The Music Of Time

Episode
India
Broadcast Info
2017 (49 mins)
Description
Jasdeep Singh explores the profound effects of Indian independence and partition in 1947 on music across the north-west of the subcontinent. On the 15 of August 1947 India gained its independence and was simultaneously divided by lines drawn through Punjab in the north-west and through Bengal in the east, carving out the new Muslim country of Pakistan. Partition was a violent and traumatic event, and millions of people fled across the border, Muslims to Pakistan with Hindus and Sikhs coming the other way. These new borders destroyed much, including centuries of musical traditions. In Amritsar’s Golden Temple, the holiest of Sikh shrines, Muslim musicians called rababbis had played and sung ever since the founding of the Sikh religion by Guru Nanak centuries earlier. After partition they felt they had to leave for Pakistan, where there was no audience for their skills or repertoire. Musical knowledge and compositions passed down through generations via an oral tradition were obliterated. On the Indian side of the border, classical music suffered as Muslim musicians fled. The Gharana system of music where people learned under specific gurus for years was destroyed because many of the leading musicians had to leave. However, female singers in the new India were unexpected beneficiaries of this great exodus. Before partition, courtesans were the only women who sang in public. Muslim courtesans, who made up the majority, left for Pakistan, leaving a gap, for female voices, and so respectable women gradually began to perform in public.
Genre
History; Social Science; Music

How to cite this record

The Open University, "The Music Of Time". https://learningonscreen.ac.uk/ou/search/index.php/prog/228572 (Accessed 09 Oct 2025)