Mushtaq Bala
Kashmir’s rich musical heritage — once nurtured, recorded, and archived through the golden era of Radio Kashmir Srinagar — stands at a critical crossroads. Unless urgent measures are taken, invaluable recordings of legendary Kashmiri artists risk fading into obscurity, leaving future generations disconnected from a cultural legacy that helped define the region’s artistic identity.
From the soulful depth of Raj Begum, often hailed as the “Nightingale of Kashmir,” to the moving renditions of Naseem Akhtar, Radio Kashmir preserved the voices that shaped the emotional and artistic memory of the Valley. Alongside them stand other iconic names such as Ghulam Nabi Sheikh, Ghulam Mohammad Sofi, Rasool Mir (folk interpretations), Pushkar Bhan, Krishna Langoo, Zoona Begum, Mubarak Shah, Hajra Begum, Ali Mohammad Shaani, Pt. Bhajan Sopori,Mohammad Yousuf Shah, Veerji Handoo, Shameema Azad, Kailash Mehra, Sunaina Koul , Arti Kaul,Nirja Pandit ,Abdul Ahad Nazki (as composer and vocalist), Jeevan Lal Mattoo, Ghulam Hassan Sofi, Vijay Kumar Malla,Qaisar Nizami, Waheed Jeelani and many more voices that carried centuries-old poetic and musical traditions.
However, much of this material exists today only in aging analog tapes stored in archives that are vulnerable to damage, decay, and loss. Experts warn that magnetic tapes — especially those several decades old — have a finite lifespan. Without immediate digital preservation, the Valley may lose recordings that are historically irreplaceable.
Why Digitisation Is Urgent
Digitising these archives is not merely a technological upgrade — it is a cultural responsibility. Converting these recordings into high-quality digital format would:
Preserve rare audio material facing physical degradation
Enable cataloguing and access for research, education, and public enjoyment
Ensure safe storage through modern archival systems and multiple backups
Allow curated streaming or online access platforms for global audiences
Countries around the world — including the UK (BBC Archives), Egypt (State Radio Archives), and even small cultural hubs such as Bhutan — have already adopted robust digital preservation models. Given Kashmir’s artistic history and contribution to South Asian musicology, such an initiative is overdue.
Copyright: The Missing Legal Shield
A parallel challenge lies in the absence of proper copyright registration for many of these recordings. Today, multiple Kashmiri songs circulate on streaming platforms and video-sharing websites without attribution, royalty structure, or acknowledgment of composers, lyricists, or singers.
Securing copyright for these archives would:
Prevent unauthorised commercial use
Ensure recognition and dignity for original creators
Allow revenue-sharing models for families of late artists
Preserve cultural identity against misappropriation or distortion
All India Radio (AIR), as the custodian of these recordings, holds both moral and legal responsibility to initiate this process — especially as the institution transitions into the national Prasar Bharati framework with increased autonomy and technological capability.
Public Access: A Cultural Right
One of the longest-standing demands from cultural scholars, artists, and audience communities is for Radio Kashmir/AIR Srinagar to make the digitised archive publicly accessible through:
An official online audio library
A documented catalogue of artists, recordings, and production years
A listener portal or app
Educational collaborations with universities, heritage bodies, and cultural academies
Not only would this revive public engagement, but it would also restore Kashmir’s classical, folk, Sufiyana, and theatre-linked musical traditions into the lived consciousness of new generations.
The Road Ahead
Whether through a dedicated Government-funded initiative, a Prasar Bharati-led national archive mission, or a collaborative project involving institutions such as the J&K Academy of Art, Culture & Languages, FTII, IGNCA, and private cultural trusts, the task is urgent — and achievable.
Kashmir’s musical archives are not merely recordings. They are emotional time capsules — carrying history, language, memory, resistance, longing, and identity.
If not digitised, documented, and protected now, they risk becoming silent — and silence, in this case, would be cultural erasure.
The time to act is now.
Mushtaq Bala is Editor-in-Chief of Kashmir Pen, an award-winning filmmaker, cultural commentator, and advocate for peace through narrative media.
