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UCLA UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Passing Traditions: Child-Directed Music as an Index of Cultural Change in Metropolitan India Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5v59v0d5 Author Pettit, Andrew James Publication Date 2014 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Passing Traditions: Child-Directed Music as an Index of Cultural Change in Metropolitan India A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology by Andrew James Pettit 2014 © Copyright by Andrew James Pettit 2014 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Passing Traditions: Child-Directed Music as an Index of Cultural Change in Metropolitan India By Andrew James Pettit Doctor of Philosophy in Ethnomusicology University of California, Los Angeles, 2014 Professor Daniel M. Neuman, Chair This dissertation is one of the first forays into the living and evolving world of child- directed song practices in metropolitan India. It is an inquiry into how individuals living in India’s megacities of Delhi, Kolkata, and Mumbai sing to children, what these song practices mean for both children and adults, and why these practices are changing. It investigates the nature and effects of change on the intimate practice of lullaby singing and more the public, ritualized song practices known as sohars. A changing family structure, shifting gender roles, increasing economic mobility, rapid urbanization, and pervasive technology are irrevocably altering life and child-directed song practices in India’s megacities. In this work, I document the musical and textual features of some of the most prominent lullaby and sohar practices to show how they help transmit socio-cultural values, build connections between generations of people separated by time and place, and provide scaffolding for the creation, maintenance, and performance of an individual’s identities in the contexts of India’s fluid urban environments. My ii research primarily draws on ethnomusicological fieldwork conducted in India in 2011-2012, in addition to four research excursions in 2004-2010, to document how child-directed song practices help transmit and preserve traditions, mythologies, memories, and values while simultaneously creating new ways for individuals to interface with a changing world. iii The dissertation of Andrew James Pettit is approved. Olivia Bloechl Ali Jihad Racy Helen Rees Anthony Seeger Daniel M. Neuman, Committee Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2014 iv Table of Contents List of Recordings ......................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. viii Acknowledgments.......................................................................................................................... ix Vita ................................................................................................................................................. xi Chapter 1: Passing Traditions ..................................................................................................... 1 Hypothesis........................................................................................................................... 4 Background Scholarship: Lullabies .................................................................................... 7 Theoretical Templates ....................................................................................................... 19 Fieldwork .......................................................................................................................... 21 A Note on Translation, Terminology, Names, and Audio Examples ............................... 23 Chapter 2: The Practice and Context of Lullaby Singing in Urban India ............................ 27 Where ................................................................................................................................ 30 Who ................................................................................................................................... 38 What .................................................................................................................................. 47 How ................................................................................................................................... 67 Chapter 3: “I Remember a Song…”: Lullabies, Habitus, Technology, and the Transmission of Identity ..................................................................................................................................... 76 Transmission ..................................................................................................................... 79 Technology: Shaped and Shaping ..................................................................................... 87 Lullabies, Technology, and Transmission: A Cause for Concern? .................................. 95 The Influence of Technology: Urbanization, Architecture, and Technologies of Sleep 103 Socio-cultural Values Reproduced in Song .................................................................... 113 Lullabies and Identity: Marking Boundaries and Performing Narrative ........................ 123 Cultural and Musical Change.......................................................................................... 132 Why ................................................................................................................................. 138 Chapter 4: More than Joy: Sohars, Childbirth, Modernity, and the Musical Rituals of New Motherhood ............................................................................................................................... 140 Musical and Textual Characteristics of Sohars ............................................................... 143 Situating Sohars: Time and Ritual .................................................................................. 147 v Chapter 1: Passing Traditions Anticipation, Anxiety, and Celebration .......................................................................... 152 Childbirth, the Dai, and the Pressures of Modernity ...................................................... 161 Chapter 5: Film Lullabies and the Establishment of a Pan-Indian Identity ....................... 169 A Brief History of the Hindi Films and Lullabies .......................................................... 171 Film Lullabies and their Musical, Textual, and Contextual Features ............................. 176 Film Music and Pan-Indian Identity ............................................................................... 188 Dual(ing) Nationalisms ................................................................................................... 189 Film Music and Indian Nationalism ............................................................................... 192 Lullabies and Pan-Indian Identity ................................................................................... 194 Chapter 6: Conclusion .............................................................................................................. 203 Summary ......................................................................................................................... 203 Reflections ...................................................................................................................... 210 Bibliography .............................................................................................................................. 214 vi List of Recordings Track Number – Recording Title – Performing Artist – Source and Date of Recording 1. Aaj kal mein dhal gaya.mp3 – Lata Mangeshkar and Mohammad Rafi – Beti Bete 1964 2. Aaja ri aa nindiya tu aa.mp3 – Lata Mangeshkar – Do Bigha Zameen 1953 3. Aaja ri nindiya aake na ja.mp3 – Noor Jahan – Zeenat 1945 4. Amare moina.mp3 – Jnanada Kakati – Piyoli Phukan 1955 5. Anken apane ki lale tere hone mein.mp3 – Field Recording 2012 6. Aye brishti jhenpe.mp3 – Parthapratim Chattopadhyay – Field Recording 2012 7. Bala jo jo re.mp3 – Vidyadhar Vyas – Field Recording 2011 8. Chanda dhale pankha jhale.mp3 – Lata Mangeshkar – Piyar ki Pyas 1961 9. Chanda mama dur ke.mp3 – Asha Bhosle – Vacchan 1955 10. Chandan ka palna resham ki dori.mp3 – Hemant Kumar – Shabab 1954 11. Chandaniya (lori lori).mp3 – Shreya Ghoshal – Rowdy Rathore 2012 12. Dhan dhan bhag lalanwa.mp3 – Asha Bhosle – Sajanwa Bairi Bhaile Hamar 1976 13. Mili Juli gaave.mp3 – Manoj Tiwari – 2010 14. Nanhi kali sone chali.mp3 – Geeta Dutt – Sujata 1959 15. Pawan more angna mein.mp3 – Asha Bhosle – Shehnai 1964 16. So ja rajkumari.mp3 – K. L. Saigal – Zindagi 1940 vii List of Figures Figure 1.1: Map of India. Primary field research sites circled in red ........................................... 21 Figure 1.2: An interview with a family outside Kolkata .............................................................. 22 Figure 2.1: Older style home in Kolkata built around a central courtyard ................................... 36 Figure 2.2: Older, lower slung core of Kolkata ............................................................................ 37 Figure 2.3: Reviewing a performance ..........................................................................................