Bade Ghulam Ali Khan

He was born on 2 April 1902 at Kasur in Punjab, British India, into a family of musicians; his father Ali Baksh Khan was a well-known singer.¹² From the age of five he learnt sarangi and singing from his uncle Kale Khan, and after his uncle's death he trained under his father.² He began his career as a sarangi player, performing at Banaras alongside the courtesan singer Hirabai, before his singing made him famous.²

His style amalgamated the Behram Khani elements of Dhrupad, the gyrations of Jaipur and the embellishments (behlavas) of Gwalior into his own Kasur Patiala manner, and he favoured shorter raga expositions shaped to his audience.¹ He composed many pieces under the pen name Sabrang, and his best-known recordings include Yaad Piya Ki Aaye and Aaye Na Balam.¹ After Partition in 1947 he moved to Kasur in Pakistan, but later returned to India permanently, acquiring Indian citizenship in 1957 and living in Lahore, Bombay, Calcutta and finally Hyderabad.¹ Of Partition he remarked that if one child in every home had been taught Hindustani classical music, India would never have been partitioned.¹

Though long reluctant to sing for films, he was persuaded to record two songs — Prem Jogan Ban Ke and Shubh Din Aayo Raj Dulara, on ragas Sohni and Rageshri — for the 1960 film Mughal-e-Azam, demanding and receiving a reported ₹25,000 per song when leading playback singers earned under ₹500.¹

He received the Sangeet Natak Akademi Award and the Padma Bhushan in 1962, and was made a Sangeet Natak Akademi fellow in 1967.¹ He died at Hyderabad on 23 April 1968 — the Urdu article's lead gives 25 April — after an illness that had partly paralysed him, and was buried at Daira Mir Momin cemetery in Hyderabad.¹²

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