Raj Begum: Radical, not a rebel
Ever since its promos went viral on social media, I have been eager to watch Songs of Paradise, a film inspired by the iconic Kashmiri singer Raj Begum. I approached it with trepidation as most recent films on Kashmir from the Bollywood stable have been infuriatingly dishonest. This short film, available on Amazon Prime, defies that trend: it is good, though it could have been better. Even so, there is no denying the film has revived Raj Begum, and the interest of the millennials and the Alpha generation in her songs. The first objective has been achieved. More holistic work will always be hoped for and more than welcome.
The opening credits clarify that the film is not a documentary on Raj Begum there by laying ground for taking artistic liberties in fictionalizing events and dramatizing episodes of her life. It is a musical celebrating the timeless songs of Raj Begum. The curation of her eight most popular songs from the 1950s and 60s, recreated digitally with fresh voices, is as good as it gets. However, these songs have been strung around a sketchy biographical thread. Indeed, the story of the singer has been sanitized, both at a personal as well as professional level.
Raj Begum came from one of the lowest social strata of the Kashmiri society and made some unconventional choices in her private life. Yet, the script has a predictable storyline: a girl with prodigious talent in a conservative Muslim society endures the regressive system only to come out shining on top. Since the story is set in Kashmir, there are no minority or caste angles, so the focus is sharp on gender bias.
Raj Begum may have been a radical but was not a rebel. She didn’t fight the established authority; she endured change. Her life is a narrative of two important forms of resistance, social defiance and cultural renaissance. Consequently, her songs embodied resilience in the context of cultural revival and amidst political flux. She sought to bridge rather than break social barriers and assert Kashmiri identity without direct confrontation. She provided soft power.
Yet, because of a straitjacketed framework, the story has come out as undifferentiated. It is hardly different from a Bollywood story from across the country. In this it reflects the prevailing political narrative of homogeneity and uniformity. In making Raj Begum’s song accessible, the specificity of her being has been sacrificed.
Her contributions to the musical heritage of Kashmir Valley are more than her songs and struggles to overcome societal barriers. Besides the individual, there is also a social, political and cultural context for the singer and the songs. Raj Begum, born in 1927, was growing up literally alongside the freedom struggle of Kashmiris from the Dogra regime. Her life personalized the transition of Kashmiri society from feudalism to democracy.
Naturally, her songs captured the transitional spirit of a society grappling with feudal remnants while propagating arts under a progressive movement. All this coalesced into promoting Kashmiri culture as a bulwark of identity. Raj Begum’s songs were an expression of this identity and evolved to become an element of it. Which is why she is so respected by Kashmiris all around the globe. The absence of this overall context results in the rich and robust personality of Raj Begum becoming an anemic and frail character.
The anti-feudal movement also gave a massive push for women empowerment. It all came together in the Naya Kashmir manifesto in 1944. This along with state institutions like Radio Kashmir, established in 1947, gave wind to the wings of Raj Begum and many others. More than being the first woman singer, she ought to be remembered and celebrated for leading the movement to make Kashmiri music accessible to the masses. Till then commercial singing by women in public space was restricted to and dominated by the Hafizas who were patronized by the urban trading elite and the landed gentry of the Valley. One of the most famous Hafizas of that time, a contemporary of Raj Begum, called Gille, was much sought after for her singing and dancing in Lahore and Punjab. Hafiza Gille used to reside at Dalgate, not too far from Magarmal Bagh where Raj begum lived.
Influenced by the first flushes of modernization, Raj begum chose poetry, which is more lyrical and introspective, favoring folksongs and ghazals. Through these she explored personal romance, emotional intensity, and harmony without the explicit Sufi or reformist edge. Her songs underscore timeless longing not necessarily for spiritual enlightenment which resonated with the nascent and emerging educated young middle class. This gave her an intergenerational appeal and enlarged the audience for vernacular songs accompanied by music.
She avoided overt mysticism, which traditionally has been the spine of most forms of singing in the Valley, both historically and in modern era. Her repertoire featured less from classical poets. She was more at home with, for instance, the romanticism of a Rasool Mir than the mysticism of a Shams Faqir. Her favorite poet seems to have been Maqbool Shah Kralawari, the eminent 19th-century Kashmiri poet known for fusion of mystical yearning, romantic love which triumphs over rigid doctrine. She sung his translation of the Persian romantic tale Gulrez during her 1954 audition at Radio Kashmir. It became cult striking a deep chord with listeners, setting her on the path of immortality.
Her other favorites poet seems to have been Rasa Javidani (Abdul Qadoos), a poet and singer from Bhaderwah. The substance of his poetry too centered on themes of love as a transformative force amid heartbreak. He expressed his personal misfortunes and human bonds in a melancholic manner to which Raj Begum gave soulful emotional depth. Mashraev Thas Janane, a mesmerizing poem set to music that became one of her most enduring hits was written by Rasa. This song captured themes of longing and memory and remains a staple in Kashmiri cultural history and memory. Paradoxically, while Raj Begum sang it for the Bollywood film Shayar-e-Kashmir, Mehjoor, 1972, she was neither credited nor is the song a part of the official commercial soundtrack release.
Generally, her songs were romantic rather than religious. Many of her hits, such as Wesye Gulan Aavay Bahar, a folk song about the regenerative season of spring evoking remembrance is played every day even now, sixty plus years later! Raj Begum’s career is thus deeply intertwined with Kashmiri poetic heritage, as distinct from the Rishi-Sufi heritage. For her, romantic love is a central motif, less the allegorical spiritual love, more the heartfelt longing.
Another aspect that remains unexplored is her relationship with contemporaries, including legends like Ghulam Hassan Sofi. Their collaboration delivered duets like, “Wole az vasiye dokh sokh maesh’reath”, penned by famous radio newsreader, Makhan Lal Bekas. Or “Wal az vesiyay dilchen taran” sung hauntingly by the two who dominated the music scene of Kashmir from 1940s onwards. Her most famous duet though is Rum gayam sheehas, begur gav bane myon, with Naseem Akhar. The lyrics of this song written by Mirza Arif Baig are extremely layered.
Raj Begum helped Kashmiris in finding deeper roots. Her songs brought people like me who were not culturally aware to engaging with Kashmiri poetry. It also connected me, for instance, with my mother and her mother in a non-familial way. We were not mother and son but two Kashmiris who enjoyed the songs of a singer. For me, she was not the epitome of melodious singing, but a raw emotion deeply rooted in contemporary Kashmiri poetic traditions expressing generic emotions of love and longing delivered in a soprano style with a timbre to match an opera singer. This was the hallmark of Raj Begum’s craft and creativity which has taken her voice to “across the globe” as predicted in 1958 by ace Kashmiri numerologist Pir Hafizullah.
(The author is a Contributing Editor of Greater Kashmir. He is former Minister of Culture of Government J&K).
