In Saturday’s (9/7) New York Times, Ellen Barry writes about the controversy surrounding a Saturday concert in India’s Kashmir region by the Bavarian State Orchestra, led by Zubin Mehta. “Mr. Mehta, a former music director of the New York Philharmonic who performed in the ruins of the Sarajevo library in Bosnia in 1994, dreamed of repeating that triumph here, playing for an audience of ‘Hindus and Muslims sitting together,’ as he put it. Mr. Mehta’s dream was met with widespread criticism in Kashmir, where much of the population chafes against the heavy Indian police presence. A separatist leader called a general strike to protest the event…. Toward the end of the concert [in Shalimar Garden], word came in that the police had fatally shot four people about 30 miles from Srinagar.… ‘We were expecting to play for the people of Kashmir in the spirit of brotherhood and humanity,’ [Bavarian State Opera general manager Nikolaus] Bachler said in a written statement. Organizers, he said, ‘turned this concert into an exclusive, elitist event for a selected, invited crowd and this understandably became a political issue, which is a pity and against the aim of art.’ … Bashir Manzar, a newspaper editor, said many of his friends had argued against attending, and he was glad he had ignored them. ‘It doesn’t change Kashmir’s status, but it makes Kashmir smile for a while,’ he said. ‘We do want to breathe now and then.’ ” A separate article in Monday’s (9/9) New York Times includes an interview with civil rights activist Khurram Pervez, who opposed the concert.
Posted September 9, 2013
