For just over four decades, the members of the Habba-Khatoon Dramatic Club in Kashmir’s Gurez Valley, 130 km northeast of Srinagar, have been working to challenge the idea that borders are impermeable.
Using the duf, tumbaknari and daddung to keep the beat, and the flute and the harmonium, the dozen or so members of the group have been performing the traditional music of the Dard-Shina community since 1978, echoing the complex interplay between national boundaries, Partition and cultural resilience.
Over the decades, colonial misadventures and political expediency have left the community scattered over India, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Tibet. With its emotional resonance and charm, Dard-Shina music fosters a sense of the shared space of Dardistan, which encompasses the highest mountain ranges of the Hindu Kush, Karakoram, Western Himalayas and the Pamir mountains.
The Dard community in Guerez speaks the Shina language.
“Dard-Shina music is one of the strong vehicles through which we can reflect cultural and sense of belongingness,” said zoologist Tahir Magray, 30, who has been a member of the Habba Khatoon Dramatic Club since 2008. “Music strengthens our sense of belonging and promotes unity and solidarity within the tribe.”
The Habba-Khatoon Dramatic Club is known for its progressive music infused with elements of Sufi Shina poetry, Shina folk, na’at (hymns praising the last prophet) and romantic songs of Dardistan. Every beat is a rich repository of stories, longing, emotions and hopes of the people of Dardistan.
The Gurez valley, which has served as the gateway to the ancient Silk Route that connects the region to Gilgit, enroute to Kashgar in China, is now divided along the Line of control. The Dards of Gurez have a strong ancestral, cultural and historical connection to the neighbouring regions of Gilgit in Pakistan and the Dardic-speaking communities in the Himalayas.
The loss and separation of Partition is etched in community memory.
The Dard population of Gurez has been dwindling for decades, both due to Partition and also because of migration. Their population in India is now estimated to be three lakh. Given their small numbers, it has been a struggle for them to preserve their culture and language.
“Without any financial support and infrastructure, we voluntarily perform Shina songs which helps in preserving the oral Dardic tradition of the Gurez Valley and bring the region’s rich heritage to life,” said Farid Kaloo, 65, who now heads the Habba-Khatoon Dramatic Club. “Emphasising the use of the Shina language in our local scripts helps us in promoting Shina linguistic heritage and ensures that the younger generation remains stick to their mother tongue.”
One of the mainstays of the group is a song called Meoun Dardistan (My Dardistan), which evokes the pain of separation and longing for a unified homeland. For the Dard tribe, Meoun Dardistan serves as a powerful reflection of belonging to their homeland and cultural roots.
They also perform a song composed by Abdul Aziz Samoon, the group’s founder, titled Baagoun Bahar ho Thoun ye Junie. The romantic Dardi song calling to the beloved that your walk reflects the mood of a bright beautiful summer.
Dard-Shina music not only echoes the diversity of Dardistan but also acts as a soft bond connecting the nodes of the dispersed community and promoting a sense of coexistence of Dards across the borders. The blend of Dardi music and Shina lyrics narrates the stories of love, longing, belonging, the religious ethos, poetry, memory, sufferings and historical narratives.
Thanks to the internet, Dardi music flows across borders on Youtube, Facebook and Instagram.
“It is the responsibility of every person of Gurez to highlight their indigenous culture through music, singing, dance, art, storytelling, writing and reading,” asserted Maygray. He said that he was motivated to join the Habba-Khatoon Dramatic Club because he realised that some community members, once they reached the higher levels of the state administration, began to look down on their own indigenous culture and language.
The club is helping educate young people in Gurez about the rich linguistic heritage of Dardistan. Their performances often include folk songs that narrate the history and everyday life of the Gurezi people.
“Our aim is to spread Dardic ethnic taste through musical concerts, which will evoke the sense of collective memory and identity of the Dards of Gurez,” said 50-year-old Mohidin Magray, a teacher at a local school who is a member of the group. “ Somehow we are able to reconnect the present generation with our rich Dardi cultural roots.”
In addition to music, the group also performs traditional dances such as the nuotte, which celebrates Dardistan.
“With the advent of modernisation, young Dards in Gurez are far away from their history,” said 30-year-old Zakir Hussain, a geologist. “They are lost, they don’t have much attachment with Dardi tradition and culture. They tend to urbanise.” The main objective of the group, he said, is to revive and perform traditional folk traditions that might otherwise fade into obscurity.
The group is playing a significant role in bringing the music of Dard-Shina tribe to the national level. with Dard artists regularly performing at cultural festivals across India.
Suheel Rasool Mir is a sociologist working on the borderlands of Kashmir and Ladakh, the sociology of Ethnicity and sociology at the margins. He is the author of the Cultural Encyclopedia of Dard Tribe.
