“I believe when musicians sit down, start strumming the tanpura and tuning their instruments, they are creating a world that is separate (from the mundane). And if they succeed in creating that distinct world that day, then only music can be said to be created.”
It’s not often you hear someone not an artist speak with such sensitivity about music — as well as reflect an understanding of the delicacy of atmosphere required for practising classical music. But Muhammad Sharif Awan, a Commissioner of Inland Revenue in Pakistan and a regular organiser of classical concerts, is tuned in more ways than one to the music of the subcontinent.
The world is well aware of the highly popular Pakistani ghazal singers who won world fame — Farida Khanum, Ghulam Ali, late Mehdi Hassan, to name a few — but Awan feels it is easier to excel in Ghazal than in classical music (Khayal and Dhrupad). “But those who stayed with classical — they are unsung,” he says.
The regime of Zia-ul-Haq was a great setback for the arts in Pakistan, he notes. Under its influence, people began to doubt whether music and other arts were a part of their culture at all. Despite these and other political ups and downs, practitioners of classical music in Pakistan have stuck to their traditions. “Art continues,” he says, “because the artist has a fighting spirit.”
Currently spearheading the Tehzeeb Foundation of Pakistan, Awan says, “Over the past 67 years (since independence of India and Pakistan) I feel there has been a bouncing back (of classical music), and I am happy to be a part of that revival.” In 2012 the Foundation produced a unique set of 12 CDs featuring Indian and Pakistani classical musicians — Indus Raag: Music Beyond Borders — and the set has just been released as a Collector’s Edition.
With politicians and others posturing aggressively, it does seem unlikely the gulf between India and Pakistan will ever be officially bridged. But artists don’t always depend on official routes. Awan organises collaborative concerts by Pakistani and Indian stalwarts. Some of these are included in Indus Raag .
The very first CD, titled “Historic Jugalbandi”, features vocal by Ustad Fateh Ali Khan with Mohan veena by Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. Rendering khayals in Yaman and Bhairav and a thumri in Mishra Khamaj, they set a mood of abiding sweetness. Another jugalbandi (duet) featured is between Pakistani sitar exponent Sajid Hussain and India’s Kamal Sabri on the sarangi. Then there is the sarangi ensemble, recorded in 2012, that features Kamal with six sarangi players from Pakistan.
Awan, who learnt music from Ustad Naseeruddin Sami — “I need to know what’s good to be promoted” — and whose family tradition, he says, includes learning music, has founded “more than one organisation” to promote the art. The tendency among people is to be restrictive, he remarks. “I find those who listen to Ghazal, they don’t listen to Thumri…” Or, “If I know Kamal then no other sarangia will come to me.” This approach, he feels, “was the maharajas’ mentality.”
But the people responsible for not allowing the art to die despite adverse circumstances were the artists themselves, and “we need a rediscovery of art and culture,” states the man who books halls for his concerts three days in a row to allow for sudden cancellations due to the volatile situation in the country.
“We are living in the right time, when technology is very fast and there are good archival means,” he says. “When Bhimsenji (Joshi) and (Pandit) Jasrajji were young, the recording quality was not so good.”
Now, with recording quality excellent, many musicians of yore are either old or deceased. “That’s why it’s the right time today for musicians.”
Awan was in New Delhi during the recent Lifestyle Pakistan event, having persuaded organisers of the importance of music in lifestyle. But greater than any interest in selling the CDs was his empathy with the people he met there. Most of the visitors to the fair were more interested in knowing where he came from, whether he knew of places their own forefathers had come from in Partition, rather than what was on sale at the stalls. No one has bothered to investigate the suffering of the ordinary people throughout the subcontinent, he points out, adding, “When I go back, I’ll have to tell this side of the story (what he saw in India).”
Meanwhile, coming up in November is the India International Trade Fair, when he hopes to be back in New Delhi. Also in November, the Dhrupad duo of the Gundecha Brothers will be invited to Pakistan to receive the Tehzeeb Foundation Awards, which are given to both classical and folk musicians. Performing with them will be Aliya Rasheed and Amita Mahapatra — the two talented disciples of the Gundechas who sing as a team and have earned the epithet “Indo-Pak Sisters”.
Kamal, accompanying Awan on his errands round the Capital, regrets he cannot show off the modern sights of Gurgaon to his friend, whose visa is restricted to Delhi. Alas, borders are not always so easily crossed. Except of course, when music takes wing.
