Baishali Adak/New Delhi

Sherine Fatima may not be a household name in India like a Neha Kakkar or Shreya Ghoshal; in fact, hardly any youngsters here would be able to spell ‘Bogdang,’ her village in far north Ladakh. But the contribution of this songstress, and that of her family, to preserving India’s unity and cultural diversity far outweighs many artistic legends.

The 26-year-old has sung over 50 songs in Balti -- an indigenous language spoken only in five villages of Ladakh and in the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK). She has over 70,000 followers on her three social media outlets combined (YouTube, Twitter and Facebook) where she uploads her songs and videos relating to the culture of Baltistani people. And even though Sherine is an Indian national, 90% of her fan following comes from the Gilgit-Baltistan region of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir!

Her success, however, has come at a cost. She had to fight conservatives in her village who forbid Muslim girls from singing, social boycott because her father chose to fight elections on a BJP ticket, and ultimately, social media trolls because she advocates the integration of Gilgit-Baltistan into India.

Sherine

“It all started in year 2001 when my father, Ahmed Shah Balti, decided to fight a local body election on BJP ticket. Of course, he didn’t win, but our fellow villagers started identifying us as ‘different.’ Then all hell broke loose when I sang a qawwali during, and my sister danced, at our Army Goodwill School function. We were ostracized from then on,” remembers Sherine.

Things came to a point when Ahmed and other male members of the family would not be allowed into the local mosque; they were then refused ration. “The breaking point came when I donated blood to a village girl who desperately needed A+ blood. A group of villagers fined her family Rs. 10,000 for accepting blood from me!” said Ahmed Balti.

In 2006, the family moved to Dehradun to start a new life and Sherine sang (only for the second time in her life on a stage) at her new school. Her father recorded her rendition of the classic Hindi film song ‘Ankhiyon Ke Jharokhon Se’ and put it on a new Facebook page by her name.

“Suddenly I started getting comments from across LoC (Gilgit Baltistan) praising me for my voice. Two well-known lyricists there, Manzoor Hussain Balghari and Ehsan Ali Danish, even started sending me their poetry to sing on. Further, when I would record these songs and upload on my Youtube channel, they would go viral in that part of Pakistan,” Sherine recalls.

Sherine

Her father also started writing songs for her, stemming from his old love of Balti folk music. “Our culture is very rich. We are mountain-dwelling, nomadic people with a unique lifestyle. We wear colouful clothes with the heavily-embroidered Iraghi cap and a feather stuck on its front. Our food includes dishes made from buckwheat and khubani (apricots). Unfortunately, a lot of these aspects are getting erased by globalization and religious radicalization. This is what I write about,” pointed out Ahmed.

Sherine started getting recognized as the ‘next Salma Agha’ and seeing her popularity, the J&K Government gave her the “State Award for Performing Arts” in 2019. The family also returned to their ancestral village in Ladakh in January 2020.

She says, “Sometimes I feel, it was for our own good that we had to go away. We got good education in Dehradun; by comparison, Bogdang didn’t even have internet at that time. Today, one of my younger sisters is a law graduate; she is the only girl to have an LLB degree in entire Bogdang.”

And what are her dreams and aspirations from here on? Sherine says enthusiastically, “I want to participate in the Indian Idol. It is not about winning and losing, but I just want to perform in that program. My father and I have googled a couple of times how to audition for it, but still not sure. If someone guides me through it, I’ll be very grateful.