The Baltistan movement and the power of pop ghazals

Abstract

This article investigates the role of locally produced pop (gh) under bar azal music in the politics of the people of Baltistan, a community living in the western Himalayas on both sides of the border between India and Pakistan and characterized by its blend of Shi'ite and Tibetan culture and its vernacular Tibetan dialect. The pop (gh) under bar azals conjure up an alternative narrative of local history and belonging that is situated in a Himalayan, rather than South Asian, context. Pop (gh) under bar azals are emblematic for local resistance against the postcolonial nationalism of the Indian and Pakistani nation-states and are at the core of the Baltistan Movement, a western Himalayan social movement emerging in the past two decades. The analytical perspective is a continuation of MANUEL'S (1993) work on the cassette culture of northern India that explores the political power of the pop (gh) under bar azal further by drawing on SCOTT'S (1990) concept of hidden/public transcript and SMELSER'S (1968) social strain model of the dynamics of social change.

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