At the confluence of the bards
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The Sarvodaya International Trust, Bombay Chapter, has found meaningful ways to renew Gandhian thought in public memory by giving a platform to performers who render the music of the poet-saints of India. ROSHAN SHAHANI writes.
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MUSIC can be the most appropriate memorial to Mahatma Gandhi. Instead of hearing homilies and clichés, a popular melodic line of a prayer, a dynamic phrase on ignorance, anger and on the other hand, on humility can evoke Gandhi and his unique idea of resistance, in a flash.
The Sarvodaya International Trust, Bombay Chapter, over the last two years, has found meaningful ways to renew Gandhian thought in public memory. It has given platform to performers who render the music of poet-saints of India. Realising the importance of the traditional genres of theatre and music, they have held annual events with a cross section of vocal exponents from the Sufi and Bhakti calling. More than religion and canonical versifying, the open, emotional addresses are a description of quotidian life. The dohas, refrains, shairis of the poets remain in the popular imagination and are embedded veins in the body of literature and lyrics.
Collaborating with The National Centre for the Performing Arts, the concerts held by the Sarvodaya Trust coincide with Martyrs Day — the day of Mahatma Gandhi's assassination.
A panoply of singers, who live by song and story-telling participate in these events under the banner of Anahata Naad or Unstruck Sound. The keertankar, the itinerant sadhu the qawwalli sects, and pirs, attached to dargahs are institutions by themselves. Their musical repertoire, their role as sages and wise "madmen" is accepted in traditional society. The music from these marginal groups, its informal manner, and earthy devotional nature is understood and nurtured widely. It is spiritual fodder for most of India. One hardly needs to be told therefore, that these "reciting and re-counting" epic forms are the flip side to the majestic Hindustani and Carnatic forms of shastriya sangeet.
That humanitarian spirit that Mahatma Gandhi stood for finds fluid resonance in the colourful parlance, in the ethics portrayed, in the dulcet and un-syrupy piety of the bards. Gandhi had perceived the non-adversarial position as the emotional strength of the Indian populace when he constantly pleaded for tolerance and love for the oppressed.
Bardic music is necessarily, highly strung with prominent urgings to self-reflect on the universe, and day-to-day living. The wonder of creation and the celebration of nature are leitmotifs. The deification of the human being as lover and beloved carries the intensity and expression on different levels. It is pukaar (A call or cry); it is a soft zikr (description, repetition) or an operatic announcement of beauty and love that have to be redeemed on this troubled earth.
What we heard recently however, was a sober and rather pallid focus on two groups — The Kabir Panthi Bhajan singers from Ujjain and the Qutbi Brothers, qawwalli performers, from the Sarawa gharana
One cannot find fault with the musical material, particularly the underlying kahan or statements issuing from the compositions — lively and contemporary too, in the effort to catch the sensibility of the listener with sharp accents on an anti sectarian outlook. Rather, the over deliberated, theme-conscious repertoire, which did not allow for a free, abandoned and complex expression was as limiting as it was insubstantive and effete.
A large part of the audience consisted of underprivileged children, brought in to hear the metaphysical instruction from Bhakti and Sufi messages.
Be that as it may, we must critique ourselves constantly in designing such purposeful music programmes. During the last decade, a heritage of devotional, meditative music and verse have been explored as vehicles for peaceful voices of protest. Remembering and repeating the Sufi and Bhakti underpinnings of song, sounds the alarm against inequity, brutality and violence. It is akin to the image-poster, emerging from a proselytising section of society.
During the last two decades, while creating a confluence of alternative voices, through music and theatre, the Delhi-based Sahmat has initiated music events, which are animated with the vitality of dissent and oracular messages. Recently, the music publishing company, Banyan Tree has hosted village and classical music artistes from all over India, under its banner of Ruhaniyat. The accent is on the stringent utterance and ardour of recited music. Painters too have re-positioned the verses, the dohas, the love poetry of Meerabai, Surdas, Kabir, Tulsi , Ghalib and Mir in the context of hatred and religious bigotry .The very vocal Shubha Mudgal is passionately inspired as she deploys the texts of saint-gurus in anti-sectarian activism in her performances.
Looking back at Gandhi's relentless negotiation, fervent protests and parleys during the national movement, the phenomenal significance of peaceful resistance, and eloquent communication regarding the plurality of Indian society can hardly be forgotten today.
At this confluence of voices, which we hear in concert halls from time to time, Gandhi's articulation on tolerance, the pursuance of truth and silent militancy find correspondence in provincial prayer music. What better way is there to bring Gandhi, freshly into our awareness with the word, adage and song of the philosopher and saint?
Prahlad Singh Tipaniya, is a school teacher in Ujjain and an eminent Kabir scholar. He renders the poems with the villager's sensibility and chants the couplets along with a chorus without a formal raag base. Nirguna bhakti implies that, god is formless, without attributes and that the unheard sound which is one's guru, is within; that hatred ends in self-affliction are pertinent cadences from the Kabir baani (language, literature), A type of Ulatvasi bhajan which is tragic, epigrammatic and interrogative is characteristic of Kabir. This part of the performance was almost spoken out by Tipaniya, He conjured the metaphysical riddles which are a piquant feature of Kabir's Bhakti. Rhetorical questions were reiterated, "How does one fill water at the river which has no water?" Kabir demands, exhorting one to search for the treasures of knowledge within the self.
Teasing ditties with simple wisdom and epic grandeur are accompanied with crackling poignancy from rudimentary instruments — dholak, manjiri, violin and timpani.
Time constraints made the Qutbi brothers race through familiar kaul and kalaam and tarana syllables from the Amir Khusro and Bulle Shah repertory. Nevertheless, mesmerising music, cloaked in the romantic language of separation and revelation evokes volcanic feeling. A narration of god's munificence, or the beloved's rukh (face) has throbbing, spiritual content meant for congregational participation. Qawwali singing builds up a pace, which like yoga celebrates the quality of breathing deeply and freely. "Ali Ali Maula Ali Ali", a composition made famous by Nusrat Fateh Ali is a searing piece in Sufi enunciation, which was invoked by the Qutbi brothers.
Without forcing the equivalence between Gandhi and medieval Bhakti-Sufi poet saints who belonged to different feudal historical circumstances, one can observe Gandhi's thinking as a part of the cultural mosaic that presents itself today. Daily prayer meetings were held in the ashram with the singing of devotional songs and readings from the Gita. The compilation in the Ashram Bhajnavali, a book of well-known bhajans features Gandhi's selection from Tulsidas, Sur, Kabir, Meera Gnyaneshwar and Tukaram among others; maxims, prayers, ginans from the Quran, from Parsee, Christian and Sikh scriptures are placed as the gems of sarvo-dharma-sama-bhava: the subliminal phrase Gandhi reiterated when writing and speaking about the kaleidoscopic composition of India.
Narsi Mehta's "Vaishnavo janto tene kahiye, pir paraye jaane re" was a favourite. It is a meditation on knowing the pain of the other. Gandhi had brought the aphorism to our attention, not as empty moral instruction, but as a core principle of a way of being. The Sarvodaya Trust is contributing to this awareness with the poignant rasas of music.
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