Looks like English is really becoming an Indian language
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Like cricket has become an Indian game….
The singer's name is Sudhir Khalokar. He's for real. You can find a lot about him on the internet.
The performance is classical: perfect beginning, middle, and end.
The raga is Malkauns:
Malkauns, known also as rag Malkosh is a raga in Indian classical music. It is one of the oldest ragas of Indian classical music. The equivalent raga in Carnatic music is called Hindolam, not to be confused with the Hindustani Hindol.
According to Indian classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj, Malkauns is a raga that is "sung during small hours of the morning, just after midnight." He further adds that the raga has a soothing and intoxicating effect.
Read some of the hundreds of comments. You will receive a profound education.
More generally:
Note this comment by Charles Minus:
I would contend that all the emotional content attached to certain chords and intervals is cultural and learned. Listen to the various ragas in classical Indian music and see if you can tell what mood or time of day they are supposed to represent. I can't, but someone raised in that culture has no problem making the connections.
I just heard an Ethiopian instrumental tune, and it has been whirling in my brain for the last hour as I try to comprehend it.
Selected readings
- "Musical discourse" (7/17/15) — don't miss the comments
- "Jazz Dispute" (11/13/14)
[Thanks to Krishnapriyan]
Fred Smith said,
August 9, 2025 @ 12:58 pm
Thanks Victor. It's the same as mantra. It could be meaningless, but the power resides in the sound and whatever is brought to the sound.
crturang said,
August 9, 2025 @ 10:58 pm
@Fred Smith, In this case the meaning is relevant and blends with the music. As one of the commenters on YouTube noted, "By the end Johny and Papa are transformed into Krishna and Yeshoda in our minds." Indeed, lyrics involving Krishna and Yeshoda can be substituted and it would become a typical classical Hindustani rendering without any "foreign" influences.
Han Lee said,
August 10, 2025 @ 2:28 am
'Indian language' what do you mean sir? Indo-Iranian, Dravidian, Austroasiatic, Sino-Tibetan, Tai, Burushaski, Nihali, Kusunda, Onge- Andamanese, Sentinelese. We need to push back against generalization here…
Gokul Madhavan said,
August 10, 2025 @ 3:37 am
@crturang: That’s quite brilliant. I’d never thought of Johnny’s “hahaha!” as akin to Kṛṣṇa’s mouth-opening (jaw-dropping?) theophany before.
On other Kṛṣṇa–Yaśodā compositions, I recommend Sūrdās’s bhajan “Maiyā Morī, Main Nahin Mākhan Khāyo” sung and narrated by Anup Jalota. It starts off with Kṛṣṇa vehemently denying to his mother that he’s eaten butter, proceeds with him trying to coax and cajole her into believing him, and ends with Yaśodā agreeing with him and with Kṛṣṇa finally admitting to his theft with the words “main ne hī mākhan khāyo” (just one vowel and a couple of nasalizations making all the difference between a assertion of innocence and an admission of guilt).
Gokul Madhavan said,
August 10, 2025 @ 3:54 am
@Han Lee: While I can’t speak to Burushaski or Sentinelese, when it comes to at least all the major Indian languages, English has hybridized with each of them in distinct and distinguishable ways, from Hinglish in the North to Tanglish in the South. All of these English topolects(?) exist on a more casual register than the formal Indian English spoken by the graduates of the boarding schools of a generation ago. But there is yet another newer casual register of English spoken by urban élites, more Californian than Etonian, which has its own relation to the previous Englishes. And I’m sure I’m missing out other dialects and registers of Indian English here, to say nothing of the Englishes spoken in India’s neighboring countries which all have their own features while also being influenced by Indian English as well as other Englishes. All in all, English is now part and parcel of the South Asian Sprachbund, replicating and encapsulating within itself the complex linguistic and social dynamics of the region while also creating new expressive possibilities.
Victor Mair said,
August 10, 2025 @ 6:39 am
@Gokul Madhavan to Han Lee
Well answered.