Music and society in late colonial India: a study of Esraj in Gaya LSE Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/101477/ Version: Accepted Version Article: Roy, Tirthankar (2019) Music and society in late colonial India: a study of Esraj in Gaya. Journal of Asian Studies, 79 (1). pp. 25-49. ISSN 0021-9118 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021911819000123 Reuse Items deposited in LSE Research Online are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved unless indicated otherwise. They may be downloaded and/or printed for private study, or other acts as permitted by national copyright laws. The publisher or other rights holders may allow further reproduction and re-use of the full text version. This is indicated by the licence information on the LSE Research Online record for the item.
[email protected] https://eprints.lse.ac.uk/ Music and Society in Late Colonial India: A Study of Esraj in Gaya TIRTHANKAR ROY In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Indian classical music was in transition. Most readings of the transition stress the choices of the professional musicians, as these musicians and the institutions in which they functioned were caught up in political and economic movements such as nationalism and commercialization. This article studies a different type of transition: when a small-town professional group with a strong associational culture became musicians. This second process, standing in contrast to the received narratives, suggests novel lessons in the history of urban cultures during a time of change. Keywords: colonial India, esraj, Gaya, Gayawals, gharanas, harmonium, Indian classical music, nationalism, urban culture Tirthankar Roy (
[email protected]) is Professor of Economic History at the London School of Economics and Political Science.