January 2, 2005

By ignoring classical music and musicians in our country and not giving them their due status, we are destroying our rich cultural heritage

LAST month, one read a brief but inspiring news item about a Vietnamese female minstrel, Ha Thi Cau. It was an interesting piece of news, but at the same time one felt depressed after going through it. The news item was interesting in the sense that the woman had preserved a part of Vietnamese musical culture, and depressing because she’s the last of the hat xam singers.

Ha Thi Cau is 78 years old and plays centuries-old songs belonging to the hat xam genre. Perhaps by the time she dies this style of singing will be confined to a few xam singers who have been taught by her.

Hat xam is one of the oldest Vietnamese song genres. Its origin goes back to the 13th century. Cau belongs to the family of performers who have been engaged in this style of singing for long.

A hat xam song is sung in accompaniment of an ancient two-stringed Chinese instrument, nhi, which is held by one foot on the ground, while the other foot is thumped against the ground to create rhythm.

This is a grave situation for a nation that is losing its cultural heritage. Invasions, conquests and political changes, as in any other part of the world, have destroyed the Vietnamese musical culture. During the 1920s and 1930s hat xam music was popular when a few groups performed this genre. They were mostly wandering minstrels.

The important feature of a hat xam song is the fact that social changes and problems are discussed in it. This kind of singing was popular in Vietnam and its adjoining areas in the past, eulogizing the acts of heroism of different people.

Vietnam may be struggling to bring prosperity to its people, but culturally it has a rich heritage that has often been vandalized by everyone who has occupied it, especially the colonial powers. Almost every occupying force tarnished every form of culture, including music, that was an inalienable part of the Vietnamese nation. Even a country like Japan could not prevent itself from this kind of attitude. That is why in all colonies music underwent many a change.

The subcontinent has also witnessed the same kind of behaviour from all alien rulers. Apart from ancient forms, the subcontinental music, including that of present-day Pakistan, is a collection of diversified cultures. It is deeply rooted in history. Thankfully, it has to date preserved its basic pattern of musical theme and value.

In this regard, the mediaeval period was a good era when Turko-Persian music came in contact with the music of the subcontinent. It added new forms and techniques to the art, since its themes and objectives were close to the people of the subcontinent. Its folk music was not hurt, nor did its ritualistic music underwent any change. That’s why today Pakistani and Indian music is considered to be one of the richest musical heritages of the world.

However, our music too suffered a great loss when English colonialists came and tried to wield their own influence in the 18th century. That was the beginning of bringing every sphere of the subcontinent’s life into conformity with the British way of thinking. Instead of making efforts to improve the quality of people’s lives, the Brits focussed on working on sensitive aspects such as music, literature, drama, and occasionally even religion. Perhaps that’s why they introduced the culture of bands and the use of western musical instruments and orchestration into Indian style of music.

However, they could not do anything to Indian classical music since it’s deeply rooted in history; but by introducing ‘theatre music’ they achieved some success. This kind of music influenced some people as it drew a large number of folk musicians from their hermitages to urban centres. This was not a healthy sign for folk music. Old compositions began vanishing and as new technologies were introduced their originality began to disappear fast. The declining institutions of Nawabs and Rajas made things further easier for the Brits.

Film music was another source which almost sealed the fate of traditional music. Save for hermitages and shrines, this made all those associated with different genres of folk music began worrying about an uncertain future.

The subcontinent’s independence was a cherished goal for our people. But by then in the realm of music much damage had been done. Many hoped that governments on both sides of the border would try and make efforts to salvage the fast vanishing art form. Ironically, it could not be done because of various factors.

As far as Pakistan is concerned, the culture of music has really suffered. Classical music is an important example here. Barring a few upcoming vocalists and instrumentalists, almost all known musicians have gone. We in Pakistan follow the traditional Ustad-Shagrid institution. Sadly, our masters did not teach the art to many students, except those belonging to their immediate families. As a result, today many gharanas are left with nobody to emulate.

More tragic is the case with folk music. Films, followed by other technological advancements, have confined the common man to his drawing room. Fusion music has sneaked into our lives so swiftly that we do not bother to listen to a proper storyteller anymore. The institution of storytellers is also fast vanishing. Bhand, charan or bhat faqirs, bhagats and sughars (village poets) who once used to be the custodians of this art, have disappeared in the last 50 years.

Bhagat, a very important form of storytelling in music, has disappeared as well. The remaining few bhagats in our part of the world have migrated to India or passed away. Those who stuck to their profession faced starvation and finally had to look for other professions to earn a living.

Pakistan is composed of at least 22 cultures and sub-cultures, but owing to the lack of promotional facilities all are giving way to modern forms of music. It is such a grave situation that we do not even have source material to find out what form of music was in vogue a century ago.

A lot of countries have faced a similar situation. In the ‘60s the United Nations Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) launched a project to collect cultural traces of such nations. As a member of the UN, Pakistan was also included and a project was launched; but to the dismay of many people, the project failed in Pakistan, while other countries took full advantage of it and today their musical culture is intact.

In Pakistan, we have departments of culture in all four provinces and one in the Centre. Unfortunately, all are manned by bureaucrats who are more interested in non-cultural affairs. There is no complete history of Pakistan’s musical culture available. Scattered articles appearing in various newspapers and journals are all that we have. Artists die in abject poverty and sometimes we come to know about them when they are already dead. A meagre amount is allocated for them which is distributed among them at the rate of a few hundred rupees per month. Such is our approach to music. Here one is reminded of those dancers who had to leave the country during Ziaul Haq’s tenure. For the past three years music and musicians are banned in the NWFP and nobody bothers to imagine what damage it’s doing to us.

No doubt each one of us is conscious of the rich heritage we have, but the taboos, personal interpretations and the absence of a political will are the main factors, more than financial assistance, that preserve national assets. If we want to retain our musical heritage we will have to first do away with the self-imposed perception of culture that we have. After decades of intellectual discussions it has now been established that our culture began taking root from the moment the very first man set foot on earth. One cannot say that men belonging to the Stone Age were not cultured or that before the advent of Islam, Sindh and the rest of the subcontinent did not have any culture. We had a rich culture and we are not ashamed of being its custodian.

Also, in this respect the process of assimilation cannot be overlooked. We have undergone many changes in history, which has made it difficult to trace down some original art forms. However, there are new methodologies that can help us succeed in that pursuit.

We may differ on how to preserve cultural heritage; but everyone would agree that music is our collective past. If India can preserve and promote the institution of bhand, why can’t we take care of our traditional art forms?

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