Community, communication, social change: Music in dispossessed Indian communities

The interface of music and health has principally been through music therapy and the use of music to build individual wellness. Community music as a tool for communicating health messages in combination with other arts and as a part of an epidemiological study has not been widely used. This article considers the relationship between public health, community music in particular, and the arts more generally. It discusses various ideas that give shape to an interdisciplinary enquiry centering on health policy. It introduces several aspects of Dewey's philosophy to support the idea of a community musichealth nexus as a source of projects that are both beneficial and have genuine aesthetic value. The study examines issues relating both to artistic value and health impact effectiveness in an Indian dispossessed community context, and provides a narrative of community music interventions in India with an analysis of the inherent aesthetic value.