MUSIC, SPIRITUALITY & ATTENTION IN NORTH INDIA
Wednesday | 18 November 2026 | 5pm | LSE
This event fuses audience participation and research discussion to explore the importance of attention for religious music in north India.
Dr Rahul Rose (LSE Anthropology) and Dr Thomas Graves (LSE Library) are both interested in north Indian musics. Rahul’s research demonstrates an ethic of extreme focus, shown by the dedication of Indian classical musicians in the Hindu holy city of Banaras; on the other hand, Thomas’ research on listeners’ emotional experiences with the Islamic musical tradition of qawwali indicates that spiritual-emotional experiences are strongly related to the locus of listeners’ attention.
CHAIR: Dr Nilanjan Sarkar (Deputy Director, LSE South Asia Centre)
Image © Ana312727, 'Alla Rakha, Ravi Shankar, Partho Sarothy, and Zakir Hussain at The Spirit of Freedom Concert', 26 August 2012. Source: Wikimedia Commons, Licence: CC BY-SA 4.0.
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How to attend: Registration is free but required; please e-mail T.Graves@lse.ac.uk if you would like to attend this event.
The event will be held on-site at LSE, and further details will be sent to all registered attendees prior to the event.
This event will not be recorded.
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Banner image © Oлer Mopoз, 2022, Unsplash.