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April 10, 2026
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"N’dour helped to develop a style of popular Senegalese music known in the Serer language as mbalax, which derives from the conservative Serer music tradition of “Njuup”."
"Senegalese musician, Youssou N’dour, takes the No 1 spot to his home country. This Senegalese singer is widely considered the most famous singer alive in Senegal and much of Africa. His style of music, popularly known as Mbalax, is a mix of Senegalese traditional music the Serer language and various styles from around the world including Cuban rhumba, Hip Hop, Jazz and Soul."
"In French West Africa, the Serer language was rendered distinct from Wolof by French geographers and linguists. Once a particular, geographically bounded people were assigned to a particular language, then a variety of institutions - the school, the law courts, the church - obliged them to learn it."
"Serer language was very similar to the languages spoken by the Wolof, Fulbe, Toucouleur, and Mandinka peoples. The customs and institutions of the five were also very much alike, although a commitment to pastoral life was unique to the Fulbe, and the practice of matrilineal inheritance was found only among the Serer."
Young though he was, his radiant energy produced such an impression of absolute reliability that Hedgewar made him the first sarkaryavah, or general secretary, of the RSS.
- Gopal Mukund Huddar
Largely because of the influence of communists in London, Huddar's conversion into an enthusiastic supporter of the fight against fascism was quick and smooth. The ease with which he crossed from one worldview to another betrays the fact that he had not properly understood the world he had grown in.
Huddar would have been 101 now had he been alive. But then centenaries are not celebrated only to register how old so and so would have been and when. They are usually celebrated to explore how much poorer our lives are without them. Maharashtrian public life is poorer without him. It is poorer for not having made the effort to recall an extraordinary life.
I regret I was not there to listen to Balaji Huddar's speech [...] No matter how many times you listen to him, his speeches are so delightful that you feel like listening to them again and again.
By the time he came out of Franco's prison, Huddar had relinquished many of his old ideas. He displayed a worldview completely different from that of the RSS, even though he continued to remain deferential to Hedgewar and maintained a personal relationship with him.