Music in Pakistan

A common reply by Pakistani teenagers or even adults to the question whether they like classical music or not is, “Oh no! I don’t like classical music. It is very hard for me to digest that!” Going to a university every day in Philadelphia, I see these music students, with these instruments in their hands off to their classes. If you ask them whether they like classical music they would reply, “Of Course! It gives me so much insight and shows me the way to develop my own pieces. It is enlightening.” The number of youngsters who like classical music in America is much higher than the number in Pakistan. This includes the students who are musicians and also the ones who are not. In Pakistan there is no concept of a “music student” or “music major”. It is considered extremely bad if you learn music from a classical musician. Even if a boy or girl wants to learn to play on a guitar or a keyboard it is considered a waste of time. Mylatest visit to Pakistan made it very apparent to me that the number of admirers of classical music is on a steady decline. I asked a couple of people questions regarding their musical preferences, and almost everybody came with the same answers: Indian film songs, Jagjit, Junoon, and the rest of Pakistani groups. Here I consider it appropriate to tell you that I have had the opportunity of learning to play on sitar from various giants of Pakistan and India. My first Ustad was Sajid Hussain a brilliant young sitar-nawaz who can be a very popular musician if he gets the opportunity to get to some other part of the world. Then I learned from Ustad Rais Khan and also from Ustad Asad Ali Khan Beenkar. Here in USA I am the student of Ustad Shafaatullah Khan (the youngest son of Ustad Imrat Khan). I know raags and rhythmic patterns very well. I have performed at many music concerts in Pakistan and USA.

So then I started to ask people some very specific questions. I asked a girl whether she has seen the Indian movie, Yaadien, and she replied yes. Then I asked her whether she likes the song, Aey neray aey li, kiya hay yeh paheli”? She replied that she loves that song, and it is one of favorite ones. I started to wonder. That song has been composed in raag Bhimpalasi, an afternoon raag. Actually the whole melody is a copy of a very famous composition of that raag, “Ja Ja Re Apnay Mandirwa”. So, I thought, people don’t want to listen to classical music, but if you change the lyrics, and don’t tell them that it is a classical raag, they would love to. Quite contrary to what happens in the US. Another person told me that he likes the song from the Pakistani movie made by Sajjad Ali, Aik Aur Love Story, “Bheegay Bheegay Mausam Main”. That song has been composed in raag Pilu, a late evening raag, and Sajjad has actually “stolen” the tune from a Thumri of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, “Saiyan Bolo Tanik Mosay”. Actually the tune is a little different but the foundation is the same. I asked someone else if they have heard the song, “Qismat say tum humko mialy ho”, and they replied yes. That song is also composed in raag Bhimpalasi. One of my cousins told me that she likes Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan’s song that he has sung in the movie, Bandit Queen, “Moray Saiyan tu hain Pardes”. When I told her that that song was composed in raag Des, she was surprised that something this beautiful could be composed in a raag. Because in her mind classical music was something really heavy and twisted. I was in Pakistan at that time taking care of all the arrangements for my brother’s wedding. One of the tasks was to arrange the dances and help the girls find the songs.

They like it when I talk about modern music but don’t want me to talk about classical music. So one of my cousins came to me saying that she was having a hard time understanding the beat of a particular song. Could I help her? I said yes and went with her to the girl’s practicing room where some of her other partners were sitting with long faces. Obviously they had been trying very hard to understand the beat themselves but were by now totally exhausted. She played the song. It was the one from the movie Refugee, Meray Humsafar. I chuckled because I had heard the song and knew exactly what the beat was. According to them the problem was that the song had a strange beat, which was ending a little before it should. I told them that the beat was called Rupak and had 7 beats, instead of the usual 8, so they thought that it was ending a little sooner. I then explained to them the beat and in a little while they were able to dance to it very well.

Listening to the new song by Adnan Sami Khan, Tera Chehra, you don’t realize that it has the same beat. Rupak! Doesn’t the idea seem preposterous? I mean how can teenagers even digest the fact that a person like Adnan Sami Khan can use something from the classical genre. He knows better than to use classical music. If I told somebody that Hadiqa Kiyani’s new song, Yaad Sajan, was composed in raag Bageshri, a beautiful late evening raag, nobody would believe me. I mean how can Hadiqa use classical music. Even the thought disgust people. She is better than all of those classical musicians to use their stuff.

I was watching an Indian movie with some of my Pakistani friends, and one girl said as we were watching a song, that she had heard her father listen to heavy classical stuff and she had heard some part of it as well. The words of the song sounded similar. According to her probably the classical people stole the melody from the movie. I was mad. The part she was referring to, is the last part of the song, “Sajna Teray Pyar Mein”, in which they have added the famous piece by Hazrat Amir Khusro, “Chaap Tilak Sab Cheeni Ray”. Only because of that part the whole song has been composed in raag Aiman Kalyan I had a big argument with the girl but to no avail.

So, who is responsible for the fact that the society in Pakistan think that classical musicians are lowlife, Randi-baaz, sort of people who know nothing about music and just sit and make absurd noises? It will be very easy to blame everything on the government. But I don’t think that is the whole problem. It surely is a big part though. In my view it is how our society and our education system. In America, they actually offer a major in Music Studies and at High school level it is a must for every child to play an instrument. So these people start the initiation to good music from childhood. In Pakistan, classical musicians are thought of as “merasis”. They are hated and command no respect. There have been efforts by individuals in the past to start a music school, or an organization in Pakistan but it could not sustain because nobody was interested. People lack the passion to really do something. However there are organizations like Sampurna, which is running because of the efforts of one woman, Safia Baig, and has been doing very well. It was the first one to actually ask Ustad Rais Khan, one of the most brilliant sitar-nawaz, to perform for them. Ustad Rais Khan has been in Pakistan for almost over ten years. In that period he has performed only three to four times. Whereas he has been regularly invited to America to perform during the same time. Here he is loved by almost all who love classical music. No doubt, he is a giant of our era.

Every nation in the world has its own culture. What is the culture of Pakistan? What is our art? What is our music? What is our architecture? We are very lucky to have artists like Gulji. What about our music? Do we give the world our own version of their pop music back as our culture? What about the 1000 year old traditions of muslim sufi music and the works of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, Hazrat Amir Khusro, Ada Rang-Sada Rang and Sultan Hussain Sharqi (who is also the inventor of the raag Jaunpuri) of Jaunpur? Why are we so ashamed to admit that these are our traditions and this is our music? Indians call it their music and are praised and respected for that. Why not us? Why not the real people behind this stuff? Why have we been shunning and condemning these classical musicians who have been dedicating their whole life to the noble cause of keeping classical music alive in a country full of persecution. Everyone wants to be a pop singer, and shoot to fame over night. But nobody wants to dedicate some time to learn and appreciate classical music. The fault does not lie with our new generation. It lies with our norms and our education system. Music is thought of as a distraction from the main course. In my opinion it should be made compulsory, at school level, so that every child knows how to play upon either and instrument or sing. So when they graduate they know music and can choose to either have a career in music or choose a different one. At least what this would do is inculcate appreciation of good music and some knowledge of our musical traditions.

One of my friends told me that she likes a piece by Abida Parween. According to her it is a piece of Shrine music and is very different from “my classical music”. It turned out to be a rendition of “Man Kunto Maula”. When I told her that this piece is sung in a mixture of two raags Sudh Kalyan and Bhopali, she was amazed but said that she does not believe me. We cannot deny that classical music is used very widely in our modern music. From people like Sajjad Ali to singers like Abida Perween, everybody uses the basics of this genre to create absolutely fabulous pieces of music. They “use” classical music but never mention that this piece is composed in such and such raag. It is always that “I have composed this piece”. It is never “I have composed this piece in raag such and such and that my knowledge of classical music has helped me”. I have heard Sajjad Ali sing thumris rendered by Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, because he belongs to the same family, in private concerts. So if we use this genre so much why not give it a little credit? We hate it and then use it as well. I cannot understand this sort of hypocrisy.

But now I think even the future of popular music is dark. I read the news about the NWFP government stating that all music is “Haram” and that displaying of all instruments is a crime. What are we trying to do? Take our nation back to the cave-age? If we hate music so much then why do we recite naats, hamds and qirat? I can tell you hundreds of naats and hamds, which have been composed in raags. So the recitation of all these things should be banned as well. But it is not going to be. Because singing something for Prophet Muhammad P.B.U.H and Allah is fine, but singing something for your beloved is not. Utterly preposterous! I just cannot imagine where our country is going. If this continues to happen, we will loose whatever little culture we have. Then we will be another Afghanistan. A country with a buried past, a pathetic present and an uncertain future.