By       Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

The reply dt. 21st March,2024 from Mr. N Murali, the President,Music Academy to RaGa is  a candid confession  that the President/Academy, in whichever order,  is now not just approving/recognising what T M Krishna stands for as the ‘respected senior musician’, but seemingly associating themselves with all his egregious and outrageous pronouncements, over the years. By suggesting that RaGa’s comments were ‘vituperative/defamatory’,  the holier than thou President ( of Academy not Bharat) has failed to fact-check in the ‘highest’  traditions ( now forgotten)  of The Hindu stable. If he had, he would have noticed that  the ‘vituperative’ ‘defamatory’ utterances  were  truly the Sangita Kalanidhi designate’s . The letter is a complete give-way that the choice was knowingly  deliberate, except that the Academy did not anticipate this blowback.

The President a.k.a. Academy assumed that the artistes/rasikas  would  be the ever supine pushovers . They did not bargain for these  sharp responses. One thing is clear and evident. The Academy/Committee chose who they chose, aware fully well that he was famous ( read notoriety) for the ‘extraneous factors’.  Could the President and Academy please  detail/identify those ‘extraneous factors’ which they excluded from the zone of consideration. They wont. They dare not. Therein lies the gravumen and nub of  reasons for the ‘withdrawals’.

Beginning with 1929 awardees

Shri T.V. Subba Rao, Vidvan T.S. Sabhesa Iyer till 2023 awardee  Bombay Smt Jayashri Ramnath, it is humbly requested of the President/Academy to affirm/confirm whether there were at all any ‘extraneous factors’ impinging on the value set of those awardees, that the Academy had  to grapple with.Even one?

And  if even one  of the said awardees had or could be accused of using crass language against Saint Tyagaraja, MS Subbulakshmi or the Paramparyam in the divinity of Carnatic music traditions. Our friend, the designate, ‘overwhelmed’ by the recognition, has ‘overwhelming’ lexicon in oral and written forms recalled and recorded all over the place, in the last few days itself. The ‘musical excellence’ and the ‘accolade’ for which he was chosen by the committee includes usage of the term Poromboke for Parambaryam, as a pejorative.

The President/Academy/Committee wants us to believe that this genius was chosen for his musical prowess and not the ideological nonsense he vomits. T M Krishna the ‘respected senior musician’ cannot be divorced from the man/politician/public intellectual he claims to be, among his admirers,which we now know include  the Academy and its President. Bravo!

RaGa had sent a polite, pointed, suave letter imbued with ‘respect’ to T M Krishna the ‘musician’. But, exposed the chinks  and warts, as chips on the shoulders of the singer,  as they were, are with convulsed moral compass. Yes, they are  ‘extraneous factors’. But, they are  intrinsic  to him. He cannot  be divorced from them. He is not the T M Krishna that Academy wants to adorn, without them.

As for the poser from His Excellency the President on the ‘intents’ and ‘purposes’ behind the missive being posted/shared on social media contemporaneous to being sent to him, can’t he see the reason? Simple. Of course, We the Rasikas matter more. For the Academy, we may not. You and your Academy’s  self-anointed troopers  trot during season time as  if the Lords of all they Survey, including  in the canteens and restrooms. But artistes know that ‘it is the rasikas who make them who they are’ as MS Amma  generously acknowledged

RaGa kept this  protocol in sharing the letter Live with us. These artistes know who ‘made’them. We. Not the Academy platform by itself. The Academy  too is a product of our passion and attendance. But, you may not care. So, you are entitled to your misplaced surprise why  the letter was shared with us.

All in all, the reply dt.21st March,2024 from the President, reaffirms his love for the man in the designate. How the Committee fell in line as lambs for…. is no mystery. They love to be Academy Officianados. It has become a cosy club of likeminded parasites. You don’t expect any better.

Surely,  the Acdemy has proved itself to be among the UNESCO networks as a ‘creative’ city. The least we rasikas can reciprocate is to shun the Academy during the 2024-25 Margazhi  season by attending all the other sabhas and concerts of  artistes ( and not just mouth platitudes) who nobly withdrew to show they were men and women of much better value!

(Writer is practicing advocate in the Madras High Court)

Also Read: Hypocrisy thy name is TMK!

Musicians Ranjani and Gayathri had withdrawn their presence from 2024 music conference arranged by Music Academy. Their letter says the story for what.

We have communicated our decision to withdraw from participating in the Music Academy’s conference 2024 and from presenting our concert on 25th December.

We have made this decision as the conference would be presided over by Mr. TM Krishna. He has caused immense damage to the Carnatic music world, wilfully and happily stomped over the sentiments of this community and insulted most respected icons like Tyagaraja and MS Subbulakshmi. His actions have tried to spread a sense of shame in being a carnatic musician and has been exhibited through his consistent denigration of spirituality in music.

He has vilified the Carnatic music fraternity that has collectively contributed millions of hours of artistry, hard work and literature.

It is dangerous to overlook Mr TM Krishna’s glorification of a figure like EVR aka Periyar who

1. Openly proposed a genocide of ‘brahmins’
2. Repeatedly called/abused every woman of this community with vile profanity
3. Relentlessly worked to normalize filthy language in social discourse

We believe in a value system that respects art and artists, vaggeyakaras, rasikas, institutions, our roots and culture. We will be in moral violation if we were to bury these values and join this year’s conference.

Ranjani Gayatri

  By   Narasimhan Vijayaraghavan

June,2015- Music Academy, announcement on Sangita Kalanidhi designate for 89th Conference:

 Sanjay Subramanyan is the unanimous choice of the executive committee of the Academy and in selecting Mr. Subrahmanyan we have restored the practice of awarding the title both to veteran and young musicians who are at the peak of their career. The practice existed till the late 1970s. Mr Subrahmayan is a vocalist par-excellence and torchbearer of his generation of Carnatic musicians- Music Academy.

Facebook Post dt.June,2015 of T M Krishna

I would like to inform all of you that henceforth (beginning December 2015) I will not be singing in Chennai’s December Music Season… Unfortunately at the place I am today I am unable to reconcile my musical journey with that of the December 2015.

The two are unrelated. If you attribute peeve  to TMK, you are peevish.

Origins of Sangita Kalanidhi

On the origins of  Sangita Kalanidhi and connect with MS Amma- Considered the highest accolade in the field of Carnatic music, it came into existence in 1942. Prior to that, a senior musician/expert was invited to preside over the Music Academy’s annual conference. In 1942, it was decided that the musician so invited would be conferred the title of Sangita Kalanidhi, the award comprising a gold medal and a birudu patra (citation). Since 2005, the Sangita Kalanidhi also receives the MS Subbulakshmi Award instituted by The Hindu. This cash award has seen its value enhanced by generous contributions by P Vijaykumar Reddy, son of past Vice-President P Obul Reddy.

MS Subbulakshmi Award

Now, note that TMK would be honoured  with ‘M S Subbulakshmi Award instituted by The Hindu, where he writes his ‘erudite’  pieces.And TMK said this on being ‘overwhelmed’ by the recognition: It is ….humbling because the recipients of the awardees include my teacher Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, T Brinda, MS Subbulakshmi who you admire and look up to for inspiration”.

It was  no new found love for MS Amma. TMK had written this long ago. Yes, true:

TMK on MS Amma

“G N Balasubramanian’s  love for MS has been underplayed, thanks to the latent patriarchy of Mylapore. The free-spirited young woman was to become the embodiment of the ideal Brahmin housewife, seen among the elite as the epitome of purity and devotion. The story is unsubstantiated, but even concocted tales can reveal something of the inner workings of the environment that produced them”.

He had said more. But, we need not.

Intellectual (Dis) Honesty

Well, TMK says he has always been ‘outspoken’. Never  ‘Arrogant or Hypocritical’. He has been hypercritical of Carnatic music echelons as ‘elitist’ ‘chauvinistic’ and ‘Brahmin dominated’ a k.a. racist. Critiques/Attributes associated with Music Academy, across turfs (TMK unexcluded) for decades.

Now, TMK is  ‘overwhelmed’ by the award/recognition from Music Academy  and it is coming with M S Subbulakshmi award too. Perfect icing on the cake.  How can he be called upon to reject it? He is not a fool. He is surely smart and intelligent to know which side of the bread is buttered.

If you think he is a hypocrite to accept the award,  during Margazhi Season,which he has been boycotting since 2015, and would be Presiding over the Music Academy  Conference in  2024-25 and possibly  perform too (who knows, knowing his (lack of) balance and consistency), it is You & and I  who would be peevish, petulant,racist – read brahminical, and worse.

(Writer is practicing advocate in the Madras High Court)