Glass, 70, first came to India in 1966 and got deeply immersed in Tibetan Buddhism. Later an association with Ravi Shankar fulfilled his quest for Indian instruments and the corresponding rhythm. A few years later, he met Dalai Lama and got involved in the Tibetan cause and other peace movements. It was in those formative years Gandhi became central to his musical vision.

Equally admired in Europe and America Glass touched new heights in 1976 with a five-hour long opera, Einstein on the Beach. Glass’s music was specially appreciated in Netherlands so he premiered his next production Satyagraha in Rotterdam in 1980. A year later, Satyagraha opened in the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York. But Glass’s unconventional repetitive music was unpalatable to many critics. The US critics trashed Satyagraha for its paucity of musical ideas and the oddity of its text. “Satyagraha ought to be considered for inclusion in the Guinness Book of Records,” wrote Donal Hanahan in The New York Times, “has there been an opera that went so far on so few musical ideas.”

But that was more than a quarter of century ago. Today not many would venture to frown upon either Gandhi or Glass as one preached socio-political tolerance and global understanding while the other idolised it for the posterity. As McDermott puts it: “Satyagraha’s a timely piece; there will never be an era when it’s not timely because of its issues around war”.

PS: Alan Oke’s interview and a piece of his performance can be heard on Vijay Rana’s web-radio www.nrifm.com