Ali Akbar's son:We were always Hindu

[Guest guest]

Ali Akbar's son claims to be Hindu

    Posted by: "Rabinder K Koul" arrk00 (AT) ameritech (DOT) net arrk00

    Fri Sep 1, 2006 7:51 am (PDT)

 

Ali Akbar's son claims to be Hindu

Priyanka Dasgupta

1 Sep, 2006 0048hrs TIMES NEWS NETWORK

 

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1945418.cms

 

KOLKATA: Aasish Khan, the son of sarod maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, has

embraced Hinduism, sparking off a raging debate and heartache to the

84-year-old father who has told TOI his son was besmirching his illustrious

family's name.

 

Aasish, who has already changed his surname to Debsharma through affidavit

on August 19, claims his family was never really Muslim. "We were originally

Brahmins and used the surname Debsharma. My great-grandfather Sadananda

Debsharma took the title of Khan, which is not a surname and is used by

Hindus and Christians... due to compulsions. We never converted to Islam."

 

His dad is distraught. In an email to TOI from the US, where Ali Akbar has

settled down, he said: "I do not support his (Aasish's) choice.

Unfortunately, many statements made by my son in the newspaper regarding the

history of my family are incorrect. My family has been Muslims for many

generations, and we will remain Muslims. It is a shame that he is trying to

reinvent the history of our family and in turn hurting the past generation

of our family."

 

Aasish's 'reinvention' is that his ancestors were Hindus. He claims his

family even prayed to goddesses Kali and Saraswati. He said he was never

asked to follow Islamic rituals or offer namaz and his grandfather had given

Hindu names to him and his siblings - Dhyanesh, Pranesh and Amaresh.

 

"Staunch Muslims have opposed my decision," he said. "They did not realise

we were never converted to Islam. I would like to make it clear that the

only religion our family believes in is music," said the 60-something

Aasish.

 

Ali Akbar Khan, who juggles his classes at Ali Akbar College of Music and

three dialysis sessions a week with his rare concerts across the world, is

hurt and the music fraternity stunned by Aasish's claim.

 

The Ali Akbar family is not an ordinary family - his father Allaudin Khan is

the founder of the Maihar gharana and his disciples, including Ravi Shankar,

Nikhil Banerjee and Ali Akbar, have dominated the Hindustani classical music

world for years.

 

 

AkulasyAsya devasya kulaprathanashAlinee

KOulikI sA parA shaktiraviyukto yayA prabhu:

ArUpasya kuto dhyAnam nirguNasya cha nama kim

pUrNasyAvAhanam kutra sarvAdhArasya chAsanam

 

 

 

 

 

 

__._,_.___

 

Messages in this topic (1) Reply (via web post) | Start a new topic

 

 

Messages | Links | Database | Polls | Calendar