BABA FARID MIR PROJECT

About the Mirs

The Mirs are a music community based in the Pugal region of Rajasthan. Hereditary singers of the Sufiyana Kalam, the Mirs have been known for their passionate and intimate renderings of the compositions of the Sufi mystics such as Baba Sheikh Farid, Sain Bulleh Shah, Hazrat Shah Hussain, Hazrat Sultan Bahu, Ali Haider and Khwaja Ghulam Farid. They have been musicians of the common people, serving as mediums of devotion and harbingers of peace, hope and love through the ecstatic performances of the bhajans and vanis of Meera, Kabir, Gorakhnath, Baba Ramdev and Achalram, which form part of the wider repertoire of the Mirs. Their songs are mostly in Siraiki, a dialect of West Punjab which has strong affinity with Sindhi and Punjabi. In addition to their singing, the Mirs are deft players of the been (a kind of bagpipe) and algoza (a double barrel wind instrument). Most of these compositions stress on love as the basis of the relationship with God, nature and other living things.

The Sufi traditions of the Mirs have primarily been traditions of dissent and have flowered on the margins of mainstream life.

Performers:

Nazru Khan, Abdul Jabbar, Antar Khan, Manji Khan, Bassu Khan, Mode Khan and Sattar Khan.

About the Baba Farid Mir project:

The Baba Farid Mir project brings together the families of Mir musicians and their patrons scattered across the Bikaner region, in an attempt to reinvigorate their musical tradition. From October 2015 to December 2016, a core team of senior as well as young artists along with patrons undertook a yatra across the far flung Mir strongholds in the Bikaner region towards facilitating musical interchanges,community interactions and mapping of musical opportunities within cultural festivals and events.

This performance is part of the Baba Farid Mir project supported under the Arts Practice programme of India Foundation for the Arts, funded by Infosys Foundation.