EMERGING TABLA PRACTICE in the INDO-GUYANESE DIASPORA Mike Levine a Thesis Submitted To
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IMAGINING SPACE, CREATING COMMUNITY: EMERGING TABLA PRACTICE IN THE INDO-GUYANESE DIASPORA Mike Levine A thesis submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Musicology in the Department of Music. Chapel Hill 2018 Approved by: Michael Figueroa Andrea Bohlman David Garcia © 2018 Mike Levine ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT Mike Levine: Imagining Space, Creating Community: Emerging Tabla Practice In The Indo- Guyanese Diaspora (Under the direction of Michael A. Figueroa) Hindustani ceremonial tabla drumming, a long-established genre with roots in northern India, remains a cherished and important component for the New York City-based Indo- Guyanese community’s religious services. Through religious Hindustani tabla instruction, repertoire, and performance, members of this immigrant group maintain and construct new cultural links that identify the particular circumstances of their diasporic setting in New York City. What are the socio-musical dynamics that condition those trajectories? Through interviews with students and teachers of Hindustani classical music, this thesis highlights aspects of tabla performance and instruction practice particular to this diasporic community. I argue that through disparate cultural influences, the relationship between students and teachers informs ideas of Indian heritage while introducing foreign musical concepts that challenge established markers of Indo-Guyanese heritage. By closely examining this immigrant group’s emerging tabla practices, my project illuminates how New York’s Indo-Guyanese immigrant population actively debates the role of heritage within their community. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ....................................................................................................................... vi INTRODUCTION ...........................................................................................................................1 Researching Indo-Guyanese Tabla Practice in New York City: Methods and Challenges ........6 CHAPTER 1: TEACHING THE TABLA – THE EDUCATIONAL SPACE ..............................11 The Indian Tabla .......................................................................................................................15 The Guyanese Tabla ..................................................................................................................20 The Diasporic Tabla in New York City ....................................................................................25 CHAPTER 2: HEARING THE TABLA – THE COMMUNITY SPACE ....................................32 Bhajans ......................................................................................................................................36 Popular Styles ............................................................................................................................41 Spaces of Repertoire ..................................................................................................................46 CHAPTER 3: PERFORMING THE TABLA – THE PERFORMING SPACE ...........................54 Tabla as Marker of Generation ..................................................................................................58 Tabla as Marker of Labor ..........................................................................................................63 Tabla as Marker of Female Empowerment ...............................................................................67 Conclusions ...............................................................................................................................70 FIELDWORK INTERVIEWS .......................................................................................................74 iv REFERENCES ..............................................................................................................................75 v LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 - Bhavanee Maa Mandir, Temple Space ........................................................................83 vi INTRODUCTION Although research on the Indian diaspora has increased over the past decade, most studies on Guyanese Indians locate the community’s story in Caribbean destinations. Helen Myers conducted insightful research on Hindustani traditions in Felicity, Trinidad (Myers 1998). Peter Manuel investigated the emergence of tān singing in Trinidad, Guyana, and Fiji (Manuel 2000). But today, more Guyanese live outside their home country than remain, and the strong net growth of this group in New York City over the past five decades remains to be studied in detail. During this time, the group has gained a cultural foothold in the crowded, cosmopolitan spaces of Queens and Brooklyn. Guyanese immigrants are New York’s fifth largest immigrant group according to American Community Survey census figures recorded in 2016 (American FactFinder 2016), but continue to endure a reputation of always having just arrived. Yuvraj Ramsaroop, a fourth-generation Indo-Guyanese descendent of indentured laborers and a US immigrant, related this common concern in his memoir Realizing the American Dream: “And all you see is my skin color? All you see is that I am probably an Indian? All you see is that I am an immigrant? How come you don’t see me as an American?” (Ramsaroop 2010: 23) Lack of attention obscures an expressive culture marking public events over the course of the Hindu religious calendar, including the Holi/Pagwah Festival, Ramayan in the Park, and the Diwali Motorcade, as well as myriad East and West Indian musical events taking place throughout the year. The tabla performs a significant role in constructing the soundscapes located 1 at each of these cultural events. In less public settings, the instrument provides accompaniment to bhajans (a semi-classical song form devoted to a particular Hindu god) sung at weekly Mandir rituals and a leading role in virtuosic improvisations performed at student showcases sponsored by local schools like Matra and the East Indian Music Academy. My focus on this instrument therefore will shed light on how this immigrant group represents themselves in both public and private spaces. The tabla sounds a particular cultural formation during each of these events, providing a highly visible means to identify cultural negotiations performed between the group’s Guyanese, East Indian, West Indian, and US-based cultural relationships. The tabla identifies this group’s journey to New York City more directly than perhaps any other instrument, as its introduction to the Indo-Guyanese community parallels the group’s immigration to the US and Canada. The tabla was all but absent from Guyana. Although it was first brought over by indentured servants traveling from India’s Bhojpuri northern region during the 1830s (Roopnarine 2006: 6–9), the instrument was not able to achieve cultural saturation as pervasively as other percussion instruments like the sarangi, dholak, or dhantal. Unlike the tabla, these three instruments have a long history in Guyana, maintaining distinct lines of development separate from their history in India. Peter Manuel notes in East Indian Music in the West Indies, for instance, that the dhantal is difficult to locate today in India, but enjoys a strong presence in Guyana’s Hindustani religious music (Manuel 2000: 232). Unlike the dhantal or other aforementioned instruments, however, the tabla is expensive to purchase and requires specifically skilled manufacturers unavailable to most Indo-Guyanese. These factors may have contributed to the instrument’s failure to take root in Guyana in a significant way. Another obstacle to the spread of Indian tabla performance in Guyana was the fact that proficiency in the instrument traditionally required a student to maintain a lengthy relationship 2 with a guru associated with a particular musical style, or school, called a gharānā (lit., of the house). Proficiency requires the player become skilled in the practices of one of six recognized gharānās: Ajrana, Benares, Delhi, Farrukhabad, Lucknow, and Punjab. Each of these six schools emphasizes a particular playing style, reflecting a unique tradition passed down through a teaching lineage from one generation to the next. Celebrated Indian-American tabla performer and instructor Pandit Samir Chatterjee is a leading player in the Farrukhabad gharānā. This gharānā’s playing style is characterized by extensive use of resonant strokes. Indian Pandit Ujjal Roy today leads the Lucknow gharānā. This school is known for their characteristic full usage of the palm in addition to the fingers and for the use of ring and little fingers on the Dayan.1 The stylistic features of these gharānās serve as important markers to delineate stylistic expectations for repertory and content for a given school. Although, as will become clear, players have increased access to alternate playing styles today than in previous generations, stylistic differences between gharānās are still widely understood and appreciated by adherents and audiences, serving as the basis for the aesthetic judgment of tabla players in the twenty-first century. Separated by a geographical expanse of almost 15,000 kilometers, these schools did not share proximity with the Guyanese Indian population. After obtaining independence in 1962, Indo-Caribbean performers in neighboring Trinidad began to include tabla instruments within their religious ensembles and developed a specific relationship