Kantraki song by Raj Mohan (The Netherlands/Surinam)

A song in the Sarnami (Bhojpuri as spoken in Surinam) from the album 'Kantraki'. (PAN Records 2005).

Info:

The song ‚Kantráki' describes the migration of the indentured labourers between 1873 and 1916 from India to Surinam. With this CD a new road is entered into the still rather young Sarnámi language and music culture.
A way was searched for chemistry between language, rágá's, and rhythms in the North-Indian semi-classical geet and ghazal music styles. The songs on Kantráki are best categorised as Geet. Geets are songs that not always have a fixed rhyme. A Geet song deals with a fixed theme.

The story:
The first Hundustani indentured or contract labourers from British India arrived by ship on June 5th 1873 in Surinam (Dutch Guyana). The Day of Immigration is still celebrated today by Hindustani in Surinam and in The Netherlands.
The period of Hindustani contract labour lasted from 1873 to 1916, and over 35,000 Hindustani arrived from British India to Surinam. About one third of them returned to their homelands after their contracts expired. The rest remained in Surinam, and their descendants now number 300,000 in Surinam and 150,000 in The Netherlands.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• Sarnami
• Geet
• Bhojpuri
• Kantraki
• Raj
• Mohan
• Surinam

[1012rohitgupta]

wow!! what a composition!! Described everything so minutely...

[Deviji]

Lovely song. Would you be able to post the lyrics/english translation? Thank you for uploading!