Alka Pande is among India’s most prolific art historians. An academic and aesthete, she has been the curator of the Visual Arts Gallery at Delhi’s India Habitat Centre for more than two decades. Pande has also continued to write, over the last 30 years, books on art, sculpture, shringar, erotica, among other aspects of Indian cultural thought. However, if one were to be written about her, two words—both starting with O—would be irreplaceable in describing her and her work. 

Original. Opinion-laced. 

Pande has, in her writings, created an original language of written expression that defines her as an author. Erotic art, Kamasutra and its nuances beyond desire, probing commentaries on the Ardhanarishvara (‘half’, ‘woman’, ‘lord’ or the lord whose half is a woman) and through it, gender, form some aspects of her work. Then there is food, folk music, photography and sculpture. It’s a broad, rich repertoire. The reason you read her though is for the distinct way she connects history and heritage with new relevance, Vedic wisdom with modern philosophy, ancient artefacts with why they matter in coding our current, palpably “felt” culture. Pande’s personal style mirrors her interests in art and writing. She wears bold lipsticks, flowers and jewels without matching them to perfection. Perfect visuals are not her pursuit as her arguments suggest.

This year, Pande released a series of 14 books published by Arthshila Trust, called 108 Portraits of Indian Culture and Heritage. Compiled as entries with photographs and her own way of categorising them, they cover a vast array of subjects. Photography, Objects, Indian Vernacular and Indigenous Art, Dance, Food, Sculpture among others. 

Of these, 108 Portraits of Indian Crafts and the one on Indian Textiles inspired this interview. This conversation held in person at her office in Delhi, is formatted on presenting six clichés in current Indian life to seek Pande’s thoughts. She remains, as you notice, fiercely original and not without opinions . Edited excerpts below.

What do you observe in the aesthetic sensibility of visitors and buyers at art galleries? How does the modern Indian with a keen interest in art dress? 

There are four to five classes of people, not just categorised by economic class. First the very rich, who come to buy art. They dress in a typical manner which is highly westernised. They don’t wear too much of Indian textiles but a lot of big logo bags, fancy sunglasses. They exhibit their power by dressing in Western clothes—dresses, gowns. They are the ones with parties to go to, events to attend all over the world. 

Then there is the artist community which has become very experimental. They think out of the box. They can wear anything from traditional textiles to modern clothes and are very comfortable. I am talking of women in particular who are very comfortable in their skin, without any sense of body shaming or the male gaze. They have no problem wearing revealing clothes. 

Then there are the highly educated, so-called enlightened people who just come to view art because they are genuinely interested in it, they stand in front of a painting, they speak to artists. They dress discreetly, nothing is overt or attention-seeking about them. Many wear indigo, black or cream—I am talking of colour discretion too. They are comfortable in Indo-Western fusion, palazzos and kurtas and other hybrid forms of clothes. 

Have you noticed dressing impulses change in different cities in India?

In Delhi people love to flaunt their wealth whereas it is the opposite in Mumbai. In Chandigarh, every woman takes pride in dressing and will wear embroideries (not textiles); their palazzos are full of lace, you will find hand embroidery or hand painted designs on their kurtas. In Amritsar, you will still find women with matching dupatta salwars but everything is very decorative. In the deep South, people are still very traditional, they wear their saris but we have begun to notice Indo-Western clothing which I never saw 25 years ago. What I don’t see in Delhi is a sense of identity. Everybody is about show-off to the extent that at a fisherman’s wharf in Goa you can easily spot a person from Delhi. 

As a purveyor of sensuality, body and beauty in mythology, art and sculpture, what do you think about the cosmetic and beauty industry today? 

I have a very strong opinion on this. There are shiny clothes, shiny skin, shiny everything. If you look at actor Smita Patil from the Hindi cinema of the past and compare her to Kareena Kapoor Khan of the present, both are very beautiful women but Kareena is first about western aesthetics. Whereas Indian aesthetics was always about women with slightly fleshy curves. If you look at the pre-moderns, the Chauri bearer from Bihar, the Yakshis and the Shalabhanjikas, Indian women had heavy breasts, they had a nipped in waist but there was a bit of a belly. Today a majority of us kill for that for a certain size-zero look. 

As a working professional who grew up in contemporary India which is global and cosmopolitan, I notice women of my generation also moving with the times. While we were brought up to believe that beauty lies within, it is now important for both the outside and the inside to match. 

It is important to have a finished look that represents one’s personal aesthetics and is an indicator of one’s personal signification. Women are taking much more care, they have come of age, they take pride in their looks. A lot of it has to do with economic empowerment. It is one of the post-pandemic changes, everybody feels the vulnerability of life. 

What are your views on big weddings and the excesses of bridal wear?

I am disappointed with some young brides today. For me, a wedding is still something sacred. Today when I see brides in exposed cholis or revealing clothes, I do miss the dupatta or the ghoonghat, which had a sense of mystery. When the bride’s face was not visible. Now the mystery is gone. Of course, the bridal lehengas have become more ornate. Look at Alia Bhatt’s sari for this year’s Met Gala for instance. As far as karigari goes, employment goes, as far as the craft or the art of embellishment goes, I think it has improved beyond measure. Designers like Sabyasachi or even Manish Malhotra for example, have taken bridal couture to another level. This is extremely good for the producers, people who are working on it, and there’s employment being created. So, our crafts will not die. The point I wish to make is that I miss the whole allure, the act of seduction. If we are showing off all the time, we don’t have to show the body too, the perfect body does not make perfect beauty. 

You have been associated with the Bihar Museum. What is your cultural view of people there? 

People in Bihar are very proud of their land, their region. I don’t see that sense of great pride in Delhi, or Uttar Pradesh, not even in Uttarakhand where I come from. The people who visit the Bihar Museum are of a specific kind because it has been the Buddhist route—people from China, Japan, several other countries come on their way to Nalanda or Bodh Gaya. Besides that, there is not enough entertainment in Patna. So, on New Year’s Day, for instance, 10,000 people will troop into the museum, as for them, it is an outing. It is like going to India Gate for an ice-cream in Delhi. The 3,000-5,000 daily visitors are from the middle and working classes. The upper classes, art connoisseurs, ambassadors and important dignitaries visit too, but that’s a very small percentage.

Lastly, tell us about the idea of “108” behind your most recent books. Why did you undertake working on this series? 

This is a legacy I want to leave behind. I have been teaching from 1982— for almost 40 years now. My journey connects teaching at Punjab University, then National Institute of Technology, followed by Northern India Institute of Fashion Technology (NIIFT) in Mohali right up to teaching at the College of Art in Delhi. Over the years, when I was teaching Indian aesthetics, the relationship between the plastic, aesthetic and performing arts, I couldn’t find any book where I could get adequate information. So, one either goes to Sanskrit texts or delves into extensive, layered research. As an arts educator, I thought I must leave behind a legacy that looks at every aspect of visual culture through an Indian lens. Not a Western lens. Of course, we live in a hyphenated world but it is important to understand our traditions, the Shilpashastras, Indian texts and then decide what we want. So, I took the branding of 108 as it is a sacred number, the Akshar Mala has 108 beads. The Sri Yantra has 108 energy points. 

With 108 as branding, and through art history, that of Indian costuming, Indian aesthetics, I created this series. My favourite is the Book of Objects for which I did primary research like Paan Daan kaha se aaya? (where did the betelnut spittoon come from?) Chakla Belan kaise shuru hua? (where did the rolling pin and board come from?) Chimta kaha se aaya? (where did the kitchen tongs originate?). Each book has a detailed bibliography for further research. These books are for young art college students or students of design, fashion, for the diaspora who wants to know more to educate their school-going children. So that they can be prepared for specialised courses in art, culture, objects, traditions, textiles, crafts. 

Banner: Dr Alka Pande photographed in New Delhi.
Image Credit: Rishabh Batra