NEW DELHI: The American-based Global Hindu Heritage Foundation (GHHF) has written to a private Indian airline asking it to play Indian music on its flights.

GHHF President Prakasarao Velagapudi said, “We should not blindly imitate the other cultures and diminish the richness of Bharat which has more history than any other culture. Hinduism is the only surviving civilization dating back to ten thousand centuries or so that deserves to be preserved and propagated.”

In a letter, Velagapudi further stated, “It is the responsibility of each Indian to preserve, promote and nurture the rich cultural heritage that was passed on for millennia. Every Indian should be proud of his culture. No Indian should do anything to ignore and neglect the culture that gave unflinching freedom and shaped the personality to excel in every field imaginable.”

He said that Indian music has a long history unknown to the mankind. “People believe that it has existed since the creation itself. That musical tradition has been passed on to enrich the lives of people ever since. In terms of scriptures, the origin can be traced to Sam Aveda where one finds seven musical notes.”

He also said Indian music is considered to have a positive impact on the lives of the people from their conception itself. Nibel laureate William Butler Yeats described Indian music as “not an art but life itself.” Jimmy Carl Black has quoted: “I've been writing Indian music for a while. Indian music is about Mother Earth, and mine is no exception.” B A Pingle observed that “at a very early period of History, Indian music had developed into a regular science, rich, perfect in composition, combining in a high degree the requisite virtues of melody and symphony.”

Velagapudi further explained that Indian music is fundamental to the lives of Indians as a source of inspiration and spirituality. It is even considered as a means of salvation and self-realization, not just entertainment.

Rabindranath Tagore captured the essence of Indian music: “Our music draws the listener away beyond the limits of everyday human joys and sorrows, and takes us to that lonely region of renunciation which lies at the root of the universe, while European music leads us a variegated dance through the endless rise and fall of human grief and joy.”

“Indian classical music has been found to have reduced the stress, pressures, and strain. As the research indicates that stress is one the major killers. Indian music is known to be the strongest healing power of stress. Be it about fighting anxiety, be it about speeding the healing process, music has come as an answer to all the queries. Ayurveda, the ancient healing science of India, better known as Ayurveda, has described the importance of music in healing the mental stress, and reducing the exhaustion, anxiety, depression and insomnia,” stated Velagapudi stressing the importance of Indian music.

GHHF has an office in India, Hyderabad and therefore Velagapudi often travels here. The present letter follows his journey with the airline on 26 February in India when he found that the inflight magazine did not even feature any Indian music and his complaint to the airline staff went unheeded.