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Sikh Formations
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SIKH MUSIC AND EMPIRE: THE MORAL

REPRESENTATION OF SELF IN MUSIC
a
Bob Van Der Linden
a
Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, University of
Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX, Amsterdam, The
Netherlands E-mail: vanderlinden.bob@gmail.com

Available online: 20 May 2008

To cite this article: Bob Van Der Linden (2008): SIKH MUSIC AND EMPIRE: THE MORAL
REPRESENTATION OF SELF IN MUSIC, Sikh Formations, 4:1, 1-15

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 Sikh Formations, Vol. 4, No. 1, June 2008, pp. 1–15

Bob van der Linden

SIKH MUSIC AND EMPIRE: THE MORAL

REPRESENTATION OF SELF IN MUSIC

For the first time in Sikh historiography, this article deals with the definition, institutio-
nalization, canonization and commodification of modern Sikh music (kirtan) since the
so-called Singh Sabha reformation. On the whole, it takes Sikh music as a suitable lens
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through which to examine societal and intellectual change, assuming that it is closely
embedded in society and formative to its construction, negotiation and transformation in
terms of (moral) consensus and conflict. Specifically, it discusses the influence of Western
Orientalism (Max Arthur Macauliffe) and musicology, staff notation, Princely patronage
(Maharaja Bhupinder Singh of Patiala), Christian missionaries and the introduction of
new instruments (the harmonium, brass bands) to the making of modern Sikh music. More-
over, it investigates its relationship with what I have elsewhere labelled the Singh Sabha
‘moral language’ in terms of identity politics, for example in connection to popular culture
(Punjabi bhangra), the notion of ‘authenticity’ and the British civilizing mission.

Introduction: Sikh music in historiography

Some of my most memorable experiences in Indian and Pakistani Punjab directly

relate to music. In Lahore, the Muslim Sufi devotional music (qawwali) sung at the
shrine of the city’s patron saint, Datta Ganj Baksh, and the girls singing and
dancing mujra to the tabla (Indian drums) and harmonium in the red-light district
(Hira Mandi) remain unforgettable memories.1 I was, however, less charmed after
being woken up one early morning by a Sikh brass band practising loudly and chao-
tically outside my Amritsar hotel for a wedding later that day. Instead, I rather
remember the moment when I entered the Punjab from the Himalayan foothills
and the Sikh bus driver put on a cassette with the hymns of the Sikh scripture,
the Granth Sahib. My subsequent listening to the devotional songs and accompanying
music with the sun slowly going down was a profound experience for me. Further,
like most foreigners probably, I was touched by the tranquil music sung and played at
Amritsar’s holiest Sikh shrine, the Golden Temple.
Music lies at the heart of the Sikh tradition and singing or listening to the hymns
of the Granth Sahib (i.e. kirtan) for devout Sikhs is a spiritual act. The scripture, in
fact, is the world’s largest original collection of sacred hymns. Being written by six
of the ten Sikh Gurus (preceptors) and other composers, including Hindus and

ISSN 1744-8727 (print)/ISSN 1744-8735 (online)/08/010001-15

# 2008 Taylor & Francis
DOI: 10.1080/17448720802075389
 2 SIKH FORMATIONS

Muslims, its hymns developed and were orally transmitted over a period from the
fifteenth to the sixteenth century. The founder of the Sikh tradition, Guru Nanak
(1469 – 1539), chose Mardana, a Muslim and player of the rabab (a string instrument
which originated in Afghanistan), as a travelling companion on his missionary jour-
neys.2 All Sikh Gurus sang both in contemporary north Indian classical and folk music
styles. They maintained that performing or listening to the praises of God was the
most effective path towards spiritual fulfilment. They also specified the ragas
(musical modes) in which they sang each hymn and, over time, the Granth Sahib
was organized into thirty-one subsections, each of which attributed to a particular
raga, of which several are distinctively Sikh.
With music being such an important component of the Sikh tradition,3 it is surpris-
ing that the study of this most mysterious form of human consciousness has been largely
neglected in the modern historiography on the Sikhs. For example, in the best book on
the so-called Singh Sabha reformation (c.1875–1925), Harjot Oberoi does not pay any
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attention to the changes in Sikh music practice during this period when modern
Sikhism was defined (Oberoi 1994). Both Pashaura Singh and Gurinder Singh Mann
discuss the modern organization of the Sikh hymns and their underlying ragas in
their studies but do so explicitly from the perspective of the canonization of the
Granth Sahib as a scripture rather than in a contextual historical manner in terms of
the imperial encounter (Singh 2000; Mann 2001). Of the two books related to Sikh
music, Gobind Singh Mansukhani’s study of kirtan fails from the viewpoint of the dis-
cipline of history (Mansukhani 1982) and Michael Nijhawan’s work solely focuses on
the relationship between the popular dhadi music tradition and Sikhism (Nijhawan
2006). Further, Ballantyne’s discussion about the recent success of bhangra as a form
of world music and dance, to which I will come back later, above all concerns the
projection of a diasporic Punjabi or even South Asian identity (Ballantyne 2007).
In 1999, Sikhs throughout the world extensively celebrated the tercentenary of the
Khalsa or the institution of initiated Sikhs established by the tenth Guru Gobind Singh
on Baisakhi (a harvest festival) in 1699. Afterwards, during the same festival, almost a
million Sikhs visited the place where the Khalsa was founded: Anandpur. Most Sikhs,
however, as emphasized by Tony Ballantyne, did not realize that for half of these three
hundred years the Khalsa had developed in close mutual contact with British imperi-
alism. Accordingly, in Between Colonialism and Diaspora: Sikh Cultural Formations in an
Imperial World (2007), Ballantyne explores the interconnectedness between Sikhism
and the world of empire over the last two centuries. In this article, I want to empha-
size, in congruence with Ballantyne’s argument, that the Sikh music played at the
worldwide celebrations of 1999 was equally formed during the imperial encounter.4
Specifically, I will locate the making of modern Sikh kirtan in connection to the
Singh Sabha reformation. The first Singh Sabha was established by elite Sikhs in
Amritsar and was soon followed by similar associations (sabhas) throughout the
Punjab. These together set up the Chief Khalsa Diwan in 1902. This council
became the main voice for the Singh Sabhaites, who were heavily influenced by
print culture and defined modern Sikhism in response to a fast changing colonial
culture and other self-assertive Christian, Hindu and Muslim communities in an emer-
ging public sphere. Though previously neglected in historiography, music was certainly
part of the Singh Sabha redefinition of the Sikh self. Taking as a starting point that music
is closely embedded in society and formative to its construction, negotiation and
 SIKH MUSIC AND EMPIRE 3

transformation in terms of (moral) consensus and conflict, I approach Sikh kirtan as a

suitable lens through which to examine societal and intellectual change. Many of the
issues recently discussed by Janaki Bakhle, Lakshmi Subramanian, and Amanda
J. Weidman about the relationship between music and colonialism in the light of pro-
cesses of Indian identity formation and nationalism (i.e. the notation of music in
western staff notation, music education in modern institutions, princely patronage,
canonization of repertoire, instruments and musical practices, etc.) undeniably also
relate to modern Sikh music (Bakhle 2005; Subramanian 2006; Weidman 2006).
Though I adhere to the idea that colonialism provided a rupture in the continuity of
the history of the subcontinent, I will particularly emphasize that reformist Sikhs
appropriated western (orientalist and moral) ideas about music, instruments (like
the harmonium) and print culture in view of their own cultural tradition.
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Musicology, orientalism and Sikh identity

To a great extent the modernization of Sikh music happened under the influence of
western orientalism and musicology. Since Sir William Jones’s On the Musical Modes
of Hindoos (1789), debates between Indian and western musicologists mostly concerned
problems about notation and intonation to represent Indian music for documentation
and analysis. Primarily, these were orientalist debates centred on Hindu music and
Sanskrit texts (while at least in north India the majority of musicians were Muslim)
rather than current musical practice. Musicologists in the subcontinent ‘saw it as
their duty not only to describe and analyse Indian music, but also to save it from a per-
ceived decline’ (Farrell 1997, 51). This was ‘either because it had lapsed into degener-
acy or because it failed to become adequately modern’ (Bakhle 2005, 7). Their writings
were about how Indian music ‘had been in the past and how it should be in the future,
rather than how it existed in the present’ (Farrell 1997, 53). Indian musicologists were
elitist, urban and western-educated public men with reformist ambitions. In accordance
with the Victorian idea of a woman being the ‘angel of the house’ that became dominant
simultaneously in Britain and India (Veer 2001; Jakobsh 2003), they too argued that
women were to be musically educated but should solely play at home. Otherwise,
their activities directly confronted the interests of the musicians of the traditional
semi-professional guilds (gharanas),5 whom they attacked not only for ‘their so-called
unsystematic pedagogy, but also for holding hostage, through their secrecy, music’s
national future’ (Bakhle 2005, 7–8). The gharana musicians nonetheless coped with
the modernizing attacks and ever since, the uniqueness of Hindustani music ‘lies in
the fact that with very few exceptions, and unlike other fields such as painting and
art, the leading performers of Indian classical music are not trained in modern
schools of music’ but in the refashioned gharanas (Bakhle 2005, 253).
In Two Men and Music (2005), Janaki Bakhle discusses the lives and works of two
divergent Indian musicological modernizers, Vishnu Narayan Bhatkande (1860 –
1936) and Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872 – 1931), who respectively promulgated
a secular and Hindu national music. Paluskar was critical to the Punjabi music
scene because of the music school he set up in 1901: the Gandarva Mahavidyalaya
in Lahore. It was the first institution funded by public money rather than royal
patronage and partly supported by members of Hindu socio-reform movements
 4 SIKH FORMATIONS

like the Arya Samaj and the Sanathan Dharm Sabha. It was Paluskar’s goal to make
north Indian classical music available to the developing Hindu middle class. He
not only developed teaching methods suited to group instruction but trained and
financially supported his own missionary teachers as well. Subsequently, many
branches of this institution were established throughout north India which still
exist today. Besides, through the Lahore Gandarva Mahavidyala, Paluskar overall
influenced Punjabi musical life by bringing music into the public sphere. So, for
example, in place of the customary gifts and hospitality, he charged people for
tuition or attending his performances. He also appeared on the stage at key events
and published a music monthly and pamphlets on instruments, including the harmo-
nium. By doing so, he set an example for Sikh and other Punjabi musicians.
So how do these budding modernizing developments in Indian music specifically
relate to the making of modern Sikh kirtan? During the Singh Sabha reformation, the
definition of Sikh identity (‘we are not Hindus!’) became a decisive issue in growing
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competition with Hindu, Muslim and Christian communities for social representation
and government jobs. Recently, I argued from a comparative perspective with the
Hindu Arya Samaj and Muslim Ahmadiyah socio-reform movements that this led to
the definition of a Singh Sabha moral language which had points of recognition with
the British civilizing mission (Linden 2008). To the Singh Sabhaites, Sikhism was a tra-
dition that had to be rationally defined for the community to be morally strong and
heading for the future. One critical result of their effort was the standardization of
the Granth Sahib as they authorized the so-called Damdama version in terms of page
length, numbering and the use of Gurmukhi (the Punjabi script), whatever the language
the original hymn was composed in. By doing so, importantly, they set aside all other
versions of the scripture that were in use earlier (Singh 2000, 232). In addition, Sikh
manuals of ritual, historical works, novels, etc. were written, printed and widely
circulated to strengthen the supposedly ‘pure’ Sikh identity.
At the very core of this process was the dialogue with western orientalist works,
especially those by Ernest Trumpp (1828 –1885) and Max Arthur Macauliffe (1841 –
1913). In 1869, the staunchly Protestant Trumpp was appointed by the British gov-
ernment to translate the Granth Sahib from Gurmukhi into English. In 1877, he com-
pleted a translation of one third of the book. In The Adi Granth or the Holy Scripture of
the Sikhs, he is overall derogative about Sikhism and, to the disappointment of many
Sikhs, stresses its Hindu character. More significantly, in the light of contemporary
Indian musicology, he explicitly is negative about the scripture’s division into
specific ragas and, after providing a list of them, states:

The verses of the different Gurus have been distributed into these fore-men-
tioned Rags, apparently without any leading principle, as hardly any verse is
internally connected with another. The name of the Rag is, therefore, a mere
superscription, without any reference to its contents . . . No system or order
is, therefore, to be looked for in any of the Rags. In the first four Rags the
most important matter was collected, and they are, therefore, also compara-
tively of the largest compass; the following minor Rags seem to be a second gath-
ering or gleaning, as materials offered themselves, no attention being paid to the
contents, but only to the bulky size of the Granth. By thus jumbling together
whatever came to hand, without any judicious selection, the Granth has
 SIKH MUSIC AND EMPIRE 5

become an exceedingly incoherent and wearisome book.

(Trumpp 1877, cxx)

In 1886, the London-based orientalist Frederic Pincott6 responded to Trumpp in an

article in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society wherein, on the contrary, he argues
that the hymns of the Granth Sahib are rationally structured:

firstly, on the tunes to which the poems were sung; secondly, on the nature and
metre of the poems themselves; thirdly, on their authorship; and, fourthly, on
the clef or key deemed appropriate to them.
(Pincott 1886, 210)

Leading Singh Sabhaites must have known about Pincott’s article because he lobbied
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for them in London and was directly involved in the founding of the Sikh Khalsa
College in Amritsar.7 It does not matter if Pincott’s view of the structure in the
Granth Sahib was right or not. The point is that it shows the interconnectedness
between orientalist and musicological discussions in the dominant nineteenth-
century search for scientific structure – on the one hand, for the British to under-
stand and control the subcontinent and, on the other, for Indians to redefine
themselves in response to a fast changing colonial society and western science and
Christian morality in particular (Linden 2008). Because the Granth Sahib is a collec-
tion of hymns, the close connection between orientalism and musicology was
especially clear in the Sikh case. Consequently, the underlying rational organization
of the holy book became critical issue for reformist Sikhs. In 1902, for example,
Charan Singh prepared the first detailed Sikh study on this theme: Sri Guru Granth
Bani Biaura (Details of the Contents of the Granth Sahib).
While Trumpp developed a tense relationship with the Sikh community, Max
Arthur Macauliffe worked on a translation of the Granth Sahib from 1893 to 1909
with the help of Singh Sabha scholars (like Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha) and financial
assistance from the Sikh rulers of the princely states of Nabha and Patiala. His The
Sikh Religion (1909) was completed to the satisfaction of the Sikh community.
Again, western orientalism and musicology were brought together in this work.
Similar to fellow musicologists writing about other Indian music traditions,
Macauliffe believed that the thirty-one ragas of the Granth Sahib ‘were merging
into oblivion’ (Macauliffe 1909, vol. 1, xxvi). Hence, with the assistance of the mas-
tersinger of Sikh devotional music, Mahant Gajja Singh (1850 –1914), he had them
notated in western staff notation and included in the fifth volume of his work. What is
more, eight ragas were embedded within current musicological knowledge with the
inclusion of alternative versions by the prominent Bengali musicologist, Raja Sir
Sourindro Mohun Tagore (1840 –1914), whose numerous English publications are
widely referred to in the West since the late nineteenth century.8 In the footsteps
of Macauliffe’s orientalist tome, musicological contributions from within the Sikh
community tagged along. A figurehead was the Sikh poet and musicologist Prem
Singh, who first worked at the Patiala princely court (see below) and was later
appointed chief ragi at the Golden Temple. In 1922 he published his Gurmat Ratan
Sangeet Bhandar, which includes, among other compositions, in western staff notation
 6 SIKH FORMATIONS

one typical sabad in each of the thirty-one ragas of the Granth Sahib and, at the end of
the book, a glossary of music and ragas (Paintal 1978, 272 –3).
Over the centuries, the ragas contained in the Granth Sahib were passed on
orally. Moreover, they were sung in variable tone pitch, performed in the light of
changing musical styles and accompanied by different instruments. The simply
notated scales of the ragas by Sikhs, therefore, reflected the contemporary intellec-
tual climate of assertively defining the Sikh self rather than the reality of the largely
improvised raga melodies. Under the guidance of the Singh Sabhaites, the Sikh musi-
cologists appropriated the western orientalist and musicological representations of
their tradition and music in order to strengthen their identity. Ironically, the idea
that Sikhs were not Hindus was never mentioned in the discussions about the
Hindu ragas of the Granth Sahib and so Sikhism became a guardian of an important
part of the Hindu musical heritage.
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Sikh music and princely patronage

As in the case of Macauliffe’s project, the traditional patrons of north Indian classical
music, the Punjabi princes, were most critical to the definition of Sikhism.9 Bikram
Singh, the ruler of Faridkot, for instance, was the leading patron behind the Amritsar
Singh Sabha. A learned man himself, his court was a meeting place for intellectuals
and he contributed large sums of money to educational projects. In 1877, he com-
missioned a commentary in Gurmukhi on the Granth Sahib in response to Ernest
Trumpp’s translation. Known as the Faridkot Tika, it was, however, only completed
during the time of his successors and never became an authoritative exegesis (Oberoi
1994, 241, 246 – 7). Likewise, other Sikh princes such as Hira Singh of Nabha and
Rajindar Singh of Patiala were involved in Singh Sabha activities, especially in the
establishment of a Sikh press. All Sikh princes donated to Amritsar’s Khalsa
College and some sponsored writings on Sikh history and tradition. Indian princes
had always been patrons of the arts. Yet, under colonial rule, after being deprived
of their former power and unable to expend their energies or resources in
warfare, it seems they turned more and more to the arts for solace. But perhaps
this was partly also because the British government played no part in the preser-
vation, promotion or development of Indian music.
Most important to the making of modern Sikh kirtan was the Sikh ruler of the
richest and largest of the Punjab princely states: Maharaja Bhupinder Singh (1891–
1938) of Patiala. Since the beginning of the nineteenth century, Patiala had developed
a stable relationship with the British. Regardless of the princes’ pro-Sikh reputation, it
was only after 1890 when Maharaja Rajinder Singh gained full ruling power that Patiala
became increasingly involved in Sikh affairs and the Singh Sabha movement in particular
(Ramusack 1978, 179). By 1910, then, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh came into view as
ultimate leader of the Sikhs and created a role for himself as:

a symbol of past Sikh power, an arbitrator on doctrine and ritual, a patron of

Sikh religion, educational and cultural institutions and activities, a dispenser
of political resources, and a conduit to the British Raj.
(Ramusack 1978, 180)
 SIKH MUSIC AND EMPIRE 7

In 1917, the role of Bhupinder Singh as Sikh leader and patron became clear when a
controversy arose as to whether the Rag Mala was to be separated from the Granth
Sahib and the Maharaja self-confidently stepped forward in the debate by backing
up the Chief Khalsa Diwan in its claim against its removal (Ramusack 1978,
182).10 Over the years, Bhupinder Singh earned the right to nominate two
members to the Khalsa College Council; recruited soldiers during the First World
War; presided over the Sikh Educational Conference held in Patiala in 1924;
funded the publication of Sikh historical writings (of the leading Singh Sabhaite,
Gyani Gian Singh, for example); was present at Sikh festivals, where he financed
langars (free meals); and for a variety of political reasons in 1923 joined the
community in the task of kar seva by cleaning the tank surrounding the Golden
Temple (Natwar-Singh 2005, 135 –6, 140). Additionally, he functioned as an
intermediary between the British and the radical Akali Sikhs of the Shiromani
Gurdwara Prabhandhak Committee (SGPC), who, after a political struggle in
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1925, achieved legal recognition and control of gurudwaras in the Punjab (Ramusack
1978, 184 – 5).
Significantly, Patiala became the musical capital of the Punjab after the 1857
revolt, when one of the greatest khyal singers, Tanras Khan, fled the Delhi court
of the last Mughal emperor Bahadur Shah, sought refuge in Patiala and established
the Patiala khyal gharana.11 Later, Maharaja Bhupinder Singh ‘opened a new depart-
ment of music and dance and had artists accompany him wherever he went’ (Wade
1984, 228 –9). Moreover, he became a patron of Sikh music as musicians at the
Golden Temple earlier worked or studied at the Patiala court (Paintal 1978, 265,
272). Also the earlier mentioned Mahant Gajja Singh enjoyed the patronage of
Bhupinder Singh, who himself actually was his apprentice for a while learning
classical music. In fact, he represented the Patiala gharana at the Delhi darbar of
1911 and afterwards was rewarded a free railway pass for life to travel anywhere
in India for the propagation of his art. Encouraged by the Maharaja, Gajja Singh
took up the project of recording the ragas of the Granth Sahib, but unfortunately
he died before it was finished.12 On the whole, the musical links between
Patiala and Sikh music mirror the changes in Punjabi society in terms of the
spread of musicological knowledge and musical repertoire, the growing mobility
of musicians and the institutionalization of music. The fact that khyal was practised
at the Patiala court, for instance, most likely worked as a catalyst to its growing
dominance over the so-called dhrupad style in orthodox Sikh music. In addition to
princely patronage, the canonization of Sikh musical practice advanced because
musicians became more professional as they were taught or became teachers at
such institutions as the Central Khalsa Yateemkhana in Amritsar or the Khalsa
Pracharak Vidyalaya in Taran Taran (Paintal 1978, 268, 274 – 5, 280). Overall,
Sikh musicians developed into public figures, independent of princely patrons, and
Sikh sacred music became a commodity. Between 1910 and 1930, for example,
Bhai Moti, the chief ragi of the Golden Temple, charged the highest fee for a
public kirtan (Paintal 1978, 268). Thus, among the Sikh orthodoxy a consensus
about ‘authentic’ kirtan music became apparent. By the same token, as music
was incorporated within distinctive high cultural Singh Sabha community bound-
aries, the Sikh moral self was represented in music in opposition to popular
Punjabi music.
 8 SIKH FORMATIONS

Sikh musical appropriation and morality

Over the centuries, different drums (like the dhadd, dholak and pakhavaj) and stringed
instruments (like the rabab, sarangi, sarinda, sitar and tambura) were used to accom-
pany Sikh kirtan, but since the late nineteenth century these were replaced by the
tabla and harmonium. Though a specific style of playing the tabla was developed
in the Punjab, for a discussion about the relationship between Sikh music and
empire, the introduction of the western-tuned harmonium is more important.
The harmonium was widely disseminated by the British (especially the missionaries)
and became a crucial accompanying instrument in all north Indian traditions, includ-
ing the native Christian one. This was partly because the harmonium was portable,
not easily damaged in transport and, unlike the piano, held its tune regardless of heat
and humidity. The use of the harmonium in Indian music was criticized for example
by Rabindrinath Tagore and by western ethnomusicologists (then called ‘comparative
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musicologists’) like A.H. Fox Strangways and Arnold Bake. All argued that as a fixed-
pitch instrument, it did not conform to the traditional flexible intonation in Indian
music (i.e. glissandos, etc.). For this very same reason, the harmonium too was
banned on All India Radio (the largest single employer of musicians in South Asia)
since the late 1930s until the early seventies. In contrast, the western violin was
accepted without any discussion in south Indian music. This was not only because
it could mimic the voice, being the basis of all Indian music (Weidman 2006), but
also because the emerging Indian middle class (like the European one) took the
violin as a serious western classical instrument and gave it more status than the har-
monium. Whatever the pros and cons, though long forgotten in the West, the har-
monium today is fully indigenized in India and has developed in unique ways – for
example, through the additions of drone stops and a scale changing mechanism.
Moreover, since the late nineteenth century, the harmonium found its way into
the gurudwaras despite early resistance from the ragis of the Golden Temple, who
were used to playing stringed instruments and probably did not look forward to
having to learn new techniques on a foreign instrument. Since then it has became
the prime accompanying instrument to the performance of Sikh kirtan, though up
to the present there always have been Sikhs who prefer the use of the ‘authentic’
sarangi.
While it is well known that Christian missionaries were decisive to the develop-
ment of modern Punjabi identities, in particular through their institutions and moral
stand towards Indian society (Linden 2008), I want to emphasize that they also were
greatly responsible for bringing Punjabis into contact with western tonality. Used to
congregational singing in unison (i.e. all singing the same notes), Punjabis were con-
fronted with equal-tempered harmony because the singing of Christian hymns came
together with the introduction of the piano, organ and, especially, harmonium.
Being a profitable way to reach Punjabis (especially the illiterate and low caste),
hymnody was most significant to the emergence of an indigenous Christianity in
the region (Cox 2002). Aside in Christian churches and schools, the singing of
hymns took place outside, while on tour or, for example, at the Sialkot conventions
that were regularly held during the first decade of the twentieth century. Here,
meetings took place in a prayer hall open all day and night with people singing
 SIKH MUSIC AND EMPIRE 9

‘metrical psalms, recently translated and set to Punjabi tunes’ (Webster 2003, 361).
Indeed, similar to what they did with the Bible, the missionaries translated hymn
books into Indian vernaculars (including Punjabi). These were instantly successful
when set to popular tunes because the hymns fell into the genres of Hindu bhajans
(devotional songs) and Muslim ghazals (romantic love poetry) and generally fitted
into the greater Indian tradition with their message that mostly concerned simple
praise for Jesus as another God.13 Influential to the spread of Christian hymnody
was the Salvation Army, which was active in Amritsar and Lahore almost directly
after it began its activities in India in 1882. It was particularly successful in the coun-
tryside, where Salvationists often created a spectacle not only because they per-
formed the Army’s own hymns and music but sometimes also used fireworks and
were among the first to use cinema (for example, on the life of Jesus and Salvation
Army drill). All in all, Christian missionaries much influenced the organization of
Punjabi musical life. Like them, Arya Samajis would walk on the streets while
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singing their bhajans and playing music. Indeed, to what extent did Christian congre-
gational singing and use of the harmonium influence Punjabi musical practice,
especially the performance of bhajans, by the proselytizing Arya Samajis or Sikh
kirtan? Whatever the answer, with the printing and public performance of their
hymns, the missionaries definitely set an example.
In addition to keyboard instruments, Europeans introduced wind instruments
like the clarinet, saxophone, trumpet and bagpipe into the Punjabi musical scene,
mainly because these instruments were used in military brass bands.14 Overall, the
Sikhs were influential in the history of brass bands in north India. In the 1830s,
the Sikh ruler, Maharaja Ranjit Singh (1780 –1839), already had a brass band
which, like his army, was trained by Europeans. Like most other princely states,
the princes of Patiala later also sponsored a brass band that replaced the traditional
orchestra and led to changes in musical repertoire and practices. Similar to other
reformist activities undertaken by the Indian princes (the building of schools, hospi-
tals, etc.), the introduction of western musical instruments and techniques were part
of the princes’ adaptation to the British civilizing mission. Most of all, however,
western wind instruments became familiar among the Sikhs because of their domi-
nant position in the British Indian army. The Punjab became the most important
British recruitment ground. This not only because of its strategic location at the
Afghan border but moreover because the British depicted the Sikhs (against whom
they had fought three wars and who proved loyal during the 1857 revolt) as a
‘martial race’. Hence, they recruited them heavily and, importantly, patronized
the Singh Sabha Sikh identity in the army.
Indian music rarely appealed to the Europeans who encountered it and was gen-
erally described as monotonous, as simply dull or as rhythmically chaotic. For them,
brass bands and Christian hymnody therefore not only authenticated colonial
authority but were also part of their civilizing mission. Aural and physical discipline
was the goal to be reached by playing music under British command. Sikh military
bandsmen were required to play new instruments and in a different tonal
system, and acquire knowledge of western staff notation, and often also had to
march, with or without uniform, while playing. Even so, unlike against the harmo-
nium, there was no Sikh protest against the use of wind instruments. On the
contrary, they willingly appropriated them. In Brass Baja: Stories from the World of
 10 SIKH FORMATIONS

Indian Wedding Bands (2005), Gregory D. Booth describes the transformation of colo-
nial military brass bands into processional bands in the South Asian public sphere. As
a result, India today has brass bands that play at Sikh processions, weddings and
special events such as the commemoration of Guru Teg Bahadur’s martyrdom in
Delhi (Booth 2005, 259). In the holy city of Amritsar only Sikh-owned bands,
kirtan groups and bands of local Sikh schools are allowed to take part, but this is
different in other parts of the subcontinent (Booth 2005, 163). In the Punjab and
Delhi, brass bands are only allowed to play kirtan music during Sikh processions,
but in areas where the Sikhs are not so dominantly present, film songs or a military
style salute like ‘The Punjab March’ are played as well (Booth 2005, 265). The point
is that brass bands maintaining a repertoire of kirtan music and performing at Sikh
rituals and festivals remain a popular cultural example of historical continuity in
terms of the canonization and commodification of Sikh music.
On the whole, music always has been a central feature of Punjabi popular culture
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epitomized by love ballads or qissas (Hir and Ranjha, Sassi and Punnu, Sohni and
Mahival), Muslim Sufi qawwali and the celebratory folk songs demarcating the
rhythms of the land’s harvests and people’s life cycles.15 As Christian missionary
influence advanced by the use of such traditional literary forms as bhajans and
ghazals, Arya Samajis and Singh Sabhaites also made use of the Punjabi qissas to
spread their reformist message in the countryside (Malhotra 2002, 71– 81). Simi-
larly, Singh Sabha reformers used Punjabi dhadi bards to circulate their ideas, par-
ticularly in relation to Sikh martyrdom, because of the firmly established positions
of these performers in rural Punjab – for example, at Sufi shrines (Nijhawan
2006). Most Singh Sabhaites were high caste Khatris and Aroras, who propagated
an exclusive and homogeneous Sikhism. They found many aspects of Punjabi
popular culture morally repulsive. Hence, they opposed the female folk singing
and dancing called giddha (Ballantyne 2007, 155) and censored the sexual content
that originally was part of Punjabi qissas, bhajans and ghazals. Generally also they
spoke derogatorily about low-caste hereditary musicians and dancers (mirasis).
Altogether, this moral agenda remains a point of recognition between the Singh
Sabha moral language and the British civilizing mission (Linden 2008).
Actually, during the last decades, the relationship between Punjabi popular
culture and orthodox Sikh morality again came to the forefront with the appearance
of Punjabi bhangra as a successful form of world music and dance. By the late nine-
teenth century, bhangra emerged as a rural Punjabi dance with songs and drum
accompaniment and it is particularly associated with the Baisakhi festival. Though
not an official Sikh tradition (but nonetheless criticized by Singh Sabhaites), it
played a crucial role in the development of Sikh, Punjabi and South Asian identities
in India and the diaspora (Ballantyne 2007; Taylor 2007). In India, the Punjab state
propagated bhangra as a cultural attraction for tourists and nowadays competitions
are held in the province. Overseas and to a lesser extent in the Punjab itself,
however, bhangra blended with western music much to the joy of the youth but
to the consternation of many of their elders, this particularly because bhangra under-
mined Punjabi ‘masculine’ culture when Sikh men and women began to dance
together in nightclubs in India and elsewhere. Otherwise important to the relation-
ship between Sikhism and empire remain the identity politics of so-called black
bhangra. This musical form turned up after urban Punjabis and South Asians in
 SIKH MUSIC AND EMPIRE 11

general engaged with Afro-Caribbean musical traditions (reggae, hip hop, etc.).
After its connection to a global commercial music market of alternative youth
culture, ‘black bhangra’ became firmly part of racial politics on both sides of the
Atlantic and a minor case of Sikh nationalism (Ballantyne 2007; Taylor 2007).
Thus, in the context of the imperial encounter, ‘black bhangra’ became a represen-
tation of a ‘raw’ indigenous dance appropriated by a diasporic South Asian (rather
than Sikh or Punjabi) community for an anti-imperial cause. As transnational
world music at large, however, bhangra seems much part of the commodification
of ‘exotic’ non-western music for the world music industry (Farrell 1997).
Today, Sikh kirtan is officially recognized as a traditional music form by
the National Academy of Music, Dance and Drama or Sangeet Natak Academy
(Mansukhani 1982, 3) and has been incorporated into the national music canon of
India.16 Also the Shiromani Gurudwara Prabhandhak Committee (SGCP) employs
ragis to perform ‘authentic’ kirtan at the Golden Temple, historic gurudwaras in
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South Asia and overseas.17 In the Punjab, then, there exist kirtan contests to maintain
and raise the quality of its performance, whereby the winners are recorded and
broadcasted or presented for sale (Mansukhani 1982, 79– 80). From a historical
long-term perspective, the canonization, commodification and professionalization
of Sikh kirtan is the result of the Singh Sabha effort. Yet this does not mean that ortho-
dox Sikh music did not experience change. On the contrary, raga melodies, for
instance, were not only simplified but, to secure public accessibility and to facilitate
group singing, also based on popular Punjabi traditional melodies and, though
unapproved by the SGCP orthodoxy, film songs (Sadie 2001, vol. 12, 235). At
present there is more variety in kirtan performance than ever before, with the
Sikh hymns being sung in a semi-classical style, played by brass bands, accompanied
by Anglo-American Sikh string arrangements, and so on. Still, some Sikhs object to
the broadcast of kirtan through mass media (television, radio, Internet, etc.) because,
they argue, the hymns should be sung congregationally rather than listened to at
home. Others complain that the traditional ways of singing are in danger of extinc-
tion because, in their opinion, ‘present-day ragis know little about the grammar and
technique of Hindustani music’ (Mansukhani 1982, 79–80). Like Singh Sabhaites in the
past, these Sikh protesters against musical change return to the colonial assumption
that Indian traditional music is unchanging and should be ‘authentic’.

Conclusion: Sikh music and empire

With its dedication to creating both a higher musical and moral standard, the modern-
ization of Sikh kirtan (the focus on orientalist and musicological texts, standardization
of music, professionalization of musicians, etc.) more or less can be contextualized
with the transformation of Indian music traditions into nationalism in music (Farrell
1997; Bakhle 2005; Subramanian 2006; Weidman 2006). Moreover, assuming that tra-
ditional music was the basis for Indian national music comparable to the role of folk
music for English national music (Hughes and Stradling 2001), the emergence of
modern Sikh music also can be located within the simultaneous and intertwined for-
mations in culture and politics in metropole and colony (Veer 2001; Ballantyne
2007). What remains interesting in that case remains the fact that in the eyes of the
 12 SIKH FORMATIONS

Singh Sabhaites, Punjabi folk music had a low status and hence its research lay in the
hands of European civil servants, missionaries and ethnomusicologists such as A.H. Fox
Strangways and Arnold Bake. Alternately, as I emphasized earlier, the making of
modern Sikh music evidently fits in the imperial encounter in terms of the points of
recognition between the Singh Sabha moral language and the British civilizing mission.
Did the modern institutionalization and commodification of Sikh kirtan lead to its
relegation from central ritual and social functions to identity politics that celebrate
the Sikh self and past? Is orthodox Sikh music merely a musical and moral represen-
tation of tradition rather than a genuine creative effort? So far, I have argued from the
perspective of social and intellectual history that the definition of Sikh music since
the Singh Sabha reformation was closely connected with processes of modern Sikh
identity formation. Sikhism was and is defined in the imperial encounter and
music certainly also shaped the modern Sikh self. Without denying that kirtan can
be a spiritual (if not a transforming) experience for Sikhs, it unambiguously
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became a moral bastion for the Sikh orthodoxy in opposition to progress and com-
mercialization. Hence, the Singh Sabha reformation discussions about kirtan as a
musical style often concerned its ‘authenticity’. The notion of ‘authentic’ music,
however, remains an imperial stereotype used by reformist Sikhs to legitimate the
modernity of their tradition (and in the case of Europeans about non-western
music traditions, simply is patronizing). It cannot be maintained in the light of
Sikh history and particularly the Sikh diaspora, where in the future kirtan most
likely (though undeniably after much resistance) will be sung in other languages
than Gurmukhi. Like all other musical traditions, modern Sikh music has been con-
cerned with representations (identity politics) and appropriations (western staff nota-
tion, the harmonium, recording industry, and so on) and never has been ‘authentic’.
Be that as it may, like the Granth Sahib, kirtan remains a spiritual source of which the
meaning for pious Sikhs goes beyond words. In this article, however, I made clear
that the study of Sikh music deserves its place in the historiography of Sikhism
and cannot be understood outside the imperial encounter.

Notes
1 Mujra is the ‘erotic’ version of classical Indian Kathak danced by courtesans during
the Mughal era. After the British labelled mujra dancers ‘whores’, many of them
ended up in prostitution and, hence, though today Kathak dancers perform a chas-
tened style, it overall has a negative connotation in South Asia.
2 Historically, there are three main types of Sikh musicians. Mardana’s descendents
(whose lineage is almost extinct today) and other professionals who sang with the
accompaniment of the rabab are called rababis. Ragis are the most common musi-
cians in the Sikh gurudwaras (and sometimes include women) and dhadis sing
mostly Sikh heroic songs.
3 Though, as Gurinder Singh Mann emphasizes, kirtan is only important in a larger
environment that includes the reading of the Granth Sahib, listening to its expla-
nation and performance of service to fellow human beings (Mann 2001, 87).
4 It should be stated at the beginning that this article is a tentative historical study
and thus includes no examples of musical analysis.
 SIKH MUSIC AND EMPIRE 13

5 Gharanas evolved in north India mostly after the collapse of the Mughal Empire.
They represent both a particular style of music as well as a lineage of musicians
and their disciples.
6 He wrote several books on India, such as Social Reform by Authority in India (1892),
but became especially known because of his The Hindi Manual (1882). On the
whole, he seems to have been sympathetic towards India and was positively
mentioned by Mahatma Gandhi in his biography The Story of My Experiments with
the Truth (1927).
7 See http://www.sikh-history.com/sikhhist/institutes/kcollege.html. This insti-
tution for the teaching of modern subjects besides Sikh history and Punjabi was
established in response to the creation of similar ones by the Hindu and Muslim
communities in the region.
8 His Universal History of Music (1896) is probably the first history of world music
written by a non-westerner and his anthology of eighteenth- and nineteenth-
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century literature about Indian music written in English, Hindu Music from
Various Authors (1882), remains useful to this day.
9 Cf. Bakhle (2005), Subramanian (2006) and Weidman (2006) for a discussion of
princely patronage in the south Indian states of Baroda, Tanjore, Mysore, etc.
10 The Rag Mala is the last composition of the Granth Sahib and is a catalogue of forty-
eight ragas. Teja Singh of the radical Bhasaur Singh Sabha was probably the most
fanatic opponent against the use of the Rag Mala and subsequently published an
edition of the Granth Sahib in which it was deleted but it did not reach the wider
Sikh community (Mann 2001, 127). As part of Teja Singh’s legacy, however, the
acceptance of the Rag Mala in the Granth Sahib still awaits definitive settlement.
11 Khyal became the dominant style of classical singing in north India under colonial
rule.
12 See http://www.thesikhencyclopedia.com/arts-and-heritage/gajja-singh-mahant.
html.
13 Christian hymnody in British India was part of a wider evangelical revival both in
Britain and North America, where the Christian gospel was proclaimed by evange-
licals to the urban populations and resulted into many conversions. Like in the
Punjab, meetings in the West took place in tents, halls and in the open air as
much as in churches and chapels. Most influential to this hymnody revival concur-
rently in Britain and India were the instantly memorable hymns (such as Onward,
Christian Soldiers and Abide with Me) by the leading members of the American Evan-
gelical movement, Ira D. Sankey and Dwight L. Moody, which were included in
the later editions of the official hymn book of the Church of England, Hymns
Ancient and Modern (first edition 1861).
14 As an imperial legacy, the repertoire of military bands at India’s Republic Day still
today includes the ceremonial Beating the Retreat, the playing of bagpipes and, sup-
posedly the favourite hymn of Mahatma Gandhi, Abide with Me.
15 Qawwali was and is played at Sufi shrines that were and often still are visited by all
communities in South Asia but was declared the pseudo-national music by the
Pakistani government.
16 In 1953, the Indian government founded the Sangeet Natak Academy for the pres-
ervation and development of Indian music, dance and drama. The main nationalist
themes propagated through this institution were unity through diversity and the
cultural and moral uplift of the population through art.
 14 SIKH FORMATIONS

17 Since the Singh Sabha reformation, equality between men and women has been
emphasized within the Sikh community. Yet, on the whole, the Singh Sabhas
reinforced existing male/female hierarchies (Jakobsh 2003) and, accordingly,
though there have been female ragis, women are still not allowed to do kirtan in
Amritsar’s Golden Temple.

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Bob van der Linden. Address: Amsterdam School for Social Science Research, Univer-
sity of Amsterdam, Kloveniersburgwal 48, 1012 CX, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. [email:
vanderlinden.bob@gmail.com]