Opinion | Modern Youth and Folk Music Is Sufiana Kalam of Kashmir Losing Its Charm?

Ustad Mohammad Yaqoob Sheikh has made a room in his own home where his disciples, both boys and girls, can practice as much as they want. It is a small step, but an important one, taken by a musician well aware of the fact that Kashmiri classical folk music, which once entertained kings and was at the heart of Kashmiri culture, is kept alive today by the devotion of a few old masters only.

Sufiana Mausiqi or Sufiyana Kalam or more commonly referred to as Saazandar Geawun in the olden times is the ensemble classical music form of Kashmir which according to scholars is believed to have originated somewhere in the 14th and 15th centuries, due to cross-cultural influences brought about by the Islamic influence and Sufism in the valley of Kashmir along with cultural exchanges from central Asia and Persia. The musical repertoire of Sufiana Mausiqi comprises the mode or the maqam instead of the raga as in North Indian classical music and features the recital of mystical poems in Kashmiri, Persian and Urdu written by Hafiz, Saadi, Omar Khayyam and Jalaluddin Rumi. Sufiana Mausiqi attained its zenith during the rule of Sultan Zain-ul-Abidin who is said to have held annual music festivals featuring musicians not only from Kashmir but also from as far off lands like Yarqand, Samarqand, Tashkent, Kabul, Punjab and even Delhi. Habba Khatun, Queen of Sultan Yusuf Shah Chak of the 16th century is said to have introduced the Rast-Kashmiri maqam.

In today’s time, the long line of such musical heritage is performed in only three regions of Kashmir – Srinagar, Budgam and Anantnag. While previously the Valley had multiple gharanas, or musical schools, which conveyed the interpretation of this musical heritage from one generation to another through the process of teaching, only four such gharanas have survived till date. When this musical form faced its greatest crisis according to researchers, it was found that there were only three Ustads left in the Valley who could actually be able to continue this tradition in the future – Mohammad Abdullah Setari, Mohammad Yaqoob Sheikh and Mohammad Ismail Bhat. While one musician related to the Saznawaz Sufiana Training Institute in Srinagar described the situation, he clearly pointed out that while many artistes in Kashmir had been famous in the past for this type of music, there are only five to six Sufi music bands that exist in the region currently.

The traditional performance context for Sufiana Mausiqi, a gathering called a mehfil, held either as part of a religious Sufi meeting or as a secular gathering where enthusiasts came together expressly to listen, has become genuinely rare. Most Kashmiris today encounter the music, if they encounter it at all, through radio broadcasts or occasional stage performances rather than through the immersive, communal listening sessions that once defined its cultural role. This shift from lived practice to occasional media consumption mirrors patterns seen across many traditional art forms globally, but the speed and completeness of the transition in Kashmir’s case has alarmed the musicians and scholars who study it most closely.

A combination of several factors has been blamed for the falling status of the musical tradition by many scholars that have studied the history of the music type. The economic factor is among the main ones: becoming good at Sufiana Mausiqi involves many years of practice and learning from an expert, which most families cannot afford while there are plenty of other economic opportunities to consider, including governmental positions, new technologies, and service jobs. Additionally, cultural competition from different genres has worsened the situation, as young Kashmiris are now more interested in modern music and movies produced by Bollywood as well as foreign genres. One performer has pointed out that after India gained independence, the government-owned All India Radio tried to promote Sufiana music, but there were always money shortages, preventing the process from being successful.

There have been continuous demands, going back almost a decade now, for setting up an academy for Sufiana Mausiqi education, an issue mainly linked with the personality of Shamas Fakeer, who is known in history as a major personality from the genre. According to a report, a promise was made years back by a former chief minister about setting up an academy of this kind, although, nothing much has yet happened as per the reports of the musicians themselves. As said by a nationally-awarded Sufi musician, there is an issue in the education system as well as universities provide arts and general music as courses, but no place is available for Sufiana Mausiqi in any course.

What makes this decline feel particularly urgent to those tracking it closely is the oral nature of the tradition’s transmission. Sufiana Mausiqi has always been taught by ear, passed from teacher to student through direct instruction rather than through comprehensively notated scores, meaning that when a master dies without having fully trained a successor, knowledge is lost in a way that cannot simply be reconstructed from archives or recordings alone. Many Talas, the rhythmic cycles central to the music, and Maqams have already been lost according to researchers, while the Saaz-e-Kashmir, the region’s only traditional bow instrument used in the genre, is reportedly counting its last days as skilled players and instrument makers alike grow scarcer.

Music comes as quite an encouraging sign that artists like Sheikh, who has stated that he would continue teaching no matter how small the number of his students gets, are still there. This is indicative of the fact that the existence of Sufiana Mausiqi, despite being in danger, still has some hope left, which hasn’t been left in the hands of fate.

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