Asin Khan Langa

Asin Khan Langa belongs to the hereditary Langa musical community of Barnawa Jageer village in Rajasthan’s Barmer District, where he is active as a singer and performer on the Sindhi sarangi, a type of folk sarangi. Traditionally, the Langa musical community performed at ceremonial events of their patrons, the Sindhi Sipahi – Muslim Rajputs who converted from Hinduism to Islam centuries ago but retained certain Hindu customs.

Unlike many young Indian musicians who move to the city to develop their careers, Asin Khan Langa has chosen to remain in Barnawa Jageer and earn his livelihood nurturing the legacy of his artistic tradition by teaching vocal repertoire and sarangito to young people and working as a community activist. With support from the Jodhpur RIFF Festival, he organised an annual training camp in which young musicians are instructed by masters of the Sarangiya Langa community. During the pandemic, he supported other folk artists with food relief work.

He is also an active musical collaborator, both locally and internationally. He continues to compose new folk songs that draw on mystical poetry by Muslim and Hindu poets, among them Kabir, Mirabai, and Shah Abdul Latif Bhittai, the greatest poet of the Sindhi language.