Rashid Khan: The maestro who took classical music to India’s masses

The death of Indian music maestro Rashid Khan earlier this week was followed by an outpouring of grief on and off social media.

The 55-year-old singer died in a hospital in Kolkata (formerly Calcutta) on Tuesday after a prolonged battle with cancer. He was buried with state honours two days later.

Sporting a mop of tousled salt-pepper hair and often dressed in bright floral shirts and kurtas, Rashid Khan didn't exactly carry the air of a traditional musical ustaad (maestro).

But he was, undisputedly, the defining artist of his generation, someone who enjoyed a kind of commercial success and public adulation that is rare for a classical singer of his era.

He commanded the biggest fee among his contemporaries and performed in packed auditoriums: in his busiest years, he was doing 20 concerts a month.

His untimely death has robbed India of one of its finest and most popular vocalists. The appeal of his khayal - a major form of north Indian classical music - cut across musical hierarchies, becoming a rare converging point for common people and the pundits.

Born in Badayun town of Uttar Pradesh state to a lineage of heredity music practitioners of the Rampur Sahaswan Gharana (musical lineage), Rashid admitted himself he was not very interested in music until the second half of his teens.

His guru and maternal grand-uncle, Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan, was an exacting teacher and would make him repeat a single note pattern all day long. Hours of practice and the repetitive rigour that went into honing this difficult art form didn't sit well with his rebellious, fun-loving personality.

It was only when young Rashid was brought into the hallowed grounds of the ITC Sangeet Research Academy, an exclusive music conservatory in