“Modernity in Indian Art: Reflections” by Harsha V. Dehejia
When tradition lingers like a faded script, what does it mean to be modern? Harsha V. Dehejia embarks on a profound exploration of modernity, weaving together philosophy, aesthetics, and emotion. He tries to decode the shifting soul of modern Indian art, where the artist is no longer a servant to patron or literature but a seeker of personal truth. In this landscape of artistic liberation, a new Rasa emerges—duhkha, the quiet despair of modernity. Born of solitude, capitalism, and the slow fracturing of old bonds, it stains the canvas with existential urgency and pulses with angst.
Through the works of ten modern Indian artists such as Rabindranath Tagore, Krishen Khanna, Tyeb Mehta, Bhupen Khakhar, Sudhir Patwardhan, Nalini Malani, Atul Dodiya, and more, Dehejia deciphers the symbols of this evolving aesthetic—where past and present collide, where longing and liberation coexist.
Modern Indian art is unbound—free, secular, polychromatic, and fiercely individualistic.
Harsha V. Dehejia has a double doctorate, one in medicine and the other in ancient Indian culture, both from Mumbai University. He is a practising physician and professor of Indic studies, with more than thirty books, four films, and several curated exhibitions to his credit. His main interest is in Indian aesthetics.
He divides his time between India and Canada.
10 June 2025
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