Song Sung Sufi

Mukhtiyar Ali Mir and his harmonium have become inseparable, says Zareena, his wife. His mornings begin early and most of his waking hours are spent in riyaaz, with his intense voice drifting beyond the Mirasi mohallah of Pugal, energising the morning air with the spirit of love and devotion. Often, Abdul Jabbar walks in with his tabla, and settles next to him to join the riyaaz. A small notebook lies near the harmonium, full of kalams that Mukhtiyar and Jabbar have been collecting from their elders over the years. Waris Ali, another Mir singer, has enthusiastically joined them in this mission of reviving their tradition of sufiana kalam singing. Successive droughts and hard times have forced him to migrate to Bikaner with his family. But the joy of singing sufiana kalam and the hope of reaching out to a wider audience brings hope in his tired eyes, making him forget the drudgery he has to face as a casual wage labourer. These musicians belong to the Mir community of Pugal, a village in the command area of the Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojna (ignp), around 80 km north-west of Bikaner in Rajasthan. From early medieval times, the settlement of Pugal had been an important en-route destination on the trade route from northern India to Bahawulpur and Multan. The Mirs have been the proud bearers of a tradition of sufiana kalam for generations. Vast stretches of sandy plains and extensive grasslands interspersed with dunes merging into limitless horizons dotted with long lines of caravans constitute the geographical backdrop in which this musical tradition took shape. Centuries of contact along trade and pastoral routes, and marriage and kinship ties between different communities in these contiguous regions, have bequeathed to the Pugal region the rich spiritual traditions of Sufi mystics of the erstwhile west Punjab, Bahawulpur and Multan. Sufiana kalam of the Sufi mystics of the north-western Indian subcontinent like those of Khwaja Ghulam Farid, Baba Bulle Shah, Hazrat Sultan Bahu and Ali Haider form an intrinsic part of the repertoire of the Mirs. According to a popular saying in Pugal, “The kalams of Sufi mystics are best heard when they are sung and if the singers do not know how to sing kalams their singing is berangi (devoid of colour)”. The Mirs also sing bhakti compositions of Mirabai, Kabir, Achalram, the regal Mand from Bikaner and Rajasthani folk songs. Be it the urs or a gathering in a dargah or weddings, the ecstatic performances of the Mirs have served as a means for listeners to attain the heights of mystical experience. In its heyday, the Mirs were also called Mir-i-Alam with respect, a tribute to their spiritual status. Ustad Basaye Khan, 73, has been a popular singer of his times. He fondly recalls that the semi-nomadic Muslim pastoralists and the Rajputs of Pugal were their main patrons. The singers would often visit the pastoralists in their temporary settlements in nomadic encampments and sing during the evenings, getting a goat or sheep in return. These itinerant performances sometimes lasted for 15-20 days. This once vibrant tradition of singing sufiana kalam in Pugal has been waning over the last half century. In the 1950s and 1960s, the thakurs of Pugal, the main patrons of Mirs, lost their position of pre-eminence in the social order. The dwindling of the patronage of the Muslim pastoralists and the displacement of traditional life patterns is largely due to the emergence of the command area of the Indira Gandhi Canal since the late 1970s. Recently, the Mirs have been victims of bans, with several villages in the region boycotting them. These bans have been imposed by the orthodox maulvis, who regard singing of any sort as heretical to Islam. This has directly affected the livelihoods of the Mirs as these ‘live’ performances were one of the main sources of their livelihood and survival. Undeterred by adversity, the Mirs are full of passion and perseverance; they carry on with their ideological role of being marfat singers, moving from the high moments of ecstasy to detached serenity, a beautiful and tangential medium for intense mystical experiences. The quest for revival is also a quest to survive in the desert against all odds — to preserve their forgotten heritage. Mukthiyar and Abdul began this journey for revival of their traditions around two years back when they released a music album Jogi Jadugar as a tribute to Khwaja Ghulam Farid and Bulle Shah, the two prominent Sufi mystics of north-west Indian subcontinent. In December 2004, the Mir community organised a sufiana kalam performance in Pugal. The programme called Rohi Rang was a great success and has motivated many old and young singers in the Mir community to sing sufiana kalams. Mukhtiyar and Jabbar share a dream: they want to start a cultural resource center in Pugal to preserve their musical tradition and promote bhajans, sung by the dalits of the region. Over the last three months, Mukhtiyar and his team have given a number of live performances in Delhi that include intimate and soul stirring small gatherings (baithaks) at the Triveni auditorium organised by Deshkal Society in the last week of March. As the story goes, when their songs drift like etherised music of harmony, love and compassion, all the colours of the desert float in the sky, and you can see the glitter of hope in their tired eyes.

This article first appeared in Tehelka, April 30, 2005