The Qawwali Project – An Untold Story

The Qawwals repeatedly and hypnotically chant some specific words and lines, coupled with frenzied clapping of hands in the rhythm which transports the audiences to a trance-like state. Impromptu dance is common in Punjab traditions, the turbaned Sahib-e-Mehfil (the host or the head of shrine) leads first and then the people start dancing on the music. The photographer has juxtaposed their two seemingly different cultures (Sikh and Muslim) and captured how the audience in Amritsar reacts in the Punjabi tradition of getting up and dancing for the mood of Qawwali.

The Qawwali Project, is an initiative conceptualized by Manjari Chaturvedi where the untold story of Qawwali unfolds through the eyes of photographers. The practitioners are photo-documented with their performance art, their lives and their association with the Sufi shrines where they perform. Qawwali is the performance art and Qawwal is the practitioner. This is an attempt by the Sufi Kathak Foundation to document the traditions as they exist at the shrines itself.