Between 1947 and the early 1950s, much of the music played on the state-owned Radio Pakistan comprised Urdu film songs, some Western popular and Eastern classical music, ghazals and patriotic ditties.

‘Sufisaints bring people together. And so do the musicians and singers who sing Qawwali, an Indian localised form of Sufimusic,’ said Haji Mohammed Idris of the Qutbi Brothers, one of India’s most ...

On Friday afternoon, visitors to Connaught Place’s Central Park were in for a pleasant surprise. They may have walked in for a routine stroll with friends or some alone time, but in no time, they were ...

Witty one-liners by writer Dr Arfa Syeda Zehra taking subtle digs at the provincial government dominated an enchanting discussion on qawali, titled ‘Festivity of Soul: the Tradition of Qawali’, at the ...

Mumbai: Zubair Azmi, director of Urdu Markaz, a literary and cultural organisation promoting Urdu language, calls Bhindi Bazaar “the cultural hub of erstwhile Bombay.” It is where the who’s who of ...

The Chishti order, the most prominent Sufi brotherhood in Pakistan, India, and Afghanistan, has long celebrated the normativity of qawwali as an expression of divine love. Annemarie Schimmel has noted ...

Famed British-Pakistani singer Zayn Malik has been the center of attention for quite a while now, and it seems like the singer has more in store for fans. The 25-year-old singer recently confirmed ...

One of the characteristics of the modern weltanschauung (worldview) is to identify religion as distinct from culture. Islam, and Islam in Pakistan, doesn’t escape this bifurcation either. One popular ...