‘Sur Sangeet De Heere’ is a valuable addition to the scholarship of music in Pakistan where backup to any artistic activity in the shape of written material biographies and analyses is lacking

By Sarwat Ali

The News, Februaury 20, 2011

Very few books have been written in Punjabi on music and any addition to the scant body of work is welcome even though it may be a translation. The recently published ‘Sur Sangeet De Heere -- Jiwan Kahaniyan’ translated by Maqsood Saqib is one of the few publications that have hit the stalls.

Maqsood Saqib is committed to Punjabi language and does his work as a mission premised on the inalienable right of the people to their own language. He has spent almost a lifetime in his pursuit of researching, writing poetry and prose publication in Punjabi.

A book in Punjabi on some of the most outstanding musicians of the subcontinent is thus a valuable addition. One way of expanding on the works in any language is through translation. Maqsood Saqib has not limited himself to one source but has benefited from a number of writers like Prof Pandit P.D.Deodhar, Vaman Rao Deshpande and Sushil Mishra. He is not sure in which language the articles on these great masters were originally written, but he has translated them from English into Punjabi. The three major authors mentioned above have been renowned music scholars who contributed in many ways to create a substantial body of work regarding music.

These articles have been published from time to time in ‘Maa Boli’, a monthly publication of Suchet Kitab Ghar but now they have been put in one place and published as ‘Sur Sangeet De Heere -- Jiwan Kahaniyan’.

The greats included in the book are Abdul Kareem Khan, Allah Ditta Khan, Alauddin Khan, Vishnu Digamber Paluskar, Baba Sande Khan, Bashkar Rao Bhakle, Kaiser Bai Kerkar, Bare Ghulam Ali Khan, Vishnu Narayan Bhathkhande, Omkar Nath Thakur and Maggo Bai Kurdegar. He seemed to have got help from various sources and individuals as he mentions that photographs have been provided by Dildar Hussain and Ustad Ghulam Haider.

The names included in the illustrious list are either the second generation of musicians who made a name for themselves during the course of the 19th century or third generation who shot to prominence during the first half of the 20th century. They were not actually the founding fathers of the gharanas but consolidated the kheyal by transforming the great fund of musical knowledge from the dhrupad to kheyal. The other roles seemed to be the consolidation of these sources by writing and coding them and developing method pf pedagogy and then branching off into lighter forms once the kheyal had touched its zenith by the first half of the 20th century.

Basically the articles are the biographies of these outstanding musicians. One of the sources in music has been the oral lore that travels down from generation to generation regarding musicians, their influences and the important turning points in their lives. The style is mostly anecdotal interspersed with flashes of wit and miraculous happenings. The writers of these biographies have maintained the same style and any exclusive information regarding music has to be gleaned from the maze of anecdotal detail.

All these great musicians/vocalists have passed away, many before independence and some after. Though much has been written about the post-independence vocalists and instrumentalists in India, there is hardly any information or analysis regarding the vocalists and instrumentalists in Pakistan.

Despite the fect music is one of the most heard and participated activity, the stress has wholly been on its performance and it lasts as long as the performance. The backup to any artistic activity in the shape of written material biographies and analyses is lacking amongst the scholarship of music in Pakistan. It is about time that exhaustive material is produced on Pakistani musicians and their music. Perhaps the future task of Maqsood Saqib has been cut out for him. He can concentrate on writing about Pakistani music and musicians in his cherished Punjabi language.

Suchet Kitab Ghar under the tutelage of Maqsood Saqib has published many good and useful books. It is not an easy task because people in Punjab especially in the Pakistani Punjab have adopted Urdu as their first language. They get their early schooling in the same language and then grow up and share this language in their profession with English. The conjoining of Urdu and English in the private and public affairs of the Punjabis has sadly left their mother tongue to wither on the vine.

Employment opportunities too are deeply associated with either Urdu or English and this has made the task of those advocating the return to the mother tongue even more tortuous. Maqsood Saqib’s task is therefore very arduous and he must be deriving satisfaction from performing this noble task or mission than from apparent returns and rewards.