Seraiki nationalist anthems


Express June 14, 2010

SUNJERPUR: The increased quota of production for Seraiki telefilms by national and private television channels has encouraged singers in the area to record in Seraiki.

“Songs like Khotay sikay Mari in the telefilm Aba sain mendi shadi ker and charsi dhola have become incredibly popular in the area and several young people have taken to performing and recording in Seraiki to earn a living,” said Asif Jan, a performer.  “I am going to Karachi for to record my ninth album in Seraiki,” he said, adding that he hoped the genre became popular  and managed to carve its own niche in the music market in Pakistan.

“I always sang to portray emotion and I am in favour of a separate Seraiki province, said Azam, who added that Seraiki music was beginning to take on a nationalistic flavour in contrast to popular ‘Seraiki dhamal’ tunes heard at mazaars. “A lot of the new Seraiki music is about nationalism and the call for a separate province, the music is becoming very political now,” he said, adding that he felt this was the best way to disseminate his message and gain an audience.

A radio and TV singer, Shehzada Asif Ali Gilani, in an interview said that terrorism and skyrocketing prices had caused irreparable loss to singers, musicians and performers in general. “The political climate has made our lives much harder as live performances are now a security risk and people are so taken with the day-to-day ‘disasters’ that are happening that music and drama has taken the back seat,” he said. Gilani said that he felt this was the most important time for artists to strike back and raise their voices through their art. “Seraiki is an incredibly expressive language and the music has great potential, we hope to make it popular among the young Seraki-speaking generation and to motivate them,” he said. Mehmood, Gilani’s back-up singer, said that music was a key form of expression and could be used to motivate the masses. “We realise that today, our cause requires everyone’s support and so Seraiki musicians will not be left behind in the call for a separate province- we will sing our hearts out for this cause,” he said.

Thousands of artists are on the brink of poverty as they are not getting any programmes or contracts to perform at wedding ceremonies.

“The Seraiki peoples’ problems will only be solved after a Seraiki province is created,” Ajmal Sajid,  a student and an aspiring singer, said. Sajid occasionally sings back up for several artists and performs at his college.

Jam Munir Ahmed, Shabaz Nayyer, Ahsan Faridi, Abdul Ghaffar Mehr and Hameed Kanwal also said that Seraiki music was probably the key to ‘making the call for a separate province popular’. “Politics is much more effective when it is sung as an anthem, than shouted out in the Senate,” Ahsan Faridi said.

Published in the Express Tribune, June 14th, 2010.

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