Moving in Sand and Time : June 2009

Monday, June 15, 2009

Jogi Jadugar: a tribute to Sufi Mystics by Mirs of Pugal

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The audio cassette Jogi Jadugar, is part of an ongoing initiative to reinvigorate the tradition of Sufi music of the Mirs of Pugal region in the north western interiors of the Bikaner district, located close to the international border between India and

Pakistan

These compositions belong to Baba Bulleh Shah (1680-1758) and Khwaja Ghulam Farid (1841-1901), two prominent Sufi mystics of north- west India. The theme is divine love – Ishqi Haqiqui. However the path to divine love lies through human love –Ishqi Mijazi - in all its phases and manifestations – the joy of falling in love, the defiance to fierce often murderous social and religious taboos, the yearning for the absent beloved, the pain of separation and waiting , the longing for union, the ecstasy of sighting the beloved, praise of the beauty of the beloved, complaints against an indifferent beloved and of course the absolute fidelity of the lover. This love finds expression predominantly through two symbols of earthly love- of Heer and Ranjha and

of the Mureed (disciple) for the Murshid (guru). In Bulleh Shah the force of orthodoxy in its rejection of the authority of the Mullah’s (the priest’s) prescriptions and Aalam Fazal’s (scholar’s) interpretations of the holy word is matched by a complete surrender at the altar of love, whether human or divine. Here love is supreme and nothing else matters, neither learning , nor wisdom, nor the observance of prescribed forms of worship – namaaz, shariat, or going to Mecca for Haj. Everything can be given up because ultimately God alone matters. The basis of all this is the Sufi’s direct mystical

experience of God.

Jogi Jadugar was recorded in May 2005 at Nangal Studio in Bikaner. The six compositions presented here embody this dualism in which the human and the divine appear sometimes distinct a

nd some times inseparable. Mukhtiyar Ali, has sung these compositions. His distinctive voice, its regional accent and delivery lends freshness and lyrical intensity to these kafis without diluting their universal appeal. His nephew, Abdul Jabbar from Pugal has assisted him in vocals. Ecstatic tabla by Ustad Ghulam Hussain from Bikaner city gave new life to these age old compositions.

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Acknowledgments:
Direction, Sound Recording: Vibodh Parthsarthi,, Rahul Ghai & Sachin Singh
Financial Contribution: Various individuals & AMAN Trust, New Delhi
Special Thanks to Jamal Kidwai, AMAN Trust
Notes on Sufi Mystics: Prof. T.C. Ghai

Gerbils: the compulsive diggers

Gerbils, also called sand rats, are rodent-like creatures of the desert. Most desert animals evade the stifling heat by leading a nocturnal life. Gerbils though, thanks to their unique adaptations, are happily diurnal. They are truly compulsive diggers, ready to burrow at a moment’s notice. Existing in large groups, gerbils collaborate to create, modify and actively maintain their living spaces in response to ever changing winds.

Surviving in the heart of the Thar, assiduously digging, ever searching, and ceaselessly communicating, the gerbils are the inspirations for this blog.

The attempt here is to understand the multiple intersections and contestations of culture, meaning ensemble of practices and ways of life of communities, with the discourse and practices of ‘modern development’. In particular the effort is to understand the travails, tribulations of lower levels of society that mostly remain either invisible or are assumed as mute variables to be acted upon and transformed through the dominant discourse of ‘modern development’. Here it needs to be mentioned that the rustic yet life reinvigorating celebrations of these marginal communities are sought to be understood and experienced. The threads of posts that weave together this tapestry of blog seek to understand and narrate experiences of marginal communities in their effort to negotiate their lives in the ever expanding enterprise of modern development in Thar.

These excavations into collective memory of history and everyday lived consciousness seek to resurrect subaltern and rustic experiences buried underneath the dusty layers of Thar, layers that contain within them the prodigal mass of longue duree history of the Thar. It is an effort to make sense of contemporary times marked by rapid escalation of assertions and claims of development by state and private, corporate and non- profit entities.

The boundaries between rural and urban life are increasingly getting blurred. This is evident in the changes that are coming in the morphology of human settlements. Rural urban continuum is ever expanding its boundaries, its gushing hold taking more and more of life under its sway.

New inter-dependencies are being created and age old inter-relationships between town and countryside are waning away and getting reconfigured like possibly never before.

These contemporary changes in Thar have much in common with similar processes in other fragile ecological regions. Gerbils of Thar occasionally get an opportunity to communicate about these bio cultural traditions undergoing such transformations.

In such an dynamic context impregnated with numerous possibilities, the blog strives to collect, reflect and communicate issues relating to well- being of fragile ecology of Thar, improvement in quality of life and livelihoods of communities especially those at the margins. In doing so the effort is to generate a dialogue regarding the importance of their cultural traditions of survival, regeneration and deep veneration of nature.

This blog is intended as a medium for silent meditation, like a mole burrowing deeply, never wanting to abandon its subterranean tunnels, attempting an empathy to surface phenomena.

Resurrecting experiences of change is about deciphering of multiple and intertwined relations between man and biosphere in Thar.

Contact for further communication:

to.rahulghai@gmail.com