Music played an important role in furthering the nationalist cause during the Independence movement. Patriotism, unity, equality and other ...
Music played an important role in furthering the nationalist cause during the Independence movement. Patriotism, unity, equality and other similar themes were the subject of songs that were sung as part of the prabhat pheris or early morning processions that were part of the agitational repertoire of the freedom fighters. Songs focusing on specific political leaders were also included on such occasions.
Some Hindustani musicians also sang songs of patriotism in certain situations. It is well known that music educationist and vocalist Vishnu Digambar Paluskar sang Vande Mataram at some annual sessions of the Indian National Congress. But others also responded to the political climate. For example, Manji Khan composed and sang a song Charkheke Karaamatse Lenge Swarajya Lenge at the Blavatsky Lodge in Bombay in 1930 in support of the Swadeshi Movement and taught this song to children participating in the prabhat pheris.
Even Gauhar Jan, the iconic vocalist of the late-nineteenth and early-twentieth centuries, was featured in a special concert held in Bombay on July 15, 1922. This concert was held in aid of BG Horniman, the editor of The Bombay Chronicle during the second decade of the twentieth century. Horniman who had been deported to the United Kingdom by the colonial government for his articles against the Rowlatt Act...
