By

Khalid Manzoor Basra

About the Author : Late Dr. Khalid Basra wrote this article a little over three years a – perhaps his last piece of writing. He wrote it for a publication that I was editing at the time. Dr. Basra was a senior civil servant in Pakistan – and a lot more. An aesthete, a scholar (he earned his PhD in Music from School of Oriental & African Studies, London), a keen sitar player, an able administrator – he was a free and a humane spirit. He passed away from this world three years ago at the age of 39. – Editor

The city of Lahore was arguably the most important cultural center in the entire North India on the eve of independence. It retains that position in contemporary Pakistan but has not been able to recover from the loss it suffered due to the Partition. Lahore produced some of the pioneering names in modern classic popular and film music of the region and had a wide collection of individual venues and institutions supporting musical activity.

Lahore’s most interesting feature was the organization of musical activity around takiyahs and baithaks where some of the leading musicians of the times could interacted with socially and musically. Takiyah, was the name given ti inns. In 19th century several such establishment existed around Lahore to house traveling when the city gates were locked at sunset. Most of these Takiyahs were just outside the walled city and by their nature provided avenues for congregation and social activity frequently featuring musical performances. At least one, Takiyahs Mirasian still remain its entity. It is just outside Mochi Darwaza in Lahore and have been the site of some historic musical performances.

Baithak (a place to sit) was a subsequent institution performing roughly similar functions as takiyah. Before the partition, almost every prominent musicianhad his baithak where he also taught pupils. Baithaks of Ustad Barkat Ali Khan, Ustad Sardar khan and many others were very vibrant institutions.
These institution of gharana (Gharana is Urdu For family; Lineage. In the context music, it has evolved as a term for a school of music) and ustad-Shagird (An academic/devoted relationship between teacher and pupil) created a musical identity and were supported by the patronage of affluent Hindus and Sikhs, who left as the time of Partition.

Music was one of the major cultural traditions affected most profoundly by the division of the sub-continent. Pakistan inherited a large number of front ranking artist but the large network of patronage rooted in the wealthy Hindus and Some middle class was lost. Departure of pupils and connoisseurs from the communities left musicians (who were largely Muslims) to the vagaries of char careers.

Radio was the only established institution at the time to which musicians could train to. In 1947 Pakistan inherited two stations, one at Lahore and the other at Peshawar. The next to go on air was in the capital Karachi on 14th August 1947.Today there are 22, covering 75 percent of the area and 95 percent of the population.

For music, radio was the most important state institution that emerged in the British era and continued to retain this unique and influential position well after independence. It substituted the princely states’ patronage towards musicians note. Well known musicians had a princely lifestyle and only States could afford them. Radio made such musicians more accessible to the masses.

The Lahore Radio had on its regular staff well known instrumentalist, composers and vocalists. At the time of independence the lsit for Lahore Radio Station included names of the legendary tabla player Mian Qadir Bakhsh (the teacher of two of the greatest tabla players of our times, Zakir Hussain’s father Ustad Ali Rakha and the late Ustad Shaukat Hussain), Bhai lal of the rababi family and Ustad Niaz Hussain Shami of Sham Chaurasi (who worked here as a composer) Shamshad Begum and Surinder Kaur.

Lahore Radio is also credited with the launching of the careers of two of the most popular film singers of the sub-continent, Noor Jehan and Mohammed Rafi Lahore boasted of the richest collection of musicians at the time in entire North India. A decade before the partition when Lahore station came into existence, first day’s artists included the legendary Inayat Bai Dheroo Vali and Ustad Baray Ghulam Ali Khan. Roshan Ara begum sang on the second day traveling especially from Bombay for the programme.

However, after the1947 division, most patrons of music crossed over to India, and the musicians who stayed behind sought the patronage of radio station and directors. The instrumentalists had the opportunity to work at the radio as standing artists and thus get a regular salary. The leading vocalists could perform only casual artists. Radio’s first chief in Pakistan, Z.A. Bokhari’s had a serious interest in classical music. He wrote a treatise on music ‘Raag Dariya’ (Raga of Rivers) and developed a strong tradition of marsiya (religious music) and singing of Iqbal’s poetry on the radio. Bokhari’s keen musical interest ensured that music had handsome contribution in all these activities and radio was thus able to provide jobs to number of musicians as members of orchestra and composers. Some highly talented instrumentalists like the sarod player Nazar Hussain left the original instruments and became very successful composers.

Increased criticism from orthodox quarters influenced the official policy which proceeded to discourage thumris and dadras as these echoed ‘predominar sensuous and amorous themes’. (Dadra – a musical genre, sung in a tal cycle six beats stresses the words more than the musical intricacies in its rendition opposed to the thumri, a genre of singing , lght and amorous in character, which employs intricate melismatic patterns and stresses musical lines more than the words).

While instrumentalists moved to orchestras, the vocalists did not have that option Practitioners of genres like dhrupad (a musical genre, a composition, regarded the oldest extant musical gene in North India), thumri and dadra were the hardest hit – these were dubbed as Hindu in ethos. A number of fine vocalists and instrumentalists were forced to look for other careers. Some emerged composers and some had to take up new instruments as the orchestra’s ra recording companies and film did not have the taste or the need for the specialization. Though thumris and dadras were rejected, the khayal and the ghazal were retained. (khayal, a musical genre which succeeded dhrupad, had greater pliability of structure. Its origins are linked to Amir Khusrau).

Similarly, important instruments such as, veena, pakhavaj, sarod and sarab disappeared from the scene and many other instruments and vocal genres are now without major practitioners.

The craft of traditional musical instrument manufacturing has also suffered due the lack of demand. At the time of Partition Lahore was a major center traditional instrument manufacturing and also had a number of shops dealing western instruments. While the latter have disappeared altogether, the forn retain a reduced activity. Lahore is the main center of the trade and caters to other parts of the country as well. The main family running the business is the family Ustad Ramzan Khan (born 1930) whose father Ustad Sher Muhammed died early in 1997 at the age of about 90. The late Ustad was awarded the Presidential Merit for Pride of Performance for his unique expertise in manufacturing a large range instruments. His son Ustad Ramzan is regarded as the one of the leading si makers of contemporary times by leading professionals with whom he has work and is also the repository of a large range of special techniques in instrument, manufacture and repair.

One of the most prominent sitar makers of India, Rikhi Ram who is now survive by his son and grandsons running the business in Delhi trained with Ustad Ramzan’s family to learn the art of sitar making. He had a shop in Anarkali bazaar.

Lahore also has a large number of shops dealing in harmonium and tabla manufacture, which are the two largest selling instruments- as these are used by nearly everyone involved with music.

At present institution engaged in some meaningful archival activity is the Classical Music Research Cell, which is now housed in the basement of the Lahore radio station. The Cell was conceived in1972 and after government’s approval started functioning under the supervision of the famous poet, the late Faiz Ahmed Faiz in 1976. The Cell faced several problems in the intervening years, and today it is the zeal of two individuals – Mr. M.A. Shiekh and Mr. Saeed Qureshi – which are responsible for the survival of the cell. Through personal efforts and interest, they have collected a large amount of recordings, rare books and material along with information about the music and musicians of Pakistan. The Cell also has a large collection of Photographs of musicians and has also published a few original and translated works of music.

The power of film, and film music in South Asian society can hardly be overstated. Highlighting the point, Pradip Krishen observes, “ Urban environments are cluttering with its signs, filled with its sounds. Its tastes and values spill out to define the very texture of contemporary mass and middle-class culture”. This mass culture affe a wide range of activities, but perhaps its most important effect is on music. F music is the most widely listened to music in South Asia, and since 1931 (the year of the first Indian talkie and the first film song) it has become the dominant force of the construction of musical taste.

Film music in Pakistan has largely been dominated by one female voice, that Noorjehan. She was already in the prime of her career when Lata Mangeshkar made her debut as a play-back singer in Bombay before Partition. Before the e of play-back singing, Noorjehan was an actress-singer. After partition, she migrated to Lahore with her husband, Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, the famous producer/director and film-editor who started Shah Noor studio in Lahore, one of the centers of Pakistani film activity for the last fifty years. The legendary male f singer Mohammad Rafi made his own debut singing a duet with her. Noorjehan may well have recorded more songs than all the other vocalists in Pakistan film put together. Noorjehan has a full throated voice capable of handling love registers with remarkable command, a quality that makes her equally at ease with Punjabi and Urdu songs. Her versatility has rendered a large number of her son part of the religion’s collective musical memory.

The Punjab and especially Lahore have made a significant contribution to the f music of India. One pioneering film music director, Ustad Jhande khan, was native of Gujranwala, a town 40 miles north-west of Lahore, and the man who introduced Lata to films, Master Ghulam Haider, was from a rababi family Lahore. In the late 1940s many of the leading film personalities, music director and musicians in Bombay were from Lahore or the surrounding areas.

Until the 1960s Pakistani film music enjoyed a robust period of creative activity with a great number of songs acquiring popularity across the sub-continent. The major music directors of this period (with the noted exception of Khawaja Khushid Anwer) were mostly rababis. Some of the great names were, Master ina hussain, G.A Chishti, Rashid Attre, Master Tasadduq, Master Abdullah, Firc Nizami, Tufail Farooqi and Ustad Nazar. During the early 1960s Urdu film and music quality declined and they were replaced by a new and younger generation who tapped the Punjabi film market.

Despite the upheaval of Partition and the later ban on Indian films, Bombay f music continued to have a strong impact on the musical tastes of the mid classes in Pakistan through the medium of radio. Farmaishi programmes on India Radiooo featured a large number of letters from Paksitan. Radio Ceylon was trend-setting station that featured commercial advertisements and broadcast lo hours of film music, which could be heard all over the sub-continent. Located in Bombay, it pioneered commercial ‘top of the charts’ type programmes (known ‘Binaca Geet Mala’, sponsored by Binaca tooth paste) and enjoyed huge audience participation. Since it was not subject to the policy restrictions in force on the Indian or Pakistani state radios, which had to broadcast a range of programmes from educational to agricultural, it broadcast Indian film almost exclusive through the day.

Although some Pakistani radio farmaishi programmes using local film music and had a regular audience, the influenced enjoyed by Indian film songs were paramount.

The range of sufi music includes the highly structed genre of qawwali, kafi and various regional genres of similar ethos. The origin of qawwali (Sufi poetry set music) is traced back to the 13th century saint poet musician Amir Khusrau Delhi, who evolved and perfected the musical stucture of the genre and also in way set the tone of poetic imagery and construction which has been broa followed by the future composers. In line with the general policy of propagation and special slots were allocated to qawwali performances on radio and television. A host of other religious genres also developed as popular media items in same period of time, which include kafi, na’at and hamd.

A number of very talented musicians excelled in the art of kafi singing, polishing the predominantly folk structure into a highly ornate semi-classical art form. Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan, who was active around 1947, had a number of kafi compositions his repertoire and had also cut a number of gramophone discs. In this style, which was highly embellished and filigreed with a strong element of tappa, zah Parveen developed as a great vocalist.

In the subsequent years a number of prominent classical vocalist a experimented in the genre but a few developed it exclusively. These included Pathanaey Khan, Zahida’s daughter, Shahida Parveen, Hussain Bakhsh Dha Ustad Allah Dad of Bahawalpur in Punjab/ Saraiki style and Abida Parveen, Ustad Jumman, Sohrab Fakhir, Qurban Fakhir, Faqira Bhagat, Krishan Lal Bheel and a range of others in the sindhi style. Most of these artists have had success international tours as well.

Qawwali developed as the major Sufi music genre through the careers of number of prominent qawwals like Munshi Raziuddin, Baha-ud-din, Santosh Khan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s father, Fateh Ali Khan and Uncle Mubarak Ali Khan Aziz Mian , Sabri Brothers and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Qawwali had a healthy stea patronage from the shrines of Sufi saints which have large established following who shower money on qawwals performing on various auspicious occasions was the carrying of this genre abroad in the early seventies, however, that mad a powerful widely popular genre on the world music scene. Sabri Brothers performing in Carnegie Hall New York in the mid seventies received rave review succeeded by several very successful international tours. Aziz Mian also had successful concert career.

It was a blending of a number of factors that resulted in the phenomenal success of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan who died at the zenith of his career in London on August 1997 at the age of 51. He followed the impact made by Sabri brothers and recorded a few fusion based qawwali compositions in the early 80’s, which became world-wide hits. He had a traditional qawwali training from his father and other family elders of the Jullundhri qawwali family – was endowed with a keen sense of innovative composition and was lucky to be noticed by some of the leading experimental contemporary world musicicans like Peter Gabriel who provided him the break that he needed. His musical experiments were frequently criticized by the contemporary purist qawwals who considered use of the western instruments and the fusion experiments carried out by Nusrat some were blasphemous. His use of certain techniques of western polyphonic composition of his orchestration was also not supported by these quarters. He, however, r
From height to height and became the top selling artist out of Asia, composed of Hollywood movies, Bombay films, and there was never a dearth of demand for music till the moment of his death. He also brought to Pakistan some of the latest recording equipment and was always busy composing and recording in his studio. His strength also lay in intricate use of rhythm, a wide knowledge of tradition repertoire of ragas and a very sound intimate living knowledge of folk music which he used in some of his most well known compositions.

Folk & Pop Music

Amongst the pioneers in the fields of folk music’s presentation were Alam Lohar, Sain Akhtar, Sain Marna, Khameesoo Khan, Misri Khan and to some extent Z. Parveen as a large portion of her repertoire could be categorized as Sufi as well as folk. These artist frequently toured abroad and also published LPs. The genre had a sympathetic treatment from the official media also and a number of official bodies also supported its conservation and publication but the real boost can with the advent of cassette when Ataullah Esakhelvi and Abida Parveen became mega hits. The present day scene is dominated by Alam’s son Arif, Ataullah, Abida Parveen, Sohrab Fakir and Allan. A number of traditional drummers and instrumentalists like Pappu Sain from Lahore are also coming to prominent.

Another prominent name of recent past include Pathaney Khan and Tufail Niazi. The genre has also attracted considerably international attention and a number of these groups have performed and recorded abroad.

The recent trends in pop music have created certain unique blends of indigence folk music themes with the western pop themes. Some of these like Abrar-ul-Haq’s ‘Billo’ have become mega hits and have also been sold to Bombay films in number of other musicians are also active in evolving styles closely modelled in similar patterns.

Ustad Salamat Ali And Sharafat Ali

Pakistan had a rich representation of all the music gharanas at the time of partition and the radio had no dearth of talent in this regard. In years to come arguably developed a musical culture blending elements from all these schools musical practice.

In 1947 the front ranking vocalists in Pakistan were:

The great dhurpad singer Mohar-e-Mauseeqi Malikzada Mian Mehar Ali Khan (the father of Malkzada Muhammed Afzal Khan, Malikzada Muhammed
Hafeez Khan
(Talawandi Gharana),

Ustad Sardar Khan,
Ustad Chand Khan-Ramzan Khan (Dehli gharana),
Of Amanat Ali Khan-Fateh Ali Khan),
Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan,
Ustad Mubarak Ali Khan,
Ustad Ashiq Ali Khan
(Patiala gharana),

The instrumentalists in 1947 included

Ustad Mian Qadir Bakhsh Pakhavaji

Ustad Shrif Khan Poonchwalay Ustad
Fateh Ali Khan
(Sitar players)

Ustad Habib Ali Khan
(been Players)

Roshan Ara Begum,
Feroz Nizami
G.A Farooq
(Kirana gharana),

Ustad Tawakkal Hussain Khan
Ustad Umeed Ali Khan
(Gawalior gharana),

Ustad Bhai Lal Muhammed and his son Ghulam Hussain Shaggan (Gawalior and Kapurthala gharanas),

Aftab-e-mauseeqi Ustad Asad Ali Khan (Agra gharana)

Niaz Hussain Shami
Ustad Nazakat Ali and
Salamat Ali Khan
(Sham Chaurasi/ Patiala gharana).
Ustad Bundu Khan and his son Umra
Bundu Khan,
Ustad Nathu Khan, and
Ustad Ghulam Muhammed
(sarangi),

Ustad Allah Ditta,
Ustad Karim Bakhsh Pairna,
Ustad Talib Hussain and
Ustad Shaukat Hussain Khan
(tabla)

Ustad Nazar Hussain
(Sarod)

A large number of major practitioners of various genres and instrumentalists unfortunately died prior to the media boost and could not be properly recorded preserved and appreciated. Amongst the instrument traditions of accompanied tabla and sarangi both have suffered very badly. Only one major sarangi played of the modern times, Ustad Shaukat Hussain khan, Ustad Talid Hussain Tafo could termed their contemporary but he does not have a record of accompaniment and is mainly known for solo playing in his highly individual style and composing f music. Among the sontemporary table-players the prominent are Bashir Ahmad Adbus Sattar Tari, Khalifa Akhtar Jan-ul-hasssan Khan and Ghulam Abbas. T and ghulam Abbas live in the U.S.A, visiting Pakistan occasionally.

The two great sitar players Ustad Sharif Khan and Ustad Fateh Ali Khan a survived by their sons and a few pupils. A number of non-family musicians amateur background are also prominent in the field. Another major sitar player is Ustad Rais Khan who migrated from India to settle here after getting married to the film singer Bilquis Khanum. His active career, however, is in singing ghazals which he is not very prominent but which is a more lucrative pursuit in financial terms.

The major classical singers include Roshan Ara Begum, Ustad Salamat Ali Khan, Ustad Fateh Ali Khan, Ustad Ghulam Hussain Shaggan, Hamid Ali Fateh Ali and Imtiaz Ali Raiz Ali.

The tenacity and strength of the classical music tradition of the country, the be systermof the practitioners and some of its genres are perhaps best embodied the example of the Talwandi Gharana of dhrupad singers, the only known practitioners of the genre in Pakistan. A brief survey of their history would also show various important forces at work in the period under review.

At the time of partition the family was headed by the great dhrupad Moh-e-Mauseeqi Malikazada Mian Mehar Ali Khan. He was born in 1913 trained by Uncle and father in law, Mian Maula Bakhsh and migrated with him to the rich to of Lyallpur in his youth on the invitation of a wealthy Sikh Patron. This was smooth transitionafter the loss of princely patronage. Till the time of Partition the family performed in traditional settings before highly select audiences cultivation interest in the rich genres of alap and dhrupad.

Departure at the time of Partition to India of Sardar Harcharan Singh left the family of these great dhrupad singers to the vagaries of chance, and after the exhaustic of funds and savings had to turn to the official media with whom they had some success in early fifties due to the personal interest of the Director General Z.A Bukhari. After Bukhari, the family was left without any support from the media and was mainly supported by the younger son’s (Malikzada Muhammed Hafez Khan) employment with government and private sector in non-musical capacities. The family however continued its daily practice of music and also taught pupils and performed whenever possible.

This resulted in the brothers Malikzada Muhammed AfzalKhan and Malikzada Muhammed Hafeez Khan apringing into prominence. Their resurgence a concides with the resurgence of interest in dhurpad the oldest extant genre music in our tradition in the indo-Pak sub continent. Th duo has traveled and performed abroad. Has evoked considerable research interest and despite possible opposition from the official media and its attempts at artificial reinterpretation of cultural heritage to suit vested interest continues to flourish and transmit its rich knowledge of music to pupils in the family and outside the family also has attracted foreigners who are in training in Lahore where the family ‘s most proponent Malikzada Muhammed Hafeez resides. The example adequate indicates that such strong forces cannot be diverted and manipulated easily. It also indicates that despite all the criticism leveled against the modern media (even the orthodox musicians) it is a liberating force which has provided some support even very esoteric art forms by the general liberation that it has injected in the patronage and propagation structures.