Songs from the Other Side: Listening to Pakistani Voices in India
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SONGS FROM THE OTHER SIDE: LISTENING TO PAKISTANI VOICES IN INDIA John Shields Caldwell A dissertation submitted to the faculty at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of Music (Musicology). Chapel Hill 2021 Approved by: Michael Figueroa Jayson Beaster-Jones David Garcia Mark Katz Pavitra Sundar © 2021 John Shields Caldwell ALL RIGHTS RESERVED ii ABSTRACT John Shields Caldwell: Songs from the Other Side: Listening to Pakistani Voices in India (Under the direction of Michael Figueroa) In this dissertation I investigate how Indian listeners have listened to Pakistani songs and singing voices in the period between the 1970s and the present. Since Indian film music dominates the South Asian cultural landscape, I argue that the movement of Pakistani songs into India is both a form of resistance and a mode of cultural diplomacy. Although the two nations share a common history and an official language, cultural flows between India and Pakistan have been impeded by decades of political enmity and restrictions on trade and travel, such that Pakistani music has generally not been able to find a foothold in the Indian songscape. I chart the few historical moments of exception when Pakistani songs and voices have found particular vectors of transmission by which they have reached Indian listeners. These moments include: the vinyl invasion of the 1970s, when the Indian market for recorded ghazal was dominated by Pakistani artists; two separate periods in the 1980s and 2000s when Pakistani female and male vocalists respectively sang playback in Indian films; the first decade of the new millennium when international Sufi music festivals brought Pakistani singers to India; and the 2010s, when Pakistani artists participated extensively in television music competition shows. In all of my case studies, Pakistani singers strove to resist political discourse by bring messages of peace and friendship to their Indian listeners, and Indian listeners strove to hear those messages. In analyzing how Pakistani songs were heard in India, I argue that Pakistani singers deployed iii embodied vocality, and specifically the “grain of the voice,” not only to distinguish themselves from Indian competitors, but also to channel sonic meaning at the intersections of gender, religion, and nationality. Ultimately, I argue that Pakistani songs have sustained a persistent—if circumscribed—presence in India despite efforts to silence them, and more broadly, that the power of voices to break down political borders resonates at many interlocking levels of meaning. iv For once just look into my eyes, for once come closer, pray For once just try to understand what I could never say (“Kabhi to nazar milao,” Adnan Sami & Asha Bhosle, 1997) v AKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to thank Afroz Taj, my advisor Michael Figueroa, my parents, Beth and Jack Caldwell, and my Aunt Margaret and Uncle Steve for their many years of unfailing musical and meta-musical inspiration. I would also like to acknowledge the members of my committee for their wisdom, insights, and patience. I am deeply indebted to the Fulbright India Office Staff and the Fulbright-Nehru Fellowship program for enabling my fieldwork in 2017. At every step I was inspired and supported by my colleagues in the UNC Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, as well as all of my music teachers at UNC, the University of Michigan, Harvard, and beyond. This project would never have been possible without my friends around the world who contributed to this project as interlocutors, informants, interviewees, and ustāds. And lastly, I request an asynchronous moment of silence for those in my extended logical family who passed away during my work on this project: Gino Lee, Paul Connolly, Shahnaz Abbas Naqvi, Zeb Parveen Naqvi, and my father, Jack Caldwell. Rest in Peace. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES ..................................................................................................................... viii CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION: EXPLORING THE SONGSCAPE ..........................................1 CHAPTER 2: TEA HOUSES AND MAD MYSTICS .................................................................51 CHAPTER 3: VINYL INVASION: INTIMATE LISTENING AND ALBUM COLLECTING ...........................................................................102 CHAPTER 4: IN THE REALM OF ECSTASY: THE JAHAN-E KHUSRAU MUSIC FESTIVAL ...............................................153 CHAPTER 5: “SOMEONE LIKE YOU”: FEMALE PAKISTANI PLAYBACK VOICES .................................................201 CHAPTER 6: “THE LIGHT OF GOD”: MALE PAKISTANI PLAYBACK VOICES.............238 CHAPTER 7: MUSIC WARS: SINGING COMPETITION SHOWS ON TELEVISION ........284 EPILOGUE: “FOR ONCE JUST LOOK INTO MY EYES” .....................................................330 APPENDIX A: DISCOGRAPHY OF “DAMĀDAM MAST QALANDAR”............................339 APPENDIX B: DISCOGRAPHY OF GHAZAL AND QAWWALI .........................................340 APPENDIX C: CHRONOLOGY OF PERFORMERS AT THE JAHAN-E KHUSRAU FESTIVAL ..................................................................346 APPENDIX D: CHRONOLOGY OF PAKISTANI PLAYBACK SINGERS IN INDIA ..........351 APPENDIX E: CHRONOLOGY OF FILMFARE AWARD NOMINEES ................................353 APPENDIX F: AUDITION ROSTERS FOR SUR KSHETRA ...................................................357 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................359 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1.1: Three screenshots from a WhatsApp post by an anonymous Indian “concerned citizen” inveighing against Pakistani actors and singers working in India. ..................3 Figure 1.2: Still from filmi qawwali “Aye meri zohra jabeen” (Oh my morning-star-browed one), sung by Manna Dey (Waqt 1965). ......................30 Figure 1.3: Still from film qawwali “Tumse milke dil ka jo haal” (Upon meeting you my heart’s condition), sung by Sonu Nigam, Altaf Sabri, Hashim Sabri (Main Hoon Na 2004). .....................................................30 Figure 2.1a: Unmetered ālāp of “Damādam,” Runa Laila version. ...............................................77 Figure 2.1b: mukhḍā of “Damādam,” Runa Laila version. ...........................................................77 Figure 2.1c: Refrain of “Damādam,” Runa Laila version. ............................................................78 Figure 2.2: Jhūle Lāl portrayed as a Hindu deity. ..........................................................................79 Figure 2.3: Still from Master Ashiq Hussain’s last interview (Zara Hat Kay 2017).....................83 Figure 2.4: Side-by-side comparison of albums Shahabaz Qalander (Pakistan 1971) and Damadam Mast Qalandar (India 1979). ..............................................................91 Figure 2.5: The East Gate of the Lāl Shāhbāz Qalandar shrine in Sehwan, Sindh Province, Pakistan.. .................................................................................................................... 93 Figure 3.1: Side one label of Ghulam Ali’s first Indian album release (1971). ...........................116 Figure 3.2: Side-by-side comparison of nearly identical Munni Begum albums released in Pakistan (left) and India (right)...............................................................133 Figure 3.3a: Front cover of the album Us Paar Ke Naghme. ......................................................142 Figure 3.3b: Verso of the album Us Paar Ke Naghme. ...............................................................143 Figure 4.1a: Jahan-e Khusrau 2017 festival ticket for second-tier seating. .................................162 Figure 4.1b: Jahan-e Khusrau 2017 festival ticket verso. ............................................................162 Figure 4.2: Photo of Muzaffar Ali from the Jahan-e Khusrau 2003 CD release, with excerpt of his bio describing some of his Sufi projects. ....................................168 Figure 4.3a: Google satellite view of the festival venue. .............................................................171 Figure 4.3b: Google map of the festival venue. ...........................................................................171 Figure 4.4: Chronology of the Jahan-e Khusrau Festival. ...........................................................172 viii Figure 4.5: Abida Parveen portrait from the Jahan-e Khusrau 2003 CD release. .......................176 Figure 4.6: Muzaffar Ali’s Kotwara Coat of Arms......................................................................187 Figure 4.7: Embossed cover of booklet from the Jahan-e Khusrau 2004 CD release. ................189 Figure 4.8: First page of booklet from the Jahan-e Khusrau 2004 CD release. ...........................190 Figure. 4.9: Jahan-e Khusrau program booklet cover from the 2017 festival. ............................193 Figure 5.1: Still from the film song “Do deewane shehr mein” (Gharaonda 1977) featuring actors Zarina Wahab and Amol Palekar and singers Runa Laila and Bhupinder. ....210 Figure 5.2: Still from Nazia Hassan television interview. ...........................................................213 Figure 5.3: Still from film song “Faza bhi hai” (Nikaah 1982) featuring Salma Agha. ..............222 Figure 5.4: Incipit of “Faza bhi hai.” ...........................................................................................229 Figure