'Writers should be free to draw from other cultures'

'How an artist draws from the cultures of others is important, says Mr T. Sasitharan, director of the Intercultural Theatre Institute.

"This freedom of the artist to use an aspect of some culture other than his own carries with it a serious and profound responsibility to understand and be sensitive to its context, history and politics," he adds.

"In the final analysis, it comes down to artistic empathy, creativity and craft. The way in which diverse cultural elements hang together in a work and how they are received is precisely the line which separates the artists from the pretenders, the artists from the appropriators."'

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