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ABSTRACT
This article examines the public life of Indian classical music before and after independence. It grounds the articulation of a classical music tradition – style and repertoire – within the nationalist cultural project and identifies important changes in the project after independence. These changes were largely tied to the assertion of regional identities and aspirations that occasionally disrupted the dominant nationalist imagination but by and large conformed to the same. This article tracks the formation of the nationalist cultural project spearheaded by new elites in colonial cities for whom the preservation and redefinition of the classical arts became a matter of serious investment. Music and performance formed an integral element in this as a result of which music appreciation societies came into being and grappled with the challenges of relocating traditional music practices associated with courts and salons in a new public setting. The process of relocation was tied up with the assemblage of new icons intended for performing the nation, a task that the independent Indian state continued with through its new mediums of information and communication.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. Bhatkhande, Short Historical Survey of the Music of Upper India.
2. See, for instance, Bakhle, Two Men and Music Nationalism.
3. Subramanian, From the Tanjore Court to the Madras Music Academy.
4. Hindu Music and the Gayan Samaj, 35.
5. Subramanian, From the Tanjore Court, 75.
6. Bakhle, Two Men and Music Nationalism and Subramanian, From the Tanjore Court to the Madras Music Academy.
7. Bakhle, Two Men and Music Nationalism, 191–193.
8. www.karnatik.com (accessed on 18 August 2016) Famous Carnatic composers. This particular article was by R. Kuppuswamy.
9. http://www.karnatik.com/co1033.shtml (accessed on 1 September 2016).
10. Bakhle, Two Men and Music Nationalism.
11. Recall the well-known advertisement of Columbia records that went thus: Baba Purvi dhun ma Gave, Beta filmi geet sunave, ghar ma baje gramophone, Aadha Phagun aadha June’ (Father sings to eastern tunes, and the son hums songs from films, In the house plays the gramophone Through December, and all through June. (Quoted in Shah, 2016)
12. Sangeet Natak Akademi Bulletin, 1954, 1. See Rashtrapati’s speech.
13. Sangeet Natak Akademi Bulletin, 1954.
14. Sangeet Natak Akademi Annual Report 1986–87, 2. See introduction.
15. The Sunday Hindustan Standard, Sunday Magazine, iii.
16. Subramanian, Á Language for Music Revisiting the Tamil Isai Iyakkam.
17. Ibid.