SPICMACAY IIT Roorkee Chapter

The “big bang” of SPIC MACAY came in 1972 at a concert of Ustad Aminuddin Dagar and Ustad Zia Fariduddin Dagar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. The idea took a more defined direction in 1977 in India. In early 1978, a concert of the Dagar Bandhu, was held at IIT Delhi. In 1979, a two day programme again held at IIT Delhi of Ustad Bismillah Khan, Dagar Bandhu, Ustad Amjad Khan and Ustad Shahid Parvez. It was in this programme that the name SPIC MACAY was launched and the aim expressed was not to fight westernization but the process of deculturisation.

1986 saw the introduction of folk arts & crafts into the age old guru-shishya tradition. This was the year that the first annual convention was held at Hyderabad. In 1988 the first programme was conducted abroad: Pandit Jasraj sang at the University Of Connecticut at Harford.Virasat, a festival comprising performances, workshops in folk, classical arts, literature, theatre, cinema, yoga and other areas of our heritage was launched for the first time in Dehradun in the year 1995. Our Chapter was started in 1985 in the erstwhile University of Roorkee.