Photo: RNZ
While Bollywood and Bhangra are the more ubiquitously heard forms of Indian music, the real bedrock upon which all that is built is Classical Indian music. In this episode of Back to Basics, Kadambari Raghukumar chats with Manjit Singh, Auckland-based, Punjab-born tabla player and Mauritia-Indian Kooshna Gupta whose PhD is based on Bollywood, identity and 'item songs'.
The series features Aucklanders involved in the universe of music from different diaspora, chatting about the staple forms of music that they grew up listening to and how that shaped their life today.
"I grew up listening to classical music, and when I was in my teenage (years), I listened to a lot of ghazals, and Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan's Sufi music" Manjit said.
While it's admittedly hard to get away from the infectious rhythm of Bhangra or the popularity of Hindi film music, it isn't uncommon to see how that can overshadow more traditional classical music or other folk forms, and also perpetuate a deceptively homogenous idea of what Indian music is.
"For many people and even Indian kids and families here in New Zealand, the perception of Indian culture or Indian music is Bollywood, bhangra or Punjabi pop music for Punjabi families here."
Kooshna Gupta grew up in Mauritius and said, "I have zero connection to classical Indian classical music, I have no idea about that at all. I learnt Hindi by watching Hindi films and listening to Hindi songs with French subtitles. So that's what connects me to India."
The mawkish nostalgia about the homeland you see in Bollywood and its songs is a real thing in the diaspora. But there's a degree of musical manipulation at play here tugging on those heartstrings - the secret is all in those classical Indian ragas.
"When you listen to classical or the old Bollywood film songs, the songs are based on ragas. In Hindustani music, ragas are sort of are meant to evoke certain emotion, and they explain and relate to certain emotion. When a film song is produced, a suitable raga and the song lyrics are in a certain sort of collaboration," Manjit said.
While older film music was closer in style to its classical roots, Kooshna said, "Hindi cinema started growing as an industry, it's economics, it's money. So it's more like, you know, also how to keep up to date and to appeal to the audience. In the late 1990s after the Indian economic liberalisation, the industry started aiming for the Indian diaspora, and that's where you see lots of changes in the music as well."
As far as representation of the true breadth of Indian music goes, at events like Diwali in Auckland it's mostly bhangra and Bollywood being performed. Manjit's keen to see some change and advocates for a more accurate representation of Indian music or dance.
"It's majorly Bollywood dance as part of the main stage. Why are they portraying our culture so badly on the Diwali stage?" Manjit asked.
