When Hazrat Inayat Khan and his brothers came to the West, it was natural that they should present themselves as musicians, although their music was of a kind unknown to most of their audiences. The photo below, a ‘band photo’, shows the Royal Hindu Musicians of India – Inayat and his brothers, together with a man named Rama Swami whom they meet in America. Hazrat Inayat tells something of Rama Swami, and of their musical life, in the note below. One detail of the photo that might be easily overlooked is that Inayat and his brothers are wearing western style detachable collars – which they had donned for the photo in the hopes of making themselves more culturally accessible to potential concert organizers.

While in America, I met a young Indian, Rama Swami, who had left India when a lad and since then had been in the States. Finding us there brought back to him the memories of home for which he always longed, while he had no hope of ever returning again, having been removed so far away from his land. He played tabla and joined my staff of musicians, known as the Royal Hindu Musicians of India. He was a great help, in the practical way of arranging all affairs. Throughout our stay in America he accompanied us. He also came with us to England and travelled to France and went to Russia with us. There he remained behind, and after that, he no longer belonged to our company, which gradually then dispersed by Ali Khan being taken away in his operatic interest and my life being all absorbed in my mission, leaving Maheboob and Musharaff Khan alone to perform the Indian music.

Their interest was divided between both Indian and European music and they were conscious that their music, to the Western people, is like a museum of antiquities which one would not mind looking at once, out of curiosity, and for a pastime, but not like a factory which produces new goods all the time, to its own advantage and to answer people’s demands, and upon which the need of many people’s life depends.