Your mother’s heartbeat when you’re still inside her womb. The unmistakable coo of a koel, a song sparrow’s irresistible spring song, a cardinal’s earnest tweets — each a symphony so sweet to wake up to that, to paraphrase one of Rabindranath Tagore’s songs, it makes the very sleep it breaks, coveted.
Snatches of a keertan from a gurdwara, azaan from a mosque, bells ringing in a temple, organ playing in a church, the music of prayer bowls and gongs…
Music, perhaps the most inscrutable, yet the most intimate of all aesthetic forms. Ancient yet immediate, an ally for celebrations, a therapy for sorrow, a vehicle to voice dissent, a lullaby to fall asleep to.
For all its therapeutic power, music can and has been used to sinister effects. In Germany, during the Nazi regime, German composer Richard Wagner’s music was used not only to glorify Nazism, but would even be played during acts of torture in concentration camps as a tool for psychological torment for jews. In 1994, during the Rwandan genocide, radio stations broadcast music with lyrics that encouraged Hutus to commit violence against Tutsis. In more recent times in India, H-Pop or Hindutva Pop, a genre of music that uses nationalistic and religiously charged lyrics and seeks to establish the supremacy of Hindus by normalising Islamophobia.
But then you also have musical warriors of the other — the good, the empowering — kind. The Concert for Bangladesh saw musicians like Ravi Shankar, Ali Akbar Khan, George Harrison, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan performing in a pioneering charity event held in 1971-72 to raise funds for Bengali refugees displaced during the Bangladesh Liberation War. Between the 1920s and the 1960s, Paul Robeson used the power of his baritone to literally give a voice to the oppressed the world over. In India, from Dalit rappers to independent musicians writing and performing songs to protest controversial bills like the CAA and NRC, rivers of music continue to flow through and bringing to life, the human condition.
What happens to musical traditions when people and entire communities migrate — willingly or not — migrate? Palestinians, Rohingyas, Romas…What is lost? What remains? What metamorphoses?
In this issue of Parcham, we’re seeking to follow your journeys with music. Share with us the ways in which music moves you. Possible themes might include, but are in no way limited to:
Music for the spirit
Music as politics
Music from the margins -- the musical practices of marginalized communities
Music as performance -- concert memories (as a performer or listener, etc.)
Nature's music
Musical discoveries (what happened when you heard a new kind of music for the first time and fell in love with it?)
Music beyond borders -- the ways in which music transcends the boundaries of time and space.
The Last Date for submission for the August 2024 Issue is 10th August.
We are looking for POEMS/ SHORT STORIES (Originally in English or in Translation), Non-Fiction/ Personal Essays) that deal with Music in any form but not restricted to the sub-themes listed above. Please send in a maximum of 3 poems for the poetry section. The Non-Fiction submission and Personal Essays should be no more than 2000 words. To the authors of the original short fiction and translators of short stories we request you choose/write stories that highlight the theme of the issue.
The Photography section of this issue is an open themed one.
We also welcome book reviews and articles on different issues relating to Popular Culture and Films. This again is open themed.
For more information, please follow the guidelines below.
Poetry: Please send in your previously unpublished poems (not more than 3) in a single MS Word document at parchamonline@gmail.com with the subject line Poetry Submission. Please ensure your name is on every submission attachment you send in for clarities sake.
For Fiction/ Short Stories: Please keep in mind that short stories should be not more than 4,000 words and should address the theme that this issue will showcase. Send in the short story to parchamonline@gmail.com with the subject line Short Story Submission.
Book Reviews: Book reviews should be not more than 2,000 words. Send in your submissions to parchamonline@gmail.com
For Editorials/ Non-Fiction/ Opinion Pieces/ Personal Essays: Please ensure that your submissions are free from unparliamentary language or religious or cultural bigotry. The editors have complete authority to reject a piece if they feel it is not upholding the spirit of the magazine. Submissions should adhere to the theme of this issue and should not be more than 2000 words. Please send in with the subject line Non-Fiction/ Personal Essays to parchamonline@gmail.com.
For Articles on Films and Popular Culture: Please send us the complete article to parchamonline@gmail.com the subject line Films and Popular Culture. For this Section, this is an open Issue.
Photo Stories: Please send in your photographs (not more than 5 and not less than 3) to parchamonline@gmail.com. The photos must be accompanied by a short write up/ captions and should be in the Jpeg format. It is an open issue.
ALL SUBMISSIONS SHOULD BE ACCOMPANIED BY A SHORT BIO AND A RECENT PICTURE OF THE CONTRIBUTOR. Please ensure all submissions are in Word (for written) or JPG (visual) (300 DPI minimum resolution/print quality).
Note: If your submissions in any of the above mentioned sections have found a place on our platform in the previous two issues, we request you to please wait for another cycle ( One Issue at most) before submitting again.
This issue will be Guest Edited by Bhaswati Ghosh. Bhaswati Ghosh writes and translates fiction, non-fiction and poetry. Her first book of fiction is ‘Victory Colony, 1950′. Her first work of translation from Bengali into English is ‘My Days with Ramkinkar Baij’. Bhaswati’s writing has appeared in several literary journals, including Indian Express, Scroll, The Wire, Literary Shanghai, Cargo Literary, Pithead Chapel, Warscapes, and The Maynard. Bhaswati lives in Ontario, Canada and is an editor with The Woman Inc. She is currently working on a nonfiction book on New Delhi, India. To learn more about her publications click here .
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