New Delhi: Soft sniffles could be heard at India Habitat Centre’s Gulmohar Hall as the keertan reached a crescendo in Mardana’s Children: The Rababis of Lahore. The 18-minute film is a story of Partition and loss, focusing on the small community of Muslim singers from Lahore with deep ties to Sikhism.
The Rababis of Lahore are a small community of descendants of Bhai Mardana, a Muslim companion of Guru Nanak Dev. He travelled with him, playing the rabab (a musical instrument) as Guru Nanak sang the Gurbani. For centuries, it was the music of the Rababis that echoed through the pious halls of the Golden Temple. But Partition ended it all.
The short film is a labour of love by PhD scholar and Dhrupad Keertan singer Kirit James Singh and Jasdeep Singh, who is working to preserve the music of the Punjab Gharana.
“The project ran on mostly crowdfunding,” said James Singh during the audience interaction after the screening. Along with Jasdeep Singh, he runs the Mardana Project, with the aim of reviving the tradition. Their YouTube channel with 4,700 subscribers has interviews with surviving Rababi musicians and Rababi keertan performances.
“The film not only brings the history of Rababis to the forefront but also carries a broader message in the times we live in. Film mein acha paigam bhi chupa hua hai, and purane Punjab ki jhalak bhi dikhayi degi (the film carries a good message, and you’ll get glimpses of old Punjab here),” Singh said while introducing the film.
Rababiyon wali gali
Mardana’s Children: The Rababis of Lahore (2025) begins in Amritsar with interviews of people who lived through Partition, and remember the Rababis and their influence in the city. The Rababis used to reside near Passiyanwala Chowk in Amritsar, and their residence was popularly known as the Rababiyon Wali Gali.
One of the residents interviewed recalled that two murders took place near the chowk, which forced the migration of the Rababis to Lahore where they built their lives afresh at Katri Bawa ki Haveli. The filmmakers then travel to Lahore to interview surviving Rababi families, documenting their struggles in Pakistan and their defiance in keeping their family tradition alive, against all odds.
The movie documents how the community was targeted in Pakistan, and many were asked to shift to Sufi music instead. The gurdwaras in Pakistan never invited the Rababis to sing shabad keertan in their premises.
“When we arrived here (Pakistan) after Partition, we had no honour. Nobody invited the Rababis. The Sikhs stopped inviting us,” one Rababi singer says in the movie.
Today, most of the descendants of the Rababis in Lahore work as brick layerers, labourers and shopkeepers. But some families remain defiant, practicing shabad keertan even at the risk of their lives.
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Mardana’s Children was years in the making. The editing process alone took five years–the filmmakers had 40 terabytes of footage. A full-length documentary may be in the making, said James Singh, who grew up in the United Kingdom, and is a PhD scholar at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in London.
“Our resources limited us in terms of format,” he replied to an audience member who wished the film to have been longer. Sikh audience members jumped in, reminding him that all he needs to do is put the word out, and the community would come together to provide the necessary funds to keep the project going.
And even though the film was just 18 minutes long, the discussion on it went on for more than an hour, with James Singh shedding more light on the fate of the Rababis after migrating to Pakistan.
“Bhai Laal was as popular as Gandhi ji in Amritsar in the pre-Partition days,” is what a 96-year-old Amritsar resident told Singh when he was conducting interviews for the film, “Perhaps he wasn’t as popular as Gandhi, but it just goes to show the influence of the Rababis in Amritsar in those days,” Singh said. Bhai Laal was a popular Rababi keertan singer in the pre-Partition era.
Singh also told the story of Bhai Chand, one of the most influential Rababi singers of the 20th century. Chand was in his 40s when Partition exiled him from Amritsar, and he moved to Pakistan. There he approached the government asking for a pension since he had lost his occupation.
“Sardaar Balbir Singh documents in his book that when Bhai Chand approached the government of Pakistan, not only was his request rejected, but it was suggested that he mop floors of mosques for several years, since he had been singing kaafiron ki baani (song of the non-believers).”
But some Rababis also went on to be successful musicians in Pakistan in the 1950s and 1960s, that’s when the Rababis ruled the Pakistani music industry, Singh said. They also led the Pakistan radio after it broke off from All India Radio.
It was after 57 years of exile, that the Indian side of Punjab called them back to perform in the country. Bhai Chand Mohammed (son of Bhai Chand), along with Bhai Moeen, his son, travelled to Patiala University to perform shabad keertan. They also visited former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s house, James Singh said.
In Moeen’s accounts of the historic visit, they were greeted with tears, hugs and respect, as people of Punjab embraced their ‘long lost brother’. During this visit, the Rababis expressed their desire to sing at the Golden Temple, but their request was denied by the Shiromani Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee, Singh said, responding to a question by ThePrint.
“Osto baad kuch ni hoya” (nothing happened after that),” Moeen told Singh. Nothing happened, no follow ups, and the Rababis faded into obscurity again.
(Edited by Ratan Priya)