Traditional Indian music and Sufism

Music is always found in every civilization and from the very beginning of mankind music was the part of every human life.

The region of the sub-continent is mostly based on Hinduism and Indian culture and most of the Hindu religion is based on musical religious rituals.

After the arrival of Islam in this region the Sufi saints realized that music is the part of soul of the native people so they changed the style of religious preaching and introduced “QAWALLI” instead of Hindu “BHAJAAN”.

This particular idea worked and Islam became the first widespread religion after Hinduism the acceptance of this new religion is just because most of the Sufi saints changed the religion at some point of view and made music a part of Islam. They also inherited some Indian culture and mixed it with Arabic Islamic culture.

In the sub-continent everything that is based on the region must have some music in it also it must be colourful vibrant glamourised and widespread. The Sufi saints just negate idol worshipping otherwise most of the Indian culture they inherited in Islam is very much relatable to the Hindu society even the local festivals and rituals also become part of Indian Islam.

So, we can say that the Sufi saints and the teaching of Sufism is the first step towards the Indianization of Islam. We can say these people have seen the coming generation’s mindset so they made the acceptance of change easier for the coming times.