Music Theory

Garhwali Music or Music from Garhwal? Globalized Representations of the Local


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Florence Nowak – Communication Abstract

Garhwali Music or Music from Garhwal? Globalized Representations of the Local

This paper explores how regional music that challenges the divide between traditional oral folk and modern mass-media pop has recently attracted growing scholarly attention. Garhwali songs are both popular and regional in character; they are connected to artisanal as well as industrial processes, and are circulated at sub-state, national, and international levels.

Garhwal is a division of the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand in northern India, with a population of roughly eight million. Its people speak Hindi and, to some extent, English, but also a rich Garhwali dialect. As in other parts of India, a vibrant local music industry developed in Garhwal starting in the 1950s (Fiol 2008), hit a high point during the 1980s and 1990s, and experienced major difficulties after 2000 due to the effects of digitization. This analysis builds on research into the online audience for Garhwali music clips (Nowak 2013) and more recent fieldwork on the production, distribution, and reception of Garhwali music both within Garhwal and in Delhi. By bringing these perspectives together, the study offers a brief exploration of the global within the communication chain — in other words, how do songs come to be labeled as Garhwali or as being from Garhwal?

Garhwali songs are recorded in Garhwal and in Delhi, and reach a highly varied audience — from village residents in the mountains to expatriates living abroad — through numerous channels, both offline and online, often by unauthorized means. A striking effect of downloading and streaming has been the discovery by the Garhwali diaspora of what songs have been recently produced back home. At the very same moment, the local population confronts new perspectives on belonging: the state of Uttarakhand was created in 2001, at which point it began implementing its own cultural differentiation policies just as its creative industries were being restructured. Garhwali music thus found itself caught between two mutually influential forces — globalization and regionalization. The passionate debates now taking place between fans and musicians about the future of this genre reflect perfectly the underlying tension. But what exactly does the argument concern?

A strictly textual analysis of the songs might prompt one to determine how much each piece is authentically Garhwali. Looking instead at the situation from an anthropological viewpoint allows one to examine how listeners and music creators identify and interpret these songs. Two different concepts of representation begin to surface: on one hand, a poetic image of the local that can serve as a brand for Garhwal;

on the other, an ideological emblem of the homeland that becomes a recurring motif for culturalism. Rather than a gap dividing Ancients and Moderns or Folk and Pop, the real division is between those who view the music as originating from Garhwal and those who see it Garhwali as an identity marker.

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