ABSTRACT
This chapter concerns itself with the question of systematisation of knowledge of Hindustani Classical Music in the early 20th century by Vishnu Narayan Bhatkhande. Bhatkhande articulates the desire for a rational discourse on Hindustani music by proposing the idea of a ‘Hindustani Sangeet Paddhati’ in his writings and various institutional and pedagogical methods. Rather than a historical interpretation of the success or failure of this move, it argues that this standardisation is related to the idea of a desire for science and rationality. At the same time, the fundamental focus of this chapter is to show that this desire for rationality cannot be reduced to any objective analysis of reason but has to be seen from the logic of what Deleuze would call the real intensity of a virtuality.
