India, Aug. 3 -- Artist Kulwinder Singh was driving from his village in Sangrur to Chandigarh when he observed road accidents caused by the obscuring smoke screen of paddy stubble infernos. Though hailing from a farmer's home, the young man's sensitivity liberated him from the corral of his ancestry. A thought flashed in his inner eye: "Burning does not just adversely affect us farmers by way of health hazards, environmental pollution, destruction of biodiversity helpful to soil such as worms and the earth's destruction. But also people unconnected to farming."

Singh is of the conviction that art must reach beyond the decorative to "disturb" and send ripples through a stagnating social conscience. He conceived a painting from that 'drivi...