The flute gathers dust

Creative expression is not only for pleasure. It must also be a factor while generating livelihood opportunities

Rahul Ghai Bikaner

As the deep sonorous saxophone-like voice of Piran Khan resonates aj kal bhural maand vasa (Oh brown cloud! Bless our region with rain and life), the noble qalam of Khwaja Ghulam Farid, the great desert Sufi mystic, wafts through a star-studded, serene moonscape amid the desert wilderness of Dodha, an interior settlement in Bikaner.

Others enthusiastically join him in a chorus. These self-effacing invocations to the rain gods have been of no avail this year. The lilting Rajasthani folk music traditions always promise ecstasy to mystical heights. They soothe the heart and soul alike. But not this year which faces the threat of a creeping drought, the third worst in 28 years. Again, 26 out of the 28 years were affected by drought.

The food, fodder and water crisis is of an unprecedented magnitude. Most villages of the desert districts of Thar have reported more than 75 to almost 100 per cent crop failure.
Prices of essential commodities like wheat, bajra, edible oil and kerosene have more than doubled. Fodder is scarce even at double the price. And, water has dried out. It is difficult to obtain water in the parched region even after immense effort. This drudgery is impregnated with
signs of a long winter of destitution and misery ahead.

Waris Ali, a singer from Rawala, a remote settlement in Indira Gandhi Nahar Project (IGNP) stage II canal command area in Bikaner, pointed out the water woes here. And, the water scarcity is not only due to failure of rains. "Even in the earlier months we faced drought-like situation. For us, it is a permanent drought. Forget irrigating our fields, we do not even have water to drink," he said.

Lack of opportunities for performance in the canal command area has forced him to go to Punjab to eke out a living through his musical performances.

Abdul Jabbar, another musician from Pugal, pointed out, "For the last 25 years, the state has been pushing the grand IGNP canal as a panacea of all ills. It promises to assuage the misery of drought. But, that has not happened yet. Almost every year we face a drought like situation."

The sagacious Nazre Khan, deft player of been, squatted near a dried water body in his field in a remote chak on the border with Pakistan. "We cannot do anything else but wait for water." Mohammad Sadiq from Ghulamwala breaks into a qalam of Sassi-Punnu, that debates the metaphysics of life and death through the depiction of tribulations of the harsh and blazing hot Thar. Soon, this gives way to ruminations about the apathy of policy planners and their failure to develop these resilient cultural traditions into lasting livelihood solutions.

Thousands of such families of musicians are scattered in the desert. They mostly belong to vulnerable communities and have survived through the ages as fringe groups with a feeble voice. They have been subordinated and discriminated in cases of access to entitlements. Many development schemes haven't touched their lives. These subaltern musicians are a paradox: they are vast repositories of raw creativity and are known for their renditions, enticing overtures and robust dissemination of secular culture. Yet, they are languishing in misery.

As the spectre of scarcity looms large, these musicians have no option but try to access drought relief work - digging earth and uprooting bushes - that does not need their skills. This has been the usual emergency drought relief response and is repeated every year. Their musical talent gets buried in the drought relief works. The fonts of ecstasy get metamorphosed into the wretched of the desert.