Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
Related Articles
Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan won top honours at the first international music festival initiated by President Shavkat Mirizoyev
Strains of the Vande Mataram blended with Amir Khusro’s poetry in the the ancient Uzbek city of Shakhrisabz, as an Indian artiste won top honours at the first of its kind International ‘Maqom’ music festival. Maqom, the oriental system of music that is enhanced by string and percussion instruments across Asia, is quite different from the classical Hindustani “Thaat” system, but the Uzbek audience voted with its hands, clapping and cheering for Ustad Iqbal Ahmed Khan and accompanying members of the Dilli (Delhi) gharana.
“I couldn’t believe my ears when they started shouting slogans about Uzbek-Hindi (India) ties,” Ustad Iqbal Khan told The Hindu in an interview after the festival. “I am so glad that not only our work at the Dilli gharana has been recognised, but India was recognised in Uzbekistan,” he added. He described his rendition of the Vande Mataram set to the “Tiranga (tricolour) Malhar” raag that he had composed in 2014 as a combination of three other raags — Megh Malhar, Surdasi Malhar and Mian ki Malhar. Mr. Khan also sang Khusro’s famous Sufikalam “ Man kunto Maula ”. Ustad Iqbal Khan’s links to Uzbekistan and Maqom run deep and in fact date back eight centuries since the Dilli gharana that he is now the “Khalifa”, or head, of, was started to popularise and preserve the works of poet Amir Khusro (1253-1325) by his forefathers Hassan Sawant and Bula Kalawant. They were court musicians and qawwals who followed the famous Sufi saints Nizamuddin Auliya in Delhi and Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer.
Khusro’s father was from Uzbekistan, while his mother was the daughter of a Hindu Rajput minister. The poet-musician went on to develop Hindustani classical music, khayals and qawwalis, Urdu (Persian-Hindavi) literature and poetry in a unique syncretic style. Khusro is well known in Uzbekistan, and the museums and public exhibitions at the Maqom festival here refer to his works. On a visit in 2014, Prime Minister Narendra Modi presented then President Islam Karimov with the Khamsa-e-Khusrau , a bound quintet of Khusro’s poetry to mark the bond. In the centuries after Khusro, Uzbek figures made a different kind of mark, as Amir Temur (1398 CE) and then Babur (1526 CE) led armies to India.
The bonds across time were revived last week in Shakhrisabz, the birthplace of Temur. With his historic Ak-Saray summer palace (1380 CE) as the backdrop, the powerful poetry of Khusro, sung by an Indian singer resounded most clearly.
Source : https://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-national/indian-voice-wins-over-aficionados-at-uzbek-maqom-festival/article24963605.ece
