After Partition, He Painted the People India Forgot | Krishen Khanna | Art With Az

At Indian weddings, the bandwallahs provide the soundtrack to celebration. But who remembers the men behind the music? In this conversation with Art With Az, Krishen Khanna shares the human stories behind his Bandwalla paintings: and the hardship he witnessed in the upheaval surrounding Partition. As lives and livelihoods were torn apart, celebration became a precarious way to earn a living. Khanna remembers musicians putting on their bright uniforms and playing, hoping somebody would offer them work. They performed the music of happiness while carrying struggles that the people around them scarcely noticed. Those men stayed with him. In his paintings, their uniforms, instruments, faces and gestures became subjects worthy of sustained attention. People who might otherwise remain at the edge of a wedding procession took centre stage. Through them, this conversation opens onto a larger question: how does an artist preserve the human experiences that history can overlook? For Khanna, that begins with knowing people. He speaks about his own experience playing in a band, his encounters with musicians near his studio at Garhi in Delhi, and his need to understand how the people he painted actually felt. His Bandwallas emerge as individuals with humour, skill, hardship and dignity, as well as participants in a familiar part of Indian cultural life. And there is humour here, too. Stay until the end for the story of Khanna picking up a flute himself, and the musicians’ unexpected response. Recorded when Khanna was 99, this is a personal account of the relationship between art, memory and the people an artist chooses to remember. In this episode: • The stories behind Krishen Khanna’s Bandwalla paintings • Partition, disrupted livelihoods and overlooked musicians • The contrast between public celebration and private hardship • Wedding bands and their place in Indian cultural life • His encounters with bandwallahs at Garhi, Delhi • Empathy and the responsibility of looking closely • The flute anecdote that brings the conversation to an unexpected close You don’t need a background in art to connect with these stories. They begin with something familiar: hearing the music, enjoying the celebration, and rarely stopping to ask about the person playing. ▶ Watch the full Krishen Khanna conversation:    • He Quit His Bank Job at 36 to Paint. At 10...   Subscribe to Art With Az for conversations with the artists, collectors, gallerists and cultural figures shaping Indian art. Follow Art With Az: Instagram:   / officialazaankaran   Website: https://azaankaran.com #KrishenKhanna #IndianArt #Partition