Sound Caravan: Raza Ali Abidi’s Radio Jarnali Sadak

This presentation analyzes the popular serialized BBC Urdu Service production, Jarnali Sadak (Road of Generals) by Raza Ali Abidi, which first aired in 1986. For two months, Abidi travels on Jarnali Sadak, a 2,400 kilometers ancient road that crosses the Indian subcontinent from East to West. Paying attention to Abidi’s story telling techniques and to his unique use of sound, this presentation will show how the travelogue travels both horizontally—across space—and vertically—across time—retelling histories, sometimes accurate, sometimes re-imagined, of South Asia’s past Muslim rulers and the road’s past. Abidi, who was born in India but migrated to Pakistan, seems to be “searching for home” for Urdu-knowing Muslims outside the boundaries of the nation states whose borders the recent Cold War had helped solidify (Amstutz 2017).

The concept of caravan—both the caravans that accompanied Muslim generals come-rulers of
North India like Sher Shah Suri, who first built this road in the 16^th century, and Abidi’s own sound caravan, marching across this road—is a recurring theme in the program. It is in the moving caravan, streaming steadily across time and space, Abidi seems to imply that Muslims of the Indian subcontinent can finally “find a home”.