The article first appeared in The Scroll on February 8, 2024
Every Saturday evening, between 7 pm and 9 pm, an unusual service would take place at the outhouse of the home of Calcutta notable ‘Feringhi’ Kamal Bose. The prayers would be Vedic, notes a 1914 book, although the congregation was church-like with a sermon and music. The attendance consisted of an avant-garde, elite group seeking reforms in the Hindu religious and social practices of the time. And the music sung on the sidelines was dhrupad, the oldest of Hindustani music forms.