Indo-Islamic culture – Brown Pundits

The Hindification of Muslim Culture

Something in a recent thread caught my attention. A commenter praised several khayal singers, almost all Hindu, while omitting equally eminent Muslim vocalists. Kabir pointed this out, but the exchange exposed a larger pattern: the slow Hindification of Muslim cultural inheritances in India.

This is not new. It has happened before in the Balkans, Spain, North Africa, and now South Asia. When Muslim political power retreats but its aesthetic legacy endures, successor communities begin absorbing, domesticating, and rebranding the cultural capital that Muslim rule left behind.

Hindustani music is a prime example. The foundational grammar, khayal, thumri, tarana, bandish, raga–riyaz discipline, gharana boundaries, was shaped by Persian, Turkic, and Indo-Muslim lineages. Yet today, the most visible custodians of this tradition are overwhelmingly Hindu: Bengali virtuosos, Maharashtrian stalwarts, the great Dharwad families, plus a handful of Muslim houses that continue against the grain. A few dozen performers make a strong living; a select few have global reputations. But the overall demographic shift is unmistakable. Continue reading The Hindification of Muslim Culture

My singing featured on Khaliq Chishti Podcast

In the spirit of a palate cleanser, I am sharing this musical performance. I was featured on Khaliq Chishti’s podcast (he runs a recording studio in Lahore). I performed Raga Rageshri and a Dadra in Raga Desh (“Cha Rahee Kali Ghata” which was originally sung by Begum Akhtar). Tabla is by Iftikhar Joseph.

I also want to use this opportunity to respond a bit to the recent post that argued that India and Pakistan are only linked by violence. I am a singer of Hindustani classical music and an ethnomusicologist. Hindustani classical music is obviously part of the shared Indo-Islamic culture that links North India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. Eight decades of separation, wars and political tensions have not managed to completely destroy this common culture. This very fact goes to disprove the argument that the ONLY link between India and Pakistan is violence.

Indians are fond of Pakistani dramas. Fawad Khan is very popular in India. A new season of Pakistan Idol has recently started airing (Fawad is one of the judges along with Rahat Fateh Ali Khan) and I dare say Indians would be watching on YouTube. I have seen comments on Insta from Indians expressing their appreciation for Pakistani music. Pakistanis obviously watch Indian Idol.

My book–A New Explanation for the Decline of Hindustani Music in Pakistan (Aks Publications Lahore 2024)–was recently profiled on Scroll.in. Do read it if you are interested. Currently, the book is only available in Pakistan but we are working on publishing an Indian edition soon. One of the side effects of the bad relations between India and Pakistan is that books cannot travel across the border.

Caste in America

I’ve found myself drifting further left than I expected this year. Much of that is circumstantial, being involved in local activism in the United States naturally places one within progressive coalitions. Yet even in this frame, my ideological compass is firmly rooted in some admiration for Brahminical continuity and Bharat Mata as civilizational anchor.

At times I speculate on where Bharat truly ends. Is it the Hindu Kush? The Iranian plateau? The Persian world has always seemed to me about 20–30% Indianise; its mythology, musicality, and memory bear the imprint of the Indo-Aryan stream more than the Indo-European one, no matter how insistently modern Iranians lean toward a Westward identification.

This brings me to a provocative thesis I’ve often floated: that Brahmins are the civilisational custodians of the Indian subcontinent, and that their displacement often signals a broader cultural erasure. The tragedy of the Kashmiri Panditsis not merely a community’s trauma, but a warning. Without Brahminical continuity, Vedic frameworks falter. Hinduism in Pakistan and Bangladesh remains vulnerable precisely because it lacks the embedded authority and supervisory function of Brahmin elites to anchor Vedic traditions and calibrate resistance to incessant Islamisation. Continue reading Caste in America