Music Across Boundaries

[Guest guest]

An interesting counterpoint to the

current row over the Indian national song.

 

Art Across Boundaries:

An unusual community of Sheikh Muslims in New Delhi

make a living singing bhajans and kirtans and qawwalis

 

Date:03/09/2006

http://www.hindu.com/mag/2006/09/03/stories/2006090300480700.htm

or

http://tinyurl.com/fra7x

 

by Anuj Kumar

 

 

JANMASHTAMI was round the corner and Shabbir

Hussain was practising, "Milke Utarein Arti Girdhar Gopal

Ki".

 

Surprised? Well, he is not the only one rehearsing a Hindu

devotional song. A little further from his house lives Jameel

Bharti, busy these days setting the right tone for "Krishan

Murari Ka Bolo Jai Kara". And then there is Sajan Shola,

who is catching up on some sleep because he has to perform

at a night-long jagran.

 

Welcome to this unusual settlement of singers in the heart of

New Delhi.

 

If you go from Connaught Place towards Karol Bagh,

onPanchkuin Road, there is a school for the blind. Behind

the school is the dargah of Sayyid Hassan. In the

surrounding area, popularly called Mohalla Sayyid Hassan,

lives a community of Sheikh Muslims which earns its living

by singing bhajans,kirtans, the Gurbani and qawwalis.

 

Delving into the past, Jameel says Sayyid Hasan lived

during the time of emperor Aurangzeb. The dargah was

built in 1691 (a tableau at the dilapidated gate confirms his

assertion). The dargah, even today, attracts followers from

far and wide during the urs. "But our forefathers, who hailed

from the Muzaffarnagar area in Western Uttar Pradesh,

became such murid (followers) of the sufi that they decided

to stay here," states Jameel.

 

Improving on tradition

 

"Traditionally, we are qawwali singers who used to sing

natiya qawwali during the urs of Sayyid Hasan Rasul Numa

(one who reveals the Prophet). But over the years, we felt

that the songs in the praise of gods of other religions could

also be presented in the qawwali format. The style was well

accepted and thus started a new tradition," adds Shabbir,

who sings the Gurbani and guru ka itihas (history of Sikh

gurus) with the ease and poise of a raagi. "The Gurbani has

its standard raag, so we can't meddle with it but I am the

only singer who sings guru ka itihas in the qawwali format,"

he claims. He has performed at all the four takhts and has

sung at Gurudwara Bangla Sahib and Gurudwara Sisganj in

the Capital.

 

As if this is not enough accomplishment, Shabbir is also an

expert in rendering mata ki bhent (songs in the praise of

Goddess Durga.) He has been singing in praise of

Santoshima at the Santoshi Mata Mandir at Hari Nagar in

New Delhi for the last 22 years. "Wherever I might be, I

make sure I am in Delhi to perform on ashtami at the

temple," says Shabbir.

 

He claims he has performed at Badrinath and Jagannath Puri

as well. "There is a separate area outside the Puri temple

where we perform."

 

When the "season" is on, the families can be seen practising

on their dholaks and harmoniums. "We have started sending

our kids to schools. Only those who we see have inherited

the musical genes are advised to carry the tradition

forward," says Shabbir. And the result is showing. Two of

his cousins, Mohammed Salamat and Javed Ali, have made

it to Bollywood. Yes, Javed is the same guy, who sang the

chartbuster of a song, "Kajra Re" with Alisha Chinoy. The

female members, however, are not allowed to perform in

public.

 

A number of qawwals have Bharti attached to their name.

And there is a tale behind it. It has to do with a popular

qawwal in the area called Ahsan Ahmad. "Once Ahsan

performed in front of the late President Zakir Hussain. The

President was so moved by his presentation that he asked

him to include Bharti to his name. After that most of the

family members added Bharti to their name," recalls Jameel.

Some groups have introduced another genre of qawwali

called rashtriya qawwalis or qawwalis which are patriotic in

nature.

 

Broad acceptance

 

As for the acceptance of the qawaali format for bhajans and

kirtans, Shabbir says it's well accepted. "It's much better

than praising God in film tunes. We always write and

compose oursongs. I am also a regular performer at

Chattarpur Mandir where even playback singers are not

allowed to sing religious songs set to film tunes. And we are

not the first ones to write qawwalis in Hindi. Even Amir

Khusrau wrote some of the qawwalis in Hindi."

 

Shola says that he always begins the jagran with Ganesh

arti. "People give us more respect when they come to know

that we are Muslims. They appreciate the effort that we put

in to understand and learn their religious scriptures."

 

Shabbir says it takes him just an hour to learn a bhajan.

Adds Jameel, "I don't know much but ours is an art, and art

has no religion or it encompasses all religions. We are

devout Muslims but when we sing in praise of Durga, our

religion doesn't stop us from doing so, as it's our

profession." Shola has an example for this, "It's like a film

actor who performs different roles."