Pir & his 912,335
beta team

Awam 2012 Faris Shafi and 200,773

Mooroo

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Research Framework
 Critical Discourse Analysis model of
Fairclough (1989, 1995) and semiotic
framework of Berger (1998) are combined
and adapted for the purpose of analysis.
Applying different stages of discourse
analysis (description, interpretation and
explanation) as given by Fairclough, it is
examined how these songs linguistically and
semiotically create meaning on the levels of
text, discursive practices and social
structures.

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Literature Review
Discourse:

According to Fairclough (1989: p.25) discourse

“involves social conditions, which can be
specified as social conditions of production,
and social conditions of interpretation.

These social conditions, moreover, relate to

three different ´levels´ of social organization:
the level of the social situation, or the
immediate social environment in which the
discourse occurs ; the level of the social
institution which constitutes a wider matrix for
the discourse; and the level of the society as a
whole.”

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 Literature Review: CDA
Fairclough (1995) defines CDA as follows:
By critical discourse analysis I mean discourse
analysis which aims to systematically explore often
opaque relationships of causality and
determination between (a) discursive practices,
events and texts, and (b) wider social and cultural
structures, relations and processes; to investigate
how such practices, events and texts arise out of
and are ideologically shaped by relations of power
and struggles over power; and to explore how the
opacity of these relationships between discourse
and society is itself a factor securing power and
hegemony. (pp. 132-3)

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 There are different approaches and schools to
CDA, with their similarities and differences in
terms of theoretical foundations and the tools
they use to analyze discourse, but the
concepts of ideology, critique, and power are
present in all of them.

 CDA has an interdisciplinary nature that

shows the dialectic relationship between
language, culture, society, and politics.

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 Fairclough believes that our language, which shapes
our social identities and interactions, knowledge
systems, and beliefs, is also shaped by them in turn.
He bases his analyses on Halliday’s systemic-
functional grammar.

 In Language and Power (1989), he calls his approach

Critical Language Study, and considers the first aim
of his approach as helping to correct the vast
negligence in relation to the significance of language
in creating, maintaining and changing the social
relations of power.

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 Fairclough considers language as a form of
social practice. This way of thinking implies
some other notions. First, language is a part
of the society and not somehow external to it.
Second, language is a social process. Third,
language is a socially conditioned process,
conditioned that is by other (non-linguistic)
parts of society (Fairclough, 1989, 22).

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 Fairclough's (1989, 1995) model for CDA consists three inter-
related processes of analysis tied to three inter-related
dimensions of discourse. These three dimensions are:

1. The object of analysis (including verbal, visual or verbal and

visual texts).
2. The processes by means of which the object is produced and
received (writing/ speaking/designing and
eading/listening/viewing) by human subjects.
3. The socio-historical conditions which govern these processes.

According to Fairclough each of these dimensions requires a

different kind of analysis

1 text analysis (description),

2 processing analysis (interpretation),
3 social analysis (explanation).

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Berger 1998: Semiotics
 Interest in signs and the way they communicate has a long History.

 Modern semiotic analysis can be said to have begun with two men
—Swiss linguist Ferdinand de Saussure (1857–1913) and American
philosopher Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914).

 Semiotic analysis is concerned with meaning in texts and that

meaning stems from relationships—in particular, the relationship
among signs.

 Semiotics has been applied, with interesting results, to film,

theater, medicine, architecture, zoology, and a host of other areas
that involve or are concerned with communication and the transfer
of information. (Burger 1998)

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 In semiotic analysis, an arbitrary and temporary
separation is made between content and form, and
attention is focused on the system of signs that
makes up a text. Thus a meal, to stray from
television for a moment, is not seen as steak, salad,
baked potato, and apple pie, but rather as a sign
system conveying meanings related to matters such
as status, taste, sophistication, and nationality.(p. 4)

 Checklist for Semiotic Analysis Berger.docx

http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/5171_Berger_Final_Pages_Chapter_1.pdf

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Song 1: Aalu Anday (2011)
by Begairat Brigade

 As Pakistani youthful population has embraced

the new social media, the protest song Aalu
Anday is a significant example in the long
tradition of protest music, poetry and literature
in the rich and diverse culture of Pakistan.

 It was released on Social Media on October 2011

 It challenges censorship
 Thematically it challenges the occurrence, and
celebration of violence in Pakistan particularly by
its (political)leaders.

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 1_aalu anday.wmv

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CDA of Pakistani Protest Songs: How Will I Begin?
Stage 1: For a thorough critical discourse analysis, I will begin with this
selected text (from the selected data).

I will see how far I can get with a single text and then try to fill in the gaps
and unanswered questions and hypotheses raised by this limited and
arbitrary entry point.

What I am ultimately looking for are patterns that I can use to establish
hypotheses about media discourses of protest music in the Pakistani
society.

I will then try to confirm or disconfirm these hypotheses by looking at

other sample texts from the selected data.

This will enable us to discover and rediscover questions and their answers
with regard to the discursive practices, social relations and discourses
instantiated in this text and others connected to it. This will provide us
a comprehensive view.

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 Stage 2- Interpretation: Processing analysis (analysing the
processes of production and reception)
Fairclough refers to the situational context and the intertextual
context as central to the process of interpretation. In terms of
the situational context it is useful to ask such questions:
 What is the time and place of the production of this text/

discourse?
 Could this text/ discourse have been produced earlier than

this? Is it simply a (popular music) song?

 Could, and how could this text/ discourse have been produced

outside of Pakistan?
 What contextual factors influenced the production and
interpretation of this text/ discourse?

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 Stage 3- Explanation: Socio-cultural Analysis
 At this stage interpretation is to be related to

the broader social-cultural context to give

explanations of this relationship.

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Band - Song 1: Aalu Anday
The Band Itself:
 The video features the three boys of Begairat Brigade,
dressed in school/ college uniform, singing out loud
everything that plagues Pakistan but in a sly and cheeky
manner.

 On the Textual level ‘Beygairat Brigade’ literally means a

Brigade without Honour.
 When we look at Discursive Practices we notice:
 Different Discourses: Different Voices
 Military Discourse, Media Discourse, Protest Discourse
 openly mocking the military, religious conservatives,
nationalist politicians and conspiracy theorists.
 In the broader socio-cultural context the name of the
band is itself a satire of Pakistan’s nationalists and
conservatives, who are often described in the local news
media as the Ghairat Brigade, or Honour Brigade.

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 Title of Song 1: Aalu Anday
 On the Textual level “Aalu Anday,” literally means “Potatoes and Eggs”

 The band themselves highlighted in an interview that “What aalu anday

symbolizes in our song is what we despise.”

 They highlight the significance or insignificance of this dish that nobody

will eat aalu anday if something else is cooked in the house.

 Aalu anday represent the bland, boring, leftovers morsels that the people
of this country are forced to have.

 The term ‘Aalu anday’ (which is also the title of the song) is repeated
frequently. Emphasis on ‘meri ma nay pakae aalu anday mein nai khanay
mei nu lagday nay ganday” reinforces the idea. The genre practice of
repetition supports this use for reinforcement.

 The device of repetition brings in urgency and importance of the issue at

hand.

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Setting of Song 1: Aalu Anday
The classroom setting

Youth / Urbanized Middle

Class/ Upward mobility/

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Opening Text

Meri ma nay pakae aalu andy

Mein nai khanay mei no lagday nay ganday
Mein tay khawan ga chicen di boti
Oday nal khamiri rooti
Pawain ho jae chicken tu maingi dal ay

 Chicken di boti represents the desire for a better life.

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Some Text: 2_aalu anday.wmv
Extension tay pae gae rolay
Taiyon chief di bolti v band hai
Aethay Qadri banayan nawab aae
Aithay hero Ajmal Kasab hai
Mula nasya wich hijab hai
Aithay Abdul Salam nu pochda hi koi nai

Of course in the broader social context we know the following:

 Ajmal Qasab: one of the 2008 Mumbai attackers

 Abdul Salam: a Pakistani Nobel laureate
 ‘Qadri,' the guard who killed Salmaan Taseer, the governor of Punjab, for
being outspoken against Pakistan's blasphemy laws.
 So, we are able to understand and interpret:
 Political Satire: From the civilian leaders like Imran Khan to the Chief
Justice to the all powerful military they spare absolutely no one.
 Criticism on Religious extremists
 The song becomes a biting commentary on the current socio-political
milieu of the country.

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Some more Text
 3_aalu anday.wmv

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Semiotics in this meaning making
 The video includes handwritten signs that
offer controversial references.
 The last scene predicts the kind of physical or

political retribution the band may expect to

suffer as a result of the video's dissemination.

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How does the medium affect the text?
What kinds of shots, camera angles, and editing techniques are used?
How are lighting, color, music, and sound used to give meaning to
signs?

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The previous image makes more meanings when you look at this image

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Song 2: Apne Ulloo (2011) by Shehzad Roy and Wassu

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 What do we notice?
 Satire on the political system
 Criticism on the working of government offices
 Satire on the legal system

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Again:
 Think of the title: How does it make meaning
in the broader context.
 How does the knowledge of language (the

proverb) help in meaning making?

 What about the setting?

 How does use of rap contribute in creating,

interpreting and explaining meaning?

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 Text:
 [Shehzad Roy]
Taale, waadey, signal, dil sabkuch toda kuch nahin
choda (Notice the relationship/opositions)
kuch nahin choda
Do number kaamon mein bhi hum number two
hum number two
Kar Allah hoo (Interpret in the light of discursive practices
of religion)
Apne Ulloo kitne taire ab tak hue na seedhe

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What discursive practices of media we are reminded of?

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Some Semiotic Aspects: See how they make meaning
on the textual level, discursive practices level and
socio-cultural level.

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 Do you remember the ending?

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Song 3: Waderai ka beta (2012) by Ali Gul Pir &
his team

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Title and Setting: Waderai ka beta

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Some Semiotic aspects:

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Saein to Saieen ,Saieen k Kapray bhi
Saein,
Saein to saieen ,Saieen ki Garri Bhi
Saieen,
Saein to saieen,Saieen k Cigerette Bhi
Saieen ,
Saein to saieen ,Saieen k dost bhi
Sayeenm,
Saein to saieen ,Wade Saieen bhi Saieen
Saein to saieen ,Saieen ki Bachi bhi
Saieen ,
Saein to saieen ,
Saein to saieen ,

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Song 4: Awam (2012) Faris Shafi and Mooroo

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Why Fairclough’s approach to CDA is useful?
 Because it provides multiple points of analytic

entry.
 Which so ever kind of analysis one begins with,

as ultimately all the levels are included and are

shown to be mutually explanatory.
 It is in the interconnections that the analyst finds

the interesting patterns and disjunctions that

need to be described, interpreted and explained.

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Changing institutionalized practices
 With expanding educational opportunities
and growing access and use of the modern
social media by the nation's youth, Pakistan is
now in the midst of a dramatic social
transformation that is likely to change the
face of politics in the coming decades.
 Given the global reach of the Internet, the

new social media are now enabling individual

Pakistani protest musicians to attract
international attention.

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 Satire and Irony
 Crude Humour
 Rap
 Text with video
 Abusive language
 Social Media Space choice

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References
   "The Economist". Eggs, mullahs and rock 'n
roll. economist.com. Retrieved November 14,
2011.
  "New York Times". Satirical Song, a YouTube

Hit, Challenges Extremism in Pakistan.

nytimes.com. Retrieved November 14, 2011.
 "Indian Express". Pak band mashes potatoes,

eggs, Kasab, Nawaz Sharif. indianexpress.com.

Retrieved November 14, 2011.

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