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Wednesday, November 26, 2025
TopicGauhar Jaan

Topic: Gauhar Jaan

Gauhar Jaan to Azurie, women led India’s cultural revolution—this Delhi exhibit celebrates them

‘Pathbreakers 2.0’, on display till 26 April at Delhi’s IHC, delves into the lives of India’s earliest women artistes who broke the glass ceiling in their respective fields.

Tawaifs weren’t just into art and culture. Their role in Independence remains forgotten

When the British Raj encountered Tawaifs—women with agency and autonomy—they were confounded and threatened, unable to categorise this community within their social divisions.

Janki Bai, singer disfigured by 56 stab wounds sold more records than her contemporaries

Janki Bai not only trained in music and dance, but also learnt English, Sanskrit and Persian, and wrote a collection of Urdu poetry.

Bangalore Nagarathnamma, the singer who took to Sanskrit and feminism in 19th Century India

European record companies participated with artists like Nagarathnamma, a devadasi, at a time Indian society hounded them in name of morality.

Hindustani vocalist Abdul Karim Khan’s music has special relevance in these communal times

Listening to Abdul Karim Khan at the age of 11, Bhimsen Joshi is said to have made up his mind that this was how real music ought to be.

Salem Godavari, Carnatic vocalist who fought superstitions to record erotic compositions

Salem Godavari is a forgotten footnote and sadly evokes no memory in Carnatic musicians or connoisseurs.

Gauhar Jaan, India’s first record artist, took Rs 3,000 a session & threw parties for her cat

Gramophone’s search for ‘native’ voices in 1900s brought it to India’s Gauhar Jaan, who would go on to have 600 records to her name.

On Camera

New labour codes make India’s workforce competitive with China—and build Viksit Bharat

By consolidating 29 laws into four codes, compliance is streamlined and regulations are simplified, improving “ease of doing business”. This is bound to improve investor confidence.

Vehicles, TVs, mobile phones—PM EAC report shows rural India is catching up with urban consumers

Rural ownership of motor vehicles jumped from 19 percent in 2011-2012 to 59 percent in 2023-2024, while urban rose from 40 percent to 68 percent during the same time period, study by two members of PM-EAC says.

General secrets from frozen peaks: A Kargil veteran reveals what politically correct writers left out

At the Jindal Literature Festival, Maj Gen (Retd) Lakhwinder Singh reveals secrets from 25 years ago, speaking about the decision that outwitted Musharraf and changed the course of the war. 

A tribute to Tejas. India’s delay culture is the real enemy in the skies

It is a brilliant, reasonably priced, and mostly homemade aircraft with a stellar safety record; only two crashes in 24 years since its first flight. But its crash is a moment of introspection.