Pandit Allaudin Khan was Hindu
Chandmal Chopda
adopt the ancestral title Debsharma. From now he will be known as Ustad
Aashish K Debsharma. Talking to the reporters during his sojourn to the
city, he said, "This is an attempt to recoginse the roots or going back to
the roots. Present generation of our country are more Westerners than the
Westerners themselves. I was inspired by the Hindutva ideology to convert
to Hinduism and adopt the surname of Debsharma."
Asked if he had taken the permission of his father, the great sarod maestro
Ali Akbar Khan, he said, "I don't anyone's permission to revert to my
original religion and adopt my original surname. We always worshipped Devi
Saraswati and Goddess Kali. This is nothing new." "I am not removing Khan
from my title altogether. It will remain my middle act as reminder to our
descendants that once temporarily we were forcibly converted to Islam by
jihadi Muslim nawabs. But I am adopting my ancestral title to recognise our
original identity," Aashis said.
On whether the title Khan was a problem in the west nowadays, " Of course it
is. We are always prospective jihadis. But my decison is not solely for that
reason. For me its going back to the roots. Being faithful to my ancestral
religion, culture and nation" He also added there was actually no need of
reconversion, "as we were Hindus and had to take the title Sadhu Khan under
unfavourable circumstances so there was no formal conversion to Islam and I
dont need to convert again.
Historian Satyabrata Rai Chowdhury, a successor of the erstwhile Royal
Family of Shibpur, Comillah, Bangladesh, has been personally intimate with
the family of one of the greatest musical geniuses India has ever produced,
the late Padmabibhusan Baba Alauddin Khan. He was founder of the Senia
Maihar Gharana of Indian classical Music.
He does know, like may other eminent people of the intelligentsia of Bengal,
that Baba Alauddin Khan, born in 1871, traced his lineage from a very high
caste Hindu Brahman caste, and was a devotee of Maa Kali (the Goddess of
power), Maa Saraswati (the Goddess of Learning), spiritual leader Sri
Ramakrishna and Maa Sharada, Mr Chowdhury said.
Baba Alauddin Khan's successors are also no exception when it comes to their
religious practice, so much so that his son Ali Akbar Khan's Calcutta
residence at Ranikuthi is named as Maa Sharada Bhawan.
Baba Alauddin Khan's father, who was commonly known as Sadhu Khan, was
originally Sadananda Debsharma. We all know that Debsharma, which is a
Brahman surname and means the almighty lord or Bhagawan himself, is a very
distinguished honorary title rather than a mere surname, and it is very
fondly used by high caste Hindu Brahmans.
Sadananda Debsharma, a master in the art of fighting with sticks and the
chief guard of the great grandfather of speaker Maharaja Nabakishore Roy
Chowdhury, killed an opponent in a clash between the southern Royals and the
Royals of the middle of Shibpur, and escaped to "Mager Mulluk", the place
where the Portuguese pirates lived in the border of India and the then
Burma, and it was there that in order to hoodwink the British Police he
changed his name to Sadhu Khan.
He was later brought back by Maharaja Nabakishore and was established at his
native place of Bajainna Adi at Shibpur, but that is a different story
altogether. However, then onwards they were recognised as Khans, and
therefore, believed to be muslims.
Neverthless, form the present writer and also from the diaries of Maharaja
Nabakishore Roy Chowdhuri and Baba Alauddin Khan, it is clear that his
family was never converted into Islam.
Unfortunately, ignorant gossip-lovers left no stone unturned to spread all
sorts of stories regarding their conversion into Islam.
However, the present writer and historical evidences keep no room for
conflicting views in how the sacred thread bearer Sadananda Debsharma became
Sadhu Khan.
Many are not aware of the fact that the word "Khan" does not necessarily
mean Muslims. It is a Persian word meaning "a wise and learned man". The
surname Khan is very common among the Hindus and the Christian as well.
Ustad Aashish gave his first public performance at the age of 13, with his
grandfather, on the All India Radio "National Program", New Delhi, and in
the same year, performed with his father and his grandfather at the "Tansen
Music Conference", Calcutta. Besides his virtuosity as a traditional sarod
maestro, Aashish is also a pioneer in the establishment of world music
genre, as founder of the Indo-American musical group "Shanti" with
distinguished tabla player Ustad Zakir Hussain in 1969 and 1970 and later,
fusion group, "The Third Eye" and composed a Sarod Concerto in "raga" form.
With Pandit Ravi Shankar, he has worked on many musical products for both
film and stage, including Oscar Winner Satyajit Ray's Apur Sangsar, Parash
Pathar and Sir Richard Attenborough's film Gandhi.
He has also worked with Maurice Jarre on John Huston's film The Man Who
Would be King, David Lean's A Passage to India, and composed the music for
Tapan Sinha's films, Joturgriha and Aadmi Aurat.
In 1989, Khan was appointed to the prestigious post of the Composer and
Conductor for the National Orchestra of All India Radio, succeeding Pandit
Ravi Shankar.
Aashish has collaborated with such diverse western musicians as John Barham,
George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Charles Lloyd, John Handy, Alice
Coltrane, Emil Richards, Dallas Smith, Don Pope, Jorge Strunz, Ardeshir
Farah, and the Philadelphia String Quartet.
Manish Kumar
i'm most familiar with islam & hinduism. both are beautiful religions
that have lots of members. within the members of both (or just about
any large group whether it is kishore fans, rafi fans, christians, mac
users, ibm users, american football fans, etc) there are trouble
makers who cause misunderstandings and this causes trouble. often, the
fault is not in the relgion but in the person.
having said that, i couldn't care less what religion the artist.
relgion certainly inspires the artist (and many do credit the
religion) but imo (and i surely would be wrong on some cases) all
these religions have practically the same goal (conveyed only in
diferent forms), similar teachings, and consequently - similar
effects. this ustad would have been just as great as he was whether he
was a hindu or muslim imho.
Abhik Majumdar
Abhik Majumdar
Manish Kumar
> This is spam
Thank you. I don't know what satisfaction people have with generating
spam.
Daniel Fuchs
> This is spam
Not only is it spam, it is also a blatant breach of copyright. This
posting was copied from two different sources:
An article first published in August 2006 (!) by oneindia.in
(http://news.oneindia.in/2006/08/22/ustad-aashish-khan-returns-to-roots-1156232199.html)
and Ashish Khansahib's biography on the website of Simlahouse Records
(http://www.simlahouse.com/people/khan.php).
Abhik, please delete your earlier posting, which is a needless full
quote of the original posting. Thanks.
Daniel
Abhik Majumdar
Daniel, I have a feeling Manish was responding to my post!
Manish, for an explanation, please refer to my post entitled "Hopes
for RMIC revival?"
> Abhik, please delete your earlier posting, which is a needless full quote
That was posted in error, in any case have deleted.
Daniel Fuchs
>
> > Not only is it spam, it is also a blatant breach of copyright.
>
> Daniel, I have a feeling Manish was responding to my post!
I don't quite see how this fact is connected to my comment. Of course
the comment on copyright referred to the original posting only...
Daniel
harmony
"Manish Kumar" <mku...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:ac675ae4-4059-415b...@u72g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
> thanks for posting the article i will read it later.
>
> i'm most familiar with islam & hinduism. both are beautiful religions
> that have lots of members.
seems like there is some misunderstanding on your part. the alla of koran
wants kafirs killed, and their women put in harem.
pls do read koran.
Manish Kumar
> "Manish Kumar" <mkum...@gmail.com> wrote in message
this will be my last post in this thread as i realize you're trying to
bait me.
these are the troublemakers and misunderstandings i am talking about.
there are some people (especially when their objectivity weakens due
to misfortune) that will believe your crap. the quran says no such
things. to suggest it is to deliberately misinterpret it.
you have two very large groups (say A & B). a persona from group A
wrongs a person from group B. instead of seeing that as one PERSON
wronging another PERSON, it is said it was A wronging B and this
instigates a mess. this is the blue print for many of the world's
feuds.
if a person commits an evil it is because he the person chooses to do
it, he hardly cares for his religion. he is an extremist who has lost
his sanity (hence actual regard for the religion itself that opposes
extremism).
bye bye to this thread.
there should be a system where members can vote to automatically close
a thread (e.g. 20 votes etc from a member who has been active for at
least 6 months).
Abhik Majumdar
harmony
> On Mar 25, 7:47 pm, "harmony" <a...@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> "Manish Kumar" <mkum...@gmail.com> wrote in message
>>
>> news:ac675ae4-4059-415b...@u72g2000hsf.googlegroups.com...
>>
>> > thanks for posting the article i will read it later.
>>
>> > i'm most familiar with islam & hinduism. both are beautiful religions
>> > that have lots of members.
>>
>> seems like there is some misunderstanding on your part. the alla of koran
>> wants kafirs killed, and their women put in harem.
>> pls do read koran.
>
> this will be my last post in this thread as i realize you're trying to
> bait me.
>
> these are the troublemakers and misunderstandings i am talking about.
> there are some people (especially when their objectivity weakens due
> to misfortune) that will believe your crap. the quran says no such
> things. to suggest it is to deliberately misinterpret it.
>
> you have two very large groups (say A & B). a persona from group A
> wrongs a person from group B. instead of seeing that as one PERSON
> wronging another PERSON, it is said it was A wronging B and this
> instigates a mess. this is the blue print for many of the world's
> feuds.
>
first you are to be congratulated on the logic.
however, you are misapplying the logic. try this: now if a person from group
"a" does some good (eg your musicians), should the whole group "a" get
credit?
to read what the whole group "a" is all about, pls read anwar sheikh's book:
islam, the arab imperialism. the book is well acclaimed and tells you that
it is not "a person" or "small group of persons" or even "small country" we
are talking about; it's the whole system - and growing fast at that - that
is a huge threat.
people who defend this reality of threat or casue distraction from it - like
you do - are a danger to the society in which they live and do a great harm
to those whom they pretend to (mis)lead.
Bhuvanesh
Satish_Haldankar
people as human beings. It is always us -vs- rest. Divide and hope to
rule.
I only wish the system admins do something to prevent forums/groups being
polluted by such trash.
--
Message posted using http://www.talkaboutthemusic.com/group/rec.music.indian.misc/
More information at http://www.talkaboutthemusic.com/faq.html