In the wide world of indie music, there is a lot of variety on offer, and your taste in music defines you as a person. As a hipster. A metalhead. A rocker. A lounge piranha. But what if the musicians themselves were to tell you where all their minds wandered off to when listening to music? In our last version, we told you about Sahil Makhija’s childhood pre-metal love for boy bands and unlikely fascination for Spice Girls. Come this edition, Mame Khan waxes eloquent on how he found a bit of home all the way in Spain’s ethnic flamenco music.
The Common Strains in Manganiyar folk and Flamenco gypsy music in Mame Khan’s Words
I listen to folk and Sufi, Qawwali, Ghulab Ali Khan’s ghazals is something I like. I listen to music from Iran. I listen to music of the legends. Apart from that, the music of the Hispanics is something I really associate with. The Hispanics, the flamenco music of the gypsies is similar to our kind of music; it is possible that their music has travelled there from here. When I went out of India for the first time in 1999, then I had played the dholak with a French troupe, apart from that I worked with another Irani group for six-seven years where there were a few musicians, they would sing Irani music, and I would sing Bulleh Shah. As far as flamenco is concerned, it is very similar to what in Rajasthan is called jangra, the Manganiyar style of music, you will find that touch there in Hispanic music. I haven’t sung flamenco music per se, but I have sung with flamenco musicians. This was when I was performing in Napoli in France, and then in Spain.
People have said since time immemorial, and I am saying it too, music has no language. There is no barrier between musicians, and if one indulges in music practically, one perceives that. And not just that, there are several similar strains in the Caucasian languages, and our languages. Like ‘thakur’, for instance. Or ‘ek, do, teen, chaar.’ Then there is ‘shabaash’.
However, the dance in Rajasthani folk and flamenco has no similarities. Flamenco has slight similarities with Indian Classical, that is Kathak dance, and flamenco is rhythmic, like kathak. In the dance form, they also keep time through their feet. Kalbelia (a traditional acrobatic folk dance form belonging to the Kalbelia tribe) and flamenco are not similar as dance forms but similar when it comes to the feeling. Flamenco is a dance form as it is, but the Hispanic tribe that sings, the nomadic gypsy tribes that sings, their songs that originate in the deserts, like the Manganiyar tribe, are similar.
To know more about possible connections between flamenco and manganiyar, read below:
Origin of Flamenco
Flamenco is a form of Spanish folk music and dance that originated in Andalusia in southern Spain. It includes cante (singing), toque (guitar playing), baile (dance) and palmas (handclaps). The genre grew out of Andalusian and Romani music and dance styles. Flamenco is often associated with the ethnic Romani people of Spain (Gitanos) and a number of famous flamenco artists are of this ethnicity. The Romani people themselves are a diaspora of Indian origin living in Europe and the Americas.
A theory proposed by Andalusian historian Blas Infante suggests that the word flamenco comes from the Hispano-Arabic term ‘fellah mengu’, meaning “expelled peasant”. Infante proposed that the term referred to the ethnic Andalusians practising Islam, the Moriscos, who in order to avoid forced exile and religious persecution, joined with the Romani newcomers.
History of the Manganiyar:
The Manganiar are Muslim communities of singers and musicians in the Thar desert of Rajasthan in the districts of Barmer and Jaisalmer bordering Pakistan. Significant numbers are also found in the districts of Tharparkar desert and Sanghar in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. They are famous for their classical folk music.
To read about Mame Khan and the Manganiyar Seduction, click here.
