Saturday, July 05, 2008

Workshop on Hindustani Music and Partition

A Workshop on the Impact of the 1947 Partition on the Classical Music of South Asia
22 and 23 August 2008, New Delhi

Asian Scholarship Foundation, Bangkok, and Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, invite scholars, musicians, students and enthusiasts of Hindustani classical music to participate and contribute to an 2-day workshop of dialogue and music-making where we expect to have several musicians and scholars from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. If you have been involved in a unique research or documentation about the development of classical music in the post-1947 South Asia, and would like to share your work or findings with others, kindly send us the details. Or if you are simply interested in this theme, you are welcome to join us in August in an informal discussion.

The idea for this workshop evolved out of a larger research and documentation work carried out by the Delhi-based filmmaker and researcher, Yousuf Saeed, who spent a few months in Pakistan in 2005 for a fellowship on the music of South Asia. Yousuf's work culminated in a research paper as well as a feature-length documentary film Khayal Darpan that has been widely screened, initiating a dialogue about concerns such as the survival of classical music and national identity in South Asia. The August workshop is part of a series of such dialogues which would be carried out in different parts of South Asia. We hope to bring together scholars, musicians, historians, and students of music and cultural studies in an informal setting to reflect upon the various issues in the study of music emerging in the context of modernity. Some of the following themes or panels would form a part of this workshop:

1. Cultural identity and the making of nations
2. Partition and the music gharana narratives
3. Traditional knowledge-transmision affected by the border
4. Between popular and elite: Music adapting to the changing audience

More details about these panels and the expected scholars/musicians can be seen at the following website. Further details would also be posted on many mailing lists. We are also hoping to arrange a music concert or two with the Pakistani and Bangladeshi artists in Delhi
and/or elsewhere.

http://www.ektaramusic.com/workshop08.html

There is no charge for attending or participating in the workshop. However, you may like to inform us in advance about your attending as the seats are limited.

Yousuf Saeed

Labels: