Gokul Chandra Das
A dhak player from Maslandapur who took Bengal's festival drum to world stages and taught women to play it, honoured with the Padma Shri in 2025.
The dhak is the big drum heard everywhere in Bengal during Durga Puja. Gokul Chandra Das has turned it into a concert instrument and opened it up to women. In 2025 he was named for the Padma Shri in the field of art, from West Bengal [1].
Two sticks and a dream
Das was born on 3 February 1967 in Maslandapur, North 24 Parganas [2]. As a boy he practised with a pair of discarded sticks [2]. After his school-leaving exam in 1985, family responsibilities meant he played the dhak to earn a living [2].
A new voice for the dhak
He began playing on the dhak rhythmic cycles usually played on the tabla, pakhawaj and dhol, giving the drum a new identity in both Indian classical and Western music [2]. He has performed with musicians including Ustad Zakir Hussain, Ustad Amjad Ali Khan and Pandit Ravi Shankar, and in the US, the UK, Norway and other countries [2].
Women on the drum
The citation describes him as the first person in India to introduce the dhak to women [2]. Today many women, married, unmarried and widowed, play the dhak and earn a living for their families [2]. In 2013 he founded the Maslandapur Motilal Dhaki group, and he also trains students part-time at Rabindra Bharati University [2].
Sources
- [1] Padma Awards 2025: list of awardees — Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
- [2] Padma Awards 2025: citation for Gokul Chandra Das — Padma Awards, Government of India. Accessed 11 October 2026.
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