Heritage, it is firmly believed, is another name or form of identity and cultural heritage in particular, is central to any community and even a region as it encompasses customs, religious traditions, beliefs , music , crafts, ceremonies, history and allied things.
Having said that folk music , Pahari rich sangeet of Dogra origin has inspired many musicians and lyricists of yester years’ Bollywood which now either having reached saturation point or more researches not being done to find out varied rich treasure as also preference for so called modern forms have virtually precluded it from translating such music into more compositions. Alas, traditions are dying slowly but regularly and getting replaced with ”mixtures” and non local and places specific cultures to register being one among the followers of modern trend.
Not elaborating , take for example the traditional Dogra dress , how many do still wear that with pride except on very special religious and social occasions. Where have gone Pagries, Churidar Pyjamaas, suthans, achkans, embroidered long kurtas, chunnies, Kameez etc symbolic of hilly topography , gents equally necessarily wearing small golden ear rings etc . They all have been consumed by that nasty entity known as fashion. Dresses of both gents and ladies throughout the country especially in urban areas are now the same . Now, of late since two years only at least , Jammu University convocations have discarded the Royalty of western robes while distributing academic testimonials and revived Dogra Pagri , a onetime two hours symbolic gesture – still praiseworthy. It is reiterated that now preference is given to saving time, yearning for more comforts , ”moving ”with the times, adopting the trend and treating such things as orthodoxy or redundancy and that is a cause of concern but can it be stopped?
Other things remaining equal, an hour’s or worst a few hours without electricity drives people virtually crazy as, if not ACs uniformly but fans and water coolers cannot be operated. Imagine how in the absence of these modern comforts which can be termed now as basic, old generations were living and strengthening our rich culture . A depreciation , a decline, a downswing of ancient cultures are taking place everywhere hence Dogra rich legacy cannot be an exception though that is quite unfortunate. With a fast speed which has now reached the status over years of unavoidable phenomenon is hard to be reversed. Expecting even a sojourn of the old golden days when at best the needs were confined to a mere simple two square meals and nothing beyond unlike at present is simply impossible.
The fact can hardly be overruled that despite basically being warriors and having recorded valour and utmost dexterity in warfare and consequently having been duly decorated as well from time to time , Dogras have excelled in literature as well as in promoting art . The fact equally cannot be distorted that if not the stage of fading but definitely a dilution or poor suffusion of our rich culture has taken place to the extent that certain facets of such rich traditional varied culture are almost extinct. For example, how many children or parents even know the significance of its own, in its particular exclusiveness about the term Baakh and what it stands for . It is without any doubt that the response will be disappointing . Again, reasons being that the maestros , the last of “Ustads” or Gurus in their own life time encountered loss of interest of people to learn from them so as to take the rich legacy further down the generations . Make a data analysis in urban areas and hardly even rarely one can find singing of traditional rich Baakh . Why so, is again no one’s concern and that is more disappointing.
Hard core materialism and growing economic concerns coupled with propensity to have less of endurance to work hard , have proved great humps and impediments for learning Baakh and associated branches both for musical pleasures and literary tastes of composing poems and couplets that would be interpreted through traditional Baakh. However, the positive aspect of the otherwise gloomy picture is that no art or culture dies down never to be revived and remnants and surviving traces still keep it alive and it is , therefore, no surprising that even now, a few ‘Baakh’ singers do sing and even perform enthralling audiences in various countries. What is needed is making local people more familiarised with such rare remnants of our rich Dogra culture. It is the people themselves that alone can save cultures from dying and getting forgotten and relegated to the darkest corners from where retrieving becomes difficult. School children must have in curricula subjects on rich Dogra culture and other cultures of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh which was ruled by Dogra Maharajas for a considerable period.
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