Music in Colonial Punjab : Courtesans, Bards, and Connoisseurs, 1800-1947

This book offers the first social history of music in undivided Punjab (1800-1947), unearthing new evidence to argue for the power of female performers and the primacy of classical music for a region conventionally understood as a centre of folk music alone.

This book offers the first social history of music in undivided Punjab (1800-1947), beginning at the Lahore court of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and concluding at the Patiala royal darbar. It unearths new evidence for the centrality of female performers and classical music in a region primarily viewed as a folk music centre, featuring a range of musicians and dancers -from ''mirasis'' (bards) and ''kalawants'' (elite musicians), to ''kanjris'' (subaltern female performers) and ''tawaifs'' (courtesans). A central theme is the rise of new musical publics shaped by the anglicized Punjabi middle classes, and British colonialists'' response to Punjab''s performing communities. The book reveals a diverse connoisseurship for music with insights from history, ethnomusicology, and geography on an activity that still unites a region now divided between India and Pakistan.