The Sitarist Without a Shore: Ravi Shankar and the Paradox of Regional Belonging
How a Bengali Brahmin’s Cosmic Sound Reshaped Identity, Defied Cultural Boundaries, and Left His Homeland in Quiet Ambivalence Pandit Ravi Shankar’s legacy transcends borders, yet his place within the Bengali cultural pantheon remains curiously contested. Born Robindra Shankar Chowdhury to a family rooted in East Bengal, he emerged from Varanasi to become a global ambassador of Indian classical music. His deliberate adoption of the Hindi name “Ravi,” his expatriate lifestyle, and his mastery of Hindustani classical—an inherently pan-North Indian tradition—created a deliberate distance from regional Bengal. While figures like Satyajit Ray and Amartya Sen maintained deep intellectual and geographic ties to Kolkata, Shankar chose Varanasi and the world as his anchors. This article explores the multifaceted tensions between his Bengali heritage and his cosmopolitan identity, examining the bhadralok elite’s skepticism, the linguistic neutrality of instrumental music, and his later efforts...