This Sunday, something quietly powerful is taking place: Indian and Pakistani artists will share a virtual stage, and among them is our very own Kabir Altaf, performing as a Hindustani classical vocalist and ethnomusicologist based in Pakistan.
Kabir shared that Sheema ji personally invited him to sing, and he’s planning to perform the Kabir bhajan already available on Spotify. A simple act but a potent one. Rooted in shared heritage, offered in public.
It’s easy to be cynical about India–Pakistan relations. But these moments matter. When musicians from Sindh and Delhi, translators from Karachi, and filmmakers from Mumbai come together, even on Zoom, they create a space that politics cannot reach. A space where memory, performance, and shared roots do the work diplomacy cannot.
This is the kind of initiative we need more of: not policy, but presence; not diplomacy, but dialogue. These exchanges don’t dilute identity; they deepen it.
Bravo and huzzah to Kabir, and to all involved.
🗓 Event:
Indian–Pakistani Artists in Dialogue
📅 Saturday, 3rd August 2025
⏰ 7:30 PM Pakistan time / 8:00 PM India time
👩🎤 Moderator:
Sheema Kermani – Bharatanatyam dancer, theatre personality, Karachi
🎙 Featured Speakers & Performers:
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Dr. Syeda Saiyidain Hameed – Writer, former Member of India’s Planning Commission
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Dr. Ghazala Irfan – Philosopher and Chair, Department of Humanities, LUMS; affiliated with All Pakistan Music Conference
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Anand Patwardhan – Documentary filmmaker, Mumbai
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Saleema J. Khawaja – Vocalist of Punjabi Kafi and Guru Nanak verses, Lahore
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Neela Bhagwat – Hindustani vocalist (Gwalior Gharana), Mumbai
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Azhar Shan – Folk musician from Sindh
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Dhruv Sangari – Hindustani classical and Sufi vocalist, Delhi
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Zainub J. Khawaja – Musician, member of Harsukhiyaan, Pakistan
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Yousuf Saeed – Documentary filmmaker, known for work on classical music in Pakistan, Delhi
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Kabir Altaf – Hindustani classical vocalist and ethnomusicologist, Pakistan
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Nishtha Jain – Documentary filmmaker, Mumbai
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Zahra Sabri – Lecturer and translator, Karachi
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Zulaikha Jabeen – Independent scholar, India
🔗 Join via Zoom
Meeting ID: 897 8701 6742
Congratulations Kabir. I’m sure it will be an evening to remember.
Thank you.
It’s a bit of preaching to the choir I feel since i presume all the participants will be left-leaning.
But I’m just there to sing my bhajan.
Thanks 🙂
Just to briefly report back after last night’s webinar:
It was really nice to hear Indians singing Faiz Ahmed Faiz (“Bol ke lab azaad hain tere”) and Pakistanis singing Bhagat Kabir and Guru Nanak. The recurring theme of the evening was that our common culture is much older than the 80 years that the Indian and Pakistani nation-states have existed.
One of the participants stated that she doesn’t identify as Pakistani but as a South Asian and as Kashmiri by ethnicity.
There was of course preaching to the choir since this was a discussion sponsored by the Socialist Party of India. They had not invited any right-leaning people. I would argue that such discussions need to be held precisely among right-leaning people from both countries since they have a lot more issues to work through. The left is primed by default to focus on peace and love.
This was only one interaction among many that the group has organized. This time, the focus was artists. They are also planning to have a session with ex-servicemen from both countries etc.
Wonderful to hear that- Kabir I would suggest that it is inflammatory to suggest India, that is Bharat, is “80yrs old.”
By any stretch India is a civilisation that is as old as China, Mesopotamia & Egypt.
Pakistan of course is a century years old with Chaudhary Raḥmat Ali’s pamphlet “Pakistan, Now or Never.”
It doesn’t make sense to equivocate the two.
But back on point I’m glad the webinar went to well & very proud / happy you got to shape it as an artist..
Both nation-states were created on August 15, 1947. This is not an opinion but an objective fact.
I think we need to be able to accept objective facts without getting upset.
“India is a civilization”– My contention would be that Pakistan and Bangladesh are part of that “civilization” despite the lines that Radcliffe drew in 1947.
obviously Pakistan and Bangladesh are offshoots of Indian Civ
And we have all been saying so repeatedly, can we consider this settled. Same civ, different nations. Think North & South Korea or China & Taiwan.
I agree. But at the same time there is no need to take offense if someone says that the nation-state of India was created in 1947.
Taiwan is part of China 🙂