Mahi G
Mahi G | |
|---|---|
| Born | Madhura Ghane 1997 (age 28–29) |
| Origin | Varunbhushi, Maharashtra, India |
| Genres | Rap |
| Occupations | Rapper Lyricist Engineer |
| Years active | 2021–present |
Madhura Ghane (born c. 1997), known professionally as Mahi G, is an Indian rapper. Born into a Mahadev Koli family in Maharashtra, she is known for her music reflecting on the issues facing Adivasi and Dalit communities in India.
Early life and education
[edit]Ghane was born and raised in Kalyan, a city in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region, to Koli parents originally from the village of Varanbhushi in the Ahmednagar district of Maharashtra. Ghane's father was a bus driver and her mother was a homemaker. Despite living away from the Mahadev Koli's ancestral land, Ghane was raised in Koli culture, and visited Varanbhushi semi-regularly.[1][2][3][4]
While Koli girls have higher rates of dropping out of education and marrying young, Ghane's mother encouraged her to focus on her education.[5] She studied electronic and communication engineering at college, and worked as an engineer at Infosys, using her income to fund her music.[6][7]
Career
[edit]Ghane moved to Mumbai to work as an engineer, but during the COVID-19 pandemic, she lived with her grandmother in Varanbhushi, where she witnessed the impact of displacement and pollution on rural farming communities.[1][4][8] Ghane began writing poetry in Hindi and Marathi. She transitioned to rapping after being inspired by the 2020–2021 Indian farmers' protest, as well as the 2019 film Gully Boy, which followed aspiring rappers living in Mumbai.[1][3][7]
Much of Ghane's music documents the lives of the Adivasi and Dalit communities in India, who live outside of the country's entrenched caste system.[6] Common themes in her work include the impact of climate change on rural communities ("Hasdeo Ki Kahani"); violence against women ("Kab Tak"); the experiences of the hijra community ("Haq Se Hijra"); and the work of anti-caste activists such as B. R. Ambedkar ("Baapmanus").[1][2][3][5] During the 2025 India–Pakistan heat wave, and to mark World Environment Day, Ghane released the single "Heatwave" in collaboration with Greenpeace India and RapBoss, in which she rapped out the impact of climate change on manual workers.[3][7][9]
During her performances, Ghane has been known to incorporate traditional Adivasi clothing from tribes living in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh into her outfits, including wearing kurtas, lugra saris, and ambadas.[3] Ghane performed at RADA, the first Marathi pop culture festival; she has also performed internationally, including in Nepal, where her performance coincided with the outbreak of the 2025 Nepalese Gen Z protests.[7][10]
In 2025, Ghane's 2021 debut single "Jungale Cha Raja" went viral on social media where it was frequently used by videos about climate change. Famous users of the song included the director Anurag Kashyap, and Ghane was compared to fellow Adivasi rapper Arivu; the song's lyrics included references to the Adevasi foundational beliefs of jal (water), jangal (forest) and jameen (land).[3][4][5][6][9] That same year, Ghane received the Indie Music Creator prize at the Lokmat Social Media Awards, as well as the Fatimabi Savitri Puraskar from Maharashtra's Women Commission in recognition of her speaking out on social injustice.[3][8]
References
[edit]- 1 2 3 4 Verán, Cristina (20 March 2026). "Mahi G on a Mission: Fighting Injustice with the Power of Hip-Hop and Adivasi Pride". Cultural Survival. Archived from the original on 15 August 2026. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 Ramgopal, Anurag; Rampogal, Akanksha (22 January 2025). "Mahi G: A woman rapping for the environment". DW. Archived from the original on 15 August 2026. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Saini, Unnati (18 July 2025). "Mahi G: The Alternative Rapper". The Voice of Fashion. Archived from the original on 15 August 2026. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 "Meet Mahi G: The Engineer Behind The Viral Jal Jungle Zameen Rap". Brut. 4 March 2026. Archived from the original on 15 August 2026. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 Austrin, Alice (16 April 2025). "Female Rapper Mahi G: Raising the Bars for Women". Red Bull. Archived from the original on 13 May 2025. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 Qadri, Haziq (29 June 2025). "This Indian rapper is spitting bars about climate justice, caste, and Indigenous rights". Grist. Archived from the original on 15 August 2026. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Pradhan, Sahil (2 April 2026). "From the Forest to the Mic, Mahi G's Rap is a Charge Sheet Against Power". Local Samosa. Archived from the original on 15 August 2026. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 Rai, Neelanjana (1 August 2025). "Meet Mahi G, an Adivasi rapper from Maharashtra, who uses the mic as a weapon to fight social injustice". The Hindu. Archived from the original on 20 November 2025. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- 1 2 Narayanan, Meenakshi; Mittal, Tanya (15 October 2025). "Three Indian rappers whose music serves as resistance and as record". Scroll.in. Archived from the original on 15 August 2026. Retrieved 15 August 2026.
- ↑ Kamble, Devashish (15 September 2025). "Rapper Mahi G recounts arrival in protest-hit Kathmandu in Nepal". Mid-Day. Archived from the original on 15 August 2026. Retrieved 15 August 2026.