What is it about India that draws writers, painters, photographers from the West? Do they come here to find, take, imbibe something or to give away a part of their essential selves to enrich the people and the milieus they encounter here? Colin Todhunter seeks out a few seekers who have been drawn to India and lets them tell their stories.
I first visited India in 1977 via the overland hippie trail.
I was a hippie too! But many hippies ended up on drugs or in ashrams seeking enlightenment, when there were all these poor people suffering from hunger and illness. In Varanasi, I saw many people affected by leprosy. Though the cost of treatment was minimal, they could not afford it. I had money for sightseeing in India for six months, but these people just needed eight euros for treatment.
I was on the point of going home because I just couldn't stand the situation. I promised myself that I would come back to help those people. The idea was to return to take photographs to sell in exhibitions back home. So that’s what I did. The first show was a great success, and, because of it, my first photo-book was published.
With the profits from my various visual art projects, I sponsored people in two leprosy colonies in Indore and Khandwa, and that's where the idea of establishing an art school originally came from. I raised 5,000 euros and wanted to use it in the best possible way. I was really touched by people who had leprosy because the were not only ill, they were outcasts too, discarded by their families and villages. But they possessed a certain brightness. This is what coaxed the idea of the art school – for them to express their beauty, not their pain, because there was so much beauty within them.
For me, India is the most diverse place in the world. In many ways, it is the opposite of western culture, and India forced me to question and develop my own view on life. I was fascinated by Indian philosophy, especially the Bhagavat Gita, which I have read almost daily from 1978.
But I don't really believe in borders or nations. For me, it's a question of humanity. I don't have a fixed personal goal and don’t follow anyone or anything. I just let things come to me. All I want to do through my visual art projects, and I include Bindu Art School here, is to strip away illusion, eliminate untruth and show how love can change people. There is no ulterior motive behind what I do. I can’t forget people's pain and just wouldn’t be happy if I didn't help.
In some respects, life in India is as everywhere else. There is an increasing concern with income, attachments and so on. So, I am aware that it is heaven and hell in one. I could stay in India forever, if I had to, but I am always happy to return to Austria with its fresh air, water and green fields. East or west, home is best. Colin Todhunter, writer, born in the UK
Full report here Deccan Herald
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