Voices silenced: The existential crisis of Pakistan’s folk singers
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Pakistan has a rich folk tradition in art and music that is woven into the daily life of ordinary people, mostly living in rural communities of different ethnic and linguistic backgrounds. What binds them all together is love for this music and storytelling form. In Pakistan, and perhaps all over the world, folk music originated in the villages, small hamlets, and tribal, agricultural settlements. It is a part of country folklore embedded in the oral transmission of poetry, music and art from one generation to another. Its roots and beginnings go back to the pre-modern era and it has so far survived the modern age of new forms of music played over new instruments introduced by Europeans through colonialism.
In truth, there is a big divide in musical tastes between the older generations of rural folk and urban, modernized society. If folk music has seen continuity in Pakistan or any other country, it is because of the patronage of rural communities. It’s not that folk music is unknown among city dwellers, but the appreciation is limited. No form of music anywhere in the world can survive for too long without patronage and popularity. In Pakistan, that credit goes primarily to the folk artists who live and breathe with their music and haven’t abandoned their ancestral profession even in the most adverse economic conditions.
Unlike folk musicians of the developed world, Pakistani singers have no access to modern commercial media for recording or protection of copyrights of their original work. Consequently, they are poor, less educated and at the lower rung of a caste-ridden society. They have been struggling to financially but have kept their music alive, some surviving on donations. I was moved by the image of Wahab Bugti, one of the two singers of the popular Balochi song “Kana Yari” standing on the debris of his mud house-- washed away by recent floods-- holding a child in his arms. This is the financial condition of a folk singer whose song’s video has been viewed 18 million times on YouTube. Talking to him, I could see pain and helplessness in his voice. He is waiting for donations to restart his life. This is also the story of folk singer Mohan Bhagat from Cholistan, whom I have had the pleasure of inviting to concerts several times. Folk singers make their living by getting invitations to private parties, weddings and cultural festivals. Motivated by their devotion to the saints, they sing during festivals around shrines, as people throw change their way.
The people and government must do everything they can to secure and pass on this heritage to newer generations. Time is the most crucial variable here.
Rasul Bakhsh Rais
There are a few government-run institutions for the protection and promotion of folk heritage, including folk singing and handicrafts, but their work is confined to organizing annual events that also serve the purpose of their publicity. Financial support to them is rare. Folk singers are largely left to the care of society, which is mostly rural, agrarian and poor, and thus can barely sustain them.
The past two years have caused an existential crisis in the traditions of folk music, threatening an entire genre of music, culture and storytelling in the country as the pandemic closed down much of the social life on which folk artists so desperately depended. Now, devastated by floods, the rural economy will take time to recover enough to spend again on festivals and folk music.
There is a complex chain of craftsmen in the folk music system from producers of musical instruments to players. This is also a form of handicraft that uses indigenous materials and skills and may last or die out depending on how small or big the folk singing market is. There are visible signs that it is under tremendous stress. Leaving master folk singers in desperate economic straits may force them and their children to adopt other professions. Surviving on the margins, one wonders how long the folk tradition will survive-- a tradition that depends on fathers and mothers passing on the art to their sons and daughters without any regular academies and schools.
There is another aspect of folk singing that is not often noticed or widely acknowledged: the mystic, philosophic and humanistic message of the lyrics. Peace, communal harmony, love, sacrifice, respect, bravery and wisdom along with transcendentalism form the major themes of all folk music in Pakistan. Always dressed in traditional attire, folk singers and musicians represent the deep multicultural and historical past of our society. The people and government must do everything they can to secure and pass on this heritage to newer generations. Time is the most crucial variable here.
— Rasul Bakhsh Rais is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, LUMS, Lahore. His latest book is “Islam, Ethnicity and Power Politics: Constructing Pakistan’s National Identity” (Oxford University Press, 2017).
Twitter: @RasulRais
