Indian music industry hijacked by western genres: Singer Dhruv Sangari

Hindustani classical singer Dhruv Sangari says due to the growing interest of Indian youth in western culture, the Indian music industry has been forced to get inspired more from western genres, which he feels have "hijacked" the country's indigenous musical forms.

"In India, western music has taken over everything -- right from Bollywood to stage shows or private albums and even the way people are learning and imbibed in music," Sangari told IANS.

"So what has happened is that the whole space has been hijacked by western format -- as if there is no other way to play music without guitars, drums and bass," he added.

Sangari along with other musicians will perform in the capital on Friday as part of Jashn-e-Mohabbat -- an initiative by NGO Routes2Roots in association with Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).

"This show is being organised for a diverse audience and the message we are giving is love and peace through EDM and Sufi poetry. We will be performing a mix of Sufi music and Qawwali," he said.

"Through this show we are trying to get people back to more authentic and oral way of listening where it is not just about loud noise, but also about the melody, word and the poetry," added the singer, who began training in Hindustani classical music at the age of 7.

Sangari, who has been performing professionally since 2001 with his troupe Rooh, feels the urge to catch up on everything "English" is taking people away from their roots.

"With today's generation, the biggest challenge they have is language. In India, of course most of the people speak terrible English, but they want to learn it and teach their children. They think it's the only language which can save them, and I think the reason is primarily commercial and financial," Sangari said.

"Gradually most of the education systems in India have very little space for the heritage of India. Most of the things that are mentioned are about the west. The other thing is that the native languages of India like Bengali, Tamil, Punjabi or Urdu have become very diluted over the decades.

"The level of language with which people speak has fallen drastically. That's why you get cut off from your culture also," he added.

Sangari blames it on "politicisation of culture".

"We have an ancient culture in India and that is getting lost. There should be an in-depth approach which should be used to look at Indian history so that our children can understand it in a better way," he said, adding that more museums and less of theme parks, will go a long way in sustaining people's cultural interests.

"People don't have enough to enrich their lives anymore. Most of it is coming from TV. So we need to start the discourse of culture here. For that, we need less theme parks or malls and more music theatres, museums or art," he added.

(Sandeep Sharma can be contacted at sandeep.s@ians.in)

--IANS

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