Music Education Resources for Gandhi Jayanti

The video of Gandhi Jayanti below along with conversations between Dr. Kristin Rao, an ethnomusicologist and music educator, and several of the singers at Gandhi Jayanti are included as part of a curriculum on “Music of South Asia” created for Volume 3 of the landmark book Multicultural Perspectives in Music Education, 3^rd edition. Published by MENC, the National Association for Music Education, in collaboration with Rowman-Littlefield Publishers, this book is a practical text for music educators designed to introduce American students to the diverse ways people in cultures around the world create and enjoy music.

Every year the Gandhi Memorial Center celebrates Gandhi Jayanti, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, on the evening of October 2^nd.  During this occasion the Center, in collaboration with the Embassy of India, presents a very special program in the Golden Lotus Temple with remarks by the Director of the Center and the Ambassador of India, classical dancing, and devotional singing. The video below presents a choral offering of “Ram Dhun” performed at the end of the 2008 program.  A small chorus of singers and instrumental accompanists is sitting on the front stage leading the singing of “Ram Dhun,” a song traditionally offered at Gandhi’s prayer meetings in praise of the oneness of God, despite the variety of  names and forms in the different religions of the world. Behind them center stage hangs Gandhi’s picture, flanked on either side with religious symbols including the bismallah of Islam, the Buddhist wheel, the aum of Hinduism, the Christian cross, the Chinese yin-yang, and the Jewish star of David.  

What is it like to sing “Ram Dhun” (Raghoopati Raaghava”) at Gandhi Jayanti? Read the conversations between Dr. Kristin Rao and three different singers from Gandhi Memorial Center. What do their conversations reveal about the multiple meanings of singing with others in this particular situation? What themes emerge? What is unique about each singer’s perspective?