“Music is the medium which can connect one human with another, inculcate feeling of unity and love, and so it can help bring an end to this religious intolerance,” said Khan who was here to receive ‘Naushad award.’
“Music has no religion...we in India are dependent on each other and this dependence is our strength,” he said, adding the Sarod, he plays all over the world to please music lovers has been crafted by a Hindu-Hemendra Chandra Sen.
“If he does not make this sarod, how will Amjad Ali Khan please the connoisseurs of music with its musical notes?” he asked. “Music teaches us peace and patience and, under the present scenario, it can become the medium of restoring normalcy,” he said, noting now music is being used as therapy to calm disturbed minds and pacify people also in hospitals.
The maestro, who received ‘Naushad award’ yesterday, had said Prime Minister Narendra Modi needed to rein in errant party members, failing which peace could be under threat.
“Modiji wants to do a lot of things, but there are some persons around him who speak whatever comes to their mind and do whatever they want,” Khan told reporters in Lucknow yesterday.
Asked about litterateurs and actors returning their awards, the Padma Vibhushan awardee said, “They are also concerned with the present situation therefore they are returning their awards. We have freedom of expression. It seems that there is something wrong somewhere.” When asked about his most challenging performance, Khan said it was when he was asked to give a performance of five minutes at the Nobel Peace Prize distribution function recently where India’s Kailash Satyarthi and Pakistan’s Malala Yousafzai were honoured.
“At one point I thought I should refuse it as generally my performaces last for a very long time, but then some people suggested that I should go ahead with it, and I then prepared a composition of five minutes with my sons Amaan and Ayan and made the presentation,” he said. The Sarod maestro, who has performed to packed crowds abroad said, “Foreign audience are very generous in applauding performaces...we get standing ovation sometimes for upto five minutes...there are times when we have to go back on stage on continued requests and insistence of the crowd.”
Khan, who has a strong musical connection with Lucknow, said his great grandfather Gulam Ali Khan Saheb used to perform in the court of Nawab Wajid Ali Shah, and when the nawab of Avadh was imprisoned and taken to Calcutta by the British, his family went to the court of the Scindias in Gwalior where he was born.
“Gwalior was at one time the musical capital of India...Mian Tansen came from there and several singers and performers have their origin there,” he said. Khan said though performing artistes
consider Mumbai as the dream city with immense opportunities, he stayed on in Delhi after migrating from Gwalior.