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Sunday, March 15, 2026
TopicGramophone

Topic: Gramophone

India’s ‘shy’ classical musicians made way for theatre’s entry into gramophone record books

Vikram Sampath -
The vast corpus of theatre recordings on gramophone from various languages provide a valuable glimpse into India’s social and cultural history.

From Mahatma Gandhi to Nehru, everyone was an MS Subbulakshmi fan

Vikram Sampath -
Inspired by the gramophone, Subbulakshmi would often sing into a rolled piece of paper, imagining it to be the recording horn.

Ariyakkudi, maestro who woke up snoring crowds at concerts & made modern-day Carnatic music

Vikram Sampath -
Ariyakkudi Ramanuja put together styles of various musicians across centuries to create the ‘golden mean’ for Carnatic music.

Sundarabai, the versatile singer-actor who helped women musicians herself died unsung & poor

Vikram Sampath -
Sundarabai was witness to many changes in the world of music and entertainment, and helped several performers adapt to modern technology.

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

Vikram Sampath -
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

Vikram Sampath -
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

Vikram Sampath -
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

Vikram Sampath -
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

Vikram Sampath -
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

YourTurn

Opinion

Menstrual leave doesn’t work in ‘real world’. And that real world is designed by, for men

Gitanjali Das -
When a woman menstruates, when/if she decides to marry, when/if she decides to have kids, should not be factors when looking at a woman’s potential from a hiring standpoint.

What India can learn from the US-Israel war on Iran

Communism is based on self-deluding assumptions, it can’t be realised in practice: GN Lawande

Economy

US strike on Iran’s key oil export island Kharg raises fears of wider supply disruption

Katharine Gemmell -
President Trump said the US had bombed military targets on Kharg Island in the Persian Gulf, but spared oil infrastructure.

Defence

Supreme Leader Mojtaba, the man Iran must keep alive & the secret force ‘tasked with it’—all about NOPO

Vaibhav Pant -
The Nirouyeh Vijeh Pasdaran Velayat, or NOPO, was the only force Ali Khamenei trusted.It was founded in 1991 and is more feared than the Revolutionary Guards.

National Interest

Peaceful power transfers followed uprisings in India’s neighbourhood. It’s a sign of mature democracies

Shekhar Gupta -
Rating democracies is a tricky business. I am only using the simple metric of who in the Indian subcontinent has had the most peaceful, stable, normal political transitions and continuity.

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