Dhrupad has been evicted from Dilli

For decades, Dhrupad had one address in Delhi – 379, Asiad Village. Wasifuddin Dagar’s eviction from the house has severed a treasured link with the past.

S Anand

 & 

Pramathesh Ambasta

· Yesterday · 11:30 am

Why world music owes an immense debt to Ravi Shankar’s Concerto for Sitar and Orchestra

As the world belatedly celebrates the sitarist’s 100th birth anniversary, a look back at the oustized influence of his first concerto.

Malini Nair

· May 11, 2022 · 11:30 am

An Ambedkarite is interweaving Buddha’s teachings with dhrupad in a leap of artistic faith

S Anand, the founder of publishing house Navayana, is trying to break away from the body of Hindustani bandishes that remain stuck in antiquity.

Malini Nair

· Mar 26, 2022 · 11:30 am

Is thumri louche or evolved? 100 years on, a debate around the classical form still rages

Tracing the history of arguments around thumri is like tracing the history of feminism.

Malini Nair

· Feb 10, 2022 · 11:30 am

How a music form inspired by the songs of camel drivers of Punjab-Sindh became popular in Bengal

The story of tappa maps fascinating cultural and social shifts spanning over four centuries.

Malini Nair

· Jan 08, 2022 · 11:30 am

What happens when a classical musician gets off the concert stage to perform at a site of activism?

A series titled Blue Planet is documenting performances of Hindustani and Carnatic musicians at vulnerable public spaces around India.

Malini Nair

· Dec 16, 2021 · 11:30 am

Long unsung and marginalised, Indian women percussionists are finally making themselves heard

In the sexist world of Indian classical music, percussion is considered a virile art. A few good women have set themselves up to challenge this notion.

Malini Nair

· Dec 01, 2021 · 11:30 am

Meet the women who have made the cello an ‘Indian instrument’

Saskia Rao-de Haas and Nancy Lesh have, in their own ways, brought the instrument to the Hindustani concert stage.

Malini Nair

· Nov 13, 2021 · 11:30 am

After an unbroken run of 87 years, India’s oldest classical music magazine is facing a bleak future

Published out of Hathras, ‘Sangeet’ has been a cheerful chronicler of an esoteric world. But with just 650 subscribers left, how long can it last?

Malini Nair

· Oct 23, 2021 · 11:30 am

Why khayal, with all its majesty, is content to sing of saas-bahu strife

To the outsider, the words may seem banal. But to the khayaliya, the poetics are not for literary flash – they are pegs to pin the sweep of the raga’s canvas.

Malini Nair

· Oct 09, 2021 · 11:30 am

For seven decades, Prabha Atre has been questioning her stellar musical legacy while upholding it

The oldest practitioner of the Kirana gharana is often called a rebel, reformer, re-interpreter – and for good reason.

Malini Nair

· Sep 22, 2021 · 11:30 am

The tumult in Afghanistan threatens to silence the musical legacy that gave India so much

The cultural interplay between India and Afghanistan transformed the rabab into the sarod and inspired klasik music. What happens to this heritage now?

Malini Nair

· Sep 04, 2021 · 11:30 am