Sounding Board – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Technical and general information from the podcast's RSS feed.

Sounding Board

Ali Raj

Music

Frequency: 1 episode/5d. Total Eps: 20

Sounding Board is an audio series about South Asian music, Islamic sound arts and the Urdu literary tradition. It features readings of essays by influential Urdu scholars, musicologists, poets and critics from the 19th and 20th centuries, exploring themes of identity, inheritance and imagination. The project is supported by Columbia University Society of Fellows/Heyman Center for the Humanities and Humanities New York. Produced by Ali Raj

Read moreCollapse

Site

RSS

Apple

Data updated on 14/07/2026

Recent rankings

Latest chart positions across Apple Podcasts and Spotify rankings.

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

No recent rankings available

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

Links found in episode descriptions and other podcasts that share them.

See all

No links shared by this podcast

RSS feed quality and score

Technical evaluation of the podcast's RSS feed quality and structure.

See all

RSS feed quality

To improve

Score global : 63%

Publication history

Monthly episode publishing history over the past years.

Year

Latest published episodes

Recent episodes with titles, durations, and descriptions.

See all

The Lullabies of East Pakistan - Nasim Ahmed

Season 2 · Episode 10

Friday, January 2, 2026 • Duration 07:44

Nasim Ahmed (d. ?) was a writer based in East Pakistan, who frequently contributed to Urdu and Bengali periodicals. The essay featured in this episode provides an overview of the culture of Bengali lullabies in the cities and villages of Pakistan's eastern wing. Published in 1963, the essay covers the various themes that feature in these lullabies, including the topography of the Bengal region, its flora and fauna, and the mother's prayers for the safety and success of her child. The conversation is punctuated by translations of various Bengali lullabies in non-standard Urdu, which is spoken by various communities in the region.

Read moreCollapse

How Can Music Be Food for the Soul? - Mufti Muhammad Shafi

Season 2 · Episode 9

Friday, December 26, 2025 • Duration 10:52

Mufti Muhammad Shafi (1897-1976) was a leading scholar and jurist of the Deoband school in Pakistan. In this episode, we revisit an essay from his Arabic treatise on the permissibility of music, translated by Muhammad Abdul Muiz. The essay examines from a Hanafi standpoint the German philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer's proverbial phrase about music being food for the soul.Featured recitation:Muzaffar Warsi - Wohi Khuda Hai

Read moreCollapse

There's No Such Thing as Pakistani Music - Rafiq Ghaznavi

Season 2 · Episode 8

Thursday, December 18, 2025 • Duration 09:50

Rafiq Ghaznavi (1907-1974) was a pioneering musician and actor of Indian and Pakistani cinema. In this essay, written in 1953, Ghaznavi attends to a most fundamental question: can there be such a thing as Pakistani music? Ghaznavi holds Pakistan's broadcasting czar Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari responsible for deliberately pushing for a separate Pakistani musical identity, distinct from its Indian counterpart. The essay was republished as part of anthology by Professor Shahbaz Ali in 2012.Featured music:1. Ustad Shahid Pervez - Yaman Kalyan2. Aziz Mian Qawwal - Aasman se utara gaya

Read moreCollapse

Listening on Trial at the Sultan's Court in Delhi - Qasim Firishta

Season 2 · Episode 7

Friday, December 12, 2025 • Duration 06:15

Muhammad Qasim Hindu Shah Firishta (d. circa 1623) was a Persian historian who served the Sultanate of Bijapur in the Deccan. His seminal work, the "Gulshan-i Ibrāhīmī" (The Garden of Ibrahim) is a long history of the Muslim conquest of India. It was named after his patron, Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II. The essay featured in this episode is based on an excerpt from the book's first volume. It tells the story of the famous trial of Nizamuddin Auliya (d. 1325) in the court of Sultan Ghyasuddin Tughluq at the Tughlaqabad Fort in Delhi. Displeased with Nizamuddin for failing to return an endowment, Sultan Tughluq convened a court to try him for his Sufi practice of samā' (listening). The excerpt was translated into Urdu by Khwaja Abdul Hameed Yazdani and published in 1966.

Read moreCollapse

The Partitioned Airwaves of All India Radio - Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari

Season 2 · Episode 6

Monday, December 1, 2025 • Duration 12:55

Zulfiqar Ali Bukhari (1904-1975) was a pioneering broadcaster, as well as a poet and musicologist. Born in Peshawar, Bukhari was among the earliest administrators of All India Radio, and the founder of Radio Pakistan. In this essay, excerpted from his autobiography that was serialized in an Urdu newspaper between 1962 and 1966, Bukhari recalls the days of Hindu-Muslim disputation over All India Radio airtime. He talks about his resentment for the harmonium, the origins and instant popularity of Muharram programming. Written many years after Partition, the essay’s tenor recalls the political atmosphere of 1940s British India, and the familiar trappings of Urdu musicology.Featured music and recitations:1. Ustad Shahid Parvez - Des2. Ustad Habibuddin Khan - Harmonium3. Agha Maqsood Mirza Dehlvi - Aye salami hashr ke din4. Aftab Ali Kazmi - Behek rahay ho kyun

Read moreCollapse

The Sacred Sarangi of Ustad Bundu Khan - Muhammad Hasan Askari

Season 2 · Episode 5

Monday, November 24, 2025 • Duration 10:19

Muhammad Hasan Askari (1919-1978) was a critic, essayist and short story writer. Born in Bulandshahr, Askari spent his most productive years in Delhi, Lahore and Karachi. The essay featured in this episode was written circa 1956-57 as an ode to the sarangi legend Ustad Bundu Khan. Keeping Bundu Khan's person as a centerpiece, Askari meanders through his various intellectual preoccupations with Indo-Islamic culture, drawing upon Urdu musicology, Sufi practices, and his reading of Hindu metaphysics.Featured music:1. Bundu Khan - Yaman Kalyan2. Gundecha Brothers - Bhopali3. Salamat Ali Khan, Nazakat Ali Khan - Bhopali

Read moreCollapse

Radio Pakistan’s Ban on Rabindra Sangeet – Abul Mansur Ahmad (Eng.)

Season 2 · Episode 4

Tuesday, November 18, 2025 • Duration 17:29

Abul Mansur Ahmad (1898–1979) was a Bengali politician, journalist and writer. He participated in the Pakistan Movement and later played a leading role in the struggle for East Pakistan’s political autonomy. The essay featured in this episode was written by Ahmad in August 1967, in the aftermath of the controversial Radio Pakistan ban on Rabindranath Tagore’s music. Historians sometimes describe — and at other times overstate — this controversy as one of the turning points in the turbulent history of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). In the essay, Ahmad examines the claim that Tagore is essential to East Bengali culture from the standpoint of a staunch Muslim nationalist who, while acknowledging Tagore’s genius, rejects his idea of India and Indian nationalism—ideas that, in Ahmad’s view, leave no room for a distinct Bengali Muslim culture and identity.

Featured music:1. Aji Bangladesher Hridoy Hote2. Amar Sonar Bangla – Poriborton Foundation

Read moreCollapse

Poetry, Music and the Mushairah - Sajjad Zaheer

Season 2 · Episode 3

Wednesday, November 12, 2025 • Duration 10:39

Sajjad Zaheer (1905–1973) was a Marxist poet and revolutionary who lived and worked in both India and Pakistan. The essay featured in this episode, written around 1958, explores the tradition of tarannum (melodic recitation) in the Urdu mushairah (poetic symposium). Zaheer examines why poets who recite their verses melodiously are so beloved by mushairah audiences, and whether tarannum allows listeners to overlook questions of literary merit. He discusses the performance styles of poets such as Jigar Moradabadi and Josh Malihabadi, his own introduction of full-fledged singing at a Calcutta mushairah, and the popularity of inferior or suggestive verse. Crucially, Zaheer argues for the cultivation of refined taste among mushairah audiences and emphasizes the crucial role of second-tier poetry in sustaining the Urdu literary tradition.Featured recitals and music:1. Khumar Barabankvi - Akele hain wo2. Jigar Moradabadi - Sad arzu-e khushgavar3. Barkat Ali Khan - Ah ko chahiye ik umr4. Josh Malihabadi - Mojid-o Mufakkir {6:103}

Read moreCollapse

The Music of Kazi Nazrul Islam - M. N. Mustafa (Eng.)

Season 2 · Episode 2

Friday, November 7, 2025 • Duration 12:27

Muhammad Nurul Mustafa (1936–2000), known by his pen name M. N. Mustafa, was a Bengali journalist, scholar and diplomat. After studying journalism at Punjab University, Mustafa worked as an editor for the English-language dailies The Morning News and The Pakistan Observer, and later as an assistant regional director at Radio Pakistan’s Dacca station. In Bangladesh, he pursued a distinguished career in radio broadcasting and was appointed Director General of Bangladesh Betar in 1992. The essay featured in this episode was part of his 1977 book on music history, large parts of which were written in London during 1969-70. It provides an overview of the poet laureate Kazi Nazrul Islam’s contribution to Bengali music.
Featured music:1. Bashori – Chol, Chol, Chol2. Kazi Nazrul Islam – Pashaner bhangale ghum3. Karar oi louho kopat4. Ferdausi Rahman – Poddar dheu re

Read moreCollapse

Why People are Scared of Classical Music - Nargis Khanum (Eng.)

Season 2 · Episode 1

Saturday, October 25, 2025 • Duration 08:18

Nargis Khanum (1943-2017) was a pioneering arts and culture journalist in Pakistan. Born in Pune, she joined the daily Dawn as a staff reporter in 1966 and led a trailblazing career in writing and editing that spanned over 50 years. In this essay, written for the the Morning News in 1977, Khanum explains why the layperson finds it hard to appreciate classical music. She traces the art form’s roots to folk traditions and outlines ways in which a novice listener can cultivate a taste for the music's timeless beauty.

Featured music:

1. Roshan Ara Begum - Dadra in Mishr Pahari

Read moreCollapse

Sounding Board – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Sounding Board – Details, episodes & analysis

Podcast details

Recent rankings

Apple Podcasts

Spotify

Shared links between episodes and podcasts

RSS feed quality and score

Publication history

Latest published episodes

Similar podcasts and content

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Related Shows Based on Content Similarities

Apple Podcasts

Spotify