PoliticsCulture

Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan’s house bulldozed: Can his legacy be erased?

The demolition of Ustad Bismillah Khan’s home in Varanasi is more than the loss of a physical space. It is a painful erasure of cultural memory, artistic heritage and the syncretic traditions that shaped India’s plural identity.

Aishwarya Das Gupta
4 min read
Bharat Ratna Ustad Bismillah Khan’s house bulldozed: Can his legacy be erased?

In an interview with Ustad Bismillah Khan, Shekhar Gupta asked whether he and his family had not thought of moving to Pakistan, in the wake of the Partition of India. The maestro replied: “God forbid! Me, leave Benaras? Never! I went to Pakistan once—I crossed the border just to say I have been to Pakistan. I was there for about an hour. I said namaskar to the Pakistanis and salaam alaikum to the Indians! I had a good laugh.” (Readers’ Digest, October 2005)

Born on 21st March, 1916, Ustad Bis...

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Aishwarya Das Gupta
Aishwarya Das Gupta
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