Words from Manjit Bawa over the years…

“Being a turbanned Sikh from an ordinary middle-class family was daunting enough but to strike out against the prevalent forces of Cubism and the iconic Klee was to really ask for big trouble and I was hauled up time and again with strict instructions to toe the line. But I remained true to my calling, naturally annoying authorities. Even then in those formative years I was haunted by the spectre of mediocrity. I was willing to accept any challenge, but on my own terms. I was obsessed with one driving need – to create my own painterly language.”

Born in a small Punjabi town of Dhuri in 1941, Manjit Bawa wasn’t exactly encouraged to be an artist. “My mother would try to dissuade me, saying art was not a means of livelihood. But my spiritual leanings dispelled my fears. I had no qualms. I believed God would provide me with food and I would earn the rest,” he says

How much of a Sikh are you?

I am very much a Sikh. Not the militant Sikh but a believer in Sufi-Bhakti cult of Sikhism. I read Guru Granth Sahib but I am not a practising Sikh. I have read great works of other religions like the Bhagavadagita, Shiv Purana, Ramayana etc. I hated Manu Smriti. I love Punjab. I feel a oneness with its soil. My language is Punjabi. The remark made to me in childhood stays in memory, "What can a Sardar paint."