MUSIC IN BANGLADESH
Bangladeshis enjoy singing and dancing. The music of Bangladesh can be divided into four distinct categories: classical, light-classical, folk and modern. Love songs often mention rain. One song goes: "The dark clouds of the monsoon are like your dark falling hair." For a long the CDs, cassettes, DVDs and videos that were sold were often pirated.
The famous concert for Bangladesh in August 1971 was put together by George Harrison at the request of his friend Ravi Shankar to help out Bangladesh at a time when it was devastated by war, cyclones, floods and famine. It is regarded as the first major international fund-raising concert and music event — a precursor to LiveAid and “We Are the World”. Among the artists that appeared with Harrison and Shankar at the Madison Square Garden event were Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton, Leon Russell, Ringo Starr, Billy Preston. Shankar is famous for saying, after applause broke out while the musicians were preparing to play, "If you like the tuning so much I hope you enjoy the playing more."
Folk song themes include the beautiful countryside, floods, heroic tales of battle, the War of Liberation, Allah and the Prophets. The most popular forms of folk music are Bhataiali, Baul, Marfati, Jari, Shari, Murshidi, and Bhawaiya. Among the greatest names in folk music are Lalan, Hasan Raja, Abbasuddin and Abdul Alim.
In an article on Bangladeshi village life, Kamran Nahar wrote: “Songs are of many kinds as, marriage songs, rain songs, nursery rhymes and lullabies. Besides the same social festivals and rites are celebrated, less or more in the similar way everywhere. [Source: “Bangladesh Culture: A Study of the South Para of Village ‘Silimpur’” by Kamrun Nahar, September 2, 2006]
According to “Cities of the World”: “Music and song are greatly appreciated in Bangladesh in both folk and classical forms. The songs of the "bauls," the traditional wandering folk minstrels, are especially popular. The bauls sing simple and lively songs that tell tales and describe mystic inspiration, playing rudimentary stringed instruments and drums, with the singer dancing and interacting with his audience. Also popular are songs of revered Bengali poets. Bangladeshi pop music consists of songs from Bangla and Hindi films and is ubiquitous throughout Bangladesh, as it is throughout the subcontinent. [Source: “Cities of the World” , The Gale Group Inc. 2002]
Bengali Music
Some of India’s best classical musicians and dancers have been Bengalis. Bengal has a rich tradition of religious folk music, especially associated with Sufism among Muslims and with the devotional worship of Krishna and the goddess Kali among Hindus. Baul music has found some followers in the world music scene. Western Indo-pop bands such as Fundamental have drawn on emotional baul melodies. Bengali singer Paban Das Baul has produced rock-flavored album called Real Sugar that has done well on the World Music charts.
According to “Countries and Their Cultures”: “Bengali music encompasses a number of traditions and mirrors some of the country's poetry. The most common instruments are the harmonium, the tabla, and the sitar. Generally, classical musicians are adept at the rhythms and melodic properties associated with Hindu and Urdu devotional music. [Source:“Countries and Their Cultures”, The Gale Group Inc., 2001]
“More popular today are the secular male — female duets that accompany Bengali and Hindi films. These songs are rooted in the classical tradition but have a freer contemporary melodic structure. Traditional dance is characterized by a rural thematic element with particular hand, foot, and head movements. Dance is virtually a female-only enterprise.
Bauls
Folk music in Bangladesh has traditionally been performed by Bauls, village poets influenced by mysticism and well versed in old folk tales and myths. Bauls have traditionally belonged to religious and cultural groups and have been most active in West Bengal in India and Bangladesh. They are known as traveling minstrels who perform ecstatic songs and poems and live an unconventional lifestyle. The term “Baul” is understood to mean “madness.”. The Baul often describe themselves as “crazy for God.” Most Bauls are men who sing their songs while playing instruments such as the harmonium, small cymbals, drums or dotara (two-string lute with a long neck) . Usually the play a gopi yantra (or ektara, a one-stringed instrument ,made from a gourd and split bamboo). [Source: Encyclopedia of World Cultures: South Asia, edited by Paul Hockings, C.K. Hall & Company, 1992]
Bauls fall into three major groups: 1) those with links to Tantric Buddhism and Shaktism (goddess worship), 2) those associated with Bengali Vaishnava (Vishnu worship); and Muslim fakirs. Some Bauls are married and perform daily rites in their homes. Some are ascetics who go through an initiation ritual, and wander the countryside, living in ashrams or monasteries. Bauls often gather in large numbers at festivals known as melas to sing songs and share stories.
Bauls usually dress in orange or saffron, with small bells around the ankles. The often have beards and longhair tied in a topknots. Sometimes they wear rudraksha beads (sacred to the god Shiva). They believe that god dwells within the human body and their songs bring him out. One type of song called sahaja emphasizes spontaneity and attempts to induce a state of ecstacy and creativity.
The Bauls reject caste and Muslim-Hindu religious distinctions and sometimes their way of life embraces Tantric ideas about sexuality. These Bauls believe that god dwells in sexual fluids. There are sexual rituals that unite the male and female essence. Many of their songs contain metaphors for unions of these fluid such a catching fish at high tide and piercing the moon. Baul beliefs are influenced by Tantric Buddhism, Sufism, Kundalini yoga and the Shaktism (the worship of Kali).
Baul Songs: Recognized by UNESCO
Baul songs were inscribed in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2008 According to UNESCO: The Bauls are mystic minstrels living in rural Bangladesh and West Bengal, India. The Baul movement, at its peak in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, has now regained popularity among the rural population of Bangladesh. Their music and way of life have influenced a large segment of Bengali culture, and particularly the compositions of Nobel Prize laureate Rabindranath Tagore.
“Bauls live either near a village or travel from place to place and earn their living from singing to the accompaniment of the ektara, the lute dotara, a simple one-stringed instrument, and a drum called dubki. Bauls belong to an unorthodox devotional tradition, influenced by Hinduism, Buddhism, Bengali, Vasinavism and Sufi Islam, yet distinctly different from them. Bauls neither identify with any organized religion nor with the caste system, special deities, temples or sacred places. Their emphasis lies on the importance of a person’s physical body as the place where God resides. Bauls are admired for this freedom from convention as well as their music and poetry. Baul poetry, music, song and dance are devoted to finding humankind’s relationship to God, and to achieving spiritual liberation. Their devotional songs can be traced back to the fifteenth century when they first appeared in Bengali literature.
“Baul music represents a particular type of folk song, carrying influences of Hindu bhakti movements as well as the shuphi, a form of Sufi song. Songs are also used by the spiritual leader to instruct disciples in Baul philosophy, and are transmitted orally. The language of the songs is continuously modernized thus endowing it with contemporary relevance.
The preservation of the Baul songs and the general context in which they are performed depend mainly on the social and economic situation of their practitioners, the Bauls, who have always been a relatively marginalized group. Moreover, their situation has worsened in recent decades due to the general impoverishment of rural Bangladesh.”
Classical Music in Bangladesh
Vocal and instrument classical music in Bangladesh is similar to Indian classical music. Ustad Alauddin Khan and Ustad Ayet Ali Khan are Bangladesh's most well known classical music performers. According to “Cities of the World”: Moghul traditional court music forms the basis for modern classical counterparts, using instruments such as the sitar, a stringed instrument, with percussion accompaniment of the tabla. Classical dance is similar to the stylized forms of Northern India. [Source: “Cities of the World” , The Gale Group Inc. 2002]
Blending modern Western music and traditional form, modern Bengali music was pioneered by the poets Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam, who adapted their poem to the melodies of north Indian ragas and Bengali folk music. Musical instruments used in Bangladesh music include the dotara (a two string, Indian-style mandolin), esraj (a traditional Bengali instrument), harmonium (pump organ or free-reed organ that generates sound as air flows past a vibrating piece of thin metal in a frame) and dhols (double-headed drums that come in various types). Vocalist often sing with breathy gasps.
Traditional Bengali music tends to be based on various variations of Indiam classical music such as dhrupad (very old solemn music, regarded as uplifting and heroic, pure and spiritual), tappa (semi-classical vocal music known for its fast, rolling pace and subtle and knotty construction), thumri (romantic or devotional vocal music) and kheyal (a musical form with two parts that recur between expanding cycles of melodic and rhythmic improvisation). In a standard kheyal performance a slow (vilambit) khayal is followed by a shorter, fast (drut) khayal in the same raga (melodic framework)..
Songs of Rabindranth Tagore
Rabindranth Tagore (1861-1941), a poet, philosopher and writer from Calcutta, was the first non-Westerner to win the Nobel Prize in literature (in 1917). He was a formidable personality who played a major role in shaping the cultural life of India at the turn of the 20th century, “when the country was struggling for its independence and searching for its identity in the international community. Tagore had a long white beard. He looked more like a holy man than a writer. In addition to being a poet and fiction writer he was also a dramatist, composer, playwright, painter, educator political thinker, and philosopher of science.
Tagore wrote more than 2,500 songs about God, nature and love as well poems and prose. He also produced dramas and operas. Tagore songs are collectively known as Rabindrasangeet ("the music of Rabindra"). They are frequently heard on the streets of Bangladesh and are fixtures of wedding and festivals. One goes something likes this: "the necklace bruises me; it strangles when I try to take it off. It chokes my singing. Take it from me! I'm ashamed to wear it. Give men a simple garland in its place."
On his dabbling with dance and opera, Jukka O. Miettinen of the Theatre Academy Helsinki wrote: “He was particularly interested in, what he called, the “operatic” Southeast Asian theatre forms. He exclaimed that India had lost this kind of forms and he dedicated much energy to creating his own theatrical style, also combining dance and music Tagore had seen Manipuri dances even as early as in 1919 and became a great admirer of them. He invited an important teacher-guru to teach them at his own university, Santiniketan. He used the Manipuri style as the basis for his own dance plays, called rabindra nritiya natyas. He also wrote a drama-opera, Valmiki, and plays dealing with social issues, such as The Post Office and Untouchable Girl. In many ways he was an influential personage, who gave the cultural life of new India an internationally recognisable face. [Source:Dr. Jukka O. Miettinen,Asian Traditional Theater and Dance website, Theatre Academy Helsinki /=/]
Kazi Nazrul Islam
Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) was a Bengali poet, writer, musician and, is the national poet of Bangladesh. Famous for his fiery words and popularly known as Nazrul, he produced a large body of poetry and music with themes that included religious devotion and rebellion against oppression. His political activism and calls for social justice earned him the title of "Bidrohi Kobi" (Rebel Poet). His compositions form the avant-garde music genre of Nazrul Geeti (Music of Nazrul). [Source: Wikipedia]
Born into a Bengali Muslim Kazi family hailing from Burdwan district in Bengal Presidency (now in West Bengal), Nazrul Islam underwent religious education at a madrasah and worked as a muezzin at a local mosque as a young man. He learned about poetry, drama, and literature while working with the rural theatrical group Letor Dal. Leto is a folk song genre of West Bengal usually performed by the people from Muslim community of the region. He served in the British Indian Army from in 1917 to 1920 and was stationed in the Middle East during World War I. After the war Nazrul settled in Calcutta and established himself as a journalist and a rebel rouser. He criticised the British Raj and called for revolution in his poetic works such as "Bidrohi" (“The Rebel”) and "Bhangar Gaan" (“The Song of Destruction”) as well as in his publication Dhumketu (“The Comet”). He was imprisoned several times for his involvement in Indian independence activities by the British colonial authorities. While in prison, Nazrul wrote the "Rajbandir Jabanbandi" (“Deposition of a Political Prisoner”). His writings greatly inspired Bengalis of East Pakistan during the Bangladesh Liberation War.
Nazrul's writings explored themes such as freedom, humanity, love, and revolution. He opposed all forms of bigotry and spoke out against various forms of religious, caste-based and gender-based fundamentalism and oppression. Nazrul wrote short stories, novels, and essays but is best known for his songs and poems. He is known for his extensive use of Arabic and Persian words in his works and profoundly enriched ghazals, Shrikrishna kirtanas and Shyama sangeet in Bengali language. Some of his poems have been translated into Hindi and English.
One of the most famous photographs of Nazrul shows him with shoulder-length hair, playing a flute. Dressed in a cloak he looks like a holy man or an itinerant bard. Nazrul wrote and composed music for nearly 4,000 songs (many recorded on HMV and gramophone records), collectively known as Nazrul Geeti. In the 1940s when he was in his 40s, Nazrul began losing his voice and memory and was diagnosed as having Pick's disease, a rare incurable neurodegenerative disease. His mental and physical health decline steadily and he lived in psychiatric hospital in India for many years. At the invitation of the Bangladesh government, Nazrul's family took him to Dhaka in 1972.They were awarded Bangladesh citizenship and died there four years later in 1976.
Ravi Shankar
Ravi Shankar (1920-2012) is arguably India’s most famous musician and was the most visible purveyor of Indian music. Even though he was born in Varanasi he came from a Bengali family. He was good friends with The Beatle’s George Harrison and helped organize the famous Concert for Bangladesh in 1971
Ravi Shankar was a sitarist known best for his association with the Beatles and is sometimes called the godfather of psychedelic and trance and world music. The son of an eminent Brahmin scholar and barrister, he began his musical career playing in a famous troupe with his brother, Udar Shankar, who first introduced Indian music to Western audiences. Ravi developed into a virtuoso sitar performer as a pupil of Ustad Allaudi Khan, regarded by many as India's greatest musician.
Shankar kept busy by performing, teaching, composing, conducting and producing music for orchestras, films and ballets. He was director of All-India Radio after 1949 and has won awards for his film scores at the Berlin, Venice and Cannes film festivals. Shankar first visited America in 1938 with his brother's troupe. Over the years he won three Grammy Awards.
Shankar composed India's second most popular song, after the national anthem— Saare jahaan se achchaa hindostan hamaaraa ("Our India is better than the whole world." To commemorate independence, Shankar composed the music for a ballet based Nehru's book The Discovery of India. Gandhi attended the performance and Nehru told him, "It's better than the book."
Book: Raga Mala, Shankar’s autobiography, edited by George Harrison.
Sufi Muslim Singer Arrested in Bangladesh
In January 2010, AFP reported: “A top Bangladeshi Sufi folk singer was arrested under a controversial internet law that critics say is used to stifle free speech after alleged anti-Islam comments triggered protests, police said. Shariat Sarker, 40, was detained in the central town of Mirzapur on Saturday, local police chief Saidur Rahman told AFP. Rahman said. [Source: AFP, January 12, 2020]
“A cleric filed a case against Sarker over comments made at a show in December, and he was arrested under the Digital Security Act for "hurting the religious sentiment of Muslims,"“Film of the show was uploaded to YouTube and more than 1,000 Muslim activists and clerics staged a rally to demand the singer's arrest. Sarker could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty at trial.
“Journalists and right activists say the Digital Security Act passed in 2018 is a serious threat to freedom of expression in the nation of 168 million people. Under the Act, anyone can face a life jail term for "propaganda" against the nation and up to 10 years for digital content that "hurts religious sentiments" or "creates unrest". Odhikar, a rights group, reported at least 29 arrests last year under the law.
“Sarker is well known among the tens of millions of Sufi followers in rural Bangladesh. Music expert Saymon Zakaria said folk singers regularly take liberties when interpreting Islamic legends in a way that may not reflect the official version. “There should not be literal interpretations of what is said during a performance. Folk singers must have freedom of expression," Zakaria said. Despite holding a prominent place in Bangladesh's history, more than a dozen Sufi leaders and followers have been killed in recent years by extremist Islamist groups who consider them heretics.”
Dance in Bangladesh
Classical forms of Indian, especially Bengali, dance are found in Bangladesh. Some of them are associated with the Bauls. There are two kinds of folk dances: social and ritual-ceremonial.
The Brita, or Vrita, is an important folk dance in West Bengal. Often performed after a recovery from a contagious disease, it is performed by barren women in hope that their wishes will be fulfilled. The Hurka is a dance performed during the cultivation of rice and maize. Named after a kind of drum, it is performed in different fields while a singer, or Baul, narrates a story about a battle or heroic deed. The dances themselves are known for their sharp, crisp movements. The Kali Nach is a dance that honors the goddess Kali A performer in a mask, purified by mantras, dances with sword and can make prophecies.
Many daces are associated with specific ethnic and tribal groups. Among these are Manipuri and Santhal dances, which are also found in India. Manipuri is a style dance from the state of Manipur in northeast India. Regarded as one of the most beautiful dance styles, it features graceful swaying and twirling movements to ascending tempos and is based on the Raas Leela, a story about the cosmic dances and mischievous games played by Krishna and the gopis (milk maidens). Manipuri is derived from Lai Haroba, an ancient ritualistic dance depicting creation.
The costume worn by Manipuri dancers is one of the most beautiful in all of India. Dark orange or green skirts are stiffened from thigh to ankle, flared from the waists with translucent veils and decorated with gold thread embroidery and tiny mirrors. A gathered skirt with a short silver gauze, and edged with a golden border is worn over the skirt A colored choli is worn with a fine gauze veil draped over a special hair style. Belts and jewelry are also worn. The Krishna dancer wears a tall peach-feather crown.
Image Sources: Wikimedia Commons
Text Sources: New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, Lonely Planet Guides, Library of Congress, Bangladesh Tourism Board, Bangladesh National Portal (www.bangladesh.gov.bd), The Guardian, National Geographic, Smithsonian magazine, The New Yorker, Time, Reuters, Associated Press, AFP, Wikipedia and various books, websites and other publications.
Last updated February 2022