Rahis Bharti becomes global ambassador glorifying Rajasthani folk music, culture
By Dr Yash Goyal
JAIPUR (TIP): It is difficult to imagine even today that a middle class young boy from a tiny rural village and was playing ‘Tabla and Harmonium’ with his father and grandparents in Pink City’s walled streets, would be one day a Global Ambassador on his passion to make a group of ‘Dhoad Gypsies’.
Such a talented Rahis Bharti from a family having ancestral classical instruments and traditional background from Rajasthan’s Sikar district has now world’s top Dhoad Gypsies’ icon and group director for a batch of 100 artists representing various folk domains in last two decades in 140 countries.
Dhoad Gypsies is a group of 16 artists band including brass band, acoustic musicians, singers, female dancers, acrobats, and fire eater.
The Romani (Roma) people, colloquially known as Gypsies, are the quintessential example of nomadic ethnic group that has settled in multitude of locations, yet maintain a relatively cohesive collective Identity. Romani culture can provide a window into the importance, hardship and rewards of embracing and contributing to a collective humanity, while preserving and celebrating cultural distinctiveness.
Roma (Gypsies) originated in the Punjab region of northern India as a nomadic people and entered Europe between the 8th and 10th centuries C.E. They were called Gypsies because European mistakenly believed they came from Egypt. This minority is made up of distinct group called ‘tribes’ or ‘nations’. The Romani people also referred to depending on the sub-group as Roma, Sinti or Sindhi or Kale are an Eurasian ethnic group, who live primarily in Europe. They originated in Indian subcontinent and left sometime between the 1st Century AD -2nd Century AD, as traders and settled in Roman Egypt eventually settling in Europe, the Byzantine Empire, according to one of the history records put on Google.
Performing a collection of classical and folk song, music and dance, the Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan celebrate a culture that many believe is the ancestral origin of Romani. The ancient musical and oral heritage serves to entertain, on the one hand, and preserve and propagate history and its lessons, on the other hand.
The troupe enthralled the audience with their performance of traditional and spiritual Rajasthani folk music and semi-classical North Indian compositions.
Rahis Bharti is truly the ambassador for India’s thousands year old Indian culture and heritage, especially glorifying the valour, folk music and dance of Rajasthan, a citation from Embassy of India in Paris states.
His work is commendable in the way he uses traditional songs, music, dances and drums that depict societal mores and ethics, such as birth, marriage and harvest celebrations, another award’s citation claimed.
He has internationally become an icon who gives the experience of new era Rajasthan. He and group’s presentation integrate various academic areas such as Geography and social studies. Dhoad offers a totally unique, dynamic and multicultural educational assembly of its artists in own way.
Last year when Corona-19 Pandemic broke out, Rahis was in France and had a plan to hold his grand shows in USA specially in New York, and Mexico. When interacted with TIP in Covid hit 2020-March, he was very optimistic that the dreaded disease would stop later but unfortunately the viral disease is still spreading with newer strains even after one year. Rahis with his active team had to return India in January 2021 and he is again looking for a brighter future of Dhoad gypsies to gain cultural platforms.
“Sole purpose of all my national and international shows is to engage with the audience and make them understand, learn and live the rich culture and tradition of India specially Rajasthan”, Rahis told TIP over a cup of tea at Coffee House in Jawahar Kala Kendra recently.
Rahis, who began his classical career by playing ‘Tabla’, a pair of twin hand drums, and Harmonium (melodeon/reed organ/pump organ) with his father and grandparents at the age of 10 years is now the Director knowing a couple of foreign languages besides English, Hindi and Urdu.
With an impeccable record of lighting up the name of India worldwide in the field of cultural music, distinguished musician and artistic director Rahis, 40 years, has dedicated his life to promote Rajasthani music across globe.
In his vibrant journey, Rahis has performed in over 2500 concerts and shows in more than 110 countries and was also invited to educational hubs such as national schools, colleges, and universities in many countries including USA, Holland, Belgium, France and Norway where lakhs of foreign students learned about Indian art and culture. This is an un-parallel feat that reflects his authenticity and credibility.
He who founded ‘Dhoad Gypsies of Rajasthan’ claims that he has developed penchant for rich art, culture and folk music of Rajasthan since his childhood days, therefore I left my home located in “Nahari Ka Naka” in Jaipur’s walled city with a mere a pocket money and had gone to France by managing some hard cash 20 years ago where I worked hard and had begun individual performances to earn livelihood.
Having a series of awards and honours to his Dhoad Gypsies, Rahis is recognised by UNESCO as the ‘Cultural Ambassador of Rajasthan’ in Japan 2019 for his outstanding contribution towards building bridges between India and other countries. Once Dhoad has performed in the welcome ceremony of PM Narendra Modi in Paris in 2015 and in Queen Elizabeth II’s Diamond Jubilee celebration in London. Rahis has created history when he performed in Disneyland Parish where an audience of more than 5 million witnessed Indian music and dance performances. His team performed there for continuous 4 months.
He has a got a talent creating various programmes performed by legendary Bollywood Masala Orchestra, Spirit of India, Jaipur Maharaja Brass Band and Chalaang—drummers of India.
Wearing a simple long Pathan type Kurta and Pyajama when met this TIP Correspondent, Rahis says his group designed unique culture by making many collaborations such as with: Queen of Gypsies, Esma Redzepova—Macedonia, Romano Drom—Hungary, Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio—Italy, Cheikh sedi Bemol—Algeria, Mathieu Chedid—France, Warsaw Village Band—Polland, LP the Pop Rock Star from USA and Carmin Belgodere—Corsica.
His group has an unending list of performances globally and awards including Silicon Valley Global Organisation Community Award in USA: 2015, The Fryderyk Award (Polish Grammy) Poland in 2016, CID Section of Japan, UNESCO award for Cultural Ambassador of Rajasthan in Tokyo Japan in 2019, and a few awards and felicitation in India.
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