Our collection of oral histories and interviews is a collaboration between the Swadhinata Trust and the British Library Sound Archive.

We have set out to collect oral histories of people and examples of Bengali musical involvement that demonstrates the life of music in the community. This project is not just concerned with well-known performers, star artists, or emerging artists, although some of them are included. Neither is it research that is solely focusing on typical examples and genres of music. But it is a review of the culture that surrounds music, the influences of migration, and community involvement in music. To date we have collected 30 interviews and various musical recordings.

The participants in this collection represent many aspects of the life of Bengali music in the UK: from 1971, and the Bangladesh Independence struggle, to migration, teaching and learning in the UK, present day song writing and musical composition, the annual Boishaki Mela, and theatre. The project is inclusive of all Bengali music whether this is from Bangladesh or West Bengal in India. Originally, before Partition, Bengal was one province, and these two areas share a common language and cultural heritage.

There are two interviews with Mahmudur Rahman Benu, one in Bengali and one in English, where he tells his story as the leader of a troupe of artists who sang liberation songs during the Bangladesh War of Independence in 1971, and subsequently his arrival in the UK in 1973 and his life as a teacher of North Indian Classical and Bengali music here. The history of 1971 is again reflected in an interview with singer/songwriter Moushumi Bhowmik who wrote the well known song Jessore Road (inspired by Alan Ginsberg’s 1971 poem September on Jessore Road). Other stories from 1971 come from two sisters, Yasmin Rahman and Rumana Khair, whose parents were activists in London during 1971 and who sang as children at meetings and rallies supporting the war effort.

Interest in Bengali music from those outside of the Bengali community is reflected in interviews and musical examples from three white British participants and a Sri Lankan participant. Bengali interest and involvement in non-Bengali genres of music in the UK is demonstrated in an interview with the Bengali jazz singer Arifa Hafiz. There are also reflections by participants at the annual Boishaki Mela, including a reflection on the nature of how the Bengali community has changed over the years. There are reflections on the Asian Underground and it’s significance for the younger generation of British born Bengalis in the 1970s and 80s. An interview with Mukul Ahmed, director of the theatre group Mukul and the Ghetto Tigers, demonstrates the integration of Bengali music and song into theatre. There is an interview with a ten-year-old performer, Anvita Gupta, and with the sound artist Abdul Shohid Jalil who composes Bengali inspired electronic music. There is also an important reflection by the practicing and devout well-known Bengali Muslim singer Alaur Rahman that music is given by God and is in no way haram.

From a historical perspective there is an interview with Tarun Jasani, the writer of the play, Gauhar Jaan: The Datia Incident, and the producer of this play, Mukul Ahmed. Gauhar Jaan was the first artist to be recorded in Calcutta in 1902. This is an important historical landmark in the history of music. The North Indian classical music sung by Gauhar Jaan was not specifically Bengali music, however, the recording took place in Calcutta where Gauhar Jaan lived, although she was not ethnically Bengali. Gauhar Jaan herself represents the diversity inherent in the music of Bengal from these early days onwards. From this time onwards recorded music became available in India and in the UK, and, along with musicians travelling more frequently between India and the UK, a two-way musical journey built up. Both the writer and the producer of this play have a deep involvement with music that is reflected in this as well as other of their productions. The history of Bengali music in the UK is thus brought to life through theatre.

However, reflecting on the place of North Indian classical music in this project it is difficult to say exactly if or where a line may be drawn concerning a definition of Bengali music. North Indian classical music is played throughout North India, including Bengal, and is a part and parcel of the traditions of folk and modern Bengali music. The region of Bengal itself has been home to many classical musicians such as the renowned artists Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan and their Guru, Ali Akbar Khan’s father Allaudin Khan. An interview with Somjit Dasgupta in this collection gives a detailed description of these historic developments. The interview, and the history of Dasgupta’s family and his sarod Guru Radhika Mohan Moitra, and his work in collecting and playing old instruments and promoting a living tradition of classical music, is an important addition to the history of classical music in Bengal and in the UK. Somjit Dasgupta also describes the way in which the old Zamindaris of Bengal patronized folk musicians such as the Baul Lalon Sai and Hasan Raja. Somjit Dasgupta’s connections with the UK are very important in the development of this work, and he describes how it is essential to maintain such connections.

Another important aspect of musical integration is reflected in an interview with the tabla maestro and teacher Yousuf Ali Khan who also works with the Grand Union Orchestra, and directs a series of performances with the GUO “Bengal to Bethnal Green”. The GUO seeks to provide a multi-cultural approach to music through performing music from a wide range of the diverse cultures of migrants to the UK, and director and composer Tony Haynes rearranges traditional music to be played by his orchestra in a variety of styles. An interview with Tony Haynes is also in this collection. Yousuf Ali Khan’s contribution to the GUO project includes a wide range of music from Bengal, including north Indian classical and folk tradition.

The two-way flow of music from Bengal to the UK and back is the backbone of this exploration into Bengali Music and Musicians in the UK and the culture that surrounds music. We therefore see musical developments in Bangladesh and West Bengal themselves as an important dimension. This collection includes two interviews from the younger generation in Bangladesh that demonstrate exquisitely how musical developments take place, and how progress and change is important to the younger generation currently living in Bangladesh. Links with the UK and modern British Bangladeshi music is an essential part of this story. Musical developments in Bangladesh in the genre of folk fusion and rock has a separate identity and continuity of it’s own. These differences between musical development in the UK and in Bangladesh are important. Although following similar routes into music, and although Western popular music is essential to this development, the music of the younger generation in Bangladesh has a distinct identity of its own.

Thus we see a picture of an essential core of Bengali music, traditional forms being kept alive, but also a wider application in fusion, theatre, and new song writing.

This is the current picture to date and it is our hope that we may continue to build on this project and reflect this varied life of Bengali music and musicians in the UK, the growth and understanding of this music, and the importance of music being a path by which we all get to know each other whatever our backgrounds, a path where we cross boundaries, integrate, and enjoy and celebrate our lives.

Our research continues and this collection will be added to over the coming months and years.

Julie Begum, Ansar Ahmed and Val Harding.
Project co-ordinators

October 2019

Bengali Music and Musicians in the UK Oral History Project Article

For more information, please click the link below

https://doi.org/10.15123/uel.89662

By the late 1980s, the rise of British Asian underground music was in full force. The British Asian youth of the time grew up in an environment of racial violence and political struggle for self-identity, which culminated in a new underground music scene which combined dance music with the music of their parent’s generation.

While drawing strength from street culture and Asian roots, they took pride in their music as something they they could claim it as their own – neither white music nor music imported from the Indian subcontinent. The artists who emerged from this period became some of the greatest Asian artists Britain has seen. Some of these – ADF (Asian Dub Foundation), Joi, State of Bengal and Osmani Soundz – are of Bengali origin and are among the true pioneers of the Asian underground scene.

These days Shoreditch is a popular and fashionable area of London, dotted with clubs and bars playing contemporary dance music. Perhaps lesser known is that this area got public exposure from, now well-established, Asian artists who brought attention to the area through the Asian Underground scene.

From 1992, Joi played at the Bass Clef club every Thursday night, attracting nearly every credible artist of its time. Joi is a dance music outfit of DJs and musicians of Bengali origin, initially started by brothers Farook and Haroon Shamsher. From Orbital to the KLF, Goldie to Bjork, Joi established themselves as legendary founders of what became known as the Asian Underground. In December 2006, Farook Shamsher, one half of the brother duo, was awarded the prestigious UK Asian Music Award 2006 for ‘Commitment To The Scene’, in recognition for their seminal work of those early days and his long-standing work in the Asian music scene.

In an interview with the Swadhinata Trust in 2006, one of Joi’s members, Hasan Ismail, said:

“It’s because we had an ideal as well. Obviously growing up all our life in London, we enjoyed the Western side of going out and listening to English music, but we also had our Bengali identity which everyone needed to keep, which we were very proud of. So we decided to mix both kinds of cultures together and still keep both kind of identities and lifestyles – and show it through our music.”

The Bass Clef later became known as the Blue Note, where Talvin Singh ran his legendary club night Anokha. Just like theatres and music halls, the Asian Underground club nights slowly faded from this area, but its legacy shaped the streets of modern-day Shoreditch, where thousands flock every night for its host of bars, restaurants and cafes.

Whirl Y Gig, one of the longest running world dance clubs, played at Shoreditch Town Hall from 1991 – to 1996, playing a wide range of music, primarily world and dance fusions, from heavy dub and funky tribal beats to tropical house and uplifting global trance, from Africa to Europe to the Middle East and Asia.

The crew continued their global journey pushing abstract, experimental and electric sounds in an interactive environment which saw it rise the ranks from the Blue Note to Fabric.

What made this scene special was how cultural activism happened in parallel with political activism. While these pioneering artists were not seen as political activists themselves, their political stance is implied in their names. Osmani Soundz is named after Commander of Bengali freedom fighters, Joi is named after Bangladesh’s national slogan ‘Joi Bangla’, State of Bengal is self-explanatory as are ADF’s lyrics.

In the face of racism and violence, Asian youth movements of the 70s, 80s and 90s shaped East London to be the area it is now celebrated to be today. We must ensure their stories are told and remembered as the cultural pioneers they were and continue to be.

‍Ansar Ahmed Ullah is a community activist who has lived and worked in the East End of London since the 1980s. He has worked as a youth, social and community worker and has been an active anti-racist campaigner. Ansar is currently a research student at the Queen Mary University of London studying community activism.

‍Photo by York Tillyer: Joi at Dogstar Brixton