Informed by decades of ethnographic research, Dhol: Drummers, Identities, and Modern Punjab is a monograph that richly explores ontologies of drumming in the region of contemporary Punjab in South Asia. Extending across social groups, performance traditions, religious orientations, and national borders, the book aspires to better understand the status and evocativeness of the iconic dhol drum, and especially through the dimensions of instrument making, musicians’ livelihood, cultural nationalism, popular reception, and diasporic movement.

The book opens with a considerable introduction that situates the politics of language and other geographical designations that shape the term “Punjabi” as an identity construct. Through a few vignettes, the author further emphasizes important “fields” of inquiry through which the book repeatedly makes its arguments—that of amateur and professional music making, notions of art, and the effects of mass mediation. The introduction also reiterates another salient issue, that of how Punjabi drumming mediates ideas of appropriation and empowerment in a larger spectrum of ethical dimensions that give meaning to an inclusive but paradoxical “Dhol World” (26). Continuing in this vein, chapter 1 is largely historiographical, framing a number of ecological, economic, and political complexities that have informed Punjabi society. This broader discussion also serves to reify the shaping of a musical identity among Punjabis living within and beyond Punjab, highlighting both its most pervasive qualities and its consequences for minority communities in the region.

Chapter 2 turns to ontologies of sound and conventional practice, focusing on the construction, playing technique, and sonic efficacy of the dhol, a large barrel drum known for its exuberant sound and associations with open-air festivity and auspiciousness. Here, the author scrutinizes the changing landscape of the dhol after the Partition of South Asia—combining corporeal investigations of drumming and dance with the dhol’s consequential marking of social events—to ruminate on the challenges that inform dhol drumming and identity today. Importantly, this discussion situates the shifting strategies of dhol players and rhythmic patterns against changing market strategies for commodified drumming, the motivational function of drumming among immigrant communities, and the growing online presence of the dhol.

Chapter 3 immerses the reader in more ethnographic material, and considers the social and ethnic background of dhol drummers, the communal structures which they navigate, and their engagement with a larger and expansive arena of professional drummers. This section draws from interviews and intimate interactions with a selection of dhol drummers belonging to different but distinctive groups, religious communities, economic backgrounds, and patronage systems. The subsequent chapter contrasts this broader exploration with a more specific analysis of the Bazigar community. Particularly notable for their artistic resilience during the modernization of the Punjab, the Bazigars are emphasized for their adaption of dhol drumming as educational opportunities, changes in sedentary lifestyle, and issues of meritocracy. This institutionalization of musical practice drastically reshaped the region.

With a few chapters of ethnographic work in place, chapter 5 begins a more detailed discussion of musical agency, especially the preferences and attitudes of dholis. Here, the author is mostly concerned with how one becomes a drummer and ultimately exists as a drummer in Punjabi society. Exploring issues of professionalism, pedagogy, aesthetic behavior, and the performance of style, this chapter spotlights the subtle but boundless ways in which dholis utilize features of training, technique, and choice as a means of expressing Punjabi identity.

Chapter 6 seeks to further expand on dhol drumming by examining diasporic formulations. Intriguingly, the objective of this chapter is not only to formulate how other dhol subjectivities have formed in the world and beyond the Punjab, but also the effects of such dhol activities on current dhol practice in South Asia. In doing so, the chapter highlights the many lives and meanings imbued by immigrant pioneers, a burgeoning body of lay drummers, and the lasting reverberations of tourism and music residencies on dhol pedagogy. The final chapter returns to the region of the Punjab, marked by the author’s return after more than a decade beyond fieldwork. This last section looks at a changing landscape informed by both the fate of pedigreed performers and a slew of intergenerational issues, and further ponders the future of the Dhol World.

Written with great intimacy and compassion, Dhol: Drummers, Identities, and Modern Punjab is a study of the aspirations and negotiations of those who love the dhol and live the life of a dholi. Filled with ethnographic detail, and some musical analysis, this monograph is intended to be both a survey of a drum and its accompanying traditions, and also a close study on mutual interactions between communities and their engagements with financial policy, nationalist agendas, and the power and leverage of a diasporic presence. The book is also a welcome addition to a burgeoning body of work that seeks to reexamine the abundance of drumming traditions in South Asia on its own terms. Perhaps it may inspire further work on related issues, such as those of gender in a drumming tradition that increasingly complicates its masculine performance history. Furthermore, while the Punjabi dhol is a quintessential version of the instrument, serious study of the dhol across South Asia has yet to be seriously explored, as it belongs to a larger family of instruments that exists through a range of regional varieties, playing techniques, and musical associations.

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[Review length: 881 words • Review posted on October 28, 2022]