Chicago: Noted Sitar and Surbahar player Ustad Imrat Khan has turned down the Padma Shri award as he believes it comes “too late” and is not “parallel” to his “worldwide reputation and contributions”. Imrat, 82, said he has mixed feelings about getting a Padma Shri when his “juniors” have already received the Padma Bhushan. “At the last moments of my life, at the age of 82, the Government of India has chosen to recognize me with the Padma Shri award.
I have mixed feelings about it without holding any prejudice, to the purpose of this award which comes perhaps many decades late,” he told the Indian Consulate in Chicago, who had contacted him after the announcement on Republic Day.
Imrat, who lives in St Louis, said he made great contributions to classical music worldwide. Having performed with stalwarts like his older brother Ustad Vilayat Khan and Ustad Bismillah Khan, Imrat said he did not want to compromise by accepting the Padma Shree. “I have put music on the highest pedestal with a lifetime of devotion to its art refusing any form of corruption to its form and essence.
I do not expect at this moment in my life that my contributions be diminished to a level lower than my followers — by age or reputation. I have never compromised. Why should I compromise now when this award presented to me is not parallel to my reputation in the name of the pure arts and culture of India?,” he said.
