How the music of freedom moved

Popular and classical music progressed from resistance to the British to a golden age before it arrived at the current era of experimentation, writes Chetan Vinchi

‘Door hato aye duniyawalo Hindustan hamara hai’, (Be gone! India is ours) went Anil Biswas’s composition for Kismet almost 80 years ago. Around the same time, we were hearing ‘Vande Mataram on the classical concert stage from the likes of Mogubai Kurdikar. This was in anticipation of a great event in the history of the country, our Independence from British Raj.

We are celebrating Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav this year, and the last 75 years have seen many great changes in the world of our music, every genre being affected by the new and changing socio-political atmosphere.

Film music of the first few years after independence reflected a deep, unquestioned patriotism. ‘Watan ki raah watan ke naujawan shaheed ho’ (a call to the youth to sacrifice himself for the nation) from Shaheed (1948) resonated with the fervour of newly independent youth. Independence had also brought with it Partition, and a number of artistes, including Ghulam Haider who composed the above song, left for Pakistan. This created a ripple of sorts, and a change in the texture of film music. India was fortunate to have fabulous talent from all parts of the country who contributed to the golden age of Hindi film music over the next couple of decades.

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The impact on classical music was perhaps even greater. The nawabs and the princes were gone, and had to be replaced by people and the state. The foundations of this transition had been laid by the work of Bhatkhande and Paluskar. Royal soirees were dethroned by great pandal festivals and conferences such as the Sawai Gandharva festival, Tansen Samaroh, and Dover Lane, attended by common people. Classical music gained respectability, as the Bais transformed into Devis, and middle-class educated people took to learning music. The music left the durbar and entered the drawing room.

The transition of Carnatic music to a common people’s platform predated Independence by over a decade, with the adoption of the Katcheri format. Music emerged from the temples and elite platforms, and became accessible to common people. Katcheris and festivals such as the Thyagaraja Aradhana form the epicentre of contemporary Carnatic music. This process catalysed the emergence of great female musicians, including M S Subbulaksmi, who took Carnatic music to the world, and became the first musician to be awarded the Bharat Ratna.

All India Radio (now Akashvani) was instrumental in making music available to the masses. The 1950s and ‘60s saw the rise of the broadcast artist. The National Program of Music enabled people in the farthest corners of the country to listen to high-quality music. AIR made some blunders like banning film music and was challenged by the unique phenomenon of Radio Ceylon (now SLBC). While AIR continued to air fine classical, sugam, devotional and folk music, the masses were swayed by the film songs broadcast on short-wave radio from Colombo. Vividh Bharati was set up in 1958 to combat this threat, and along with Radio Ceylon, helped make the film song the unifying thread for an extremely diverse population.

By the 1960s, Indian and specifically Hindi film music became massively popular in many parts of the world. Classical music had been taken to the West by Pt. Ravi Shankar and others, but the film song thus became an unlikely cultural ambassador in far-flung areas of Asia and Africa! Other niche exports include the acceptance of bhangra and later Bollywood beats in nightclubs around the globe, the acknowledgement of Indian percussion and even string instruments as a part of the musician’s toolkit, and so forth. In recent times, Indian musicians like A R Rahman and Ricky Kej have taken the world music stage by storm.

Radio programmes and 78 rpm records of non-film songs were already quite popular. In the decades following Independence, they came into their own, creating many sub-genres. Devotionals, including bhajans, abhangs, suprabhatams, and so on, across most major languages gained great mass popularity. Begum Akhtar helped define the form of the ghazal, and it remains one of the major sub-genres, bringing to the masses artists from India as well as Pakistan. Sugam sangeet such as bhavgeets in Maharashtra, Pujo songs and Rabindra Sangeet in Bengal, and songs carrying the somewhat noncommittal label of private songs brought together fabulous talent in writing, composing and singing. Pop songs gained currency in the 1980s, and were further boosted by MTV with the coming of cable TV. These antecedents have created an industry of popular music outside of Bollywood.

Good, even great music continued to be created in the post-golden era, notably for the so-called art films. The sound of film music changed due to the availability of better equipment, technology and electronic music, but the fundamental nature of the music flowed in a continuum until the 1990s. Towards the end of the millennium, several things happened. The reality and talent shows gave a platform to many new voices and voice types. The mushrooming of FM radio stations and online music platforms created an unprecedented breadth of opportunity. Unlike the preceding decades, the uniqueness of voice and style gained currency. This led to the proliferation of singers and musicians, many with short albeit meteoric stints.

It may be argued that Hindustani classical music had seen a golden era in the first half of the 20th century with the emergence of gharanas. The sun has set on that era, and the new generation of musicians have a loose affiliation with a specific gharana, and draw inspiration from multiple sources to create their own unique styles. This trend is likely to accelerate and we may see some of the musicians reach great heights. This is a music in search of another golden era, and we may even see one emerge over the next quarter of a century.

Indian film music is a booming industry in itself and the world will take greater notice of it. Bollywood and independent music may well become a more easily recognised genre on the global stage. By the time India celebrates the centenary of its independence, we may even have a Grammy for the best song for a Bollywood movie!

(The author is an avid music buff and a software professional.)