Ustad Bismillah Khan, Dead At 91
Matthew Borghese - All Headline News Staff Writer New Delhi, India (AHN) - Ustad Bismillah Khan, the popular Indian musician, has died. He was 91. According to the Indo-Asian News Service, Bismillah Khan, who received the nation's highest civilian award of Bharat Ratna in 2001, died early Monday of cardiac arrest at a Varanasi hospital. He was among the few Indians who had the distinction of receiving all the national awards - Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, Padma Vibhushan and the Bharat Ratna. Khan played from the ramparts of Delhi's Red Fort on Aug 15, 1947, when India gained independence, and would host a shehnai recital on the state-owned Doordarshan channel for Independence Day celebrations every year. According to The Hindu, the Union Cabinet, which met on Monday evening, mourned the death. Union Minister and Cabinet spokesperson Priyaranjan Dasmunsi, said the Cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, also observed silence for a minute before the meeting. A resolution adopted at the meeting said that Ustad Bismillah Khan had taken music to great heights and that "Khan Saheb personified the uniqueness of composite Indian culture."
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