The Sufi Kathak Foundation (SKF) is a non-profit registered society (Regd. 61883, exempt from tax under section 80g and 12A), founded by Manjari Chaturvedi, to create awareness about India’s intangible heritage in music and dance and preserve the gradually fading 700 year Sufi traditions in music. SKF aims to create a world of cultural unity, by spreading the secular message of the Sufis and also
help in initiating children and orienting the youth to become self-employed through arts - dance and music. It provides assistance and support to needy artists and students by giving scholarships, pensions and medical support, in order to enable them to pursue classical music and dance. SKF seeks to evolve a humanist outlook and create centers, organize training classes, workshops and musical concerts to promote Sufi music, Qawwali, Sufi Kathak, and folk & classical dance across the world. Sufi Kathak Foundation has worked with the government for various cultural concerts organized by them and through its concerts the foundation has tried to relive the past eras, thereby representing our rich cultural heritage. Sufi Kathak Foundation has also conceptualized and organized a unique festival “Bhakti Rang” at Jaipur, Rajasthan, which explored the inter-religious issues through music and dance and brought together references of different religions on the same plane of confluence, for the audiences to experience. Another effort by the Sufi Kathak Foundation was a one of its kind concept project, titled “Radha Raas” performed in November, 2010 that captures the divine love of Krishna as imagined and written by Muslim poets, sung as Qawwalis. Such a unique secular initiative has never appeared before the masses and ads to the list of successful initiatives taken by the Foundation. SKF has also organized Qawwali festivals in order to preserve and promote the 700 year old intangible heritage of India, which is now under a threat, as the musicians find themselves and their music incompatible with the progressing modern times. SKF organized these Qawwali festivals in New Delhi and Mumbai to bridge the gaps between the tradition and the modern, bringing the wider society closer to the traditional artists. It is this research and documentation initiative that drives the Foundation to work further and focus on the endangered culture of Qawwali which forms an intrinsic part of the Chistiya school of thought, of Sufism. It thus preserves and archives the 700 year old tradition of Sufi Tradition of India, which is formed by amalgamation of different cultures that have thrived in the Indian Subcontinent in the past. SKF archives to preserve Qawwali, a 700 year old intangible heritage in a digital format available to keen learners, scholars, musicians and connoisseurs of music for the research and easier access to this tradition which is in threat. Support Schemes by Sufi Kathak Foundation
All donations and aid to SKF’ are exempt from tax, under section 80(g) and section 12 A of the Income Tax Act. The Foundation works towards providing the assistance, pension and medical support to needy artists, in order to enable them to pursue their art, and give scholarships to students pursuing classical music, Sufi music and dance through various schemes such as
1. Saraswati Pension/Medical Aid Scheme for women in performing arts
3. Amir Khusrau Scholarship Scheme for Music
4. Manjari Chaturvedi Scholarship Scheme for Dance
5. Mevlana Rumi Project Grants
