Anoushka Shankar on paying tribute to Nirbhaya: Performance also a reflecting that nothing much has changed

Grammy nominated sitarist Anoushka Shankar strongly believes in music activism, and is using her tunes and sounds during the homecoming tour in India to pay tribute to Nirbhaya on the 10th anniversary of the gang rape incident. And she admits she wants her performance to remind people that not much has changed when it comes to women’s safety.

“I have put together a new show for the India tour, and as part of the same I will also be premiering a new song to pay tribute to Nirbhaya, on the tenth anniversary, and hope people connect to it,” Anoushka tells us.

As a mark of respect and as a reflection of her outrage, Anoushka will be releasing a reimagined version of her 2013 track, titled In Her Name, to pay her tribute. She will be performing the song at the shows in India. She reveals paying the musical tribute is very important to her.

“As a woman, and a human being, it is really important to me. The incident shook the world, It shook me to my core as to what happened to her. And the idea of marking 10 years (with the song) is (to highlight that it is) important to pause and remember,” says the daughter of the late sitar legend Ravi Shankar.

She adds, “It is also about a sense of outrage and pain that not much has changed in the time since then. Like 10 years have passed, but we still keep hearing so many stories on the horrible violence against women and girls… We have continued to hear about such cases from around the world, and there have been so many other names since then. It feels hugely important to continue to mark it because it continues to be an ongoing tragedy”.

In fact, she is hoping that her music activism brings a change. The Grammy-nominated composer returned to India with a three-city tour in Mumbai, Bengaluru and New Delhi in the first week of December. The tour kicked off at Good Shepherd Auditorium in Bengaluru on December 11, followed by a concert at Shanmukhananda Auditorium in Mumbai on December 16 and in Delhi on December 18 with a performance at SiriFort Auditorium.