Raj Mohan & Ensemble - Old Roots New Routes at Amstelkerk

Hindustani blues from the diaspora.
The story of Raj Mohan runs parallel to that of American blues that also arose from forced migration. As the great grandchild of Indian contract workers, he moved to the Netherlands from Suriname in 1974. He emerges as a charismatic singer-songwriter, who interprets the blues sung in Hindi, Urdu or Sarnami. In so doing, Mohan combines classical songs from North India (ghazals) with his own compositions. Beating heart of his performance is the hidden history of the ‘Kantraki’. Following the official abolition of Dutch slavery in 1863, between 1873 and 1916 the Netherlands shipped approximately 35,000 Indian contract workers to Suriname...

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Hindustani blues from the diaspora.
The story of Raj Mohan runs parallel to that of American blues that also arose from forced migration. As the great grandchild of Indian contract workers, he moved to the Netherlands from Suriname in 1974. He emerges as a charismatic singer-songwriter, who interprets the blues sung in Hindi, Urdu or Sarnami. In so doing, Mohan combines classical songs from North India (ghazals) with his own compositions. Beating heart of his performance is the hidden history of the ‘Kantraki’. Following the official abolition of Dutch slavery in 1863, between 1873 and 1916 the Netherlands shipped approximately 35,000 Indian contract workers to Suriname. The transport ship Lalla Rookh subsequently became the symbol of this postcolonial ‘slavery’ which will be extensively commemorated in 2023. Their offspring, now numbering some 350,000, with Raj Mohan as torchbearer, continue to keep their musical heritage alive to this very day.

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