Genre research project 15/1360: Chutney

Babla & Kanchan - Kaise Bani

Chutney music is a form indigenous to the southern Caribbean, popular in Guyana, Trinidad and Suriname. It development includes its fusion of calypso, cadence, and Indian musical instruments—particularly the dholak, tabla and dhantal.

This contemporary fusion of genres was created by Indo-Caribbean people whose ancestors were from Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and the South Indian area around Madras. They were taken as indentured servants by the British to replace laborers on sugar plantations after emancipation. Chutney music was established in the 1940s within temples, wedding houses, and cane fields of the Indo-Caribbean. There were no recordings until 1958, when Ramdew Chaitoe of Suriname, a small country in South America, recorded an early rendition of chutney music. The album was entitled King of Suriname and all of the songs were religious in nature. However, Chaitoe soon became a household name with East Indians not just in Suriname but throughout the Caribbean. Although the songs were religious, they had a dance vibe throughout each track. For the first time Indo-Caribbeans had music that spoke to them and was not Indian, or European/American in style.