The history of the phonograph in India dates back to the beginning of the 20th century. Though gramophones began to be exported to India around 1898, the idea of commercially exploiting the phonograph on a large scale in the east was mooted in 1900 and the Mutoscope Biograph Company in India was given the agency of selling horn gramophones and records of European music imported from America. In 1898, W. B. Owen had established in England the parent company of the Gramophone Company Limited. He was sent to England by the American inventor of disc recording, Emile Berliner, to sell, if possible, his European rights for the disc records which he had patented in the U.S.A. Since Owen did not succeed in selling Berliner’s rights outright, the two formed the Gramophone Company Limited in England. Berliner erected a record-pressing factory at Hanover in the U.S.A. for supplying records and machines to the newly formed company in England.

At this point a mechanic named Johnson invented a spring-wound motor for the phonograph machine. Until the time his invention was perfected, users (during the period when the record was being played) had to rotate, with the help of a handle, the turntable with the disc on it. The spring motor enabled the phonograph to be wound for a certain number of playings and hence the listener could sit at a distance without having to bother to crank the machine all the time.

The Mutoscope Biograph Company in India started selling machines and records pressed in America. The most popular record imported into India at that time was Burt Shepard’s The Laughing Song. It had proved popular wherever it had been released. Over a period of a few years, nearly half a million copies of this record were sold. But the company did not do well and its agency was terminated. In 1901, J. Watson Harod was sent out to open a branch of the company, which he did on 7th July 1901 in Calcutta.

In the initial stages, a gramophone record used to be manufactured by a process known as ‘zinc etching’. A zinc disc with a smooth, shiny surface was coated with a layer of fat, on which a spiral groove was cut by a stylus. The stylus was fixed to a diaphragm that vibrated in sympathy with the sound waves of the song and music, sung or played into the large mouth of a horn. The recorded zinc disc was then immersed in acid for about 10 minutes and the spiral groove of the music was etched into it. This record could then be played back straightaway.

In 1901, recording on wax was invented and it also became possible to duplicate the matrices, so that huge quantities could be pressed from these. The process opened up an enormous field for expansion. By the beginning of October 1902, T. W. Gaisberg, who had worked with Berliner for several years, came to India with the intention of developing record trade in the east. His recordings in India became a milestone of great value.

Gaisberg and his successors in the following years recorded Miss Dulari, Gourajan, Zohran, Malkajan, Angurbala, lndubala, Kamala, Goharjan and popular quwali [qawwali] singers Pearu Quwal, Kaloo Quwal, Fakre Alam Quwal and several others. The accompaniment for these artistes comprised just a few instruments: a harmonium, tabla, sarod, clarinet and with female singers, the sarangi and bells. These recordings were sent to the factory at Hanover for processing and pressing. The finished records were then exported back into India and were sold in large numbers. In order to interest prospective purchasers to listen to discs, a novel idea was tried out. At the close of the singing, the artiste would announce his or her name, “My name is Jankibai of llahabad” or “My name is Mushtaribai of Agra”. These statements in English by performers who did not know the language amused listeners and helped somewhat to boost sales of discs. The earliest record was only seven inches in size but later it was increased to 10 and 12 inches. The early horn machines were black in colour, but later these were changed to brass for a more attractive and dazzling effect. The coloured horn was known as ‘Morning Glory’, and it became the rage in 1907.

The year 1908 was unique in the history of the gramophone, for in that year factories were established, one at Beliaghata in Calcutta and the other at Hayes, Middlesex, in England. This assured a steady supply of gramophone motors, machines and records to the rapidly growing market in India.

After the initial success of The Laughing Song by Shepard, the company brought out another one by Charles Primrose Records containing route-march songs, buglecalls, camp-fire songs, pipes and drums played by the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders of the 2nd Battalion and comic songs like ‘The Peanut Vendor’ also proved to be money-spinners. The company’s factory at Beliaghata could not meet the rapidly growing demand for discs. Thus in 1928, the company shifted its operations to a bigger factory at Dum Dum in Calcutta.

Technological developments

The period of the last nearly 50 years has been one of continuous progress and expansion. The introduction of electrical recording in 1925, when microphones, amplifiers and cutting styli were used for recording the ‘master’ on wax, brought about a miraculous change in the technique of recording. The voice of the singers and the accompanying instruments could be controlled and what is called a ‘balance’ between the two could be achieved. A round piece of wax shaved to a mirror-finish was placed on a turntable which was driven at a fixed speed of 78 rpm, through a governor-driven device. A heavy weight attached to a pulley, descending slowly through a cable wound around a drum, would drive the turntable at a steady speed.

There were no studios with good acoustics and engineers had to arrange heavy curtains on the walls and thick carpets on the floors to ensure that the sound on the disc was neither too dull nor too reverberant. Later on, studios were set up in Calcutta, Bombay, Madras and Delhi. Wax recording held sway till about 1948, despite the risk of breakage in transit from the recording centres to the factory at Dum Dum. To minimise such hazards, acetate-coated aluminium discs began to be used. But the weightdrive could not provide the requisite power to cut the new material which was stiffer than wax; an electric motor had to be used for this purpose. Then, in 1950, came the revolutionary magnetic tape recorder with a frequency response of 50 to 10,000 cycles per second. This recorder also provided facilities for playing back the recorded material. The merits and flaws of the recorded piece could be observed, and mistakes rectified through re-recording (after an erasure of the previously recorded attempts). This resulted in improved sound quality in performances, without any loss except of labour and time. By 1964, even better tape recorders, with frequency response between 40 to 15,000 cycles per second, appeared alongside facilities for stereophonic recording.

Besides manufacturing and marketing machines and records, the company today offers a wide variety of record players, radiograms, tuners and stereo systems through a nationwide network. The phonograph that first landed in India at the beginning of the 20th century has found its way into millions of homes and the invention of the great Thomas Edison and Charles Cros is rightly known today as one that radiates human happiness.

India, with a population of over 620 million people and more than 30 languages and dialects, has a varied treasure of musical traditions and colourful folklore. The present catalogue of the company includes over 7,500 records featuring classical, folk, patriotic, devotional, light classical, light as well as pop and film music. In addition to items of sheer entertainment value, there is quite a large number of recordings of educational and cultural interest.

The stirring words of our national leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru were recorded and thus preserved for future generations. ‘Vande Mataram’ was recorded by Rabindranath Tagore somewhere around 1900. The record was a 12” disc which played from inside to outside and it was published under the auspices of H. Bose’s Record. A copy of the record was traced in 1961, the centenary of Tagore’s birth. His voice was also recorded by H.M.V. during the early ’20s in the Beliaghata factory and subsequently in the studios at Dum Dum. The voices of Kazi Nazrul Islam, Sumitranandan Pant, Mahadevi Verma, D. R. Bendre and poet Vallathol Narayana Menon have also been preserved through records of their recitations of their poems.