New Delhi, Aug. 9 -- Last summer, New Delhi rapper and producer Kinari found herself the target of a drive-by cancellation. Her single Animal-a licentious, riotous challenge to the performative masculinity of Delhi hip-hop-had just gone viral, capping a breakout year where she won the Toto Funds The Arts music, dropped a critically acclaimed debut album, and became a sudden media darling.

Then, suddenly, shots rang out on the Gram. Trans rights activist Rie Raut put up a reel accusing Kinari of, among other things, appropriating hijra and Dalit cultural identity, despite allegedly coming from a privileged Tamil Brahmin background. The trans woman rapper had never explicitly claimed to be Dalit, but her presence at Ambedkar events and her...