Strains of friendship: post-partition rāgadārī music publics in London

Kapuria, Radha

Abstract

How is cross-cultural communication around music in the British Asian diaspora shaped by the Partition of 1947? This article will discuss this question through a case study of the writings and relationships of four key South Asian music enthusiasts: one female patron of music, and three male scholar-researchers of music who befriended each other, and in the process redefined rāgadārī (classical) music publics in Britain, beginning in the 1970s and 80s. Through a discussion of their life-stories and narratives I reveal the importance of (i) storytelling and memory in the creation of diasporic homemaking, (ii) a gendered politics of musical commemoration, (iii) the anecdote as ‘musical gift’ (qua Sykes), and (iv) postcolonial cultural custodianship, in producing a unique rāgadārī musical public in London, across the Indo-Pak national border.

Citation

Kapuria, R. (2024). Strains of friendship: post-partition rāgadārī music publics in London. South Asian Diaspora, 16(2), 187-210. https://doi.org/10.1080/19438192.2023.2258647

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Sep 9, 2023
• Online Publication Date: Oct 4, 2023
• Publication Date: 2024
• Deposit Date: Nov 1, 2023
• Publicly Available Date: Nov 1, 2023
• Journal: South Asian Diaspora
• Print ISSN: 1943-8192
• Electronic ISSN: 1943-8184
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis Group
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 16
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 187-210
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/19438192.2023.2258647
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1874102