Copyright by Jeffrey Michael Grimes 2008 - The University of Texas ...

distinctness relative to other types of music, popular or otherwise. 15 I will discuss each of
these three themes in turn, starting with the idea that Hindustani music is a national
tradition.
A. Hindustani Music as a National Tradition: Bhatkhande and Paluskar
Undoubtedly, no two historical figures have done more to establish Hindustani
music as a national tradition than have the aforementioned musicologist Vishnu Narayan
Bhatkhande and the aforementioned Guru, music promoter, performer, and activist
Vishnu Digambar Paluskar. 16 This is not to say that many others, whether affiliated with
one of these two or not, have not played a role in nationalizing the tradition, but certainly
these are the two men most often credited for achieving this goal. Along these lines, it is
important to note that Bhatkhande and Paluskar began their respective careers at a time
when the movement for Indian independence was rapidly growing and nationalist
feelings were on the rise. As Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy writes,
Art music in India began to outgrow its associations with professional performers
and the leisured classes, and began to reach the middle classes largely as a result
of the Nationalist movement in the second half of the 19 th century. The
indigenous performing arts, especially music and theatre, began to be recognized
as cultural symbols of the movement. Bengal and Maharashtra were the two
primary centers of this new vision (1993:276).
In the case of both Bhatkhande and Paluskar, there seems to have been an underlying
belief that music had degenerated since the beginning of the colonial period, both in
terms of the lifestyle and morals of the performers and their patrons and in terms of more
15
No one I spoke with who voiced this opinion would say exactly how it had changed or what features it
had absorbed from outside of the tradition, however.
16
Kobayashi (2003) is one of the few studies that discuss other early 20th century ‘music reformers’
besides the ‘Two Vishnus.’
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