Matching Steps

Matching Steps How a cross-border duo are reviving the Lahore gharana/Arts

- YOGESH PAWAR

It was well past midnight. In the bustling heart of Gurugram, slow, melodic strains of Raga Darbari played on the sarangi, off a Bluetooth speaker. A young kathak dancer extended his right arm to the ceiling. At the same time, he contorted his spine until his left shoulder almost touched the ground. Then, he swirled in a stylised aadaab—a gesture of respectful greeting—bringing his right hand down before his eyes.

Sushant Gaurav, a 27-year-old human-resources professional who works at an electronics firm, was performing a lineage of Kathak that has nearly faded into oblivion. It is in the style of the Lahore gharana, which was founded by a dancer from the Lucknow gharana who moved to Pakistan after Partition. While the Lucknow, Jaipur and Benaras gharanas dominate India's Kathak repertoire—Gaurav previously trained in the Lucknow style for over twelve years—the Lahore gharana was overshadowed by geopolitical divides and cultural erasure not long after its founding.

Despite the Delhi winter, his face shone with sweat after dancing for over two hours. "There are so many minutiae in Ustadji's style that I have to remember and practice each move hundreds of times to get even one-tenth of his nazaaqat"—stylistic elegance—Gaurav told me. He was speaking of his teacher, Fasih-ur-Rehman, a London-based Pakistani Kathak maestro. The performance in Gurugram was more than just a showcase of technical mastery; it was an act of cultural reclamation. Rooted in the artistic conventions of the Mughal court, the Lahore gharana is steeped in the composite culture of the subcontinent, where Persian, Central Asian and Indian aesthetics once seamlessly intertwined. However, its revival is fraught with complexities born out of the region's fragmentation. Gaurav's journey of rediscovery began in 2020.