5.The British Colonial Era

It was first Portugal, the Netherlands and European countries such as Britain, France that were aiming to rule India from trade of spice. Portugal and the Netherlands gradually lost their power due to the decline of their own countries, eventually Britain and France waged war in the Bengal region and South India, and the colonial rule was begun by the victorious Britain to take control of all over India by the mid-19th century. The British Empire handled kings (Maharaja), who had ruled each small country, for reign.

In 1857, a riot of the British Indian soldiers caused rebellions in various regions of India, the rebels backed the king of Mughal up and occupied Delhi but were suppressed two years later. Bahadur Shah II, the last Mughal king, was exiled by Britain and the kingdom, that once was even called the Mughal Empire, ruined.

In 1877, Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland declared her concurrent post as Empress of India and Indian Empire was established. In 1885, even Myanmar was annexed. Indian music, which disappeared from the centre stage of Indian Empire due to British colonial rule, survived in the various Maharaja courts that cooperated with British reign.

Vishnu Digambar Paluskar (1872 - 1931) was born to a kirtan singer as his father. He had his eyesight impaired by an accident in his childhood, and learnt traditions under a strict apprenticeship system under the khayal singer, Balakrishnabuwa Ichalkaranjikar, who served Maharaja of Miraj. After studying the traditions of Gwalior Gharana in Gwalior, he travelled around India and established a music school in Lahore in 1901.

The courts of Maharaja were the places of performance until then and establishment of this school enabled those, who had not been born to the pedigrees of the musicians, to learn the traditions of “gharana” passed down only by the family of the musicians who served the courts.

Vishnu Narayan Batkhande (1860 - 1936) was a Hindustani musicologist, who tried to compile and produce musical grammars by collecting musical pieces of traditional ragas that had been handed down by each family of the musicians. Based on the shape of the scale, he also tried to classify each raga made up of various scales. Then, in 1918, he established the University of Music in response to intention of the Maharaja in Gwalior, one of the cities where many musicians were active and especially music was popular at that time. After that, in 1926, he established another music university in Lucknow, which was known as the centre of music and dance as well.

He also gathered musicians, who had inherited the style (gharana) that had been handed down in each region, and held the first music conference (a concert format where traditional musicians from each area gathered together) ever in the history of Indian music.

Such the doors to that tradition were opened to Carnatic music also as music universities were established in South India in the 1930s. These movements, which took place in early 20th century, revolutionised Indian classical music that had been passed down in a closed environment.