New Delhi   

Colours of Islamic tradition

Cultural trip: ‘Hindi Islami Tahzeeb Ke Rang Aqeedat Ke Sang’ is going on at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts in New Delhi.

An eight-day festival of cultural performances, exhibitions, public lectures and seminar opened at the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts here on Tuesday.

Titled “Hindi Islami Tahzeeb Ke Rang Aqeedat Ke Sang”, the festival is aimed at projecting different colours of devotion and dedication in Islam with special reference to its Indian identity.

The first day saw a cultural performance, “Zikr Faqeera”, from Assam that speaks of the values of piety and honesty in persona life and “qawwali’ by Warsi Brothers of Rampur.

A musical performance “Bhand Pather” highlighting the fact that singing and dancing by “bhands” has contributed to the richness of traditional Kashmiri music will be a major attraction on the second day.

Besides Lucknow’s Nassari -- an art form developed under the patronage of Mughal rulers of Awadh -- the second day will see a play “Rabia Basari”. It is about a woman who was born into poverty and made a slave yet she rises beyond the confines of her situation to become one of the founders of Sufism.

Day Three will feature “Milaad”, classical Sufi songs by Madan Gopal Singh and “Chahar Bayt”.

“Naat Khani and Darood Khani” (Kashmir) and play “Agra Bazaar” by Habib Tanvir about a young vagabond who pursues a courtesan and comes to a sticky end at the hands of a police inspector will be shown on the fourth day.

A seminar on music, literary forms and poetry will be held from Tuesday to Friday, while public lectures by eminent speakers will be organised from Tuesday to Friday.

Exhibitions on “Hindi Islami Tahzeeb Ke Rang”, Urdu and Arabic calligraphy and visual art installation “Muslim Religious Posters and Calendar Art” that features 60 posters on the devotional art of Indian Muslims by Yousuf Saeed will be held from Tuesday till April 8.

According to Saeed, Indian cities offer a wealth of popular visual art from brilliant billboards along the streets and facades to Bollywood films. “An essential popular art often sold at roadside stalls near temples, mosques and shrines in the country are religious posters, calendars and other decorative material for devotees.”

While cultural performances, seminar and public lectures will be held at IGNCA premises, exhibitions will be mounted at Mati Ghar on Janpath.

Madhur Tankha

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

APCC president’s appeal to ‘allies’
Colours of Islamic tradition
A variety feast of contemporary art
A treat of European cinema
Myanmar nationals held
Protest rally
Chameli Devi award presented
UPA Government blamed for food scarcity
Security for Olympic torch reviewed
N. Railway gearing up for Games 2010
A novel protest
Assembly adjourned for lack of quorum
Compensation awarded to kin of accident victim
Trains to be augmented
Vets suspended
Sir John Crawford Lecture on Thursday
Metro improving Delhi’s road geometry
Split verdicts on petitions in demolition, sealing cases
Delhi all set to get two new renal transplant units
Orissa Day celebrated
Power supply to be affected
New-look traffic cops
IITs planning fee hike
Another unauthorised construction caves in
8 naxals killed in Jharkhand

Copyright © 2008, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu