Do we like them?

Do we like Ustad Rashid Khan?

Our score: 7 out of 10. A clean record and a life given to his art and his students, held back from higher because little exists on where he stood on wider issues.

Rashid Khan was born in Badayun, Uttar Pradesh, and trained first under his maternal grand-uncle, Ustad Nissar Hussain Khan. He moved to Kolkata as a ten-year-old in April 1980, made his concert debut at 11, and grew into one of the best-known voices of the Rampur-Sahaswan style.

Musically he was a traditionalist who still pushed the edges. He was known for his slow, spacious vilambit khayal, but he also did Rabindra Sangeet, jugalbandis, and playback work on films like Jab We Met and My Name Is Khan. In 2019 he said he had never compromised on his training, but figured a thumri or the odd film song would widen his audience.

On the scandal front, there's nothing. We searched for court rulings, lawsuits and allegations against him and found none, so there's no stoush to retell. The only legal mention that turned up involved threats made against him, and he was the target there, not the accused.

The harm check comes up empty, and that's a finding of sorts. Nothing in the coverage shows him attacking LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or anyone else, and he wasn't spreading conspiracy theories or playing culture-war games. The honest gap is that he rarely commented on public issues, so this is a lack of harm, not a record of campaigning for anyone.

What he did say publicly was mostly about his own field. In 2019 he complained that governments are very stingy with their support to artistes and their heritage. It's a mild, sensible gripe, and it shows he cared about the people who keep the tradition going.

The good stuff is the work and the honours. He taught as a guru and kept a classical tradition alive while keeping it open to new audiences. He won a Padma Shri, a Padma Bhushan and West Bengal's Bangabhusan in 2012, and during the pandemic he ran online-streamed sessions. When he died on 9 January 2024, West Bengal gave him a gun salute and he was buried in his hometown of Badaun with state honours.