Works by Yousuf Saeed

2009-07-04T22:02:00.000-07:00

Yousuf Saeed is an independent researcher and filmmaker based in Delhi, India

Some Published works:
• Basant – the Rites of Spring, in Speaking Tree, 'The Times of India', Mumbai, Feb. 1998.
• Aaj rachyo hai Basant Nijam ghar (Today, the spring blossoms in Nizam's house), Qaumi Awaz (Urdu daily), Haftawar zameema (weekend supplement), New Delhi, February 15, 1998, pp. 1-4.
• Musical Noise in Arab ki Sarai, a review of Muzaffar Ali's Jahan-e Khusrau, March 2001 (Amir Khusrau website).
• What kind of India shall we give to our children? A help-book in English, Urdu, and Hindi, enlisting some practical suggestions on reducing communal prejudice in the society, self-published after 2002’s communal violence in Gujarat. New Delhi, June 2002. This book being used by Hindi-Urdu students at University of Texas, Austin.

• A Proposal to Resolve the Ram Mandir-Babri Masjid Tussle, 2002.
• A man for all faiths (article about Gwalior's folk orator Dhole Bua Maharaj), Tehelka, New Delhi, 12 February, 2005, p. 30.
• Popular Art Bridges Divide, in 'The Times of India', New Delhi, Feb. 18, 2006.
• Breaking Boundaries: Devotional Iconography in Popular Muslim Posters in India, in Manushi magazine, No.157, Nov-Dec. 2006. pp. 12-15.
• An Image Bazaar for the Devotee, in 'ISIM Review' 17, Leiden, 2006, International Institute for the Study of Islam and Modernity, Leiden, The Netherlands.
• Khusrau's Hindvi Poetry, An Academic Riddle? Essay in 'Hu' the Sufi Journal of the Rumi Foundation, May 2007, Delhi (also at the Amir Khusrau website - www.alif-india.com)
• Classical Music in Pakistan: The Impact of Partition, in 'Biblio', July-Aug. 2007, Delhi.
• This is what they look like - Stereotypes of Muslim Piety in Calendar Art and Hindi Cinema, a virtual gallery visual essay at Tasveer Ghar (http://tasveerghar.net)
• Mecca versus the Local Shrine: The Dilemma of Orientation in the Popular Religious Art of Indian Muslims, in Jyotindra Jain (ed.) 'India’s Popular Culture - Iconic Spaces and Fluid Images', a Marg book, 2007, Mumbai. See this article in Economic Times.
• The Debate on Amir Khusrau’s "Inventions" in Hindustani Music, 'The Journal of Indian Musicological Society', Vol. 39, 2008, Mumbai.
• Fled is that Music, in Ira Pande (ed.): 'The Great Divide, India and Pakistan', (India International Centre Quarterly) HarperCollins, 2009, Delhi (238-249).

• Media Circus of Terrorist Encounter at Batla House, Delhi (Sept 2007) Outlook India.
• Muslim Exotica of Hindi Filmdom, a review on the book “Islamicate Cultures of Bombay Cinema” by Ira Bhaskar and Richard Allen, Tulika Books, Delhi, 2009, published in The Book Review, Aug-Sept.2009 (South Asia Special – XIV), New Delhi, pp 23-24.
• Our New Minarets of Identity, a short article about Swiss ban on minarets and prefab minarets of south Asia, Himal Southasian Magazine, web special, 4 December, 2009. Also a different version (with Christiane Brosius) on tasveerghar.net
• Postcards from Lahore, Sarhad Mitra, July-Sept. 2010, Newsletter of Pakistan-India People’s Forum for Peace and Democracy, Pune.
• Kya Jamia Nagar phatne wala hai? (Urdu) Jadeed Mail, January 7, 2011 (and 8 January) New Delhi (Series of articles about the urban decay and social crisis at Jamia Nagar, New Delhi)
• Jugalbandi: Divided scores, Himal Southasian, February 2011, Kathmandu.
• Let some fresh air in (article about Jamia Millia's 'minority status'), The Hindustan Times, New Delhi, February 27, 2011. Also see its longer version, and its Urdu version published in Jadeed Mail.
• Eid Mubarak: Cross-cultural Image Exchange in Muslim South Asia, Tasveer Ghar, March 2011, New Delhi.

• Setting gender roles in Early Indian Print Advertisements, Marg Magazine (Issue titled 'Framing Women: Gender in Colonial Archive'), Vol. 62, No. 4, June 2011, Mumbai, pp. 84-91.

• Muslim Devotional Art in India (Book that surveys the history of Muslim visual culture in India using the contemporary variety of popular poster and calendar art). Routledge, 2011, Delhi.

• ‘From Inclusive to Exclusive: Changing Ingredients of Muslim Identity in Bombay Cinema,’ in Robinson, Rowena (ed.), Minority Studies in India, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2012. Forthcoming.

Fellowships/Awards:
• SARAI Fellow 2004: A short research fellowship entitled Syncretism in the popular art of Muslim religious posters in north India, awarded by the Centre for Studies in the Developing Societies, SARAI, New Delhi.
• Asia Fellow 2005: to conduct a documentation project on Amir Khusrau’s living musical traditions in Pakistan, awarded by Asian Scholarship Foundation, Bangkok. The project concluded with a research paper and two documentary films: Khayal Darpan (100 mins) and Khusrau in Pakistan (15 mins).
• Visiting fellow at the Maison des Sciences de l'Homme, Paris. It involved 3 presentations of films and other audio visual material at three venues in Paris, May 2006.
• Visiting fellow of Boston University, Boston, to visit many institutions in the United States to present films and talk about India’s plural culture (September to October 2006). Lectured and screened films at universities such as Harvard, Boston, Tufts, Texas (Austin), Columbia, (New York), Brown (Providence), and Chicago, besides MIT (AKPIA).
• Collaborative Work Grant from Asian Scholarship Foundation (Bangkok) to organize an international workshop and related activities on “The Impact of 1947 Partition on South Asia’s Classical Music” February-September 2008.
• Margaret Beveridge Senior Research Fellow at J.B. Media Resource Centre, Jamia Millia, New Delhi, to work on "Moving Pictures Moving Faith - Muslim Piety in Hindi Cinema, Popular VCDs, and the 21st Century TV".

• Fellow of the The Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows" at Heidelberg University, for a project on popular Islamic visuality under the Satellite of Networks (2009-11).

Talks/Conferences organised/attended:
• Presented two multi-media lectures in September 2004, to the students at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Resolution, Jamia Millia Islamia University, Delhi: (1) Cross-cultural Interactions in Indian Music - Amir Khusrau’s Contribution, and (2) Finding Syncretic Symbolism in the Religious Art of Muslims.
• Presented the paper Contemporary Challenges to Pluralism in the Popular Devotional Art of South Asian Muslims at the workshop “InVisible Histories: The Politics of Placing the Past”, held at Amsterdam, organized by International Institute for the Study of Islam and Modernity (ISIM), Leiden, Sept. 2005.
• Presented the paper Pluralism in the popular devotional art of Indian Muslims at the Second International Conference on Religions and Cultures in the Indic Civilisation, 17-20 December 2005, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi, organized by the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi.
• Presentations on Syncretic Symbolism in Muslim Popular Art at the Gallery Alternatives, Gurgaon, Haryana (26 Nov.2005), and at Miranda House, Delhi University (13 Dec.2005)
• Presented the paper Telling Devotional Stories in the Muslim Popular Art of India: Images in the Ritual of a Pilgrimage, at the workshop “Building a scientific database for visual and audiovisual media” at University of Heidelberg, Germany, May 2006.
• Presented the paper Amir Khusrau and Indo-Muslim Identity among the Art Music Traditions of Pakistan at the 6th Annual Asia Fellows Conference at Bangkok, July 2006
• Presentation on Stereotypes of Indian Muslims in Popular Media, at the Annual Conflict Transformation Workshop at WISCOMP (Dalai Lama Foundation), India International Centre, Delhi, Dec. 2007.
• Presented a paper on Amir Khusrau's Persian Poetry in Contemporary Performance of Sam'a and Hindustani Music, at the Seminar Aqeedat ke Rang, IGNCA, Delhi, April 2008
• Presented a paper entitled The teaching of Hindustani vocal music in Pakistan and the transmission of Qawwali repertoires as performed in Sufi shrines of Delhi and Gwalior in a 2-day international workshop on “The Role of Lyrics in the Transmission of Hindustani Music”, supported by École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, and held at Hamdard University, New Delhi, 18-19 February 2009.
• Organized and participated in a workshop on Hindustani Music and Partition, supported by Asian Scholarship Foundation (Bangkok) and hosted by Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi, on 22-23 August 2008. A report in The Hindu.
• Organized and participated in 2 workshops on Appreciating Sufi Music and Qawwali, for Ektara India, at New Delhi (October, December 2009). See a report here.
• Participated in the Interactive Seminar on Media Asset Management of Doordarshan Archives, New Delhi, 1st to 8th December 2009.
• "Popular Islam and Urban Spaces: The Nizamuddin Shrine in New Delhi", 22nd January, 2010, Goethe-Institut/Max Mueller Bhawan, New Delhi (part of Heidelberg University's "Cluster of Excellence - Asia and Europe in Global Context").
• "Understanding Bulleh Shah and Amir Khusrau" - a workshop on appreciating Sufi music and qawwali (Ektara India), 6-14 Feb.2009, St.Mary's School, Safdarjang Enclave, New Delhi. More of such workshops by Ektara.
• Media and Minorities – Stereotype Images and Prejudices. Visual presentation followed by a discussion. At Dr. K. R. Narayanan Centre for Dalit and Minorities Studies, Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi. 20 Feb. 2010.
• Conference on "Narrating the Visual; Visualizing Narrative," North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC, March 5-6, 2010.

• "Sacred Spaces/Sacred Sounds", 2009-10 Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Sawyer Seminar, Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 23-24 April 2010. See abstracts.

• Presented: (1) Nizamuddin’s Heritage Buildings and Delhi’s Urban Face-lift and (2) Posters Advertising the Pilgrimage Ceremonies at North Indian Sufi Shrine, at the workshop Changing Popular Visual Cultures of Muslim Shrines: Transcultural Flows and Urban Spaces, at the Cluster of Excellence "Asia and Europe in a Global Context: Shifting Asymmetries in Cultural Flows", Heidelberg, Germany, June 4-5, 2010.

• Participated in UGC-sponsored National Seminar on “Religion and Popular Culture in the Indian Sub-Continent”, Bethune College, Kolkata, in collaboration with Tasveer Ghar, 7-8 December 2010.

• Participated in “Urban visualities: Sites and Sights of Street Art” An international seminar, artist workshop and exhibition, organised by DakshinChitra, Chennai, January 28-30, 2011. See a report.

• Participated in the conference "Visual Culture and Identity Narratives in the Making of Modern India", at North Carolina State University, Raleigh, N.C. (United States), April 29-30, 2011.

Photo courtesy Shivaji Panikkar

• Participated in a workshop on "Curating Indian Visual Culture: Theory and Practice", at Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabad (Organised by ACUA): 12-17 Sept. 2011.
• "Indo-Muslim Popular Arts and Culture": A series of lectures and film shows at Department of Fine Arts, Sarojini Naidu School of Arts and Communication, University of Hyderabadon: 19-20th September 2011.
• "Moral Nurturing via Religious Calendar Art and Devotional Videos in Muslim South Asia", paper presented at the conference THINKING EUROPE/THINKING INDIA, Department of Sociology, University of Delhi, 23-25th November 2011.
• "Muslim Devotional Art in India", a discussion on the release of the book, with Prof. Patricia Oberoi as discussant. 12 December, 2011. India International Centre, New Delhi.

Some Documentary Films/Videos and Multimedia Works Produced:
• Qasba Sanskriti: Bilgram, Amroha: Two films documenting the ethnographic diversity and cultural traditions of two towns in north India. Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi, 2011.
• Tasveer-e Aqeedat: A short video on the popular visual culture around the Sufi shrine of Nizamuddin in New Delhi. 15 mins. Cluster of Excellence, Heidelberg University, Germany, 2010.
• A Dry Run: A compilation of clips from popular Hindi cinema depicting the theme of water in India, telling the story of water and livelihood. (26 mins) 2009.
• Khayal Darpan (A Mirror of Imagination): A feature-length film exploring the development of classical music in Pakistan post-1947, featuring many famous Khayal singers of Pakistan. 100 mins. DVCAM. Screened at Hong Kong Int. Film Festival 2007, Film South Asia Kathmandu 2007, Lyon Asian Film Fest 2007, and many academic venues such as Univ. of Austin, Texas, Concordia Univ., Canada, and other locations. Also a part of Remembering Partition Festival in Mumbai (a report). Reference to the film.
• Aqeedat Ke Rang (Colours of Devotion): A video compilation of various performative traditions of Indian Muslims from different regions, 55 mins, IGNCA, 2008.
• Jannat Ki Rail (The Train to Heaven): A 7-minutes experimental music video celebrating the spirit of India's popular Islam, illustrated by popular devotional art and music. 2006. Featured at many film fests. See this report: "Positive negatives" in The Hindu.
• Agriculture and the Small Farmer in India: A Bollywood Perspective: 23 mins, DV, a video presentation exploring the developments in Indian agriculture and economy as depicted in Hindi cinema over the years. Produced by Bibek Debroy and Amir U.Khan.
• Yashpal – A Life in Science: A biographical film about India’s senior scientist Prof.Yashpal, exploring over half a century of his career in particle physics, satellite communication, and science education. 40 mins, 2004, DVCAM/Betacam, UGC (See its clip on Google video)
• EFBS – A Safer Pest Control: A training film for farmers on reducing the use of harmful chemical pesticides while growing vegetables such as eggplant. Dubbed in 5 Indian languages including Hindi, Bengali, Oriya, Gujarati and Khasi. DV/Betacam, AVRDC-Taiwan, 2004.
• Apni Masti: An audio CD featuring songs in the voice of Hamsar Hayat and his qawwal team. Originally released in 2002 under Ektara India, but now marketed by Navras Records.
• Basant: A short film about how a primarily Hindu festival of spring called Basant is celebrated by some Muslims in North India. 12 mins. Betacam (Oct.1997). Screened at Mumbai International Film Festival (MIFF'98), and the 6th International Short Film Festival, Dhaka (Bangladesh) 1999. See this entire movie on Google video.
• Muharram: A short film that portrays the colourful and highly passionate observance of Muharram in north India’s Amroha town. 15 mins, 1998. Participated in MIFF 2000, Mumbai
• Inside Ladakh: (with Iffat Fatima) A series of 5 documentary films that study the concept of change in 5 ethnic regions of Ladakh. 5x30 min. (June 1997-Doordarshan). Featured at MIFF 1998, Mumbai.
• Boojh Sakay To Boojh: A 4 part documentary series on the contemporary image of 13-century poet Amir Khusrau. (With Iffat Fatima) 4x30 min. Betacam (Jan.1997).
• Turning Point: Co-directed and edited about 45 episodes of this Science series for Doordarshan TV channel (via Times Television) 1991-1994. See a report.

Curation of Exhibits and Events:
• Basant Festival 2002: A day-long cultural event celebrating Sufi Basant near the shrine of Nizamuddin Aulia at Delhi, involving heritage walk, qawwali concert, film screenings and poetry sessions, via Communicator’s Cooperative (Feb 2002). The same festival was also held in 2003 and 2004 on a larger scale, with help from Sahitya Kala Parishad, Govt. of Delhi. In 2007, this festival (Jashn-e Basant) was held at India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.
• Heritage walks: I have been regularly conducting heritage walks around Delhi’s historical buildings, especially the complex of Nizamuddin shrine, almost 5-8 per year. An example.
• Al-Musavvir: An exhibition of Islamic popular poster art at Sarai, CSDS, New Delhi – Aug. 2004.
• Amir Khusrau – Between the Kings and the Masses: A visual arts installation conceived by Yousuf Saeed and designed by Sanjog Sharan, for India Social Forum at New Delhi, Nov. 2006.
• Aqeedat ke Rang: An exhibit of Muslim devotional poster art, at Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, New Delhi. April 2008.
• Colours of Devotion: Exhibition of religious posters at a seminar on Religion and Popular Culture in the Indian Sub-Continent, Bethune College, Kolkata. Dec. 2010.

For more details about the recent work, please see www.tasveerghar.net and www.ektara.org

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