It has been almost 140 years since Mahatma Gandhi was born on Oct. 2, 1869, but even now his birthday is an event celebrated around the globe. Gandhi Jayanti, also called the International Day of Non-Violence, is a national holiday in India and is just one testament to the scope of the spiritualist's lasting impact on the world.
Sponsored by the Department of Asian Studies every fall, a celebration is held at Vassar in memory of Gandhi's birthday and in honor of his work for an independent India through campaigns of non-violent civil disobedience. Past commemorative events have included lectures by scholars and activists, a showing of Shyam Benegal's The Making of the Mahatma and a sacred dance performed by Bala Devi Chandrashekar from Princeton University. This year, the celebration consists of a music performance by Shubha Sankaran on the surbahar and Dr. Brian Q. Silver on the sitar.
Vassar's first celebration of Mahatma Gandhi's birthday was organized by the Asian Studies Department in 2002.
"The main goal [of the event] is to celebrate the life of the leader of India's freedom movement, whose commitment to non-violent resistance continues to inspire generations of activists across the world," said Professor of Anthropology and Asian Studies Director Martha Kaplan, who helped organize the event. "Another goal is to highlight the Asian Studies program's commitment to South Asian studies."
This year's duet is the first instrumental concert organized for the Annual Gandhi Celebration. Silver and Sankaran were suggested as performers to the event's organizers by the Ghandi Memorial Center.
"Gandhi was a major cultural and political figure of the 20th century," said Silver. "We were happy to do this program in his honor and his memory." Despite this willingness and excitement to do a program in Gandhi's memory, Silver's musical roots are far from the Hindi music he will perform. Silver was not always a sitarist. Initially, he played flamenco guitar, an instrument from the other side of the globe. But when he first listened to Hindi music, he saw a connection between the two
instruments.
"When I heard Hindi music," said Silver, "I understood that it was in some way similar [to flamenco guitar]. It was improvised. So, I tried to play Hindi music on the guitar." Silver's interest in Hindi music matured when he borrowed a sitar from renowned painter Hyman Bloom in 1964. His growing interest in Indian culture spurred him to apply for a Fulbright Scholarship to go to India. He received the tutor grant and spent time in India both teaching and doing research. "The sitar was my research," said Silver. "I was able to find an excellent teacher, Ustad Ghulamhusain Khan." Ghulamhusain Khan was at first reluctant to teach Silver the sitar: "He was trying to get rid of me," Silver remembered, "because he thought that an American couldn't learn much in nine months." Ghulamhusain Khan eventually acknowledged Silver's passion for Hindi music and took him on as a student. Ever since his study of the sitar in India, Silver has been performing all over the world—from India and Pakistan, to Europe, to the United States. He has also taught at various universities as a music consultant and composer.
The surbahar is a very different instrument from the sitar. The classical string instrument is large—typically over 51 inches—with a very long neck. Its tonality is lower than that of the sitar, and it is sometimes called a bass sitar.
"The relationship of the sitar to the surbahar is that of the violin to the cello," said Silver.
Shubha Sankaran will play the surbahar at the Ghandi Celebration. She studied the instrument with Ustad Imrat Khan, the world's widely acknowledged master of the surbahar. Her repertoire with Indian music is notably diverse. She has experience with tanam, a method of improvisation on vocal music using the repetition of certain syllables to create a sort of rhythmic pulse. She has also studied dhrupad, the oldest genre of Indian classical singing. It is monophonic, consisting of only one melodic line, and is usually sung by a solo singer or a small group of singers. It includes a section of improvisation over repeated syllables.
Sankaran has performed all over the world, has released several CD's of original music, composed the music for the radio series Passages to India and the award-winning 1997 BBC documentary Monsoon, and has composed, arranged and performed original music for the ballet "Dasavatara."
Even if few are familiar with instruments such as the surbahar, in particular, there is no doubt that Hindi music has grown in popularity in the West.
"Hindi music is no longer a curiosity," said Silver. "It's out there and pretty well-known." He attributes this popularity of Hindi music in the Western world to factors such as the success of Bollywood and the growing number of Indian immigrants in the United States, among other factors.
"Hindi music has entered into the mainstream of Western music because bands such as The Beatles incorporated the sitar and other Hindi elements into their songs," said Silver. "When Hindi music became popular in the Western world, it gained new respect at home and is now very much alive and well in terms of audiences and people studying it."
Brian Silver and Shubha Sankaran's performance will be at the Annual Gandhi Celebration in Skinner Hall 400 (Thekla Hall) on Friday, Oct. 2 from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m.
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