In the remote forests of Uttarkhand, -where Chipko activists battled to save trees from the axe, one voice strove for many years to bring them cheer and to boost their morale: Ghanshyam Raturi Sailani, writer, composer, and singer of Garhwali songs, and a social activist in the Gandhian tradition.
Sailani was born on 18 May, 1934 in Charigad village (Kebhar Patti of Tehri Garhwal district) to a priest family. Though learned in scriptures, the narrow confines of traditional religious practices could not contain young Sailani's rebellious and crusading spirit. When he learned that Gaur Das, a low-caste drum beater who provided his services at all the religious functions was, however, not permitted to observe the ceremonies at Sailani's home, Sailani went and read the scriptures in the home of Gaur Das. For his defiance Sailani was badly beaten by the village elite. He responded by joining the movement against untouchability in the princely state of Tehri, and by 1960, he was fully involved in the Sarvodaya movement.
It was during the anti-liquor movement in the late sixties when the capacity of Sailani's songs to mobolise and inspire the Garhwal villagers began to be noticed. By the following decade, Sailani was travelling extensively in Himalayan regions with the message that forests should be protected. He participated in several long foot-marches – "Padyatras" – to spread the message of the Chipko movement, and was often in the thick of several confrontation sites of the movement, or engaged in singing songs, once from the roof of a bus.
Sailani's songs urge citizens to take their future in their own hands by joining movements to save the forests and against liquor. His songs always celebrate the beauty of the Himalayas on one hand, while expressing deep anguish at the present conditions of disadvantaged people, especially women, in this harsh beauty. The songs also advocate progressive thinking and protest against narrow prejudices. Sometimes they are songs of joy and hope in the social movements in which he is fully involved; at other times they express the pathos of his peoples' tragic lives.