Ghazal in North America

Contents

Introduction

Conditions of ghazal
Poles of existence
Exclusion / inclusion
Tradition / innovation
Religion / secularity

ghazal in North America

Conclusion

References

Introduction

„Sikhs, Hindus and Muslims can share their love of Urdu and take part in the same musha’ira, ghazal and qawwali sessions, forgetting their differences for the space of the evening.“ (Mohammad-Arif 2000, 222)

The great metapher ‚space of an evening’ can be completed with the image of a short-time covering umbrella. Both refer to the scope and limits of unification through cultural activity. The gaps between the cited groups emigrated like their guards from India, though they temporarily lost their meaning with the first small numbers. But later the gaps were reconstructed as reaction on the necessary subordination beneath the stronger parts of bigger groups. Here they found new ground in stabilized circumstances and established connections to some kind of homeland.^[1]

ghazal serves as marker of differences, because of its paradoxical existence on boundaries. It bridges gaps, it reverses them through shared emotions and shared interests, but it also opens new ones. The flexibility of the genre attracts most different audiences, but their understanding of the ‚true’ or the ‚best’ ghazal may strongly diverge. The mystical interpretation respectively the poetic tradition just relate to the same essence of form, language and theme, for instance. Therefore there is a wide field open to share the same term without sharing the same content. To explore this field can give an idea of the range of differences in a specific cultural activity. Their divergence from differences in the environment may be an indication of some ‚reversal power’.

My utilization of ‚culture’ and ‚cultural activity’ has to be clarified. Both is meant in a narrow sense of art production and art reception. The performance of sound is naturally temporary, just as its possibility to maintain a group, that only exists for its reception. The implications of a art form give an idea of the implications of the reception. Therefore it reflects the conditions of the group, that shares a performance. At the same time dislocated performances of mechanical reproduction have other conditions of time than concerts and poetry assemblies. Consumers of cassettes, compact discs etc. are dislocated connected without necessarily direct contact. Consumers as audience in a room are necessarily in direct contact without the possibility of dislocation. ghazal exists successfully in both forms, it reflects the conditions of the diaspora of an art form and its recipients to a high degree.

My considerations are limited on South Asians in North America. It is necessary to refine the extent of this constructed group, but before I want to clarify the range of the phenomenon ghazal today. That is why I begin with ‚poles of existence’ followed by a more detailed discussion in ‚exclusion / inclusion’, ‚tradition / innovation’ and ‚religion / secularity’. At the end I focus on ‚ ghazal in North America’ as it appears through the internet.

I understand the incorporation of new meaning into old forms as unavoidable and continuous element of cultural practice in any sense. As result I omit a at this point useless exploration of historical developments insofar they do not serve as legitimation or explanation today.

Conditions of ghazal

Poles of existence

ghazal persists in forms it developed as part of classical Persian poetry, where it proved as „single most important genre“ (Manuel 1993, 90). According to Peter Manuel ghazal continued in Urdu being more popular „than [...] any poetic form in the West“ (ibid.) a long time.

It consists of rhymed couplets in aa, ba, ca etc., whose contents are not necessarily related to one another. Its aesthetic concerns with „unrequited love, mystical devotion, philosophical rumination, ridicule of religious orthodoxy, symbolic celebration of madness and intoxication, and a sort of self-abnegating, sometimes masochistic immersion in the pangs of longing and frustration [...] with the usage of a set of standardized symbols and metaphors“ (ibid.).

Through great adaptability ghazal could leave the inner circle of Indo-Muslim high culture, for instance performed with music by Sufi qawwāls to the present day. The emergence of recording and film industry had an important impact on its further popularity. Both brought many performances of ghazal, that were fundamentally different. The before partially improvised ghazals had to change into fixed forms according to the rules of recording industry. The necessity to find suitable sales potential begot numerous new songs, which just carried the label ghazal. ‚Traditional’ borders of the term shifted in favour of simplifications. Even more the film industry gave ghazal new contents, though it refered especially in the early years to its former context of courtesans (cp. Manuel 1993, 90-96). Only single stars like Begum Akhtar^[2] or Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan could successfully move between the two tense poles.

As result the ways of performing ghazal differ from one another in the following relations.

Exclusion / inclusion

Roger Daniels draws in his article (1994) the following picture of the North American situation: The number of South Asians in North America increased mainly after the new American immigration law in 1965. Between 1976 and 1985 just the number of admitted relatives grew to annaully 150 000, on average. Before restrictions had limited Indian immigrants for instance to Canada to 376 in 1914. A main reason for the increase was the general opening of US citizenship. Instead of wood workers and little farmers the ‚new’ immigrants were highly educated, well earning engineers and physicians or they were occupied in health-diagnosing. As well there developed wide ranging businesses as restaurants, petrol stations and motels, in the last area in the first place Gujaratis. Before there had been a predominance of Punjabi Sikhs.

This seemingly uniform community is in reality quite divided, as Johanna Lessinger underlines:

„Although the successful and fabulously wealthy Indian-American immigrant entrepreneur is currently the figure of popular imagination, admiration and envy in India, the actual population of Indian migrants in the US is far more diverse and less uniformly privileged.“ (2003, 167)

There is a high motivation to build a middle-class existence because of the „narratives of professional or entrepreneurial success and smooth economic integration“ (168). A consequence is that there exists a kind of social arrogance against security guards, taxi drivers, factory workers, store clerks, hotel or restaurant workers etc. (ibid.). The aspect of specific ‚Indianness’ or ‚South Asianness’ is just economically undermined in the latter existence (169). South Asians from other immigration countries like East Africa experience also being a excluded minority. Accordingly both are hardly involved in the reception of ‚light classical’ ghazal.

Lessinger outlines the essential elements of identity building among South Asians inside the cultural pluralism of self-celebrating Americanness (172-174): consumption in Indian commerical enclaves; organizations with religious purpose, underneath temples, mosques, gurudwaras and churches; organizations with specific regional adjustment, for instance the Tamil Sangam, the Bengali Association or the Gujarati Society; organizations with national, political claims, like the Federation of Indian Associations in America or the Association of Indians in America; own broadcast of television, radio and newspapers; and last but not least, cultural events, like parades, functions and concerts.

There is a trait of segmentary structure in her picture, i.e. to exclude all that is not generally in and to exclude then step by step to the least common denominator, in most cases the family.

This process of ex- and inclusion is one of the most important issues in the article by Carla Pietevich (1999). It works through the organization of great functions, like a Karnatak music festival, the Tyagaraja Aradhana Utsava, or Sham-e ghazals (evening with ghazal) and mushairas (poetry assembly) in larger Indo-Muslim events.

In the former she discovers a large amount of inclusion especially of different generations. A whole day they share home-cooked lunch, open stages and competitions for all kind and highly supported expertise on the subject of celebration.

By contrast she stresses the tendency of exclusion in the latter. The main part of the audience experiences only two hours as designed for them, filled with ‚light classical’, „musical renditions of poetic texts“ (1999, 162). Only a „’hard core’ group“ (ibid.) shares enough expertise for the following non-musical recitations, that fill the whole night.

The exclusive character of some performances of ghazal is obvious. It needs the mediation of more accessible medias like qawwālī or in general music to reach a brider public. But it is part of its existence that its exclusive qualities are treated as mark of its worth.

This point appears in the threads „K L Saigal“ and „Article on K L Saigal posted today - new thread“ in the Google news group „rec.music.indian.misc.“ in January 2004. The first thread arose from an article in „dawn.com“ and lead to quarrels about right spelling and the use and misuse of names in English, Urdu and Arabic (or „Islamic“!). The second thread dealt with the factual content of the article. On that occasion Dhananjay Naniwadekar stated:

„It's not just Noor Jehan^[3], the entire Punjabi world was heading in Jagjit-Daler^[4] direction since 1950. In the '40s, Punjabi contribution to Hindi Films was tremendous. [...] By 1960s, things were different. The worst effects of dictates of Punjabi popular taste were first felt in Pakistan. [...] Once Punjab shows how things can be screwed up, rest of India falls over itself to imitate it. As a result, we are all Punjabis today from Kashmir (or even Islamabad) to Kanyakumari [...]. No-flames-please-thought-for-the-day: Trashy Bollywood dialogue taught stubborn Southies Hindi despite themselves and trashy Bollywood music helped Hindu-Muslims rise above religious differences and love Adnan Sami^[5] and Jagjit Singh. (Please do sub some worse Hindu Punjabi's name for Jagjit. I am ignorant about singers below that level.) Who needs Lata^[6] and NJ when we have Adnan and Jagjit!“

In terms of exclusion / inclusion: The polemicist excludes himself from an all-inclusive form of ghazal; the All-Indian ‚trash’ helps to overcome regional and religious gaps; Indian and Pakistani ‚trash’ may stay divided; but all this is carried out by the group of Punjabi people.

The reply of Surjit Singh is very interesting with eyes on the diaspora perspective, it shows adaptation of geographical thinking:

„I do not know much about the post-1950 Panjabi music of the sub-continent, but don't you think that you are using a very thick brush (size of California) and a extremely broad strokes (size of New Jersey) in your sketch of this genre?“

However, Dhananjay Naniwadekar indicates through his condemnation of ghazal artists after the fourties the conservative view of ‚classic’ / ‚non-classic’, which will be treated next.

Tradition / innovation

According to Alison Arnold (2000) ghazal holds its position in the musical activity of South Asians in North America among ‚light music’ genres like qawwālī, git and film songs. As reason he states that it „require[s] less musical knowledge and technique than classical form for their comprehension, enjoyment, and performance, and [is] generally shorter in length“ (581). ghazal experienced a dramatic simplification, not least because there is „a lack of performance ressources, [...] whether hereditary musical specialists [...] or musically adept artisans and tradesmen“ (Qureshi 1996, 61). A further reason are the conditions of film and recording industry and the predominance of the commercial laws of mass popularity.

The simplifications befall the language and the singing. Instead of even simplified Urdu there are ghazals in Hindi, Punjabi, Marathi, Gujarati, Bengali, and Pashtu. Instead of even shortened improvisations there are simple, written melodies (Manuel 1993, 97-99).

Again ghazal exists on a controversial border:

„Given its dramatic transformation in the interest of mass popularity, the modern ghazal, not surprisingly, is the subject of some controversy. On the one hand, lower-class music audiences still tend to prefer film or folk music, finding ghazal too elitist, too difficult to understand, or simply dull. On the other hand, many aficiandos of the now-eclipsed light-classical style regard the modern ghazal as cheap, manneristic kitsch.“ (ibid., 101)

But the fluidity of its audience gives ghazal a place in functions like Pakistani-American Muslim weddings (Arnold 2000, 579), large social events and the audio market. It holds many possibilities for individual jumps over social gaps as examples of „eclectic tastes“ (Pietevich 1999, 156).

The traditional substance of a cultural form has as measure the ‚classics’. Harold F. Powers sees ‚classics’ as „acceptance of the music ascribed to the Great Traditions as an expression of indigenous cultural attainments“, in this case as „new elites“ established themselves in South Asian independence.^[7] The question of ‚Indianness’ or ‚Pakistanness’ often comes to this point of cultural heritage, especially in a diasporic situation. Today it is less problematic to maintain contact to the cultural life of the homeland, because there is a fluent transfer of artists and media. Therefore the bigger issue is the gap between the generations, who continually negotiate the tension between tradition and innovation.

As already mentioned the upholders of the ‚traditional’ ghazals are experts of the first generation, who reproduce the mushairas of their home country. They do not produce any effective offer to let the following generations share this moment. There is even a tendency of some young South Asian Muslims to question the religious perseverance of their parents (cp. next chapter). Thus there are some reasons for the ‚high culture’ ghazal to decline.

But cultural loss is always relative. On the other side ghazal gets acknowledgement like never before, as it resonates in the waves of mass media. Even ‚hard core liners’ like Urdu scholar and poet Shams ur Rahman Faruqi admit: „I hate the sort of ghazals people sing nowadays, and the way they sing them, but in spite of that I think this ghazal vogue is a good thing“ (Manuel 1993, 102).

The transition of artistical knowledge among South Asians has a strong basis in the family, which also transfers the picture of ‚the own kind’. This transition is primarily oral and since the beginning of immigration highly supported by schools and organizations - the Ali Akbar College of Music and Ravi Shankar’s Kinnara School were founded in 1967!. The result is a productive conflict between tradition and the commercialization through records, radio, television and internet in the upcoming mixture with ‚Western’ styles (Arnold 2000, 582-584).

Religion / secularity

ghazal has a middle position in the complex relationship between Islam and music. It represents an area between allowed and forbidden. It is suspicious for the orthodoxy, a possibility for artistical needs and welcomed by mystics. The system of Nasr (1997, 222) indicates the following sorting: ghazal may tend towards legitimate non- mūsīqā as „chanted poetry with noble themes“. As „vocal / instrumental improvisation“ it is controversial, for instance in connection with qawwālī. But it becomes illegitimate as „sensuous music“ in its new popular forms like filmī style.

An incident between a producer and Begum Akhtar gives an idea of the gaps between these existences: Begum Akhtar intended to leave the Gramophone Company in 1952 because the producer proposed to sing a na’t (eulogy chant, non- mūsīqā) on a qawwālī (Qureshi 1995, 150).

But above all the example qawwālī shows the flexibility of the genre: Combined with the Sufi tradition and its special understanding of music (cp. title page of this paper) it can fulfill the „essential means of reaching a state of ecstatic communion with God“ (Qureshi 1997, 282). But it also simply „provides a mood [...] which is capable of bridging gaps in comprehension“ (Pietevich 1999, 161) through an easy, drummed and handclapped rhythm. Thus it can serve as part of samā ‘ (assembly for listening) and as well as part of a commercial concert.

South Asian Muslims in North America are mostly high educated and prosperous and carry a cosmopolitan culture. But a part of them builds its community consciousness through the common language Urdu and Islamic practice (Qureshi 1996, 46). There often is little space for not mainly religious cultural activity. A reason is the increasing involvement in Islamic organizations, like the Islamic Circle of North America, and in Islamic life style. Partly this is a response on the mess of the American society, sometimes deepened in the second generation (Sanyal 1999, 143 / 148). At the same time the immigrants are „leaving behind the ties of dominance and dependence that characterized social relationships in the homeland“ (Qureshi 1996, 61). New forms of individual attempts to come to terms with religion and society open spaces in both directions of a diasporic existence, especially for women (Sanyal 1999). Then the easy language of popular music can be relevant for attempts to leave behind also the unavoidable divisions of the homeland, like between Hindus and Muslims.

Mohammad-Arif summarizes the core of the polarization as follows:

„Hindus in the United States who are very keen to preserve their religious and cultural heritage are, if anything, more assiduous in going to the temple than they were in India (at least concerning urban and educated population groups). As the mosques for the Muslims, the temples are the principal space of socialization for Hindu immigrants. The lack of a common space of worship is therefore a first reason for the relative lack of social contact between Hindus and Muslims.“ (2002, 213)

Underlining facts are the high cash flow from the United States into the budget of the BJP as well as the uprising of the ICNA. They suggest few possibilites of compensating the divisions, which were further deepened by the Ayodhya crisis in 1992 and the recent radicalization of the Kashmir conflict.

Mohammad-Arif identifies three possible infiltrations into the religious bloc forming: 1. The insufficiency of religion alone for unity. Important is for instance the support of a shared language, therefore there is also the possibility to share the same language without sharing the same religion. 2. Efforts to form a „South-Asian ‚pan-ethnicity’“. An example is a meeting of about 50 Indian activists of the Indian League of America, of the Association of Indian Muslims, of the Catholics from Kerala in Detroit and others in May 1993. 3. New groups of the second generation. That goes to show at Youth Against Racism, at the South Asian Lesbian and Gay Association or at meetings of different clubs of the Queens College.

He emphasizes music as important contribution to mutual communication, beneath - of course - Bollywood; he names neo- bhangra and qawwālī. bhangra mixes languages and musical sources in principle, through this it gives the South Asian youth a common interest. „It would be unreasonable to expect this music to be the only or even the principal force for constructing an identity across all barriers but at least it enables young South Asians to get together“ (Mohammad-Arif 2002, 226). Also African-Americans share this togetherness.

With another focus something similar could be said about ghazal as used in qawwālī. The popularity of qawwālī in concerts does not go hand in hand with less religiousness of the performers as Regula Burckhardt Qureshi stresses:

„Today, the music is developing into a secular concert genre in Pakistan, somewhat akin to concerts of religious compositions in the West. What is remarkable is that, even on the stage, essentially traditional Sufi musicians, like the Sabri Brothers and now Nusrat Fateh Ali, retain their spiritual repertoire and performance style.“ (Qureshi 1997, 285)

But at the same time it was possible to reduce the religious commitment:

„The most interesting aspect of Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan lies not only in his capacity to attract large crowds from across religious groups, but also in the transformation he carried out at the musical level. This singer-composer grafted onto traditional religious music elements of foreign music, so that it lost its specific sacred character. He was strongly criticized for this by purists, but he transformed himself into a star who was part- qawwal, part-pop, and more accessible to non-Muslims, as his success in India shortly before his death showed. [...] qawwali can also be a more effective way of retaining the interest of young Muslims than the more austere face of Islamism.“ (Mohammad-Arif 2002, 222)

The recent decline of high culture elements of ghazal admits a larger audience to share its different forms. It is a suitable mediator, because at the same time it does not lose a touch of ‚classic’ or ‚religious’.

The unstable coexistence of Hindus and Muslims has a strong backing in the history of South Asian music. Therein are at least in North India the two religious groups connected through a long time of shared high culture. References to this tradition, adapted to the new situation, can carry this sharing also outside the narrow circle of exclusive elitism.

ghazal in North America

ghazal is present in North America in various types. A google glance at the Internet presence of „ ghazal / North America“ shows a wide scope. It begins at the ‚Ghazalan Academy of Punjab in North America’, that is pointing out the classical Urdu poetry^[8]. It goes on to concerts and tours of the ‚Ghazal Ensemble’ with classical Persian and Indian improvisations!, of the Canadian Indian Kiran Ahluwalia and the Canadian Pakistani Tahira Masood with ghazal and Punjabi folk songs, or of the old Jagjit Singh. And it ends at the „The World’s #1 Party Site - The South Asian Media Source“ for the USA, the UK and Canada. In the latter DJ Karsh Kale describes his artistical work as „ranging from classical ghazal to hard core D+B [Drum’n’Bass]“^[9].

The possibilities of ghazal can be seen in a confrontation of articles about recent concerts from www.indiapost.com - part of „the fastest growing Indian-American media company“^[10] - and from www.pakistanlink.com - the „First Pakistani Newspaper on the Internet“^[11], provided from Los Angeles.

On the one site A. Q. Siddiqui depicts an evening in Chicago with the Bollywood singer Indra Nayak. She was invited by the Andra Pradesh Association of North America in collaboration with Zams Hope in Chicago and the Nizam club Banquet hall. Before Indra Nayak „enthralled the audience“ with ghazals and film songs - accompanied by tabla and piano! - the Indian Consul General Surender Kumar „hailed Urdu ghazals as cultural heritage“ and „complimented artists who help construct a bridge among different communities and bring them together“.

On the other site Ras H. Siddiqui (!) wrote about a „Pakistani Night“ at „Chadni“ in Newark, California. In his words it „turned out to be a very South Asian event in character as over 300 Pakistani and Indian fans of Urdu [...] gathered together for dinner and an opportunity to take a trip down memory lane [...]“. Equivalent to the Indian Consul General Nazir Khan of Darbar Restaurant in San Francisco appeared as sponsor and Raana Faiz of the San Francisco-based Hamrahi Radio Program moderated.

In connection with the chapter above, ‚a trip down memory lane’ speaks for itself.

Conclusion

ghazal does surely not cover the main part of consumption of music among South Asians in North America. Petievich suggested that even for the ‚light’ forms (1999, 157), but ghazal has an undeniable tendency towards popularity:

„The ghazal ’s very existence attests to the extent to which North Indian culture is a syncretic product of both Hindu and Muslim contributions, and the current mass popularity of this genre, in however simplified a form, may well constitute a unifying element in a period otherwise marked by religious bigotry, violence, and persecution.“ (Manuel 1993, 102-103)

Even its most popular performances carry a ‚classical’ spirit, but in connection with star personalities like Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan or through other popular medias like Bollywood films it can extent its audience as it does through „cassette culture“ (Manuel 1993). „It is just a matter of moods“ as Ras H. Siddiqui said and as stated above, some developments among South Asians in North America support being in the mood for ghazal.

The rhetoric of Surender Kumar is not to be overestimated. But the effect, that emotional and intellectual sharing can have as soon as contact is initiated, is also not to be underestimated. The breath of emotional unification is short and the strengh of intellectual comradeship fastly declining, only happy combination seems to give reversal of differences a chance. But the great experience of sharing especially common cultural activity - in any sense - raises in principle hope.

References

Arnold, Alison 2000. North America. In: Alison Arnold (ed.): South Asia. The Indian Subcontinent. (The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, Vol. 5). New York, London: Garland Publishing.

Daniels, Roger 1994. The Indian Diaspora in the United States. In: J. Brown & R. Foot (eds.): Migration. The Asian experience. Basingstoke: Macmillan, 83-103.

Lessinger, Johanna 2003. Indian immigrants in the United States. The emergence of a transnational population. In: Bhikhu Parekh, Gurkarpal Singh & Steven Vertovec (eds.): Culture and Economy in the Indian Diaspora. London: Routledge, 165-182.

Manuel, Peter 1993. Cassettes and the Modern Ghazal. In: Peter Manuel: Cassette Culture. Popular Music and Technology in North India. Chicago, London: University of Chicago Press, 89-104.

Mohammad-Arif, Aminah 2002. Identity and ethnicity. In: Aminah Mohammad-Arif: Salaam America. South Asian Muslims in New York. London: Anthem Press.

Naniwadekar, Dhananjay [17 Jan. 2004]. Re: Article on K L Saigal posted today - new thread. In: http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=rec.music.indian.misc.

Nasr, Seyyed Hossein 1997. Islam and Music. The Legal and the Spiritual Dimensions. In: Lawrence E. Sullivan (ed.): Enchanting Powers. Music in the World’s Religions. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 219-235.

Petievich, Carla 1999. Intertwining Religion and Ethnicity. South Asian Cultural Performance in the Diaspora. In: Carla Pietevich (ed.): The Expanding Landscape. South Asians and the Diaspora. o.O: Manohar, 153-174.

Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt 1995. Recorded Sound and Religious Music. The Case of Qawwālī. In: Lawrence A. Babb & Susan S. Wadley (eds.): Media and the Transformation of Religion in South Asia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 139-166.

Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt 1996. Transcending Space. Recitation and Community among South Asian Muslims in Canada. In: Barbara Daly Metcalf (ed.): Making Muslim Space in North America and Europe. Berkeley, Los Angeles, London: University of California Press, 46-64.

Qureshi, Regula Burckhardt 1997. Sounding the Word. Music in the Life of Islam. In: Lawrence E. Sullivan (ed.): Enchanting Powers. Music in the World’s Religions. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 263-298.

Singh, Surjit [18 Jan. 2004]. Re: Article on K L Saigal posted today - new thread. In: In: http://groups.google.de/groups?hl=de&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=rec.music.indian.misc.

Sanyal, Usha 1999. The [Re-]Construction of South Asian Muslim Identity in Queens, New Yorks. In: Carla Pietevich (ed.): The Expanding Landscape. South Asians and the Diaspora. New Delhi: Manohar, 141-152.

[...]

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^[1] „At the beginning of the migration process, people from the same area of the world tend to keep together, and then, as numbers grow, to split up into smaller groups. Organizations then arise defined by national, regional, linguistic and religious allegiances.“ (Mohammad-Arif 2002, 217)

^[2] Akhtaribai Faizabadi alias Begum Akhtar (1914-1974): born in Faizabad, Uttar Pradesh, classical and ghazal concert and film singer, known as Mallika-e Ghazal (female master of ghazal).

^[3] Noor Jehan (1926-2000): born in Kasūr (Punjab), active in films as singer and actress from 1935, after 1948 living and working in Pakistan.

^[4] Jagjit Singh (* 1941): born in Shriganganagar (Rajasthan), together with wife Chitra Singh since the mid-seventies one of the main representatives of popular non- filmī ghazal.

Daler Mehndi (* 1967): since the mid-nineties one of the main representatives of Bhangra.

^[5] Adnan Sami Khan (* 1979): Pakistani background, but grown up in the UK, known for combination of Western and Indian classic and modern music on E-Piano.

^[6] Lata Mangeshkar (* 1929): born in Sikh Mohalla, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, active in films as singer and actress since 1942, but also known as concert artist.

^[7] Powers, Harold F. 1986. Classical Music, Cultural Roots, and Colonial Rule: an Indic Musicologist looks at the MuslimWorld. In: Asian Music 12 (1), 19-20. Quoted from Pietevich 1999, 154.

^[8] http://www.apnaorg.com/poetry/farhat/ghazal.htm (12.09.2004).

^[9] http://www.desiclub.com/desimusic/desimusic_features/music_article.cfm?id=101 (12.09.2004).

^[10] http://www.indiapost.com/members/story.php?story_id=166 (12.09.2004). The quoted self-description can be found at the heading ‚About us’.

^[11] http://www.pakistanlink.com/Community/2004/Aug04/20/14.html (12.09.2004). Quotation from the homepage.