Simon Broughton: A quest for Sufi music amid war and intolerance

The world has entered a time of uncertainty; it is observing uncomfortable trends as people flee violent wars and oppression in mostly Muslim-majority nations.

Xenophobia has been on the rise, in parallel with extremist terror. So as lives are lost and homes abandoned, what happens to the old way of life?

Simon Broughton is a British filmmaker who began his career as a BBC journalist. His works are significant because of the immersion they provide into the enduring musical cultures of countries like Afghanistan and Syria.

He made ‘Breaking the Silence: The Music of Afghanistan’ two months after the fall of the Taliban. Broughton has explored diverse sects to make ‘Sufi Soul: The Mystic Music of Islam’.

His last visit to Bangladesh was in February when he attended the Dhaka Literary Festival. As protectionism and Islamophobia shroud some parts of the world, he sat down to speak to bdnews24.com about the threat to cultural exchange.      

Senjuti: Did you face difficulties while shooting your film in Afghanistan, and is that where your journey into Afghan music began?

Simon Broughton: Before making that film, I didn’t know very much about Afghan music. So, for me, it was a process of discovering. Of course, I knew something about Indian music and something about music in wider region, but it was really the first time I focused on Afghan music.

Senjuti: Yes, not many people know about Afghan music…

Simon Broughton: And for me it was a really interesting way to look at Afghan history because each regime there in Afghanistan, since the Russian invasion in 1979, had a different attitude towards music. The Russians were actually quite supportive of music, as long as that was not protesting against their activities. And then of course, there was the Taliban, who would rather...

Senjuti: They were the first to ban music in Afghanistan?

Simon Broughton: They... they didn't ban it but they restricted some things and eventually they banned female singers and then the Taliban banned it completely. Oh, and actually, the Russians, they forbade a lot of Sufi music, because it was religious. (Um... you know, because they were a sort of ‘atheist' state).

So, each regime had its own effects on their music. So, it seems an interesting way to look at the course of history of the country; the music getting caught in the crossfire, as the world. And of course, when the Taliban came, this was the most severe ban on music there has ever been. They also did other terrible things likes banning women from education, you know, women's lifestyle were just halted … I mean the film is not very much about that, it sticks to the music.

But what amazed me was experiencing the hunger and thirst for music just after the fall of the Taliban... I was there just two months after the fall of the Taliban, and it was just incredible, all these lorries came over the border with cassettes and CDs from Pakistan. And people were actually selling ghetto blasters in the markets. It was just ... incredible. People said something before I went there like, ‘it’s a bit early to start talking about music, there are other bigger issues than that that’. And actually I felt in reality, it was exactly the right time to go there.

Senjuti: Yes, I mean, how can people live without music...

Simon Broughton: Yes, it’s absolutely a question. Actually on a whole, people really had to! Because, the thing with music, is that it’s so noisy! (laughs) No, actually it was sort of a very brutal suppression of a human right. So, the sad thing is that, the film ends with quite a lot of optimism with what can be done with Afghanistan and you know, the situation has got really a lot worse. So, the optimism at the end of the film hasn't been realised.

I mean, music is still allowed, but one of my favourite Afghan musician (a guy called Ghulam Hussain) had to flee recently, because he was being threatened. He worked in a music school, he was teaching Rubab... and he had to sever all those ties because his life was in danger.

Senjuti: Well, then you started working on a film on Syrian music and Sufi music as well.

Simon Broughton: Indeed, the Sufi film was actually the first one, after the Afghan film. And actually the Afghan film had fantastic sequences on Sufi music in Kabul. Um... Naqshbandi, I think they are...was fantastic! And they had this guy who would really go in a sort of trance... So it was very thrilling and amazing.

Sufi music has been a long love. You know, you are very familiar with it in Bangladesh ... these situations, when it gets caught up in conflicts with hardline mullahs. Sufis in Pakistan are in conflict with the extremists.

It seems, after the attack on 9/11, there has been this demonisation of Islam. And I think it’s very important to show that, on a whole Islam is actually about peace! Through these Sufi music we can show the world that Islam has also got a rich heritage of music, poetry and other forms of arts. And they still exist in the different parts of the Islamic world.

So we went to Syria to show in the film where Sufism really started. It grew out of the deserts in Syria. Well, in that part of the past, when it wasn’t called Syria. And we looked into Turkey for Rumi, because Rumi is the best internationally known poet of the Muslims.

And then India and Pakistan, the South Asia, with Nusrat (Nusrat Fateh Ali khan) and the others, probably the most famous Sufi musicians. We also talked to Abida Parvin.

Then we ended up in Morocco, it’s a really small country with an active love for Sufi music. There are no big stars. Like there are no Moroccan Nusrat! There is actually one singer I would suggest you listen to; his name is Mawan Hajj. But what you get in Morocco is lots of different ‘Tariqas’ and brotherhoods. Each of them has a different style in music. Some of them are just locals, some of them have instruments. Well my favourite is the wilder stuff. There are these two ‘Tariqas’, who have this amazing wild stuffs. One if them is the ‘Isawos’. They really have this amazing music.

Another reason for filming in Morocco is that they have a festival for sacred music. Everywhere else we filmed, the music were in shrines and was part of the ritual thing. And then in Morocco, some of it gets put on stage.

In Pakistan we filmed Qawwali shows on Baba Farid's Shrine and we used Nusrat's archive footage, cause he died in 1997. So we really wanted to show the on-stage Sufi music of Morocco.

Senjuti: You actually started your career in journalism and then...

Simon Broughton: I started my career in radio. And then in television and the writing came later.

Senjuti: I think we can say that you have been to a lot of different cultural regions and you know a lot about this part of Asian music.

Simon Broughton: A little bit of quite a lot actually... (laughs)

Senjuti: Well, that’s what journalists do! Well, what I want to ask is, in your opinion, how do you think unrest and changing political scenario affect the evolution of different cultural heritages across the world?

Simon Broughton: Well, it’s terrible. I think there are terrible examples of that. The worst example is the destruction that ISIS or Da’ish brought to historic sites in Syria and Iraq. The heritage sites belonged to all of mankind. They were deliberately destroyed! Before that they had survived thousands of years! This is a real crime.

I filmed in Syria, in Aleppo. What a beautiful place it was, what a fantastic city! It offered a rich culture not only comprising of different Sufi music brotherhoods also had Christians and other minorities' co-existing, living alongside each other in that same city… the Yazidis and the Shias. And the destruction of that city and the horrible war going on there... will we live to see Syria as a popular cultural zone again?

Senjuti: Do you believe these conflicts can entirely eliminate the tradition of Eastern Sufi music?

Simon Broughton: Well, I think these cultures are very resilient. You can say that Syrian music will disappear … I think the society that has nourished it, is in danger. The multi-cultural society is disappearing.

Well, of course, you know, everybody (except) the Taliban needs music to survive. And of course, music will survive, in many forms.

And here in Bangladesh, a festival like this, seeing Baul music playiing under the banyan tree, I get a sense of the power of these traditions, which is very old. Well, Lalon didn’t leave so long ago, it’s just a hundred and fifty years old. In a way of human history, it’s apparently recent. But the tradition is older.

So, of course the politics changes music naturally and I get very interested in the likes of the Afghan music or the likes of Sufi music, where the world of politics and music coincide. That’s an interesting subject for me. Of course sometimes the outcome is not very nice.

Senjuti: How popular are Eastern music traditions in Europe?

Simon Broughton: Oh, yes! The Qawwalis are very popular. If you go to a Qawwali concert in London, you will see half the audience are south-asians. The other half are British and of other European nationalities. It’s a mixed audience. It’s great. People are open to different kinds of music.

Senjuti: That is where I get confused sometimes! I don’t intend to attack you, but when is comes to the `Brexit' question, Britain has shut its door to both immigrants and refugees. And now, Donald Trump has been elected the president of the United States. And he also has taken up policies that say -- ‘No immigrants, please!' So, do you think the US and UK, because of their protectionist policies, will miss out on musical collaborations with other cultures?

Simon Broughton: Yes ... and I will say immediately, I certainly, didn’t vote for Brexit. And London also didn’t vote. The big cities in Britain, voted to stay. It’s mainly the rural areas that voted to leave. Sadly, it was the small majority that voted to leave.

I am very worried about what’s going to happen. Nobody knows what’s going to happen actually. (About the laws of migration and so on). But the people will remain the same I think.

South-east Asians won’t have much to worry about I think. It’s not that it has ever been easy for Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis to come here, although we have big communities of each of them in here. I am more worried for the people who will organise the festivals to get people to come. And it is bad news for all of us.

Senjuti: Let’s come back to you again. I think this is your third visit here. How do you find Bangladeshi music different from the other musical styles practiced in India and Pakistan?

Simon Broughton: My favourite thing here is the Baul tradition. I think it’s really unique. In a way it is related to the Sufi music and traditions I know from the other parts of the world. The spiritual line is the same. But the sound is different, the instrumentation is different and of course the language is different too. Actually I would like to add a quote that I love. That is, ‘Sufism is like a river, that absorbs the colour of where it’s flowing’. It’s absolutely true. Talking about the Syrian music in Morocco, in Pakistan and in Turkey ... it takes on the local color. Same can be said about here as well.

And I love the Dotara, the peacock head of it as well. It has this artistic craftsmanship. It’s beautiful. And the massage of the songs are, I think very important and has a lot to tell us.

Senjuti: Do you have a plan for a film on our music?

Simon Broughton: Well somebody has to commission these ventures and I will say funds for this kind of projects are getting scarce day by day. But, yes. I would love to tell the story of the Bauls and the music they have to give to the world one day.