The Role of Music in Three British Muslim Communities

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Diaspora 4:1 1995 The Role of Music in Three British Muslim Communities John Baily University of London 1. Introduction Many years ago Melville Herskovits argued that music has a special use in the study of cultural contact in the diasporan situation. Herskovits was much involved in exploringAfrican retentions in the New World. He believed that "[t]he peculiar value ofstudying music ... is that, even more than other aspects of culture, its patterns tend to lodge on the unconscious level" (19). Put another way, "Music is particularly stable in the contact situation because it is carried subliminally, thus making it resistant to direct attack" (Merriam 306). We need not necessarily accept this explanation, couched as it is in terms of unconscious or subliminal processes, but the idea that music can serve as a particularly sensitive sociocultural indicator in diasporan studies merits continued consideration. In order tojustify "the peculiar value of studying music," we need to show that music reveals more than we would otherwise know about social, cultural, economic or political dynamics in the society in question, and tells us not just about music making itself. For example, the Muslim population of contemporary Britain consists of a number of communities drawn from different parts of the world, with distinct cultures and languages. The majority of Muslims come from South Asia,1 yet there are considerable differences between them. The three communities under consideration are Mirpuris from Azad Kashmir, in Pakistan; Khalifas from Gujarat , in India; and Afghans, predominantly from Kabul, the capital ofAfghanistan. Now, what does the study of music (in the broadest sense, ofprocess as well as product) tell us about these South Asian communities and their place in British society today? From the outset we know that music is a contentious issue in the Muslim world, evoking and attracting puritanical views that condemn music as frivolous at best and as sinful at worst. Such attitudes were forcefully articulated by Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran in the late 1970s. Orthodox Islam has no place for music in the context of religious ritual. Koranic recitation is a test case, for while this is "the best of sounds" it cannot in the folk view be regarded as music Diaspora 4:1 1995 (most obviously because it does not involve the use of any musical instruments). It is only within certain Sufi orders that we find music performed in the context of religious ritual. A good example is the use oïqawwâli by the Chishtiyya of South Asia, typically performed in the context of samâ (spiritual concerts held at the tombs of Sufi saints). Attitudes about the place ofmusic in human affairs are usually important in understanding the role ofmusic in specific Muslim communities.2 2. The Three Communities The three communities differ markedly in terms ofsize, cohesion, place of origin, social and cultural background, reasons for coming to Britain, mode of coming to Britain, and occupational status. Yet valid comparisons can be made between them despite (and perhaps because of) these differences. I also have rather disparate kinds of information about the three communities.3 Mirpuris. People from South Asia started emigrating to Britain in significant numbers after 1947. Given the long-established British colonial rule over the Indian Sub-Continent, it was only natural that large numbers of people from that region should in the postcolonial era gravitate to "the motherland," to which they had legal access as citizens ofthe United Kingdom and Colonies. The majority of immigrants from the newly established state of Pakistan came from the Mirpur District ofAzad ("Free") Kashmir, a mountainous rural area midway between Islamabad and Lahore. Mirpur District, measuring approximately 30 by 20 miles, had a well-established practice of sending excess manpower out as migrant labor (Khan; Ballard). People from this region were actively recruited to provide a cheap industrial labor force in Britain in the early 1950s. The pattern of migration was normally for young men to come first and for their wives or brides to join them after some years. In this way, classic immigrant bridgeheads were established connecting specific groups ofpeople in Britain and Pakistan. Today, Mirpuris constitute a population of perhaps 150-200,000 in Britain.4 Mirpuris are...

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