First appeared in www.scroll.in on June 21, 2014. Well before Western musicians began to interact with their Indian counterparts, travellers to India and British officials posted here occasionally wrote about their impressions of subcontinental traditions. Some of them were even amateur musicians. Interestingly, some of those centuries-old commentaries continue to colour the way we perceive Indian music. Since the 1950s, however, professional musicians from India and the West have been able to communicate with each other in a more