Basanti Devi Bisht Biography 
Basanti Devi Bisht is a folk singer of Uttarakhand, who has been honoured with Padma Shri in 2017 for her contributions towards the field of folk and traditional music. She is also known as the only woman singer of the Jagar folk-form of Uttarakhand. It’s mostly known as a tradition followed by men, where deities are invoked. Basanti broke this tradition, and currently she is one of the leading artists who promote this musical form. She has been honoured with Ahilya Devi Samman by the Madhya Pradesh government in 2017.
Basanti Devi Bisht hails from Luani village in Chamoli, Uttarakhand. She was born in 1953. She got married to a soldier at the tender age of 12 and remained a housewife so long. Her professional singing began much later in her 40s. But since childhood she had the hobby of singing and grew up listening to her mother's jagar songs. It deeply influenced her musical journey later. She studied till class 5 in the local village school which was near. But she couldn’t pursue education further, as the senior school was far away from her home.
Till her 40s she was fully engaged in her home chores, and pursued her musical journey only after that. By that time she moved to Jalandhar with her husband, where she started learning music once again. Initially she was a bit shy to learn music aside younger students. Her daughter taught her how to play harmonium, and that’s how she took her first step towards learning music. She later focused on bhajans, film songs etc. In 1996 she joined AIR in Najibabad. By that time her husband was retired and the family settled in Dehradun.
Published: February 16, 2019
Updated: February 16, 2019
