Who are the Qawwals: The tradition of Qawwali in Northern India and its keepers
https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2023-4-76-87
Abstract
The article examines the musical performative practice of qawwali that is performed in the tombs of Muslim saints of the Chishti Sufi order and is characteristic of the Indian subcontinent. Attention is paid to the traditionalform of qawwali which it preserved in Northern India today, as well as to the community of qawwals – hereditary qawwali performers and the keepers of this tradition. The features of individual groups of this community are analyzed. Suggestions are made as to which features can potentially be universal for the qawwal community as a whole, and which are likely to be specific to individual regions or groups of performers.
Supporting agencies: The article is published the framework of the project RSF 22–28–00505 «Special Worlds» of India: small peoples and social groups. Ethnocultural Strategies for Preserving and Smoothing Differences». 2023.
About the Author
A. V. Kinyaeva
N.N. Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology, Russian Academy of Science
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
Anastasia V. Kinyaeva, postgraduate student
32A, Leninsky Av., Moscow, 119334
References
1. Hasnain, N. (2016), The other Lucknow: An ethnographic portrait of a city of undying memories and nostalgia, Vani Prakashan, India.
2. Kalra, V.S. (2015), Sacred and secular musics: A postcolonial approach, Bloomsbury Publishing Plc, London, UK.
3. Qureishi, R.B. (2006), Sufi music of India and Pakistan: Sound, context and meaning in qawwali, Oxford University Press, Karachi, India.
4. Suvorova, A.A. (1999), Musulmanskiye svyatiye Yuzhnoi Azii XI–XV vekov [Muslim saints of South Asia in the llth – 15th centuries], Rossiyarkaya Akademiya Nauk, Institut vostokovedeniya, Moscow, Russia.
Review
For citations:
Kinyaeva A.V. Who are the Qawwals: The tradition of Qawwali in Northern India and its keepers. Studia Religiosa Rossica: Russian Journal of Religion. 2023;(4):76-87. (In Russ.) https://doi.org/10.28995/2658-4158-2023-4-76-87
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