Thesis Chapters by Vivek Virani
For centuries, the songs of devotional poet-saints have been an integral part of Indian religious... more For centuries, the songs of devotional poet-saints have been an integral part of Indian religious life. Countless regional traditions of bhajans (devotional songs) have been able to maintain their existence by adapting to serve the contemporary social needs of their participants. This dissertation draws on fieldwork conducted over 2014-2015 with contemporary bhajan performers from many different genres and styles throughout India. It highlights a specific tradition in the Central Indian region of Malwa based on poetry by Kabir and other Sants (anti-establishment poet-saints) performed by lower-caste singers. This tradition was largely unheard-of half a century ago, but is now a major part of Malwa’s cultural life that has facilitated the creation of lower-caste spiritual networks and created a space for those networks to engage in discourse about social issues. Malwa’s bhajan singers have also become part of India’s popular religious and musical life as certain performers have attained celebrity status and been recognized at the national level as living bearers of the Sant tradition.
This dissertation follows performers and songs from Malwa into new contexts and explores the processes by which performers and audiences in diverse styles and contexts use Sant bhajans to construct understandings of the self. It further addresses the role of Sant bhajans in the formation of new communities comprising members from previously disparate social groups. It interrogates why Sant bhajans might be relevant and appealing to Indians from so many backgrounds and how these bhajans and their performers are relevant to major cultural, religious, and social discourses in India today. It describes and analyzes the various processes by which Sant bhajans are creating new arenas for artistic, spiritual, and social dialogue, and allowing previously marginalized voices to contribute to the formation of Indian culture.
Conferences & workshops by Vivek Virani
2020, January 17 – 18: Organisation of the international workshop at the University of Tübingen "... more 2020, January 17 – 18: Organisation of the international workshop at the University of Tübingen "From Sacred Hymns to Devotional Songs. A Diachronic and Transcultural Study of Religious Singing in India” as part of the interdisciplinary Exploration Full Fund Project "Sacred Sound – Musical Manifestations of the Sacred between Theory and Practice" (Excellence Strategy University of Tübingen).
Papers by Vivek Virani
Rethinking Musical Mode, 2025
https://www.shaker.de/de/site/content/shop/index.asp?lang=de&ID=8&ISBN=978-3-8440-9793-1
Songs of Social Protest: International Perspectives, 2018
“Pandits are telling you lies upon lies!” An audience of thousands listen raptly as Prahlad Tipan... more “Pandits are telling you lies upon lies!” An audience of thousands listen raptly as Prahlad Tipanya sings the poetry of 15th-century mystic, Kabir. Most of them, like Tipanya himself, belong to hereditary castes considered “untouchable” by the traditional elite. “The Brahmins say even our shadows are polluting to touch,” Tipanya discourses between verses, “but Kabir tells us the same divinity exists within all.” Only a few decades ago in the Malwa region of central India, Kabir poetry was performed by a few isolated elderly singers without any audience. Now it is an inextricable part of Malwa’s popular and a marker of identity and solidarity for Malwa’s lower castes.
The first part of the chapter analyzes the performative and discursive processes through which a nationally revered poet-saint is being reinterpreted (perhaps more accurately, reclaimed) as a voice of the subaltern. South Asia’s poet-saints have been immortalized through their verses, steeped in a profound spiritual devotion that historically has both camouflaged and legitimized the poetry’s anti-establishment implications. This section discusses the reformist goals of singers who blend centuries-old South Asian socioreligious principles with distinctly modern ideologies of universal human rights and subaltern identity formation. These are analyzed in comparison to other religious reform movements and in consideration of theoretical critiques of the efficacy and scope of such reform movements.
The chapter then explores societal transformations unanticipated by the Kabir singers, as Prahlad Tipanya has risen to the status of a cultural icon, performing on national and international stages and receiving recognition from the Indian government. Technological modernity is changing the nature of cultural dialogue between the village and the metropolis; the established caste-based framework of social capital is intersecting with newer frameworks of mobility and aspiration. Brahmins in Malwa, mostly poor farmers themselves, are now in the peculiar position of articulating their social superiority over singers who are considerably wealthier, who draw visiting artists and scholars from India and abroad, and who are featured on national radio and television. For many urban listeners, Tipanya’s lower caste status even confers a degree of “authenticity” as an oppressed cultural hero. This section explores broader questions of religious protest singing in relation to social capital and the formation of a “national culture.”
For centuries, the songs of devotional poet-saints have been an integral part of Indian religious... more For centuries, the songs of devotional poet-saints have been an integral part of Indian religious life. Countless regional traditions of bhajans (devotional songs) have been able to maintain their existence by adapting to serve the contemporary social needs of their participants. This dissertation draws on fieldwork conducted over 2014-2015 with contemporary bhajan performers from many different genres and styles throughout India. It highlights a specific tradition in the Central Indian region of Malwa based on poetry by Kabir and other Sants (anti-establishment poet-saints) performed by lower-caste singers. This tradition was largely unheard-of half a century ago, but is now a major part of Malwa’s cultural life that has facilitated the creation of lower-caste spiritual networks and created a space for those networks to engage in discourse about social issues. Malwa’s bhajan singers have also become part of India’s popular religious and musical life as certain performers have attai...
Ethnomusicology, 2022
Malvi nirguṇ bhajans, songs once used primarily for spiritual contemplation, are now being perfor... more Malvi nirguṇ bhajans, songs once used primarily for spiritual contemplation, are now being performed onstage in a variety of new contexts. I argue that these contexts are more than commercial opportunities and provide performers the opportunity to engage in new processes of self-authorship that I term “aspirational subjectivities.” These subjectivities amalgamate spiritual frameworks of aspiration derived from mystical poetry, socioreligious frameworks of aspiration inspired by lower-caste activist movements, and socioeconomic frameworks of aspiration spurred by India's neoliberal zeitgeist. This article demonstrates how musicians negotiate spiritual, social, and economic aspirational subjectivities through performance practice to overcome long-internalized stigmas of caste discrimination.
Music and Consciousness 2, 2019
This chapter considers the question of the extent to which composers can manipulate the conscious... more This chapter considers the question of the extent to which composers can manipulate the conscious and unconscious experience of performers and listeners. It addresses a subset of solo tabla compositions by Suresh Talwalkar called mūrchana racanā, meaning ‘compositions that make one bewildered, insensible, or unconscious’. These compositions are so named due to Talwalkar’s belief that their musical structure, based on a complex polymetre, can facilitate altered states of consciousness (ASC). The chapter analyses these rhythmic structures and their possible effects on consciousness, distinguishing between the experiences of listeners and performers. It also discusses how narratives and experiences of ‘mūrchana consciousness’ draw upon pre-existing cultural and philosophical beliefs underlying the North Indian classical music performance context. It concludes that musical structure, performance setting, and metaphysical beliefs all play essential roles in shaping unique experiences of ...
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Thesis Chapters by Vivek Virani
This dissertation follows performers and songs from Malwa into new contexts and explores the processes by which performers and audiences in diverse styles and contexts use Sant bhajans to construct understandings of the self. It further addresses the role of Sant bhajans in the formation of new communities comprising members from previously disparate social groups. It interrogates why Sant bhajans might be relevant and appealing to Indians from so many backgrounds and how these bhajans and their performers are relevant to major cultural, religious, and social discourses in India today. It describes and analyzes the various processes by which Sant bhajans are creating new arenas for artistic, spiritual, and social dialogue, and allowing previously marginalized voices to contribute to the formation of Indian culture.
Conferences & workshops by Vivek Virani
Papers by Vivek Virani
The first part of the chapter analyzes the performative and discursive processes through which a nationally revered poet-saint is being reinterpreted (perhaps more accurately, reclaimed) as a voice of the subaltern. South Asia’s poet-saints have been immortalized through their verses, steeped in a profound spiritual devotion that historically has both camouflaged and legitimized the poetry’s anti-establishment implications. This section discusses the reformist goals of singers who blend centuries-old South Asian socioreligious principles with distinctly modern ideologies of universal human rights and subaltern identity formation. These are analyzed in comparison to other religious reform movements and in consideration of theoretical critiques of the efficacy and scope of such reform movements.
The chapter then explores societal transformations unanticipated by the Kabir singers, as Prahlad Tipanya has risen to the status of a cultural icon, performing on national and international stages and receiving recognition from the Indian government. Technological modernity is changing the nature of cultural dialogue between the village and the metropolis; the established caste-based framework of social capital is intersecting with newer frameworks of mobility and aspiration. Brahmins in Malwa, mostly poor farmers themselves, are now in the peculiar position of articulating their social superiority over singers who are considerably wealthier, who draw visiting artists and scholars from India and abroad, and who are featured on national radio and television. For many urban listeners, Tipanya’s lower caste status even confers a degree of “authenticity” as an oppressed cultural hero. This section explores broader questions of religious protest singing in relation to social capital and the formation of a “national culture.”