Great Masters — Pakistani Classical Music and Other Memorabilia About Classical, Ghazal and Folk Music
By S.M. Shahid
Portraits by Sharjil Baloch
NAPA
ISBN: 978-969-8625-26-9
108pp.

The slim yet substantive volume of Great Masters — Pakistani Classical Music and Other Memorabilia About Classical, Ghazal and Folk Music by S.M. Shahid offers informative, illustrative content to make it eminently eligible for home and institutional libraries for the convenient reference of enthusiasts, students and scholars.

The relatively small number of pages in the book belies the enormous value it contains. As a handy source for factual reference, as easily readable content about human exponents of music and of instruments, compiled with great care by S.M. Shahid — accompanied by vivid, engaging portraits drawn sensitively by Sharjeel Baloch as well as sepia-tinted photographs of others — the material briefly spans the eras and landmarks through which the three forms of music stated in the subtitle have intermingled — to become a unique heritage of Pakistan.

While classical music in South Asia is generally referred to as being ‘Indian’ and ‘Carnatic’ — even, by some ill-informed persons, as ‘Hindu’ — the roots are as deep in the land that constitutes the territory of Pakistan as they are elsewhere in the region.

Those roots spring from the very nature of human beings: melody, rhythm, tone and scale, and are intrinsic to the soul, the heart and the body of being. From bird-song to holy invocations, wordless or word-filled, classical music synthesises the pulse of nature with the throb of folk music.

It reflects indigenous origins to inspire exploration of new realms in classically refined expression, the one spontaneous, the other necessarily the more studied — yet no less captivating. The one comparatively straightforward, the other complex and multi-layered, with the ghazal, a more recent progeny, acquiring a niche of its own.

A relatively slim volume belies the enormous value it contains in terms of documentation about the musical heritage of Pakistan, and in particular of its classical music

Some people confess they don’t understand classical music! Well, what there is to ‘understand’, about its forms, raags, phrases, scales, notes et al, will be evident on inquiry. All classical music, from anywhere on earth, deserves simply the will to listen, without pre-judgement. When one permits it to envelop and embrace our ears and our senses, its intrinsic natural affinity with our corpuscles mesmerises — and cerebral ‘understanding’ about its structure or its phrases becomes secondary. Even as it remains accessible for those who want to venture.

Though the territory that is now part of the Indian state has traditionally hosted the practice of classical music on a larger scale, and appreciably continues to do so today — partly due to its bigger area and cultural traditions — the original composition of the Pakistani nation-state, with East and West Pakistan included, albeit a thousand miles apart from each other, brought together heirlooms of sound from Bengal to Balochistan, from Kasur to Khulna, from Chittagong to Charsadda, from Sehwan to Sylhet. The tragic disintegration in 1971 did not diminish the value of this shared historic legacy.

But post-1971, classical music in Pakistan steadily lost priority and funding support. In contrast to how, for hundreds of years pre-1947, Muslim-ruled princely states and other Muslim segments extended generous patronage to vocalists and instrumentalists from near and far, the past 75 years have sadly seen a marked decline. This is partly, or perhaps mainly, due to the overt neglect and covert bias engendered by the bizarre aspects of Ziaul Haq’s 11-year rule (1977-88).

Even though the state-owned Radio Pakistan and Pakistan Television continued to periodically broadcast classical music, comparatively higher efforts and sums were invested in promoting folk music, patriotic lore and pop music.

Laudable initiatives taken in the previous years, during Z.A. Bhutto’s rule in particular, to create institutions such as the Lok Virsa, the Pakistan National Council of the Arts (PNCA) and others, were not given the fillip they needed. A major omission then was the failure to establish one or more institutes for classical music.

Instead, a pejorative attitude, viewing singers and players of classical music as lowly “miraasis”, reflected the false religiosity imposed to misrepresent and associate classical music with impiety, and mask the continuation of martial law with obscurantist orthodoxy.

In partial compensation for such abominable discrimination — a practice that still lingers unfortunately to this day — this book’s textual and visual portraits become a gallery of glory. The author names 22 ustaads from seven “gharaanas”, whose place-names are in Indian territory. Of them, alas, only one is a woman, the inimitable Roshan Ara Begum, and she does not have the title of “ustaani.”

In times when the news media are daily replete with the names of some very unmusical figures, each genius herein deserves to be named. There is Bundu Khan, Bhai Lal Mohammad, Nazar Husain, Roshan Ara Begum, Karim Buksh Pairna, Umrao Bundu Khan, Nathu Khan, Hamid Husain Khan, Rais Khan, Sharif Khan Poonchwalay, Kabir Khan, Wilayat Ali Khan (the author’s teacher), Mubarak Ali Khan, Allah Ditta, Shaukat Husain Khan, Imdad Husain, Ummeed Ali Khan, Manzoor Ali Khan, Amanat Ali Khan, Fateh Ali Khan, Nazakat Ali Khan and Salamat Ali Khan. The author proceeds to name another 27 great masters, of whom three are women: Mukhtar Begum, Surraiya Multanikar and Zahida Perveen.

Hailing from different parts, living during overlapping or successive phases, identified with specific modes, styles and instruments, these heroes and heroines excelled — even as most of them often suffered stark poverty and neglect, particularly post-1947 and 1971. Of their work which is preserved on tape, the two state-owned media have an inescapable obligation to ensure its archival security and digitalisation, for perpetuity.

Escorting them in this book are the names of 29 instrumentalists, 17 singers of ghazals, thumris and geets, 40 folk artists and 37 composers. S.M. Shahid also graciously includes the names of eight Pakistani writers in English and 46 writers in Urdu on classical music. In addition, there are distinct images and short notes on major instruments, with sections on elementary terminology, the 10 principal ‘thaats’ (scales), the seven notes, the different raags and their related timings during the 24-hour cycle.

Growing increasingly devoted to classical music onward of the mid-1950s, taking only cursory, livelihood-supporting interest in his advertising agency (named Oscar, in which he partnered with the late Irfan Haleem), S.M. Shahid has so far carefully researched and produced 13 books on diverse facets of music as well as nine books on a variety of other subjects.

There has also been, early on, a hilarious but also revealing pocket-book compilation of popular people’s verses as displayed on buses, trucks and rickshaws plying highways and byways, titled Pappoo Yaar Tung Na Kar. As an observant photographer, he has also created Vanishing Karachi and saluted outstanding singers and composers of Pakistan and India.

This 23rd book comes soon after his assumption of responsibility at the National Academy of Performing Arts (Napa) in 2022 as an adviser on classical music. In addition to the invaluable counsel he provides there, at his own home he is presently nurturing child prodigies — aged three years to eight — in the nuances of classical singing. Himself gifted with a soft, engaging voice, he can often cast a spell aided only by a harmonium.

Through the enthusiastic support extended by the philanthropic music connoisseur Khawar Butt, Napa was able to present this highly estimable contribution to the public record. In a time when the Government of Sindh has introduced music as a subject in government schools, this book should become part of all school libraries and essential reading for both teachers and students.

The people of Pakistan, in general, passionately love music — sounds and beats echo across the land and Coke Studio exemplifies the huge range of talent and skills that require robust encouragement. Classical music too awaits its long overdue share of attention and respect.

The reviewer is just another music-lover.

He can be reached at javedjabbar.2@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, January 21st, 2024