Since 2008, we have been involved in documentation of the music of pastoral communities, in the region of Kachchh in Gujarat, India. Gujarat witnessed ethnic violence directed against the Muslim minorities of the state in 2002, in which over 2000 people are estimated to have been killed. Kachchh, though a part of Gujarat, remained unaffected by this violence of 2002. We were inspired to explore the socio-cultural fabric that makes Kachchh an island of peace in a sea of intolerance and embarked on a process of documenting the Sufi traditions of music, storytelling and poetry that is an integral part of the lives of the pastoralists that live there.
This region has a long tradition of nomadic pastoralism, with many different communities that moved from Kachchh, across the salt desert known as the Great Rann of Kachchh, to Sindh, now in Pakistan, with their flocks of cattle and camels in search of pastures, in a process of rotational migration. This movement resulted in strong kinship and trade ties between Hindu and Muslim pastoral or Maldhari communities in Kachchh with their counterparts in Sindh and Tharparkar across the Rann. In earlier times, their religious identities were somewhat inconsequential; many of these groups were indigenous people, with their own beliefs and practices and hence regarded as of ‘indeterminate’ religion; there were also strong fraternal relationships between different communities, across religious persuasion, supported by stories about these ties from mythology and folklore. The Partition of India transformed the lives of these communities forever, accentuating distinct and mutually exclusive religious identities; the new border became a fault-line for divides that had never existed. The pastoralists were now hemmed into recently imagined nations, which continued to re-enact the tensions brought into play by the Partition.
After 1947, the border was somewhat porous until the India-Pakistan conflict of 1965, after which crossing over became increasingly difficult and the Rann became a militarised zone. The emergence of hard borders, that are fenced and fortified, is not the only threat to the semi-nomadic pastoralism of the Maldharis. The past few decades have witnessed a slow and steady destruction of these ways of life, through the state’s environmental policies, the promotion of industrialisation, the proliferation of ecologically insensitive tourism and the bureaucracy’s condescending and cavalier attitude to these communities.
Sindh and Kachchh share a common heritage, based on Sufism and other syncretic practices, as well as a shared repertoire of poetry, folklore, embroidery, architectural practices and visual culture (Ibrahim, 2008). The Bhakti poetry of Kabir, the 15th century mystic weaver-poet, is sung and recited across communities and religions. Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai (1689-1782), a Sindhi Sufi poet wrote the Shah jo Risalo, a remarkable collection of poems that continue to be sung by communities throughout Kachchh and Sindh. Many of these poems draw on legendary love stories, which speak of the fragility and finitude of life, the inevitability of grief and an ultimate surrender to and union with the infinite.
Our documentation work has been in collaboration with Kutch Mahila Vikas Sanghatan (KMVS). For over 15 years, since 1998, KMVS, a grassroots organisation that works with marginalised women on issues of livelihood, rights and culture, has been doing pioneering work in the area of community media and community radio. This is based on the belief that culture, music, language and lived traditions form an important component of empowerment initiatives. KMVS believes that empowerment has to draw upon traditional wisdoms and competencies, giving them a new context and space to grow. KMVS has worked deeply and consistently in the sphere of culture, in collaboration with local communities. Through its community radio work, KMVS has built up a network of musicians that it supports in various ways, through research, documentation, organising performances and training. KMVS’ research and documentation efforts were based on an early realisation of the importance of cultural mapping and documentation of traditional wisdom. They also realised through this process of mapping that some traditions were in danger of disappearing altogether, with the older musicians unable to pass on the skills or earn a livelihood from music. It was to address this need that KMVS started a new programme in 2015, entitled Sur Shala. The programme attempts to create a support structure and framework for younger musicians to learn from more senior ones.
The film follows four diverse musical journeys initiated by the Sur Shala programme. Drawing on the poetic and musical traditions of Kabir and Shah Bhitai, as well as the folk traditions of the region, these remarkable musicians and singers bear testimony to how these oral traditions of compassion are being passed down from one generation to the next.