Muslim musicians in Kashmir test India’s limits on free speech through ‘conscious music’

‘Conscious music’ seeks to bridge tensions between Muslim tradition and modernism in a region that in many ways still clings to a conservative past

It also draws on elements of Islam and spiritual poetry, and is laced with religious metaphors to circumvent free speech measures in Indian-controlled Kashmir

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Musicians and artists in Kashmir embody a new form of music, a blend of progressive rock and hip hop that is an assertive expression of the region’s political and cultural aspirations. Photo: AP

Published: 12:00am, 6 Jul 2022Updated: 8:04am, 6 Jul 2022

Sarfaraz Javaid thumps his chest rhythmically in the music video, swaying to the guitar and letting his throaty voice ring out through the forest: “What kind of soot has shrouded the sky? It has turned my world dark. … Why has the home been entrusted to strangers?”

“Khuaftan Baange” – Kashmiri for “the call to night’s prayer” – plays out like a groaning dirge for Muslim-majority Kashmir, the starkly beautiful Himalayan territory that is home to decades of territorial conflict, gun-toting soldiers and harsh crackdowns on the populace.

It is mournful in tone but lavish in lyrical symbolism inspired by Sufism, an Islamic mystic tradition. Its form is that of a Marsiya, a poetic rendition that is a lament for Muslim martyrs.

“I just express myself and scream, but when harmony is added, it becomes a song,” Javaid, a poet like his father and grandfather, said in an interview.

Javaid is among a movement of artists in disputed Kashmir, divided between India and Pakistan and claimed by both since 1947, who are forming a new musical tradition that blends progressive Sufi rock with hip-hop in an assertive expression of political aspirations. They call it “conscious music.”

Drawing on elements of Islam and spiritual poetry, it is often laced with religious metaphors to circumvent measures restricting some free speech in Indian-controlled Kashmir that have led many poets and singers to swallow their words.