Ibrahim Sutar, polyglot folk singer, who toured India spreading the message of Hindu-Muslim unity, died in Mahalingpur in Bagalkot district on February 5. He suffered a massive heart attack around 6.30 in the morning. He died a few minutes later, family sources said. He was 82. He leaves behind his wife, son and two daughters.
The recipient of Padmashri award for communal harmony had earned the sobriquet of ‘Karnataka’s Kabir’.
The founder of ‘Bhavaikyate Bhajana Mela’ began his career as a Harikathe bhajan singer going around villages and towns. He regaled audiences with stories from Hindu and Islamic scriptures always leaving with a message of harmony, and need for ethics in personal life. He sang songs and gave lectures, quoting from multiple scriptures without the need to read from notes. He was equally well-versed in Kannada and Urdu.
In his later life, he emerged as a public speaker, visiting schools, colleges and Lingayat mutts to speak on vachana and dasa literature. He was honoured with the Karnataka Rajyotsava award in 1995, and the Padmashri in 2018.
Born in a poor weaver family in Mahalingpur, he dropped out of primary school to work as an assistant to a weaver. He developed a spiritual bent of mind early in life. He began attending lectures in the Sri Basavananda Swami mutt and participating in bhajans in Sadhu Maharaj temple. He was a member of the mosque committee that went around villages, asking the faithful to wake up early during the month of Ramzan. He studied Hindu and Islamic scriptures with equal zeal and developed a team of bhajan singers. The ‘Bhavaikyate Bhajana Mela’ performed across Karnataka and Maharashtra.
A routine performance was in the question–answer format interspersed with songs of dasa saints and vachanas. One of the team members came up with a question that sounded very ordinary, but had deep spiritual undertones, like: ‘Who is important in life – god or guru?’ Sutar used anecdotes from the Ramayana and Mahabharata, Islamic scriptures and stories from the life of prophets to give his opinion, that was directed at the audience, rather than the team member who kept asking questions.
