Daily Times

JOHI: Pir Bakhsh Chandio is a folk Sindhi singer who used to sing at weddings since childhood in Kachho region of district Dadu, Sindh, but due to the lack of training he and his fellows were unable to fulfill the requirement of modern music as demanded by new generations.

So when a group of youth from Johi came to train them, Pir Bakhsh Chandio and his fellows felt overjoyed.

“The youth group has not only trained us on musical instruments but have also trained us on those traditional instruments which were very popular in the past but now local singers forget to use them. Beside this, we also learnt on fusing traditional folk music with modern style,” Chandio said.

He said that after the training and also introduction of traditional local folk singers on mainstream media by the group, the singers are now getting more invitations from people to perform in their ceremonies, thus their income has doubled.

Kachho is a unique, ecological region of Sindh, located in Dadu district and some parts are now in Jamshoro district and it is disconnected from River Indus system and has its own culture, music and traditions.

Though art, dance and music are considered an important part of Sindhi culture, which has its roots in the centuries old Indus Valley Civilisation, for Kachho, music is the most important part of life.

There are a large number of shrines of Sufi saints in Kachho region, where people, including women, gather, sing and dance to express their devotion to the Sufi saint.

During the last few years when religious organisations of different sects started opening madrassas in different districts of northern Sindh, they started preaching against music saying that music was against the basic teaching of Islam. Due to this rising religious extremism, people start preferring not to listen to music and singing and dancing was banned in several cities and towns and even at the shrines of Sufi saints in Shikarpur, Jacobabad, Kashmore and other districts of northern Sindh. In these districts, singing and dancing is considered an immoral practice that has also affected private ceremonies.

“Music is the biggest hurdle against rising religious extremism, so we thought to form groups of local singers not just to revive traditional folk music but also mystic music,” said Mashooq Birhamani, who heads the youth group called Sujaag Sansaar Organisation (SSO).

These groups of local folk and Sufi singers were formed as part of the project Revitalising Mystic Music Groups of Dadu District through Provision of Trainings & Economic Opportunities in collaboration with National Rural Support Programme and Small Grants & Ambassador’s Fund Programme.

The objective of the project was to revive diminishing folk and Sufi music in Dadu and keep their identity alive by providing trainings and equipping them to upgrade and strengthen the mystic and folk music groups.

SSO head Mashooq Birhamani further said that since November 2017, the SSO has formed eight different groups of folk and mystic singers of the district who were not only trained but had also given musical instruments like harmonium, tabla and other instruments.

Female singers were also part of these groups. These groups have so far performed at seven different shrines of Sufi saints in Kachho region, the annual fair of Qalandar Lal Shahbaz, Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, Lok Virsa, Allama II Qazi Library Dadu and even on Gorakh Hill, which is the a picnic point of Dadu.

“These groups are formed to spread peace and harmony by promoting Sufi and folk music among new generations to build resilience against religious and cast extremism, which were frequently increasing in Sindh,” said Birhamani.

Published in Daily Times, May 4^th 2018.