The pandemic saw my art take a back seat to being a single parent: Anoushka Shankar

Is it possible for a creative person to remain apolitical?

- Chandrima Pal

How has the pandemic changed the way we engage with music? And what inspires an instrumentalist to use poetry as a medium of creative expression? After more than two years, Anoushka Shankar will be touring India. And the sitar player, composer, producer, and activist, is well prepared to face a battery of questions.

“A lot has happened since 2020,” says Anoushka, elaborating on how she coped with single parenthood and her latest interdisciplinary project.

Amidst interviews, rehearsals and other personal and professional commitments, Anoushka gave us a glimpse of her musical and personal journey over the past few years, and why the centenary concert for her father, the late sitar maestro Pandit Ravi Shankar, will always remain special for her.

There is the school of thought that celebrates art for art’s sake. You have been using your art, your music to tell a story, to put forth a message – sometimes deeply personal, at others, political. How important is it for you to make a statement, provoke thought, discussion and debate alongside simply immersing oneself in the beauty of the art that you create?

It is a great question, but one that has no short answer. How important is it for my art to be something I feel strongly about? Well, a hundred per cent. I think regardless of whether it is for a cause or message, even if ‘art for art’s sake’, it has to be something I believe in strongly, in the emotional integrity and content of the music I make. Stepping back, I think both are important. Art for art’s sake is huge and transcendent; it connects with the soul, it heals, even without being attached to a “message” at a core level, it is always functioning to move and heal people.