Majoie Hajary, a composer born in 1921 in Suriname, remains a significant yet often overlooked figure in musical history. With a diverse heritage including Indian indentured ancestors and an Afro-Chinese mother, Hajary received her formal musical training in Amsterdam and Paris. Her career was defined by a unique ability to bridge disparate musical traditions, a trait exemplified by her 1968 composition, Requiem pour Mahatma Gandhi. Despite growing up in a privileged environment focused on Western classical music, her life journey took her to New Delhi and across various cultural landscapes. Recent biographical research by Ellen de Vries, detailed in the upcoming book Surinaamse Rapsodie, has begun to shed light on Hajary’s complex background and her contributions to the intersection of global music and Indian history.
Source : Scroll.in
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