My heart and mind span an ocean. I have been drawn to India since I was invited there as a teenager by two remarkable Indian women: Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay and Rukmini Devi Arundale. They opened doors for me throughout the subcontinent, encouraging my lifelong travel to almost every Indian district to record arts and rituals, traditions and innovations.
My six earlier books, and my dozens of museum exhibitions across the globe, attempt to bring awareness of India to those outside it, to heal misperceptions, and to foster appreciation for this ancient yet contemporary culture.
Transformed by India is my attempt to communicate the stories of some of the exceptional individuals, both in the mainstream and those far outside it, who welcomed me and transformed not only my perceptions, but also my thoughts, and even my personality.
Few foreigners, and even few Indians, have travelled as extensively in India as has STEPHEN HUYLER.
Documenting the profound meanings and significance of rural India's sacred art and crafts, he has come to know and love the country and culture well. His innate adaptability has enabled him to be accepted by a remarkable range of individuals from maharajah to musician, Brahmin to Dalit, and politician to potter.
He has been the Consultant and Guest Curator for more than twenty-five major museum exhibitions of Indian art for international as well as Indian arts museums and other institutions, such as the American Museum of Natural History, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Houston Museum of Natural Science, and the Mingei International Museum. A leading photographer of India, his extensive image archive has resulted in solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Smithsonian, the Asian Art Museum (San Francisco), and the Kodak Center for Creative Imaging.
Here is an evocation of an India rarely seen by outsiders people, places and customs which are, today, not known even by many Indians.
Huyler's memoir combines humor with pathos, delight with dismay, sacred with secular, and tranquility with suspense.
His personal narrative flows and unfolds seamlessly through a life transformed by India.
Before anything can be said about the journey you are going to embark on in this book, take a moment ... and imagine different people going through the following experiences:
travelling alone, at the age of 19, through Paris, Iran, Turkey, Pakistan, Afghanistan and India;
on your twentieth birthday, pedalling a bicycle rickshaw through the Indian border;
at that age, being mentored by the legendary Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya;
travelling all the way from the southern tip of India up the western coast, to the north;
driving four months through all of central India in an offensively intrusive car.
These are not disparate experiences of multiple outgoing young people. This is the experience of one person Stephen Huyler - who knows how to recount them in the most vivid, thoughtful, and evocative way.
One of the most beautiful things about travelogues is the sense of adventure they come with: you are always on the move, there is always something new to see, a unique experience to take in. Wordier travel writers can become monotonous, and lose themselves in trying to describe what they see, rather than what they feel. Stephen does not suffer from this ailment. His book does a fabulous job at making sense of what he saw, deeply rooted in his dynamic approach to life. Moreover, when a travelogue is also a memoir, it doubles up as a treasure trove of insight. It brings to life the generosity of spirit that humanity can invoke, the kind of generosity that ties Stephen so intimately to India a country he made his own, and a people that have made him their own.
India is a country of sparkling conversations and breathtaking landscapes; of startling social discoveries and homely surprises; of deep flaws and deeper successes. It is, indeed, an ever-ever land. Stephen has been blessed in experiencing it whole almost in its entirety. In that sense his history is as much India's as it is his own. His changing terms of engagement with the country - first as a young man discovering himself, and later as a reputed anthropologist and art historian - are both a reflection of the changing contours of the nation and his own evolving worldview.
Stephen Huyler has compiled this book of delightful photographs and recollections as a tribute to the way his life has been transformed by his long relationship with India. Over more than five decades he has been made welcome all over the country by people happy to share their culture, traditions and way of life with him.
As someone who has also spent the larger part of his life in India, I recognise the warm-hearted friendship he describes. Besides this, my mind has been filled with Indian thought from the Nalanda tradition and my body has been nourished by years of Indian rice, dal and roti. In the face of difficulties, ancient Indian knowledge of the mind and emotions has helped me keep my inner peace. Consequently, wherever I go, and whenever I can, I tell people about the non-violence-ahimsa and compassion-karuna that have long been celebrated here.
I share the deep respect and affection Stephen Huyler feels for this ancient land and am grateful to him for the efforts he's made to convey these feelings to his readers.
When I was sixteen, I chose a single sentence from Herman Hesse's ""Steppenwolf"" to predict my life's trajectory. ""Instead of narrowing your world and simplifying your soul, you will have to absorb more and more of the world and at last take all of it up into your painfully expanded soul, if you are ever to find peace.""
Those sentences placed next to my portrait in my high school yearbook summed up the ambition of a sixteen-year-old. Half a century's immersion in India has underscored that. Now, replete in my seventies, I am at last at ease.
Frequently, people question my motives for working in and with South Asia. My answers are varied and complex. Chapter Fifteen discusses my origins, family,
mentors, and the environment that helped sculpt my unusual character and choices.
Good fortune shines upon me. It always has. I recognize my privilege. Much of who and what I am was given to me without effort simply because of skin color, gender, and nationality. A tall white American male, one of a majority in my society, and yet a member of a relatively small minority in a world of cultural diversity. Compared with countless others, it may seem that my life has been without effort. Yet, I have worked hard throughout it to make a singular contribution, attempting to help balance the inequities. Efforts can never be enough. It is too easy to slip back into what is comfortable: the trappings of heritage and community.
This book is the story of how India has impacted my entire life since childhood: a process of ongoing adaptation and transformation.
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