I would feel optimistic if there were expressions of free speech : Amit Chaudhuri

In an expansive conversation, writer Amit Chaudhuri and political theorist Pratap Bhanu Mehta discuss the idiosyncrasies of Indian classical music, how it shaped Chaudhuri’s creative vision and his idea of home and the world. Taking off from his new book, Finding the Raga: An Improvisation on Indian Music (Hamish Hamilton), in which he blends memoir with criticism, Chaudhuri speaks of how his pursuit of music has made him realise that “all art, even the seemingly most simple form of art, is, on some level, inaccessible and it’s a mistake to think that one can access it without preparation or contingency or transformation taking place in one’s life”. In this engaging conversation, two of India’s most well-known public intellectuals discuss the role of music in exploring cultural connotations, nuance and larger ideas of freedom and belonging.
Subscribe to Indian Express: goo.gl/RjJrX0
The Indian Express Online covers all trending and latest news across India, which includes daily news, political news, gadgets and Mobile reviews, technology updates, Entertainment News, Bollywood news, public opinions and views on daily trends.
Connect with us:
Facebook: / indianexpress
Twitter: / indianexpress
Indian Express App: indianexpress.c...
Official Website: indianexpress.... Indian Express, The Indian Express Newspaper, The Indian Express, Indian express news, indian express editorial Today's Indian Express newspaper offers a comprehensive package of news, including Indian Express editorial analysis and Indian Express analysis today. This well-respected publication covers a wide range of topics in its India Express editorial and Indian Express news sections. Stay informed with the Indian Express newspaper today.

[@r.c.g8272]

I am yet to hear, in this long life of mine, a more lurid instance of insufferable, self-pleasing, garbled nonsense in general, and on Hindustani music in particular. This, after I have already inflicted on myself, the misfortune of having bought and read the above-discussed book - a milestone in its own right, in the long, meandering history of lunatic ramblings on Hindustani music, especially in the English language. While this publication represents, at best, an unfettered celebration of the freedom of speech, it is the unscrupulous use of heavy international PR machinery around its production that has caught my attention. I am pretty sure this book, like those that have come before it, will soon make its way to 'essential reading' lists at top universities. For reviewers, critics and academics with their half baked knowledge, would always find a way to process moonshine as the moon itself. Early signs of this can be seen in how the western academy and the anglophone Indian 'cognoscenti' seem to be hungrily lapping this musical abol tabol. This is troubling but not at all surprising. That such bombastic balderdash should now inform the world of this great tradition of music, only really reflects what it pretends to conceal - the utter intellectual vacuousness, and moral bankruptcy of our times. Om Shanti!