Fifteenth century Indian mystic poet and saint Kabir used music as an instrument of social change. Seeking inspiration from him, a group of youngsters formed Manzil Mystics, a non-government organisation in New Delhi seven years ago. For Manzil Mystics, music was to be used as a tool of education and development among marginalised sections of society. Since its inception, the NGO, which also functions as a music band and a learning institute, has conducted more than 2,000 workshops on gender, spoken English, health, menstrual hygiene, and life skills to students in over 50 government and low-income schools in New Delhi, Alwar, Bikaner and Chandigarh.
The group, which draws inspiration from the works of Kabir, creates compositions that reflect the mystic poet’s teachings through Indian classical music and folk fusion. The band comprises eight vocalists, six of whom are trained in Indian classical, two are trained guitarists from Delhi School of Music and one is a trained drummer from Delhi’s Rock School.
One of the co-founders of Manzil Mystics, Anurag (who prefers to be known by his first name), says, “I began my journey through another Delhi-based NGO Manzil in 2010. Initially, we just wanted to set up a platform for people like us who come from low-income backgrounds and motivate them to reach higher levels. After seeing the success of the founder and lead singer of Kabir Café, Neeraj Arya, who was also a member of Manzil, we realised the power of music. We felt the need to do so as we didn’t have any support from our families. Our parents felt that we had no future while pursuing music, and should focus on our studies and get a conventional nine-to-five job,” shares Anurag.
Things changed for the better when Anurag and his friends met Indian folk singer Prahlad Singh Tipaniya, who performs Kabir bhajans in the Malwi folk style from Madhya Pradesh. “He actually gave direction to our music and taught us about how Kabir wanted to change the world. It was hugely inspiring and prompted us to start Manzil Mystics,” adds Anurag who is also the vocalist, writer and composer of the band.
Manzil Mystics’ main focus has been to change the Indian society’s perception towards music. Taking a cue from their own parents’ hostile attitude towards them, its members have set out to prove that they can also be creative tools and also have a successful career. To generate funds for their programmes, they started the Music for Change project. As part of this, they write, compose and record songs and jingles for independent groups, organisations and companies. They have also participated in stage shows and fests including the Kabir Music festival held in Mumbai last year. As part of this endeavour, their performance at Studio Tamaasha this evening will see them belting out Rajasthani, Punjabi, Hindi, Sufi and Malwi songs in celebration of Kabir’s vision.
All the proceeds from such events go towards their Learning Through Music (LTM) programme through which Manzil Mystics conduct workshops in government and low-income schools in Delhi NCR. The workshops are structured in a way to induce team-building, nurture creativity and build confidence. “The participants learn how to sing, write and compose songs, and we design our music activities to teach them about life skills, value education, reproductive health, menstrual hygiene, spoken English and gender education,” says Anurag.
Their programme includes four aspects: vocal through which they teach participants how to develop empathy, confidence, discipline and social awareness; writing that inculcates critical thinking and a sense of responsibility within them, rhythm which helps to build team spirit, leadership and management; and composing that motivates them to think out of the box. In their continuing endeavour to reach wider audiences, Anurag says, “We are planning to launch four songs by October and want to launch an album by the end of this year.”
Manzil Mystics will perform as part of Chai, Kaafi and Music Mumbai Chapter at Studio Tamaasha, Versova today from 8 p.m. onwards, entry is free.
