Union Labour and Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Friday, 10 July 2026, paid tribute to Padma Shri Meer Haji Kasam, popularly known as Haji Ramkadu, honouring the folk musician from Junagadh, Gujarat as a master of the dholak and a devoted seeker of melody.

In his post, Mandaviya described Kasam as 'suron ke sadhak aur dholak ke ustad' — 'a devoted seeker of melody and a master of the dholak' — spotlighting a Padma Shri recipient whose craft is rooted in the folk and Sufi music traditions of the Saurashtra region.

Context

Meer Haji Kasam, widely known by his folk name Haji Ramkadu, is a Junagadh-based percussionist and folk musician honoured with the Padma Shri, India's fourth-highest civilian award, for his distinguished contributions to traditional music. His command over the dholak — a double-headed hand drum central to folk and devotional music across the Indian subcontinent — has made him a celebrated figure in Gujarat's performing arts community.

Junagadh has long been a cradle of Sufi and folk performing arts in Gujarat, with its cultural ecosystem nurturing generations of musicians who have kept oral and instrumental traditions alive outside the formal classical canon.

Policy Backdrop

The Padma Awards, instituted in 1954, have periodically recognised folk musicians, percussionists, and practitioners of intangible cultural heritage from states including Gujarat. The awards serve as the state's formal acknowledgement that regional and folk traditions hold equal standing alongside Hindustani and Carnatic classical forms.

Central ministers from Gujarat have increasingly used social media platforms to amplify the stories of Padma-recognised traditional performers, aligning with broader national efforts to document and sustain regional folk arts that might otherwise remain invisible to mainstream audiences.

Stakeholders and Impact

For Gujarat's folk music community — particularly percussionists and dholak players from the Saurashtra belt — ministerial recognition of this kind carries symbolic weight, lending visibility to an art form that has historically relied on community patronage rather than institutional support. Younger musicians in the region often cite such acknowledgements as motivation to continue in traditional performance disciplines.

Cultural organisations working on the documentation of intangible heritage in western India are also stakeholders, as high-profile tributes can attract funding and archival interest toward performers whose repertoires risk being lost without systematic preservation efforts.

What's Next

Attention will now turn to the Republic Day 2027 Padma Awards cycle, where additional folk musicians from Gujarat and other states may receive recognition. State-level cultural festivals and documentation projects focused on dholak and folk percussion traditions in the Saurashtra region are also expected to gain momentum as the national conversation around intangible heritage preservation continues to grow.

Mandaviya's tribute underscores a pattern of using political platforms to keep regional cultural figures in public discourse — a practice that, if sustained, could translate into more structured state support for Gujarat's folk performing arts ecosystem.