# Anuradha Pal

Anuradha Pal is an Indian tabla player and composer. In 1996, she founded Stree Shakti, one of India's first all-female classical music ensembles.

## Early life

Pal was born in Bombay, India to Devinder Pal, who worked in the pharmaceutical industry, and Ila Pal, a painter and writer. She trained in tabla under Ustad Alla Rakha and Ustad Zakir Hussain of the Punjab Gharana.

## Career

Pal began performing with her teachers at the age of 15, and had been accompanying Hindustani and Carnatic classical vocalists, instrumentalists, and dancers since she was 13.
In 2018, she led 217 tabla players on stage in a tribute to her teacher, Alla Rakha, in celebration of his birth centenary.
In January 2018, she was awarded the Ministry of WCD First Ladies Award by the President of India for being the first and youngest female Indian musician to perform at the WOMAD and Przystanek Woodstock festivals.
She composed the background score, featuring only her tabla and her voice, for M. F. Husain's film Gaja Gamini. She has also composed music for NGMA, short films, documentaries, theatre, and other commissioned work and events.
Pal has conducted lecture demonstrations and workshops at Harvard University, Berklee College of Music, M.I.T. (USA), Vienna Boys Choir,, Palazzo Ducale (Italy), MilapFest (U.K.), and Monash University (Australia). In 2006, she was also invited as an artist-in-residence by the New England Conservatory of Music.
She represented India at the Asian Performer's Summit in Japan in 1999 and has been invited to perform at the SAARC and CHOGM summits.
She performed at the Dior fall 2023 show at the Gateway of India in Mumbai.

## Compositions and collaborations

In 2023 and 2024, Anuradha Pal performed a series of concerts titled "Anuradha's Tablas Sing Stories" and "Ramayan on Tabla".
She has collaborated with other musicians, including in Anuradha Pal's Stree Shakti, an all-female Hindustani-Carnatic instrumental ensemble founded on International Women's Day in 1996. The group has worked with various female musicians and played at international music festivals. In 2002, they toured with the Pan-African Orchestra from Ghana for a concert tour of the UK and Ireland.
The Anuradha Pal Collective is an ensemble formed in 2023.

## Social work
### Contribution to female empowerment

For over 28 years, Pal has supported and promoted female musicians through her band, Stree Shakti.
She has performed at Sri Agrasen Kanya PG College (Varanasi), Rebel Girls Interactive (Delhi), and Ruia College (Mumbai) to inspire young girls towards self-empowerment and self-esteem.
In March 2018, she wrote the lyrics "Khud ko tu Pehchaan de" and composed the anthem for the Ministry of Women and Child Development's Nari Shakti campaign.
She was the UNICEF Brand Ambassador for female empowerment, education, and inclusion in 2006.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pal, through her Shakti URJA initiative, distributed warm blankets to over 200 women in Kasniyawad village near Udaipur and provided medical relief to poor children and women from the Bhil community. She also provided food rations to over 100 families and to many marginalised, widowed, old, disabled, and destitute women across 12 villages.
On International Day of the Girl Child 2020, Pal instituted the Padmashri M.T. Vyas Stree Shakti award, in memory of her grandfather, educationist Maganlal Tribhuvandas Vyas, to encourage young girls practicing Indian music or dance towards social service. In 2021, she honoured four young girls from Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh for their involvement in social initiatives such as preserving and propagating folk and tribal art forms, entertaining young cancer patients with music and dance, creating awareness about climate change, female foeticide, and sustainable development, and raising funds for poor households during the pandemic.

### Anuradha Pal Cultural Foundation (APCF)

Anuradha Pal Cultural Foundation (APCF) is a non-profit company dedicated to preserving traditional Indian culture, empowering women and youth, promoting unity amidst diversity, and advocating for environmental awareness. Pal promotes musical and rhythmic meditation.
In recognition of APCF's contributions to music and society, Pal received the Mumbai Cultural Sustainability award 2024 from Vivekanand Youth Foundation and the WOW Iconic Wellness and Spiritual Award 2023.

### Social service

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pal mobilized lakhs of rupees and sent food rations and blankets to aid disadvantaged, old, and disabled women and children, as well as poor musicians and instrument makers in villages across Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Delhi, Maharashtra, Uttarakhand, Odisha, West Bengal, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Haryana, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh.
From July 2020 onward, Pal sent financial help to people from underprivileged communities such as Bhil, Manganiar, Lakha, Jogi, Garo, Kathodi, Koch-Rajbongshi, Dhadi tribes, Meghwal, Charkula, Ponung, Matka Bhawai, Terahtali, Kalbeliya dancers, Manta Drummers, Kathputli artists, Knife jugglers and Bahurupiyas.
In January 2021, she organised the Aatmanirbhar Kala Ke Sangh Music Festival.
On her birthday on 8 May 2021, Pal and her husband donated a wheelchair, walker, and over 1,200 gloves and masks to patients, doctors, and front-line workers in Mumbai's BMC COVID-19 care centre and MLC offices, in the presence of the Mayor of Mumbai, Smt Kishori Pednekar.

## Media recognition

* Featured as one of 51 women achievers of India in children's book The Dot that went for a walk released in 2019.
* Featured as one of the pre-eminent Torchbearers of Indian Classical Music in a book released in 2017.
* Featured as a Woman of Pure Wonder in a book by Vodafone Foundation in 2016.
* Featured in the film Adventure Divas by the American Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) as one of the great women achievers of India and the World in 2001.

## Personal

Anuradha Pal resides in Mumbai. She conducts personalised and online percussion classes at Anuradha Pal Cultural Academy (APCA Mumbai) in Juhu.

## Discography

She has released music albums and instruction DVDs through her own label Sur aaur Saaz.