Another Plane of Consciousness

By Chandra Mohatta, "Qawwali: swinging to a new beat" - Bangalore, India
Sunday, March 15, 2009

A qawwal is one who sings qawwali, and is closely linked to the spiritual and artistic life of northern India and Pakistan

Qawwali, a traditional genre of Islamic devotional music, is popular in both India and Pakistan.

The famous Sabri Brothers of Pakistan performing in Carnegie Hall New York in the mid 70s received rave reviews, succeeded by several very successful international tours. In India also we have a Sabri family, tracing the same ancestry as the Sabris of Pakistan.

Qawwali family
If there is any singer pair in the country who has brought qawwali the same status as ghazal or geet, it is the father-son duo of Haji Mohammad Syed Sabri and Haji Mohammad Farid Sabri. The qawwali, Der Na Ho Jaye/Kahin Der Na Ho Jaye still testifies to the unique fusion of melody and ruhaniyat (soulfulness) that their music connotes.

But the most famous qawwal in modern times was Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan of Pakistan, who died at the age of 51.

The word qawwali is derived from the Arabic word Qaul which means ‘axiom’ or ‘dictum’. No qawwali begins without a qaul — an Arabic word which means “sayings of Prophet Mohammad”.

The roots of qawwali can be traced back to the tradition known as Sama in the eighth century in Persia. In the 11th century, it travelled to the Indian Subcontinent.

Sufi tradition
While Sama was performed for select crowd at Sufi music concerts, Sufi saint and poet Hazrat Amir Khusrau blended Persian and Indian musical traditions to create qawwali — a more popular version of the Sufi musical tradition — for the masses. Today, this revered form of devotional singing survives in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

A qawwal is one who sings qawwali, and is closely linked to the spiritual and artistic life of northern India and Pakistan.

The Quran instructs man to remember God. This remembrance, known as dhikr, may be either silent or vocal. The qawwali may be viewed as an extension of the vocal form of this remembrance.

This vocal devotional singing style has both Persian and Hindustani music roots. The performance is always in a group. Like other forms of Islamic vocal meditation, qawwali transports the audience into another plane of consciousness.

Qawwali in the Subcontinent is usually performed by a group of about 11 performers (traditionally, the number was odd, but this convention is not followed any longer). The rhythm in the form of drums (tabla, dholak and pakhwaz) and hand-clapping is located behind the main singers, who must “feel the beat within their body”. The front row is occupied by the lead singers with two harmoniums. The main singer himself is usually without an instrument, though he may at times have a harmonium with him. A steady muted clapping continues during the aalap in the performances of eminent qawwali singers. This is a recent innovative practice that ensures audience attention from the outset.

Bollywood gloss
The qawwali culture, always more popular in the North, has now made inroads into Mumbai as well as down South. But of late, you don’t hear the verse of Sufi poets like Rumi or Faiz; instead the 700-year-old vibrant musical tradition has got a Bollywood gloss.

Chips in one qawwali connoisseur: “There are two types of love — the earthly human love and the love for the divine; and our concerts praise the human love.”

Recently Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) in association with Indian Women’s Press Corps organised a qawwali competition in Hyderabad. Chanchal Bharati led the female qawwal group from India, Zaki Taji Qawwal along with his elder son Mohammad Zaman Zaki Taji leading the male group, were invited from Pakistan.

“It has always been a fight between love and beauty which ends in compromise,” comments Bharati.

Qawwalis, especially those with two groups, each trying to outwit the other with poetry and innovative style of rendition, have always been lapped up by people.

Going by the popularity of qawwalis like “Na to caarvaan ki talaash hain” from the movie Barsaat Ki Raat, “Teri mehfil mein qismat aazma kar” from Mughal-e-Azam, “Hain agar dushman” from Hum Kisise Kam Nahin, it won’t be wrong to say that the audience have always appreciated the playful nonk-jhonk (teasing) between the male and female groups representing love and beauty.

Wedding filler
Qawwali has entered the big fat Indian weddings too. The sangeet, an integral part of the great Indian wedding, had better watch out. It is in danger of being upstaged by qawwali nights, now a regular feature in weddings, where budgets are not an issue.

Wedding qawwalis are flirtatious. The songs dulhe ka sehra and jhoom barbar jhoom are very popular. The qawwals renditions of popular film songs, has struck a chord with wedding revellers.

Hiring a qawwali team for a night can cost between Rs 50,000 [USD 960.--] and Rs 3 lakh [300,000; USD 5760.--], depending on their fame and as to whether they are willing to entertain the audience, instead of making the listeners go into meditation, as a real qawwali should.

[Picture from http://music.punjabcentral.com/artist/?artist=236&stab=2].