“Take art and music. Why has contemporary Indian painting, music, architecture and sculpture been
such a flop? Because it keeps harking back to BC. Harking back would be all right if it did not become
a pattern—a deadweight. If it does, then we are in a cul-de-sac of art forms. We explain the
unattractive by pretending it is esoteric. Or we break out altogether—like modern Indian music of the
films. It is all tango and rhumba or samba played on Hawaiian guitars, violins, accordions and
clarinets. It is ugly. It must be scrapped like the rest.”
―
Khushwant Singh,
Train to Pakistan
