The Politics of Feelings: Musical Activism and Emotional Frictions in Colonial Rajputana

Abstract

This paper examines the emotional dynamics of twentieth-century Rajputana princely states in Colonial India through the lens of musical activism, analysing how songs articulated the affective component of crisis, conflict, and resistance. Through an analysis of vernacular musical compositions, this study explores the articulation of emotions—both human and nonhuman—within sonic expressions. It critically examines the affective negotiations between rulers and the ruled, uncovering how experiences of loyalty, exploitation, oppression, dispossession, defiance, and uncertainty were mediated through musical discourse. Beyond anthropocentric paradigms, the paper foregrounds the affective agency of nonhuman entities, including fortresses, royal regalia, and resistance symbols such as khadi and the charkha, as well as the structural processes of autocratic governance, exploitative taxation, and economic subjugation. These resistive expressions are particularly significant in exploring the ambivalent emotional landscape of the ruler-ruled  relationship in the peculiar polity of the Rajputana states defined by a three tiered structure of governance. These dimensions delineated the political and emotional topographies of resistance among the marginalised in this region. This study advances affect as a methodological lens for a more nuanced, historically situated, and culturally contingent understanding of emotions as integral to moments of crisis and transformation.