Kabir Festival 7th Jan - 10th Jan 2016

Kabir Festival is organized by the Saher Foundation(Society for Awareness Harmony and Equal Rights) and was started in Mumbai in 2011. This festival is a cultural program that aims to change the way society is through their mystic poetry, stories, music and films. The Kabir community hosts satsangs, baithaks, and musical workshops. This festival was brought to life when Saint Kabir , a renowned mystic poet of Hindi literature wrote many influential scriptures that influenced the Bhakti movement. He was the worlds greatest poet whose straight forward thoughts lead people into the right path. The musicians are amazingly talented with a voice that can pierce through your soul. Children, senior citizens, and the youth all sway to the tunes of the folk music. It is difficult to understand the true essence of folk music if you are new to the event. Many of the songs reflect on the teachings of Kabir.

The poems and music reminds us to shatter our egos, dissolve boundaries and end discriminations and most importantly to love everyone. This festival is celebrated all over India and hosts a number of documentary films which have the voices of devotional singers and poets influenced by Kabirji in contemporary India. This festival is attended by all devotees of Kabir’s folk music and other enthusiasts. The music has a combination of the Sagun and Nirgun Bhakti traditions on peace, harmony, love, equality, universal brotherhood. It imbibes the ideas of secularism, nationalism, religion, death, folk and oral traditions. The best part about the event is that the event is free and based on first come first serve basis. People from different walks of life come together to sing, dance and enjoy the folk music and even if you are one of them who doesn’t understand the language and the variety of the India’s rich tradition and culture this is your chance and even the if you fail to comprehend you can still stay to the harmonious tunes. Through this festival they make the works of the Sufi saints understandable to the public. In the past they have also combined the works of Kabir and Rock music together. Every year around the city they have many people who attend and like the folk music. Infact when spoken to the audience most of them were waiting for next year till these talented artists would perform and again but they also suggested that such festivals must atleast take place once a month in the city. Everything pertains to the richness of the Indian soil. Their aim now is to bring the youth together and to make them understand Indian music which makes your soul and heart dance to the Sufi tunes. A harmonium, a violin, table, and cymbals were among the instruments used for the festival.

Prahlad Tipanyais is one of the most famous folk voice in India and had received a Padma Shri in 2011. The artists here say that Kabirdas is part of their lives and no one can be misled by following his path.

Here are a list of contemporary classical singers without which the festival is incomplete. Bindhu Malini from Bangalore, Vedanth Bharadwaj from Chennai, Shruthi Vishwanath from Mumbai, Sindhi Sufi poet Shah Abdul Latif Bhitai, Mooralala Marwada from Kutch , Vipul Rikhi a renowned poet and singer from Bangalore. Also this year they have introduced new singers, Radhika Sood Nayak from Mumbai who presented the poetry of Bulleh Shah, a renowned sufi saint of Punjab on Friday evening at Carter Road Amphitheatre Bandra.

This festival is being supported by individuals, agencies, institutions such as Sophia High School, South Asia Foundation,Ford Foundation, Visthar, Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology, Adima, IIM-B, MS Poddar, Green Earth Construction, HIVOS, 1 Shanti Road Gallery, Goethe Institut-Max Mueller Bhavan, KC Das, N Chander, Navakarnataka Publications, Prism Bookshop, Suchitra Film Society, Urdu Academy and others. The Hindu is their media partner. The sponsors for the event were Somaiya Vidhyavihar, somaya Group, Sangit Mahabharati, Saher Society for Awareness and Equal Rights, Urdu Markaz, Bandra West Residents Association.