Contesting authentic Islam: Ahlul Quran movements and performance of debates in the religious sphere of Kerala

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-87
Author(s):  
K. P. Abdul Shafeeque
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
South India ◽  
Malabar Coast ◽  
Generic Term ◽  
And Performance

Abstract Ahlul Quran movements introduced the debates on the question of the authority of tradition as the second source of Islamic knowledge and critiqued the existing notions of Islam among the Malabar Muslims in Kerala. These intra-Islamic factions attempted to reinterpret Islam according to their interpretations solely based on the Quran and developed their take on what constitutes 'authentic Islam'. This article uses Ahlul Quran as a generic term for the two main Ahlul Quran movements that developed in the Malabar Coast during the early and late half of the twentieth century. These two movements were the Ahlul Quran movement of Pazhayangadi by B. Kunjahamed Haji and Khuran Sunnath Society of Abul Hasan (popularly known as Chekanur Moulavi). They initiated numerous oral debates and discussions with various Islamic groups existing in the Malabar region such as Sunnis, Mujahids, Ahmediyyas and Jamaat-e-Islami, challenging and contesting different notions of 'authentic Islam'. Along with oral debates, it also gave birth to textual contestations, with voluminous books, articles and pamphlets challenging each other. This article traces the intra-religious debates that developed among the Malabar Muslims after the emergence of Ahlul Quran thoughts. It analyses how the existing Islamic groups upholding different versions of 'authentic Islam' in the Malabar region, located in the northern part of Kerala, South India, challenged the growth of these Ahlul Quran movements. In short, during the numerous debates and contestations that happened between the Islamic groups within the Malabar region the article explores how these debates are a constant performance of Islam and its tradition.

Two Bhaktas, One District: Revisioning Hagiography and Imagery in Telugu South India

2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 168-191
Author(s):  
Harshita Mruthinti Kamath
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Visual Imagery ◽  
Andhra Pradesh ◽  
South India ◽  
Southern India ◽  
Performance Culture ◽  
And Performance

Abstract The hagiography of the bhakti poet is often times far more elaborate than their compositions and can even determine the interpretation of their poetic productions (Pechilis 2011). The hagiography can exceed the spaces of written or orally composed poetry to shape the visual imagery of the bhakti poet-saint. This article examines two such instances of constructed hagiography and visual imagery in Telugu-speaking southern India, namely those of Siddhendra and Kṣetrayya. Situated within a few kilometres of each other in what is now known as the Krishna district of Andhra Pradesh, Siddhendra and Kṣetrayya are imagined as paradigmatic bhakti poet-saints whose compositions are integral to Telugu arts and performance. The similarity in hagiography and visual imagery across these two figures is a direct byproduct of twentieth-century Telugu proponents who made concerted efforts to position Telugu arts within a pan-Indian modernist framework of bhakti. Telugu scholars and performers invoke bhakti discourses and imagery to frame both Siddhendra and Kṣetrayya as Telugu bhakti poet-saints. In doing so, Telugu proponents imbue their arts with religious weight, while also positing the Brahmin-dominated areas of the Krishna district as the heart of Telugu performance culture.

Making Ballet 3

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Harris
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Twentieth Century ◽  
New York City ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Movement Analysis ◽  
Story Line ◽  
George Balanchine ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Ballet History ◽  
Choreographic Analysis

Making Ballet 3 provides a choreographic analysis of the ballet Western Symphony, produced by the New York City Ballet in 1954 with choreography by George Balanchine, music by Hershy Kay, scenery by John Boyt, and costumes by Karinska. It brings to light the multitude of intertextual allusions that occur throughout the ballet, playfully intermingling references of “America” with an entire lineage of nineteenth-century European classicism. Although Western Symphony has no story line, it crafts a deliberate message: a long, transatlantic genealogy of Western classicism that, in the twentieth century, has come to rest in America. Drawing on archival sources and movement analysis, this interchapter argues that Western Symphony incorporates parody to present a revisionist ballet history in which the high cultural lineages of Europe and America are intimately entwined. Ultimately, this message reinforced the Atlanticist politics of private and state anticommunist groups in the cultural Cold War, the historical setting for its production and performance.

scholarly journals Serbian music criticism in the first half of the twentieth century: Its canon, its method and its educational role

Muzikologija ◽  
2008 ◽  
pp. 185-202
Author(s):  
Aleksandar Vasic
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Negative Attitude ◽  
Music Criticism ◽  
Educational Mission ◽  
Violin Concerto ◽  
The Public ◽  
Educational Role ◽  
And Performance ◽  
The Aesthetic ◽  
Professional Critics

Serbian music criticism became a subject of professional music critics at the beginning of the twentieth century, after being developed by music amateurs throughout the whole previous century. The Serbian Literary Magazine (1901- 1914, 1920-1941), the forum of the Serbian modernist writers in the early 1900s, had a crucial role in shaping the Serbian music criticism and essayistics of the modern era. The Serbian elite musicians wrote for the SLM and therefore it reflects the most important issues of the early twentieth century Serbian music. The SLM undertook the mission of educating its readers. The music culture of the Serbian public was only recently developed. The public needed an introduction into the most important features of the European music, as well as developing its own taste in music. This paper deals with two aspects of the music criticism in the SLM, in view of its educational role: the problem of virtuosity and the method used by music critics in this magazine. The aesthetic canon of the SLM was marked by decisively negative attitude towards the virtuosity. Mainly concerned by educating the Serbian music public in the spirit of the highest music achievements in Europe, the music writers of the SLM criticized both domestic and foreign performers who favoured virtuosity over the 'essence' of music. Therefore, Niccol? Paganini, Franz Liszt, and even Peter Tchaikowsky with his Violin concerto became the subject of the magazine's criticism. However their attitude towards the interpreters with both musicality and virtuoso technique was always positive. That was evident in the writings on Jan Kubel?k. This educational mission also had its effect on the structure of critique writings in the SLM. In their wish to inform the Serbian public on the European music (which they did very professionally), the critics gave much more information on biographies, bibliographies and style of the European composers, than they valued the interpretation itself. That was by far the weakest aspect of music criticism in the SLM. Although the music criticism in the SLM was professional and analytic one, it often used the literary style and sometimes even profane expressions in describing the artistic value and performance, more than it was necessary for the genre of music criticism. The music critics of the SLM set high aesthetic standards before the Serbian music public, and therefore the virtuosity was rejected by them. At the same time, these highly professional critics did not possess a certain level of introspection that would allow them to abstain from using sometimes empty and unconvincing phrases instead of exact formulations suitable for the professional music criticism. In that respect, music critics in the SLM did not match the standards they themselves set before both the performers and the public in Serbia.

scholarly journals Nacht, from Arnold Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire: a perspective from the ArtSong Theory on the text-music relationships and its unfoldings

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (2) ◽  
pp. 333-346
Author(s):  
Achille Picchi
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Vocal Music ◽  
Twentieth Century Music ◽  
Pierrot Lunaire ◽  
And Performance ◽  
Factor Of Influence

The cycle of melodramas Pierrot Lunaire op. 21 was written and premiered in 1912 and is one of the capital works of Schoenberg’s output as well as of the vocal music in the twentieth-century music. In this article we examine Nacht, the eighth melodrama, first of the second part, due to its relationships on text-music as a factor of influence in the perception and performance of the work. And we also examine the numerical relations that were so dear to the composer.

On the Bionomics of a Eulophid (Trichospilus Pupivora, Ferr.) A Natural Enemy of the Coconut Caterpillar (Nephantis Serinopa, Meyr.) in South India

1934 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-61 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. P. Anantanarayanan
Keyword(s):  
Natural Enemies ◽  
Natural Enemy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
South India ◽  
The Past ◽  
Malabar Coast ◽  
Methods Of Control

The black-headed palm caterpillar (Nephantis serinopa, Meyr.) has been known to be a serious pest of coconut palms both in Ceylon and South India for many years past, and during the past ten years its appearance on a serious scale along the Malabar coast in South India has been attracting the attention of the Entomological Section of the Madras Agricultural Department. Among the different methods of control, the utilisation of the natural enemies of the pest has been tried to some extent. One of the more important natural enemies found to exert some appreciable influence on this pest was a Eulophid wasp, Trichospilus pupivora, Ferr. As one of the officers of the Entomological Section engaged in the work connected with this coconut pest, the author had opportunities of closely studying this parasite, and in this paper a brief account is attempted of the bionomics of this insect and of some methods employed in breeding it on a large scale.

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