Ibrahim Sutar, polyglot folk singer who toured across States spreading the message of Hindu-Muslim unity, died at Mahalingpur in Bagalkot district on Saturday. He suffered a massive heart attack early in the morning.
The recipient of the Padmasri award for communal harmony, he had earned the sobriquet of ‘Karnataka’s Kabir’. He was 82 and is survived by wife, a son and two daughters.
The founder of the Bhavaikyate Bhajana Mela, he began his career as a Harikathe Bhajan singer going around villages and towns. He regaled the audience 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 which he knew by rote. 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 who invited him to speak on Vachana and Dasa literature. He won the Karnataka Rajyotsava award in 1995 and the Padmasri in 2018.
Born into 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 the lectures in the Sri Basavananda Swami mutt and Bhajans in Sadhu Maharaj temple. He was also a member of the mosque committee. He studied Hindu and Islamic scriptures with equal zeal and built 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.
Sri Chandrashekar Shivacharya, seer of the Hukkeri mutt, has said that Sutar’s death is a huge loss to the communal harmony movement in the State. “His presence is felt dearly now, as communal forces are rising across the State. He countered communalism by using art and culture,” he said.
