Economic & Political Weekly EPW DECEMBER 19, 2015 vol l no 51 91 POSTSCRIPT CULTURE Unconquerable Nemesis The Shiv Sena’s attempt to disrupt the performances by Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali smacks of unparalleled Hindutva virulence which contradicts the Indo-Pak cross-border camaraderie of music. Radha Kapuria Har ādmi alag sahi magar umang ek hai; Judā judā hain sūratein, lahū kā rang ek hai. (Though each human is different, the zest in him/her is one; Though their faces are dissimilar, the hue of their blood is one.) — Qateel Shafai M usic is perhaps the most significant vehicle for bridging the huge gap between India and Pakistan, first created in 1947 with the cataclysm of partition. Whether it is the common wedding songs in Punjabi and Bengali, the vast repertoire of folk music, countless bandishes (compositions) in the khayal and dhrupad genres of classical music or, indeed, the beautiful couplets of Urdu poetry, the music of India and Pakistan comprises a singular art form, a shared cultural activity that has connected the two nations over the last 65 years. The Shiv Sena’s attempts at disrupting the performances by Pakistani singer Ghulam Ali thus mark an unfortunate turn in the history of Indo–Pak interaction. An irony is evident here: Ali’s teacher was Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, the doyen of the Patiala gharana, who, in 1947, had moved to his home- town, Kasur (in Pakistan). He later returned to India, recognising greater state patronage here for the pursuance of a career as a classical musician. The wheel then came full circle, when Indian singer Javed Hussain trained under Ghulam Ali, and as a tribute to his teacher, took on his surname. He is better known as Javed Ali, the voice behind many of today’s chart-topping Bollywood numbers. Processes of musical tutelage and learning have persis- tently defied one of the most heavily militarised borders in the world. The Indian sufi singer Dhruv Sangari trained under the late Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Pakistan’s world-renowned qawwal. Conversely, the blind musician Aliya Rasheed learnt the intricacies of Dagarvani style from the Bhopal-based Gundecha brothers, emerging in the process as Pakistan’s only female dhrupad vocalist. Bhai Baldeep Singh, promi- nent exponent of the Sikh tradition of gurbani kirtan, learnt Khandarvani dhrupad from the Lahore-based musician, the late Muhammad Hafeez Khan Talwandiwale. Such examples show how hazardous it is to impose the formulaic boundaries of nation onto an activity as fluid as music-making, which has historically thrived on continuous movement and exchange. Instances of cross-border musical journeys are countless; a substantial tome is required to do them justice. The current moment of unparalleled Hindutva virulence is a good occasion to recall some anecdotes, taken at random from the musical history of contemporary India and Pakistan, which illustrate how time and again music lovers have ensured musicians from across the border could successfully perform, regardless of political frontiers. Ashwini Kumar, who died last month at the age of 94, retired as the Director-General of the Border Security Force and was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1972 for his outstanding service in the Indo–Pak War of 1965. He was also the man who, in the 1950s, modernised the Harballabh classical mu- sic festival of Jalandhar, in Indian Punjab, a festival he had attended since childhood. In a 2011 interview with this writer, he recounted the story of surreptitiously collaborating with the husband (who, like him, was a policeman) of Pakistan’s stalwart classical musician, Roshanara Begum, so that she could perform at Harballabh. While in a profes- sional capacity, Kumar excelled in his services to the Indian state in the 1965 war against Pakistan. However, he left no stone unturned to ensure that an Indian audience could revel in the unparal- leled artistry of a Pakistani musician. His nation- al identity as an Indian thus did not preclude him from initiating cultural interchange with Pakistan; a mature form of nationalism, not grounded in cultural exclusivism. Similarly, organisers of the same festival in 2011 had to surmount immense bureaucratic hurdles to ensure the performance of Lahore-based dhrupad musicians of the Talwandi gharana. Exponents of this gharana went on to perform in Jalandhar after almost 135 years, when their fore- bear Miyan Qalandar Bakhsh was first offered a nazrana (homage) of one-and-a-half rupees by the Brahmin mahant of the Devi Talab sakti peeth site and founder of the festival, Baba Harballabh, as an invitation to come and perform there. Partition has made it very difficult for musicians to perform across the 1947 borders. However, numerous instances exist which demonstrate how these boundaries have not daunted all musicians. In a version of the Roshanara Begum anecdote, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s father and uncle, who had to migrate to Pakistan in 1947 (but were originally based in Jalandhar), made the journey back to their hometown, simply to perform at the annual urs mela (fair) held at the shrine of the local saint Hazrat Imam Nasr, in 1952. Jalandhar’s Hindu and Sikh residents apparently turned out in vast numbers to listen to their former co-residents perform again at the legendary fair after a gap of more than five years. The musicians of India and Pakistan comprise the one cultural group that has indefatigably worked to unite ordinary people throughout the last 65 years in ways that man-made borders cannot sever