Dr Sumitra Ranganathan, Associate Professor, Musics, SIAS participated in a 2-hour roundtable at the British Forum of Ethnomusicology Annual Conference on 9 April 2026. Titled ‘Entangling Past and Present: Connecting India’s Hidden Musical Histories to Ethnomusicology Today’, the five member hybrid roundtable featured work on neglected or erased fragments of North India’s musical story ranging from historically marginalised Muslim hereditary artisans, tawa’if performers and their ability to navigate multiple spaces, counter-narratives of Dhrupad music in regional courts, the neglected history of the Qawwal Bacche and its links to khayal, and the hidden figure of the cross-dressed male dancer in North India. The panel engaged questions of how digital methods can connect past with present, how today’s oral histories can be reconciled with past accounts, and crucially, the value of entangled, plural and ‘messy’ histories to counter ongoing marginalisation, intolerance, and majoritarian domination.
