Ustad Santoo Khan (Mushtaq Ahmed)

Ustad Mushtaq Ahmed “Santoo Khan” (1870 – 1979)

Ustad Mushtaq Ahmed was born in Taran Taaran, Amritsar to a family of Rababi musicians, closely associated with performing musical services at Sikh gurdwaras. Born with a full head of long, dark hair, he was acclaimed as a ‘Sant’ or ‘spiritually exalted being’ at birth, which led to his nickname of ‘Santoo Khan”. The first Qawwal in Ustad Santoo Khan’s family was his father, Maula Bux Khan, who learnt Qawwali from the great Ustad Tanras Khan of the Delhi gharana in the 1860s, as well as learning classical ‘khayal’ gayeki from Ustad Inam Bakhsh Khan. Ustad Santoo Khan was fond of singing, and after learning Qawwali from his father for almost two decades, was made the shagird of Ustad Bhai Lal Muhammad of Amritsar to learn classical music. In the late 1920s and early 1930s, Ustad Santoo Khan established himself as a popular recording and touring artist, and was part of the inaugural broadcasts made from the Lahore Radio station, where he sang his famous Qawwali “Taen Ta Mera Yaar Na Milaya”. Incidentally, he also performed this Qawwali in the now-lost 1942 film “Bhakta Surdas”. Ustad Santoo Khan regularly performed for All India Radio before the partition of the subcontinent and migrated to Lahore from Amritsar a few months before the partition. He sang the first Qawwali ever broadcast in the newly created nation of Pakistan when he sang Allama Iqbal’s ghazal “Zamanay Ke Andaaz Badle Gaye” from the Lahore radio station a few minutes after the stroke of midnight on 14th August 1947.

Ustad Santoo Khan had a long career after partition, performing regularly on Radio as well as Television, and regularly sitting in with his son Manzoor Hussain after the latter took over the family Qawwali party. After Ustad Santoo Khan’s death in 1979, the party was led for the next two decades by his son Ustad Manzoor Hussain Santoo, with his younger brother Ustad Munawwar Ali Santoo playing the clarinet. Currently, the family legacy is being continued by Manzoor Hussain’s son Asif Ali Santoo, as well as Munawwar Ali’s son Naeem Santoo Qawwal.