A New Explanation for the Decline of Hindustani Music in Pakistan
By Kabir Altaf
Aks Publications
ISBN: 978-969-7313-14-3
85pp.

Writers in Pakistan rarely venture to pen down books on various genres of classical or film music, as few people tend to buy and read them. Prior to the publication of this book by Kabir Altaf, A New Explanation for the Decline of Hindustani Music in Pakistan, some of the books on classical music launched since 1976 are: Rahnuma-i-Mauseeqi by Qazi Zahoorul Haque (1975); Masael-i-Mauseeqi by Rashid Malik (1986); Raag Music — A Practical Guide (2016) and 100 Ghazals Inspired by Raags (2021) by Ustad Shahid Hamid.

The prominent books on the Subcontinent’s film and folk music are Melody Makers of the Subcontinent (2013), Melody Singers 1 (2017) and Melody Singers 2 (2019) by Dr Amjad Parvez. Besides being an eminent musicologist, Dr Amjad was a recipient of the Pride of Performance Award in the year 2000 for light and classical singing.

Sultan Arshad, another popular musicologist from Karachi, authored two high quality books, The Musical People (2016) and the voluminous 101 Melody Makers of India and Pakistan (2021). He spent his entire life on the propagation of film music and also ran a club for the encouragement of amateur singers for more than two decades.

Now a slim and thought-provoking book, running less than 80 pages, describes the causes of decline of Hindustani classical music in Pakistan, in five brief chapters. What were the dominant factors responsible for the decline, their critique and an alternative explanation, have been provided by the author. How did Hindustani classical music evolve in Pakistan, has been narrated in the last chapter.

The author started learning Hindustani classical music at quite an early age. He is, therefore, quite familiar with its intricacies, such as the peculiarities and impressions created by various ragas. A verse written in the beginning of the book and originally sung by Ustad Amanat Ali Khan, truly describes the role of music in the perfection of a human being. “Pyar nahin sangeet se jis ko, voh moorakh insaan nahin [One who does not love music, is not a human being].”

A slim but noteworthy book looks at the decline of Hindustani classical music in Pakistan and posits the reasons behind it

The book is based on the author’s thesis on the subject, submitted by him in 2020 to the University of London, for an M.Mus degree in Ethnomusicology, ie the study of the music of different cultures, especially non-Western ones. When regular practitioners of classical singing, such as Ustad Shahid Hamid and Dr Amjad Parvez, write books on music, these are quite comprehensible by the readers. However, since Altaf’s thesis was directed more at academia, lay readers might not find it as accessible.

Prior to obtaining his degree in Ethnomusicology, Altaf had been teaching a course on the history of South Asian music to undergraduates at the Lahore University of Management Sciences (Lums). He was disappointed to know that most of his students had never heard of any of Pakistan’s leading khayal singers or instrumentalists. Their idea of what constituted classical music was ghazal — some of them were familiar with artists such as Mehdi Hassan, Farida Khanum and Iqbal Bano.

He does not blame them for their lack of knowledge, however, as there is a distinct feeling in the country that classical music does not form part of Pakistan’s cultural heritage. In contrast, genres such as qawwali and ghazal are more “Islamic” and thus considered more “Pakistani”. This perception lacks historical perspective, as khayal singing had evolved in the Mughal courts and the fact that all these genres have the same musical foundation.

Khayal singing is a popular genre of classical singing, which denotes a style of Hindustani classical music that involves a lot of improvisation and ornamentation. The word “khayal” comes from Persian or Arabic and means “imagination”.

The people who departed from the area that now comprises Pakistan were more supportive and interested in Hindustani classical music. The religious orientation of the Pakistani state, attempts to form a new national identity, and shifts in patronage, are the dominant narratives presented in the book to which the author attributes the decline of Hindustani classical music in the country.

It is commonly accepted that Amir Khusrau (1253-1325), born to an Indian mother and a Turkic nobleman, was a major contributor to the synthesis of Hindustani music and the music brought by Muslim rulers to the Subcontinent around the 11th century. He is credited with innovating instruments such as the sitar and tabla and musical genres such as khayal and qawwali. Mian Tansen (c. 1500-1586) has an equally well-regarded place in the group of respected people associated with music.

As Hindustani classical music had developed and flourished under Muslim patronage, poet and essayist Faiz Ahmad Faiz had acknowledged this fact with: “Opposition to art and culture in Pakistan stems from social prejudice and political considerations rather than religious or moral scruples.”

While various interpretations of the appropriateness of music in an Islamic society continue to be debated, there are no restrictions on any number of music genres, such as ghazal, geet, folk and film etc. Sensuous sentiments are quite explicitly conveyed by film songs and they continue to be the most popular genre of music.

Since Independence, the decline of Hindustani classical music in Pakistan has can be evidenced both in quantity and quality. There is no university, institution or private academy dedicated to music in Pakistan comparable to many in India.

Interestingly, in the initial decades after Pakistan’s creation, the country boasted a number of world-renowned Hindustani classical vocalists, such as Ustads Amanat Ali and Fateh Ali Khan (Patiala gharana), Roshan Ara Begum (shagird of Ustad Abdul Karim Khan), Ustads Nazakat and Salamat Ali Khan (Shaam Chaurasi gharana) and instrumentalists Ustads Bundu Khan (Delhi gharana), Shaukat Hussain Khan and Sharif Khan Poonchwalay.

They would regularly perform on Radio Pakistan and later Pakistan Television. Those belonging to gharanas — the writer Daniel Neuman defines a gharana as “a lineage of hereditary musicians, their disciples, and the particular musical style they represent” — had migrated from India, where they were quite generously patronised by rajas and maharajas.

These legends (except Ustad Bundu Khan, who had died by then), would regularly participate in the annual event of the All-Pakistan Music Conference (APMC) formed by Hayat Ahmad Khan and Rauf Ansari in 1959 in Lahore. Lovers of music would throng the open-air theatre in the Lawrence Gardens, but few remained till the end, when Nazakat-Salamat Ali Khan, would render pure classical ragas. APMCs are still held regularly, also in Karachi, and have large audiences but the quality of performers is much lower than the stalwarts.

The contested status of music in Muslim societies has led to a conflicted state of mind among some musicians. They sometimes feel that they are participating in an activity contrary to the teachings of their faith. Most classical musicians in Pakistan were unable to make ends meet with limited opportunities to perform and very few students to teach.

A few years before his death, Ustad Amanat Ali Khan switched to ghazal-singing to cater to the public taste, and became an instant hit. So did his son Asad Amanat Ali Khan and younger brother Ustad Hamid Ali Khan. The latter’s sons have ventured into pop music and formed a band called Raga Boyz, at times singing a fusion of light and classical music. In a nutshell, classical music has fallen victim to urbanisation, commercialisation and modernisation of society.

I believe that Hindustani classical music has never attracted a large audience in Pakistan. Neither have people in general been keen to learn it, unlike those in India or even in Bangladesh. Yet, this book is a valuable addition to the literature on music in Pakistan.

The reviewer is a consultant in human resources at the Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi and Vital Pakistan Trust

Published in Dawn, Books & Authors, December 15th, 2024