Music has the power to dispel all negativity in the darkest of places, Abhay Rustum Sopori, scion of a legendary family of santoor players, tells Arundhuti Banerjee as he discusses his efforts to keep classical and folk music alive in trouble-torn Kashmir.
In January 1990, Srinagar-born Abhay Rustum Sopori, then in his pre-teens, visited Delhi with his family for their annual winter vacation. And he never returned to the Valley.
Militancy had engulfed Kashmir and his father, santoor maestro Bhajan Sopori, was transferred to the Delhi kendra of All India Radio. “We do keep going back to Kashmir but haven't been able to live there ever since,” says the santoor player, now in his early 30s.
Abhay's family has been playing the instrument for seven generations. His grandfather, Pandit Shamboo Nath Sopori, is regarded as a doyen of the Sufiana gharana. His father, having learned the ropes from an acclaimed master, has carried the family tradition forward over the subsequent decades.
Pandit Shamboo Nath Sopori, who had thousands of disciples in the Valley and elsewhere, was instrumental in arousing a keen interest among common people in Kashmir's rich classical and folk music traditions.
Bhajan Sopori, on his part, masterminded a musical renaissance in Kashmir in the 1970s. He took the santoor to new heights. The burden of this magnificent legacy sits rather easy on Abhay Sopori's shoulders.
“My father once said that if you want to destroy a state, you do not need atomic power. All that you have to do is just dent its culture and the state will collapse automatically. I realised the value of that statement when I started visiting the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir” says Abhay.
The young musician has constantly fought to keep Kashmir's classical and folk music alive despite the many challenges that are posed by over two decades of unrest and official apathy. “I sing because I can,” he quips.
He credits his gharana for the quality of the work that he does. “People ask me whether the style of my singing is my signature. Actually it is very much a part of the Sufiana gharana that I belong to,” he explains.
The family runs the Sopori Academy for Music and Performing Arts (SaMaPa), which in recent years has been in the forefront of organising classical music soirees in the Valley against great odds.
The activities, which have continued amid militant strikes, army clampdowns and unending curfews, are a response to the lackadaisical manner in which the state government has tended to approach the task of promoting classical and folk music and its many exponents in Kashmir.
Abhay refers to an experience that he personally had with the officialdom in 2005 as the turning point. “I had been invited to a concert by the state government. The organisers told me that the response would be very good and that only 50 people would be in the audience,” he recalls. “I was dumbfounded. Just 50 people and they were saying the response was good?”
The same year at the SaMaPa Music Festival, Abhay saw for himself what exactly was amiss. He says: “I wanted to invite the then governor SK Sinha to the event. When I asked the secretary of the state academy about the possibility, he told me that the governor was not interested in attending a music festival. So I wrote to him personally. The governor confirmed that he would attend. It was obvious that some people were out to sabotage the event.”
As it transpired, the 2005 SaMaPa Music Festival was a roaring success with over 150 artistes in attendance. However, the media coverage left much to be desired. “The next day's newspapers had photographs of only the governor and me. They had nothing to say about all the other performers who made the show such a huge success,” says Abhay.
In January 1990, Srinagar-born Abhay Rustum Sopori, then in his pre-teens, visited Delhi with his family for their annual winter vacation. And he never returned to the Valley.
Militancy had engulfed Kashmir and his father, santoor maestro Bhajan Sopori, was transferred to the Delhi kendra of All India Radio. “We do keep going back to Kashmir but haven't been able to live there ever since,” says the santoor player, now in his early 30s.
Abhay's family has been playing the instrument for seven generations. His grandfather, Pandit Shamboo Nath Sopori, is regarded as a doyen of the Sufiana gharana. His father, having learned the ropes from an acclaimed master, has carried the family tradition forward over the subsequent decades.
Pandit Shamboo Nath Sopori, who had thousands of disciples in the Valley and elsewhere, was instrumental in arousing a keen interest among common people in Kashmir's rich classical and folk music traditions.
Bhajan Sopori, on his part, masterminded a musical renaissance in Kashmir in the 1970s. He took the santoor to new heights. The burden of this magnificent legacy sits rather easy on Abhay Sopori's shoulders.
“My father once said that if you want to destroy a state, you do not need atomic power. All that you have to do is just dent its culture and the state will collapse automatically. I realised the value of that statement when I started visiting the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir” says Abhay.
The young musician has constantly fought to keep Kashmir's classical and folk music alive despite the many challenges that are posed by over two decades of unrest and official apathy. “I sing because I can,” he quips.
He credits his gharana for the quality of the work that he does. “People ask me whether the style of my singing is my signature. Actually it is very much a part of the Sufiana gharana that I belong to,” he explains.
The family runs the Sopori Academy for Music and Performing Arts (SaMaPa), which in recent years has been in the forefront of organising classical music soirees in the Valley against great odds.
The activities, which have continued amid militant strikes, army clampdowns and unending curfews, are a response to the lackadaisical manner in which the state government has tended to approach the task of promoting classical and folk music and its many exponents in Kashmir.
Abhay refers to an experience that he personally had with the officialdom in 2005 as the turning point. “I had been invited to a concert by the state government. The organisers told me that the response would be very good and that only 50 people would be in the audience,” he recalls. “I was dumbfounded. Just 50 people and they were saying the response was good?”
The same year at the SaMaPa Music Festival, Abhay saw for himself what exactly was amiss. He says: “I wanted to invite the then governor SK Sinha to the event. When I asked the secretary of the state academy about the possibility, he told me that the governor was not interested in attending a music festival. So I wrote to him personally. The governor confirmed that he would attend. It was obvious that some people were out to sabotage the event.”
As it transpired, the 2005 SaMaPa Music Festival was a roaring success with over 150 artistes in attendance. However, the media coverage left much to be desired. “The next day's newspapers had photographs of only the governor and me. They had nothing to say about all the other performers who made the show such a huge success,” says Abhay.
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