[Reader-list] about self & Project

[Naresh Kumar]

Hi Every boby Myself Naresh Kumar.


I teach social science in a government school at Delhi.  Listening to
Hindustani classical music is one of my weaknesses and I also possess some
theoretical understanding of it. I am a student of history and presently
working on the early phase of gramophone industry with special reference to
classical music. *The history of listening in twentieth century north India
*is going to be the topic of my future research. As Sarai fellow I am
working on *Harballabh Sangeet Mela of Jalandhar*.

Headquarter of the division/district/tahsil of the same name and a Class-I
municipality of Punjab, Jalandhar is an important railway junction on the
Amritsar Saharanpur Mughal Sarai Main Line of the Northern Railway and is
situated on Grand Trunk Road from the international Wagha border with
Pakistan to Delhi and onwards. If there exists an ancient city with a modern
face, then Jalandhar fits the description. A town of great antiquity,
Jalandhar today is a highly industrialized centre of commercial activity. It
also claims the privilege of being the sports city of India as not only has
it produced some of our finest sports people but also world-class sports
equipment which is produced here. In addition to sports, the city is famous
for its two annual events. The first is the gathering of veteran Ghadarites
that takes place on October30 and 31st and the other is the Harballabh
festival of classical music, which has been going on without any gap since
1875

The festival is held in the memory of Saint Harballabh [who was an
accomplished Dhrupad singer himself] every year at *Devi Talab Mandir *in
the last week of December. It lasts for three-four days and is attended by
classical singers and musicians of repute from all over the country. [As the
relations between India and Pakistan are improving the festival is
witnessing the presence of the musicians from the other side of the border
also.] For last 130 years people gather every year to enjoy the feast of
hearing their favorite artists in the open air without taking into notice
chilly winters that north India experiences in December. In addition to the
three day-festival three other small musical gatherings are also organized
to mark the three distinctive seasons-Vasant Utsava or the spring festival
in February, Malhar Utsava or the Monsoon festival in July and Hemant Utsava
or the winter festival in November. At present, Harballabh Mahasabha, an
organization headed by the industrialists of the city organizes the
festival. Anyone can be the life-member of the Mahasabha by paying Rs.5000.
Though North Zone Cultural Council, Patiala helped the committee in
organizing the Sammelan for four years since *1989, when it was revived
after five years *yet the active participation of the state could not
continue due to the differences with Mahasabha however the committee
received a grant of Rs.2 lack from the Central Government in 1998 when this
was declared one of the national festivals of India.

Obviously, the Harballabh Sangeet Mela is a history in itself and every
aspect of it is a subject of enquiry. How it began, different stages it
passed through, the place it has among the music festivals of India, those
who organize and sponsor the festival, those who come to perform every year
and those who sit to enjoy them-all these and many other points compel a
person to pause and think who is interested in sociology and history of
music. How far does it accommodate the rich tradition of classical music
that Punjab and Sikhism possess? What is special in Harballabh that attracts
many of the maestros to take as a commitment? Because a number of big names
has been reaching there for decades ignoring extreme weather and other
problems. How Harballabh presents itself unique in comparison to music
festivals of Delhi, Banaras, pune Kolkata etc? Definitely, with these
festivals a new public sphere emerged and the questions related to creation
of artisthood and listenership in terms of class, gender educational
background etc arise too.

In addition to performances in the evening, Harballabh is the place where
young talents come to compete and winning this competition means a big
achievement in classical music. The question is how many of the winners come
from modern music-training institutions such as music departments of
universities. It should also be seen if the music industry comes to approach
the winners and upcoming singers who compete there. Do the winners get the
chance of performing as junior artists? Above all, Harballabh is the
festival of Jalandhar city. Because if you keep the artists aside, rest of
the participation in every field comes from the city dwellers. Definitely,
the city-life and the Mela affect each other.

Though it will be a very crude division because I have not even had a glance
over the primary and secondary sources yet four broad phases can be
identified. [a] From 1875 to 1947, [b] from 1947 to early 1980s, [c] from
early 80s to early 90s and [d] from early 90s to the present.
Independence-partition and the Khalistan movement have been taken as
dividing lines and to say that these had no effects on the festival will be
a big fallacy. Many Congress leaders including *Gandhi *used to come to the
Sammelan and even today, the festival gets concluded with *Vande-mataram*.
Here, it should also be made clear that after the *assassination of Mrs.
Gandhi *and terrorism in Punjab the Sammelan shrank into a *sheer ritual *and
remained confined to local artists of the city and neighbouring areas *from
1984 to 1988*.

Other than historical and economic aspects there are many things to be
archived, such as memories and nostalgia. The project not only demands to
look at primary sources like newspapers and Harballabh Mahasabha documents
but it asks to deploy fieldwork and oral history as tools also because it is
not necessary that the conventional sources present a complete picture that
contains both bright and dark sides. A study of music festivals like
Harballabh will be a modest beginning to understand the evolution of public
performances of music in modern urban settings. I am looking for every
possible help from all of you. Please, share if you have anything-any
primary or secondary source related to any music-festival, any anecdotal
material, any theoretical reference or at least your comments. Though I
don't have much to share yet I love collecting old and live recordings in
modern digital format. And I hope that I would be able to find some good
sharers.
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