The Qawwali Project – An Untold Story

In the line of spiritual succession in Chistiya Silsila after Khwaja Moinuddin Chisti of Ajmer, the responsibility of Delhi was bestowed upon Khwaja Qutubuddin Bakhtiyar Kaki. Basant is typically a Hindu festival that marks the arrival of spring and is uniquely celebrated at most Sufi Shrines in the subcontinent. The shrine is bedecked with yellow flowers, the people all dressed in yellow and the offerings of typically yellow flowers, accompanied by Qawwal walking and singing the songs that are especially dedicated to basant.

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.