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Journalism of Courage
It was nine-year-old Madurai Shanmukhavadivu Subbulakshmi crooning an ode to goddess Meenakshi in her high-pitched voice with a range of glides and a hint of nasal twang. As this piece in raag Kurenji resonated in the Indira Gandhi Centre for Arts hall on Tuesday,it was not difficult to spot those embellishments and trademark oscillatory notes that would go on to make her a household name and the face of Carnatic music in the nation. I found this recording in Moore Market in Chennai with a junk dealer, says Bangalore-based music historian and author Vikram Sampath.
This Subbulakshmi recording,and countless others now find place in Archive of Indian Music (AIM),which aims to preserve Indias cultural history and create a treasure trove of musical heritage. And Sampath is at the helm of the affairs for this project,which is being backed by the Manipal Global Education and the government of India. It was on a cold afternoon in Berlin,while visiting the Berlin Phonogramm-Archiv,that I stumbled upon a recording of Indian prisoners of the first World War talking to each other,asking for a beedi and chatting away. Sitting in Berlin,I heard voices from a bygone era,people talking in Pashto,Punjabi,Tamil and Sindhi. It was a moving experience, says Sampath,who also came across speeches by Lala Hardayal of Ghadar party and Rabindranath Tagore.
Its no secret that theres general apathy towards history and archiving in the country. All India Radio does not have any recordings from 1935-1955 because the same spools were used to re-record. Many important recordings,that included Siddeshwari Devi and Rasoolan Bai singing together,are lost forever.
We do not have an institutionalised mechanism where the voices of our ancestors are preserved and disseminated. In a country where music is ubiquitous,documentation is not considered significant, says Sampath,who also met with many bureaucratic wrangles before he finally created the repository. He began scouring for these recordings in chor bazaars and junk dealers three years ago. He also got in touch with private collectors,who have never been very keen on sharing their recordings,to help him digitise material from shellac discs. AIM,a non-profit trust,has already digitised over 25,000 recordings.
Some of the important recordings include Tagores recitation of his famous poem Proshno,Angur Bala singing at the Silver Jubilee of Mir Osman Ali,the Nizam of Hyderabad,Subhash Chandra Bose addressing Indians of East Asia from Tokyo,first-ever recording of Vande Matram,sonorous tunes of Zohra Bai Agrewali and songs by Gauhar Jaan,the first Indian to record for the Gramophone Company of India among others.
Currently,its information is available online,for free,to agencies and students. Sampath is also planning to have audio exhibitions in Bangalore,Kolkata and Delhi,with listening kiosks and guided sessions.
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