Learn more about when a journalist founded a music club in colonial Bombay

An archival photograph of members of the Parsi Gayan Uttejak Mandali at a performance

Linkin Park is already preparing for their India debut later this week. On arrival, they might find a city open and embracing inventive new music. Back in the late 1800s, it was a different India. Music was the privilege of the royal courts. But in cosmopolitan Bombay of 1870, a Parsi music club sought to change it. Dr Aneesh Pradhan's lecture on the Parsi Gayan Uttejak Mandali at the KR Cama Oriental Institute will shine a spotlight on this lesser known chapter of the city's musical history.

A moment from the performance of the Parsi Gayan Uttejak Mandali curated by Shubha Mudgal (in yellow) and Aneesh Pradhan in Goa. Pics Courtesy/Dr Aneesh Pradhan

It is no surprise that it was his love for music that drew the musician to a subject that would inform his scholarship in the 1990s. "My doctoral thesis, which is now published as Hindustani Music in Colonial Bombay, essentially looked at the history of Hindustani music in Bombay during the Colonial period," the musician and educator shares.

The era saw the mercantile and industrialist class emerge as new patrons, says Pradhan. "In cities like Bombay, industrial and commercial elite and intellectuals supported Hindustani music for a variety of reasons. They set up music clubs and circles to propagate Hindustani music," Pradhan explains.

Aneesh Pradhan. Pic Courtesy/Varsha Panwar

Founded by journalist and writer Kaikhushroo Naoroji Kabraji in 1870, the Parsi Gayan Uttejak Mandali sought to spread awareness of Hindustani classical music among the Parsi community. But it would soon expand beyond this remit. Dr Kamala Ganesh, head (retired), department of Sociology, University of Mumbai, who will be part of the lecture, shares, "It [the moment] was a democratisation of classical music. That was the major change that happened in the Colonial period." Preceding the rise of formal music schools, it was a watershed moment, she admits.

Pradhan notes, "While they [the clubs] did not overtly impact the traditional guru-shishya format, they influenced the manner in which institutionalised education for Hindustani music was formalised in later years through music classes, schools, and universities." Ganesh adds, "There was a co-existence. There were gharanas, and there were also musicians emerging from the schools; VD Paluksar's Gandharva Mahavidyalaya in 1901 in Lucknow being one," she says.

VN Bhatkhande. Pic Courtesy/Wikimedia Commons

Another scholar to emerge from the club was a certain VN Bhatkhande, who would publish the first modern treatise on Indian classical music. "The Mandali supported Bhatkhande's work by publishing some of his books. He also lectured there from 1890 to 1905," the composer tells us.

The subject is not just an academic pursuit for Pradhan. He conceptualised a performance that reconstructed the first jalsa by the Mandali, and performed alongside wife, and vocalist Shubha Mudgal recently at the Serendipity Arts Festival in Goa.

Kamala Ganesh

"My wife Shubha Mudgal and I co-curated a programme entitled 1871 in 2025: The Parsi Gayan Uttejak Mandali. This was a recreation of the first jalsa that the Mandali organised on April 28, 1871," he shares.If the audience at the KR Cama Oriental are lucky, they might be able to coax the veteran into another rendition.

On Today; 5.30 pm onwards
At Sir JJ Modi Memorial Hall, KR Cama Oriental Institute, Mumbai Samachar Marg, Fort.
Call 8879253893 (for RSVP)