[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":311},["ShallowReactive",2],{"person-en-mohideen-baig":3},{"id":4,"title":5,"artistId":6,"birthYear":7,"body":8,"born":275,"description":276,"died":277,"era":278,"extension":279,"heroImage":280,"imageCredit":281,"imageLicense":282,"imageSource":283,"meta":284,"navigation":285,"notable":285,"path":286,"roles":287,"seo":289,"sources":290,"stem":309,"translated":285,"url":293,"__hash__":310},"peopleEn\u002Fen\u002Fpeople\u002Fmohideen-baig.md","Mohideen Baig",90,1919,{"type":9,"value":10,"toc":266},"minimark",[11,25,30,33,36,54,58,61,64,71,78,82,103,151,154,158,169,226,236,239,243,260,263],[12,13,14,15,19,20,24],"p",{},"Go to any Sri Lankan town on a Vesak evening and stand near a pandal. Somewhere in the sound of it — under the coloured bulbs, over the crowd, through a loudspeaker that has been turned up past what it can honestly manage — a voice will be singing ",[16,17,18],"strong",{},"බුද්ධං සරණං ගච්ඡාමි"," ",[21,22,23],"em",{},"Buddham Saranam Gachchami",", \"I take refuge in the Buddha\". It has been the same voice for seventy years. It belongs to a Tamil-speaking Muslim from Salem in South India, who came to Ceylon because his brother drowned, and who never learned to read Sinhala.",[26,27,29],"h2",{"id":28},"the-boy-who-ran-away-to-trichy","The boy who ran away to Trichy",[12,31,32],{},"Mohideen Baig was born on 5 December 1919 in Salem, in what was then the Madras Presidency, the third child of a very large family — his parents Kareem Baig and Bijan had fourteen children, three of whom died in infancy. Accounts of his father's work differ slightly: he is described both as a police officer in Salem and, more specifically, as a bugler in the Madras Police Band. The family's origins were Hyderabadi rather than Tamil; English Wikipedia describes his paternal line as Pathan.",[12,34,35],{},"The boy was not interested in school. When his headmaster summoned his father to say so, Baig settled the matter himself: the next day he ran away to a boys' dance company in Trichy. Asked what he could do, he sang a song by K. C. Dey — the blind singer who was then one of the most famous voices in India — and was hired on the spot to sing for the male lead. His father's colleagues in the police tracked him to the theatre, waited politely until he had finished his last song of the night, and took him home. It was too late. He announced to his family that he intended to follow the Ustads.",[12,37,38,39,42,43,45,46,49,50,53],{},"He did get some of that training. He learned Urdu and ",[21,40,41],{},"qawwali"," singing from teachers in Salem, listened his way through ",[21,44,41],{},", ",[21,47,48],{},"ghazal"," and ",[21,51,52],{},"bhajan",", and was taught the basics of music by Ustad Ahmed Baksh.",[26,55,57],{"id":56},"a-funeral-and-a-country-that-kept-him","A funeral, and a country that kept him",[12,59,60],{},"His grandfather Halaldeen was already in Ceylon, working for the Grandpass police, and his elder brother Aziz was with the harbour police. In 1931 — some accounts say 1932 — Aziz died in a boating accident, and the family travelled to Colombo for the funeral. Baig stayed.",[12,62,63],{},"What happened immediately afterwards is told two ways. One account has him drafted straight into his dead brother's service and quitting almost at once because he could not bear to be away from music; English Wikipedia says instead that at eighteen he joined the army. Either way, the uniform did not last.",[12,65,66,67,70],{},"What made the difference was a man called Mohamed Ghouse — Ghouse Master, an Indian musician brought to Ceylon by the dramatist John de Silva to write for the ",[21,68,69],{},"nurthi"," stage, and later one of the architects of a Sinhala film sound distinct from India's. Ghouse took the young Baig around to music recitals in wealthy Colombo houses and introduced him to Radio Ceylon. Baig sang Hindustani, Tamil and Islamic songs on air, eventually holding the station's top A grade and performing in four languages.",[12,72,73,74,77],{},"His first Sinhala recording was ",[21,75,76],{},"Karuna Muhude Namu Gilila",", a duet with K. K. Rajalakshmi with music by Ghouse Master, cut for the Columbia label. Sources place it variously in 1932 and 1934, and describe him as eighteen at the time; the year is not settled.",[26,79,81],{"id":80},"nayana-weni-sudo","Nayana Weni Sudo",[12,83,84,85,88,89,92,93,95,96,98,99,102],{},"Sinhala cinema began in 1947 with ",[21,86,87],{},"Kadawunu Poronduwa",", and Baig is very often said to have sung in it. He did not. His debut came three months later, in the second Sinhala film, Shanthi Kumar Seneviratne's ",[21,90,91],{},"Asokamala"," — which was also Ghouse Master's experiment in composing original songs rather than fitting Sinhala words to Indian tunes, and on which a young Albert Perera, later W. D. Amaradeva, worked as assistant music director. Sources name Baig's ",[21,94,91],{}," song as either ",[21,97,81],{}," or ",[21,100,101],{},"Preethi Preethi","; two independent accounts of Ghouse Master's work name the first.",[12,104,105,106,19,109,112,113,116,117,45,120,45,123,49,126,129,130,45,133,45,136,49,139,142,143,146,147,150],{},"From there he simply became the sound of Sinhala film. He sang ",[16,107,108],{},"සුදට සුදේ වළාකුළයි",[21,110,111],{},"Sudata Sude Walakulayi"," with Rukmani Devi for ",[21,114,115],{},"Umathu Wishwasaya",", and went on to record duets with her for ",[21,118,119],{},"Iranganie",[21,121,122],{},"Mathabedhaya",[21,124,125],{},"Perakadoru Bena",[21,127,128],{},"Daivayogaya"," — though never on disc, because the two of them were contracted to rival companies, he to Columbia and she to His Master's Voice. He sang for ",[21,131,132],{},"Sujatha",[21,134,135],{},"Kele Handa",[21,137,138],{},"Deiyanne Rate",[21,140,141],{},"Allapu Gedara",", and partnered practically everyone: Latha Walpola, Sujatha Attanayake, G. S. B. Rani Perera, Jamuna Rani, Angeline Gunathilake, H. R. Jothipala, Dharmadasa Walpola. He is also the only Sri Lankan singer to have recorded a duet with Lata Mangeshkar, ",[21,144,145],{},"Idiriyata Yamu Sawoma",", for ",[21,148,149],{},"Seda Sulang",".",[12,152,153],{},"How much he recorded is genuinely unknown. Obituaries and features give 400 films, 450 films, more than 10,000 songs, 6,000 film songs and 9,000 radio songs, in every combination. The safe statement is the one nobody disputes: for roughly two decades there was hardly a Sinhala film without him in it.",[26,155,157],{"id":156},"the-voice-of-vesak","The voice of Vesak",[12,159,160,161,164,165,168],{},"In February 1948, at the first Independence Day ceremony, Baig sang ",[21,162,163],{},"Prana Puda Surakimu Sri Lanka",". In 1956, for the Buddha Jayanthi marking twenty-five centuries since the Buddha's passing, he sang ",[21,166,167],{},"2500 Buddha Jayanthi Babalewa Lanka",", and Prime Minister S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike conferred distinguished citizenship on him the same year.",[12,170,171,172,19,175,45,178,19,181,45,184,19,187,45,190,19,193,45,196,19,199,45,202,19,205,45,208,19,211,214,215,19,218,221,222,225],{},"The devotional songs are what survived everything else. ",[16,173,174],{},"ගිරි හෙල් මුදුනේ",[21,176,177],{},"Giri Hel Mudune",[16,179,180],{},"පෙම් මල් මාලා",[21,182,183],{},"Pem Mal Mala",[16,185,186],{},"අන්න සුදෝ",[21,188,189],{},"Anna Sudo",[16,191,192],{},"තනිවයි උපන්නේ",[21,194,195],{},"Thaniwayi Upanne",[16,197,198],{},"ආදර නදිය ගලා",[21,200,201],{},"Adara Nadiya Gala",[16,203,204],{},"බුදුන්ගේ අමා ධර්මේ",[21,206,207],{},"Budunge Ama Dharme",[16,209,210],{},"සකල සතම බොදු බැතියෙන්",[21,212,213],{},"Sakala Sathama Bodu Bathiyen"," — and above all ",[16,216,217],{},"සුව දේ මට සීතල සුළඟ පවා",[21,219,220],{},"Suwa De Mata Seethala Sulanga Pawa",", which is close to unavoidable at Vesak and Poson: pandal, temple, lantern-lighting, ",[21,223,224],{},"dansala",", it is somewhere in the air.",[12,227,228,229,232,233,235],{},"The most famous of them was not even originally his. In 1960 the Thai-financed Hindi film ",[21,230,231],{},"Angulimaal"," was dubbed into Sinhala, and Baig was sent to India to record a Sinhala rendition of ",[21,234,23],{},", a piece of roughly thirteen and a half minutes that Manna Dey had sung in the original. It is the recording that plays over the loudspeakers to this day. It is often told that Manna Dey himself, hearing it, said Baig had bettered him.",[12,237,238],{},"He said why he did it, more than once, and his son Ishaq has repeated it since: \"I am from the country the Buddha was born in… So I like singing Buddhist songs. Whatever religion we belong to, we are born from a mother. All religions show us how to live better… Until I die, I will sing for Sinhala Buddhists. The love I gained from this country's people is the biggest triumph of my life.\"",[26,240,242],{"id":241},"honours-and-what-came-after","Honours, and what came after",[12,244,245,246,248,249,252,253,49,256,259],{},"He won the Sarasaviya Award for Best Playback Singer for ",[21,247,141],{}," and the song ",[21,250,251],{},"Piya Salamu Igilli","; sources give the year as both 1956 and 1967, and since the Sarasaviya Awards began in 1964, the later date is the plausible one. He sang the welcome song in Urdu at the Non-Aligned Movement summit in Colombo — dated 1974 in the Sri Lankan press and 1976 on Wikipedia. He took the Kala Suri, the state arts honour, twice; here too the years are given as 1982 in one account and 1983 and 1987 in others, and he is widely described as the first citizen of Sri Lanka to receive a state arts award. He directed the music for two films, ",[21,254,255],{},"Sangavunu Menika",[21,257,258],{},"Jeevana Geethaya",". He performed in London in 1986, and made the Hajj in 1987 under the patronage of the Pakistani president Zia-ul-Haq, after which he was Alhaj Mohideen Baig. His son recalled that citizenship of other countries was offered and refused.",[12,261,262],{},"His last outdoor concert was at Wanathamulla, three days before he died. He had performances booked in England for 13 and 14 November 1991 and wanted his eyes seen to first; he went into a private Colombo hospital on 3 November for cataract surgery and died the following day, aged 71, of a complication under anaesthesia. Following Islamic practice he was buried within a day, at the Kuppiyawatta Muslim Cemetery. Two of his sons, Ishaq and Ilyas, sing.",[12,264,265],{},"The afterlife was less kind than the career. In 2000 the family's two-perch house on Sri Vajiragnana Mawatha in Maradana, where they had lived for more than forty years, was demolished by the housing authority to make way for a project that, three years later, was still a car park. His centenary was marked with a public commemoration in 2018 and a stamp in 2020. His Sinhala name is spelled at least three ways — මොහිදීන් බෙග්, මොහිදින් බෙග්, මොහිදීන් බේග් — which is oddly fitting for a singer nobody could quite place and everybody claimed.",{"title":267,"searchDepth":268,"depth":268,"links":269},"",2,[270,271,272,273,274],{"id":28,"depth":268,"text":29},{"id":56,"depth":268,"text":57},{"id":80,"depth":268,"text":81},{"id":156,"depth":268,"text":157},{"id":241,"depth":268,"text":242},"5 December 1919","A Tamil-speaking Muslim from Salem who became the defining voice of Sinhala Buddhist devotional song — heard at almost every Vesak pandal in the country for seventy years.","4 November 1991","1930s-1990s","md","\u002Fimages\u002Fpeople\u002Fmohideen-baig.webp","Roar Media (Sinhala), via Last.fm","Unverified — fallback source","https:\u002F\u002Farchive.roar.media\u002Fsinhala\u002Fmain\u002Fidentities\u002Fkalashoori-alhaj-mohideen-baig",{},true,"\u002Fen\u002Fpeople\u002Fmohideen-baig",[288],"Singer",{"title":5,"description":276},[291,294,297,300,303,306],{"title":292,"url":293},"Mohideen Baig — Wikipedia","https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FMohideen_Baig",{"title":295,"url":296},"මොහිදීන් බෙග් — සිංහල විකිපීඩියා","https:\u002F\u002Fsi.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002F%E0%B6%B8%E0%B7%9C%E0%B7%84%E0%B7%92%E0%B6%AF%E0%B7%93%E0%B6%B1%E0%B7%8A_%E0%B6%B6%E0%B7%99%E0%B6%9C%E0%B7%8A",{"title":298,"url":299},"Recalling the muse — Jayanthi Liyanage, Sailan Muslim","https:\u002F\u002Fsailanmuslim.com\u002Fculture-heritage\u002Frecalling-the-muse-eighteenth-death-anniversary-on-november-4-by-jayanthi-liyanage\u002F",{"title":301,"url":302},"Baig family begs for justice — Ramesh Uvais, Daily Mirror, 4 November 2003","https:\u002F\u002Fweb.archive.org\u002Fweb\u002F20070930225130\u002Fhttp:\u002F\u002Fwww.dailymirror.lk\u002F2003\u002F11\u002F04\u002Ffeat.asp",{"title":304,"url":305},"Mohammed Gauss — Wikipedia","https:\u002F\u002Fen.wikipedia.org\u002Fwiki\u002FMohammed_Gauss",{"title":307,"url":308},"Lanka Govt honours South Indian playback singer — Hindustan Times","https:\u002F\u002Fweb.archive.org\u002Fweb\u002F20070929001911\u002Fhttp:\u002F\u002Fwww.htcricket.com\u002F2005\u002FDec\u002F28\u002F181_1529697,001100050003.htm","en\u002Fpeople\u002Fmohideen-baig","RZi1bzyqpuyMKuIAUh5E92VoWeLshYJZA2yuj878Xmo",1787999332742]