“If in every home one child was taught Hindustani classical music, this country would never have been partitioned” - Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan
78 years ago this August, the Partition of India descended, a catastrophic moment that forever altered the history of South Asia. Life before the divide was an intricate tapestry of language, religion, and cultural identities that co-existed under the same sky.
As astoundingly vibrant as its people, music was a shapeshifter, contorting its melodies and lyrics into Ghazals, Ragas, folk tunes, and endless forms that drifted freely across the subcontinent.
Among this web of musical connectedness were Gharanas. Derived from the Urdu for “house”, Gharanas depict a lineage of musicians who share a distinctive style with roots traceable to a particular region or teacher. Though uniquely taught, learned, and shaped, none existed in isolation; they borrowed, blended, and blossomed through constant cultural exchange.
Pre 1947, the Patiala Gharana travelled far beyond its birth city, Patiala, Punjab, taking on an expedition of the vast subcontinent, led by the pioneering influences of Ali Baksh Khan and Fattu Khan.
The Patiala Gharana drew influences from older lineages like the Delhi, Gwalior, and Kapurthala Gharanas, yet forged a distinctive identity of its own. It became known not only for its Khayal singing, but also for embracing semi-classical forms like Thumri, Tappa, and Ghazal, allowing it to resonate with both courtly audiences and the common listener.
The city of Lahore was a bazaar of sprawling culture and art, one that played a heavy influence on the lifespan of Patiala Gharana.
Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, the most iconic exponent of the Gharana, often performed in both Patiala and Lahore, planting the voice of this tradition across cities. In this unsevered world, the Patiala Gharana was not just a musical lineage; it was the epitome of cultural fluidity and artistic exchange.
The Partition left a particularly deep scar on the Patiala Gharana. Many of its greatest exponents, including Ustad Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, found themselves torn between the newly drawn borders. Though he initially moved to Pakistan, he ultimately returned to India, unable to sever ties with the audiences, musical circuits, and emotional homeland he had known. The Gharana, like the subcontinent itself, was split. Some disciples stayed in Pakistan, others migrated to India. What had once been fluid cultural exchange turned into divided memory, with each side holding fragments of a shared musical past.
After Partition, the Patiala Gharana splintered both geographically and stylistically. In Pakistan, artists like Ustad Amanat Ali Khan and Ustad Fateh Ali Khan continued the Gharana's legacy, blending classical rigor with a lyrical, emotive quality that found new life in Ghazal singing and national music. Their performances often carried a deep nostalgia for the undivided cultural past, echoes of a homeland that now lay across the border.
In India, the tradition was preserved and expanded by artists like Ustad Munawar Ali Khan, son of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan, and later by stalwarts such as Raza Ali Khan and Kumar Gandharva, who absorbed Patiala elements into their own interpretations. While Pakistan saw the Gharana move toward semi-classical forms like Thumri and Kafi, Indian exponents maintained a stronger focus on Khayal and the revival of traditional ragas. Over time, the same Gharana, born of a shared soil, grew in two different directions, shaped by national ethos, political climates, and access to cultural institutions.
Despite the split, both sides held onto the Gharana's signature traits: virtuosic taans, ornate ornamentation, and an emotional depth that was unmistakably Patiala.
In the decades after Partition, as the Patiala Gharana took divergent paths in India and Pakistan, Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty emerged as one of its most luminous torchbearers in independent India. Born in Kolkata in 1953, he trained under several stalwarts but was most deeply influenced by Ustad Munawar Ali Khan, son of Bade Ghulam Ali Khan. From this lineage, Chakrabarty inherited the soul of the Patiala style, its sweeping taans, expressive phrasing, and its ability to seamlessly navigate between classical and semi-classical forms.
Yet, Pandit Ajoy Chakrabarty has never been just a custodian of tradition. With a voice that bridges generations, he has expanded the Gharana's reach beyond the concert hall: performing across the world, experimenting with cross-genre collaborations, and nurturing a new generation of musicians through his institution, Shrutinandan. What sets him apart is not only his vocal mastery, but his deep spiritual and intellectual engagement with music. In a sense, he embodies what the Patiala Gharana has become in post-Partition India, resilient, adaptive, and unbound by borders. Through his work, the memory of what was lost finds new expression, not through nostalgia alone, but through evolution.
