Indo-Caribbean music
Encyclopedia
Indo-Caribbean music refers the music culture of the descendants - now numbering over a million - of indentured immigrants who came from India between 1845 and 1917 to various parts of the Caribbean, primarily Trinidad
, Guyana
, and Suriname
.
Most of the indentured workers were peasants from the Bhojpuri
-speaking region of North India. Accordingly, Bhojpuri-derived folk music constituted the single largest category of Indo-Caribbean traditional music, comprehending a wide variety of genres. Prominent among women’s music have been wedding songs, including ribald songs and dances associated with all-female matkor (matticore) celebrations. Women also traditionally sang childbirth songs (“sohar
”), work songs like jatsar, and other miscellaneous Bhojpuri songs. In English-speaking Trinidad and Guyana, where the Bhojpuri language has largely died out, these songs are no longer flourishing as amateur collective folksongs, though it remains common for singers —perhaps hired semi-professionals— to be engaged to sing them at Hindu weddings, perhaps with the aid of notebooks with the words written in the Roman script. In Suriname, where Bhojpuri is still widely spoken, these traditions remain more vital.
A variety of other songs derived from Bhojpuri tradition were more associated with male performers. These included renditions of the narrative heroic ballad Alhâ, songs associated with folk theater like “Harichand dance,” and a shorter narrative song-type called birha. Birha has declined dramatically in recent decades, and Alhâ and foilk theater have disappeared (though Ramlila theater remains popular). Clubs of (primarily) male singers also formed to sing the “Râmcharitmânas” of Tulsidas, and chowtâl, associated with the vernal phagwa (“phagwah”) or holi festival. Both are sung in a vigorous antiphonal style, with animated dholak drumming. “Mânas” singing, although by no means extinct, has declined in tandem with the decline of Hindi comprehension. However, chowtâl remains very popular in all three countries and among their secondary diasporas in the US and Holland, where innumerable groups convene every phagwa season to sing, despite the texts being only partially understood by the Trinidadians and Guyanese. Indeed, chowtal appears to be thriving more in the Bhojpuri diaspora —including among the Indo-Fijians— than in the Bhojpuri region itself, where it is declining. There are in fact several sorts of marginal survivals in Indo-Caribbean music culture, including the archaic form of birha that was formerly common in the region. One entity in the category of marginal survivals may be the dantal (dandtal, “dhantal
”), a metal rod struck with a clapper, that, although evidently of subcontinental Indian origin, is now rare in that country, while pervading Indo-Caribbean (and Indo-Fijian) music-making.
Other forms of Indo-Caribbean music may be regarded as neo-traditional in that they have evolved in forms quite distinct from counterparts or sources in India, while not becoming overly creolized. Primary in this category is the genre known as “local-classical music” in Trinidad, “tan-singing” in Guyana, and “baithak gâna” in Suriname. This genre comprises idiosyncratic forms of sub-genres like thumri, dhrupad, tilâna, and bihâg which are quite distinct from their namesakes in subcontinental Indian music. Trinidadian local-classical music has suffered, like other genres, from the erosion of its linguistic base, but it remains reasonably strong, and constitutes a truly unique feature of that island’s music, alongside such better-known creole styles as calypso and steelband.
Another remarkably lively and original neo-traditional music in Trinidad is tassa drumming, which combines traditional Indian features with various innovative rhythms in a rich and complex system of “hands” (composite rhythms). Tassa is indispensable at Hindu weddings, and is also heard at various other festivities, as well as the Muslim commemoration of Muharram, called “Hosay.”
Trinidad, with its political stability, relative affluence, and lively creole music scene, has been the most dynamic center of Indo-Caribbean music. The once-vital Indian music scene in Guyana has been weakened by poverty, political repression, and emigration since the 1960s. While folk music culture remains relatively strong in Suriname (especially due to the persistence of the Bhojpuri language), that country has not hosted the same sort of vigorous renaissance of Indo-Caribbean culture such as occurred in Trinidad since the 1970s. Perhaps inspired by the creole calypso competitions, lively competitions have become features of the Indo-Trinidian music scene—including competitions in “tassa
”, chutney-soca, “chowtal
”, Ramayan-singing, and other genres.
Accordingly, it was in Trinidad in the 1980s (albeit partially under Surinamese inspiration) that women’s matticore (matkor) songs and dances came to be reinvented and repackaged under the (traditional Indo-Surinamese name) of “chutney.” These songs and dances literally came out of the closet, that is, instead of being performed only by women, with no men present, they started to be performed socially first at neighborhood weddings, by men and women together, and then, from the 1980s, in public dances, with hired chutney ensembles. The traditional ensemble consisted of a singer with “harmonium
”, “dholak
”, and dantal, but by the 1990s it was more common to use dance-band instruments and “soca
”-style drum machine; hence the name “chutney-soca
,” and the style also was often further creolized by the use of English rather than Hindi lyrics. Within the Indian community, the chutney vogue was controversial, as conservatives were embarrassed by the sight of women drinking and dancing uninhibitedly in public. Fusions with soca were also controversial, but most Indians, as well as many creoles, have come to appreciate and enjoy chutney-soca as a lively enrichment of the national music scene, and as a festive symbol of racial collaboration, creativity, and merry-making. Trinidad is now often projected accordingly as “the land of calypso
, steelband, and chutney-soca.” It might be appropriate to include tassa as well in this rubric, as tassa drumming is extraordinarily popular and vital, and is often heard at creole functions as well as Indian ones.
In Hindu temples, young and old sing devotional bhajan
s, typically of mainstream North Indian rather than Bhojpuri derivation. However, some styles—such as some of the Kabir bhajans accompanied by khanjri hand-drum—appear to be legacies of Bhojpuri tradition. Muslims also sing group devotional qasidas and other songs in styles akin to bhajans.
Also worthy of mention are the distinctive songs, dances, and drum traditions associated with the South Indian (or “Madrasi”) immigrants and their descendants, including worship of the goddess Mariamman
, overlapping with worship of Kali
.
Meanwhile, many Indo-Caribbeans are avid fans as well as amateur performers of Bollywood
music. Trinidad, once again, exhibits the most active scene in this genre, especially in the form of the Mastana Bahar amateur competition network. In general, many Indo-Caribbeans —while being patriotic Trinis, Guyanese, or Surinamese— are also proud of their ethnic ancestry, and find in cultivation of various forms of Indian music a way of maintaining that identity. Elderly fans of traditional musics lament that the younger generations seem to be oriented less toward traditional culture than toward pop chutney and film music (not to mention reggae
, soca
, hip-hop, and the like). However, traditional and neo-traditional musics—from tassa to chowtal—continue to exhibit remarkable resiliency. These traditions, as well as pop chutney, also flourish in secondary diaspora sites like New York and the Netherlands.
Trinidad
Trinidad is the larger and more populous of the two major islands and numerous landforms which make up the island nation of Trinidad and Tobago. It is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and lies just off the northeastern coast of Venezuela. With an area of it is also the fifth largest in...
, Guyana
Guyana
Guyana , officially the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, previously the colony of British Guiana, is a sovereign state on the northern coast of South America that is culturally part of the Anglophone Caribbean. Guyana was a former colony of the Dutch and of the British...
, and Suriname
Suriname
Suriname , officially the Republic of Suriname , is a country in northern South America. It borders French Guiana to the east, Guyana to the west, Brazil to the south, and on the north by the Atlantic Ocean. Suriname was a former colony of the British and of the Dutch, and was previously known as...
.
Most of the indentured workers were peasants from the Bhojpuri
Bhojpuri language
Bhojpuri is a language spoken in parts of north-central and eastern India. It is spoken in the western part of state of Bihar, the northwestern part of Jharkhand, and the Purvanchal region of Uttar Pradesh , as well as adjoining parts of the Nepal Terai. Bhojpuri is also spoken in Guyana,...
-speaking region of North India. Accordingly, Bhojpuri-derived folk music constituted the single largest category of Indo-Caribbean traditional music, comprehending a wide variety of genres. Prominent among women’s music have been wedding songs, including ribald songs and dances associated with all-female matkor (matticore) celebrations. Women also traditionally sang childbirth songs (“sohar
Sohar
Sohar is the most developed city in Sultanate of Oman outside the capital Muscat. It is about 200 kilometers north of Muscat. Sohar was an ancient capital of Oman and many believe it to be the birthplace of Sinbad the Sailor...
”), work songs like jatsar, and other miscellaneous Bhojpuri songs. In English-speaking Trinidad and Guyana, where the Bhojpuri language has largely died out, these songs are no longer flourishing as amateur collective folksongs, though it remains common for singers —perhaps hired semi-professionals— to be engaged to sing them at Hindu weddings, perhaps with the aid of notebooks with the words written in the Roman script. In Suriname, where Bhojpuri is still widely spoken, these traditions remain more vital.
A variety of other songs derived from Bhojpuri tradition were more associated with male performers. These included renditions of the narrative heroic ballad Alhâ, songs associated with folk theater like “Harichand dance,” and a shorter narrative song-type called birha. Birha has declined dramatically in recent decades, and Alhâ and foilk theater have disappeared (though Ramlila theater remains popular). Clubs of (primarily) male singers also formed to sing the “Râmcharitmânas” of Tulsidas, and chowtâl, associated with the vernal phagwa (“phagwah”) or holi festival. Both are sung in a vigorous antiphonal style, with animated dholak drumming. “Mânas” singing, although by no means extinct, has declined in tandem with the decline of Hindi comprehension. However, chowtâl remains very popular in all three countries and among their secondary diasporas in the US and Holland, where innumerable groups convene every phagwa season to sing, despite the texts being only partially understood by the Trinidadians and Guyanese. Indeed, chowtal appears to be thriving more in the Bhojpuri diaspora —including among the Indo-Fijians— than in the Bhojpuri region itself, where it is declining. There are in fact several sorts of marginal survivals in Indo-Caribbean music culture, including the archaic form of birha that was formerly common in the region. One entity in the category of marginal survivals may be the dantal (dandtal, “dhantal
Dhantal
The dhantal is a long steel rod which was adapted from the axle used to connect the yokes of the bullocks that transported the cane-filled carts on the estates in Trinidad and Tobago. The metal horseshoe used on the estate's horses and mules was used to strike the dhantal. In this way the dhantal...
”), a metal rod struck with a clapper, that, although evidently of subcontinental Indian origin, is now rare in that country, while pervading Indo-Caribbean (and Indo-Fijian) music-making.
Other forms of Indo-Caribbean music may be regarded as neo-traditional in that they have evolved in forms quite distinct from counterparts or sources in India, while not becoming overly creolized. Primary in this category is the genre known as “local-classical music” in Trinidad, “tan-singing” in Guyana, and “baithak gâna” in Suriname. This genre comprises idiosyncratic forms of sub-genres like thumri, dhrupad, tilâna, and bihâg which are quite distinct from their namesakes in subcontinental Indian music. Trinidadian local-classical music has suffered, like other genres, from the erosion of its linguistic base, but it remains reasonably strong, and constitutes a truly unique feature of that island’s music, alongside such better-known creole styles as calypso and steelband.
Another remarkably lively and original neo-traditional music in Trinidad is tassa drumming, which combines traditional Indian features with various innovative rhythms in a rich and complex system of “hands” (composite rhythms). Tassa is indispensable at Hindu weddings, and is also heard at various other festivities, as well as the Muslim commemoration of Muharram, called “Hosay.”
Trinidad, with its political stability, relative affluence, and lively creole music scene, has been the most dynamic center of Indo-Caribbean music. The once-vital Indian music scene in Guyana has been weakened by poverty, political repression, and emigration since the 1960s. While folk music culture remains relatively strong in Suriname (especially due to the persistence of the Bhojpuri language), that country has not hosted the same sort of vigorous renaissance of Indo-Caribbean culture such as occurred in Trinidad since the 1970s. Perhaps inspired by the creole calypso competitions, lively competitions have become features of the Indo-Trinidian music scene—including competitions in “tassa
Tassa
Tassa is a form of kettle drum, presumably of Persian derivation. Tassa drums are widespread all over India. Typically, one or more tassa drums are played together with a heavy bass drum called dhol, perhaps along with brass cymbals or a metal shaker...
”, chutney-soca, “chowtal
Chowtal
Chowtal, aside from being the name of a "taal" or meter in Hindustani classical music, is a form of folksong of North India's Bhojpuri region, sung by amateurs during the vernal Phagwa or Holi festival....
”, Ramayan-singing, and other genres.
Accordingly, it was in Trinidad in the 1980s (albeit partially under Surinamese inspiration) that women’s matticore (matkor) songs and dances came to be reinvented and repackaged under the (traditional Indo-Surinamese name) of “chutney.” These songs and dances literally came out of the closet, that is, instead of being performed only by women, with no men present, they started to be performed socially first at neighborhood weddings, by men and women together, and then, from the 1980s, in public dances, with hired chutney ensembles. The traditional ensemble consisted of a singer with “harmonium
Harmonium
A harmonium is a free-standing keyboard instrument similar to a reed organ. Sound is produced by air being blown through sets of free reeds, resulting in a sound similar to that of an accordion...
”, “dholak
Dholak
The Dholak is a North Indian, Pakistani and Nepalese double-headed hand-drum Madal. The name dholki may also refer to a slightly different instrument that uses high-pitch tabla style syahi masala on its treble skin. This instrument is also known as Naal or Dholki....
”, and dantal, but by the 1990s it was more common to use dance-band instruments and “soca
Soca music
Soca is a style of music from Trinidad and Tobago. Soca is a musical development of traditional Trinidadian calypso, through loans from the 1960s onwards from predominantly black popular music....
”-style drum machine; hence the name “chutney-soca
Chutney-soca
In Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana & Suriname Chutney-Soca music is a crossover style of music incorporating Soca elements and Hindi-English lyrics, Chutney music, with Indian instruments like the dholak and dhantal....
,” and the style also was often further creolized by the use of English rather than Hindi lyrics. Within the Indian community, the chutney vogue was controversial, as conservatives were embarrassed by the sight of women drinking and dancing uninhibitedly in public. Fusions with soca were also controversial, but most Indians, as well as many creoles, have come to appreciate and enjoy chutney-soca as a lively enrichment of the national music scene, and as a festive symbol of racial collaboration, creativity, and merry-making. Trinidad is now often projected accordingly as “the land of calypso
Calypso
Calypso is the name of one of the Nereids in Greek mythology. The word may also refer to:- In fiction :*Calypso , songs from The Books of Bokonon from Kurt Vonnegut's novel Cat's Cradle...
, steelband, and chutney-soca.” It might be appropriate to include tassa as well in this rubric, as tassa drumming is extraordinarily popular and vital, and is often heard at creole functions as well as Indian ones.
In Hindu temples, young and old sing devotional bhajan
Bhajan
A Bhajan is any type of Indian devotional song. It has no fixed form: it may be as simple as a mantra or kirtan or as sophisticated as the dhrupad or kriti with music based on classical ragas and talas. It is normally lyrical, expressing love for the Divine...
s, typically of mainstream North Indian rather than Bhojpuri derivation. However, some styles—such as some of the Kabir bhajans accompanied by khanjri hand-drum—appear to be legacies of Bhojpuri tradition. Muslims also sing group devotional qasidas and other songs in styles akin to bhajans.
Also worthy of mention are the distinctive songs, dances, and drum traditions associated with the South Indian (or “Madrasi”) immigrants and their descendants, including worship of the goddess Mariamman
Mariamman
Māri ,Tulu, also known as Mariamman , both meaning "Mother Mari", spelt also Maariamma , or simply Amman or Aatha is the South Indian Hindu goddess of disease and rain. She is the main South Indian mother goddess, predominant in the rural areas of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and...
, overlapping with worship of Kali
Kali
' , also known as ' , is the Hindu goddess associated with power, shakti. The name Kali comes from kāla, which means black, time, death, lord of death, Shiva. Kali means "the black one". Since Shiva is called Kāla - the eternal time, Kālī, his consort, also means "Time" or "Death" . Hence, Kāli is...
.
Meanwhile, many Indo-Caribbeans are avid fans as well as amateur performers of Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...
music. Trinidad, once again, exhibits the most active scene in this genre, especially in the form of the Mastana Bahar amateur competition network. In general, many Indo-Caribbeans —while being patriotic Trinis, Guyanese, or Surinamese— are also proud of their ethnic ancestry, and find in cultivation of various forms of Indian music a way of maintaining that identity. Elderly fans of traditional musics lament that the younger generations seem to be oriented less toward traditional culture than toward pop chutney and film music (not to mention reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
, soca
Soca
The Soča or Isonzo is a 140 km long river that flows through western Slovenia and northeastern Italy. An Alpine river in character, its source lies in the Trenta Valley in the Julian Alps in Slovenia, at an elevation of around 1,100 metres...
, hip-hop, and the like). However, traditional and neo-traditional musics—from tassa to chowtal—continue to exhibit remarkable resiliency. These traditions, as well as pop chutney, also flourish in secondary diaspora sites like New York and the Netherlands.
Further Reading
- Manuel, Peter. East Indian Music in the West Indies: Tan-singing, Chutney, and the Making of Indo-Caribbean Culture. Temple University Press, 2000
- Arya, Usharbudh (1968). Ritual Songs and Folksongs of the Hindus of Surinam. London: E. J. Brill.
- Manuel, Peter (2000). East Indian Music in the West Indies: Tan-Singing, Chutney, and the Making of Indo-Caribbean Culture. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.ISBN 1-56639-763-4
- Manuel, Peter (2000). Tan-Singing of Trinidad and Guyana: Indo-Caribbean "Local-Classical Music.” Documentary video.
- Manuel, Peter (2009). “Transnational Chowtal: Bhojpuri Folksong from North India to the Caribbean, Fiji, and Beyond.” Asian Music 40/2: 1-32.
- Manuel, Peter (2010). “Tassa Thunder: Folk Music from India to the Caribbean.” Documentary video.
- Myers, Helen (1998). Music of Hindu Trinidad: Songs from the India Diaspora. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
- Tewari, Laxmi Ganesh (2011). Music of the Indian diaspora in Trinidad. Coconut Creek, FL: Caribbean Studies Press.