Bengaluru: A series of events followed after the Madras Music Academy announced its decision to award renowned Carnatic vocalist and activist T.M. Krishna with the prestigious Sangita Kalanidhi.
Notably, Krishna, a renowned musician, author and Ramon Magsaysay winner has spoken against caste discrimination and caste favouritism in the Carnatic music community consistently and even initiated significant discussions and debates on gender, caste and power dynamics on several occasions. He had also boycotted the popular Chennai Music Season and mainstream concert venues in Chennai to dismantle casteism baked into the system.
Now, Carnatic vocalist duo Ranjani and Gayatri were among the first from the industry to register their protest over bestowing the award to Krishna by withdrawing from the Music Academy’s 2024 conference citing Krishna’s presidency as the reason.
They asserted that Krishna has “vilified the Carnatic music fraternity” and added that it’s “dangerous” to overlook his attempt towards “glorification of a figure like EVR [Periyar]”. The sister duo also mentioned that “he insulted most respected icons like Tyagaraja and M.S. Subbulakshmi”.
It is noteworthy that Krishna had sparked a storm and was labelled an “anti-national” in 2017 when he pointed out that Subbulakshmi had distanced herself from the Devadasi culture to gain wider acceptance.
Interestingly, Subbulakshmi’s great-grandson Surya H.K. defended Krishna in an opinion piece published on Saturday, March 23 in The New Indian Express. “About TMK’s comments on M.S. Subbulakshmi, he has explained himself multiple times, and nobody can deny the kernels of truth there even if one doesn’t fully agree. As her great-grandson, and her being one of the strongest women I know, all I can say is this: I hope she would have responded to T.M. Krishna and clarified her own choices which were made in a particular period and context that T.M. has not lived and cannot comprehend fully,” Surya wrote.
He added: “She [Subbulakshmi] would not have been offended or insulted by this discourse. But she would have engaged with him directly and exchanged views openly, in the spirit of debate and democracy. She does not need spokespersons or superficial custodians of her legacy to use her name and score personal brownie points. TN [Tamil Nadu] and Tamilians have seen and ignored such dog whistles for decades, and they shall be ignored now as well. I wish that M.S. was alive so that she could use the platform of the Music Academy to herself give the award to TMK on the dais, have a constructive debate about the history and legacy of Carnatic music, and put an end to this tussle that erupts every few years.”
Surya also underlined that if “Ranjani-Gayatri are true artistes and respect M.S.” then they should do “much more to democratise the Carnatic music tradition from within”.
Reacting to Ranjani and Gayatri’s public announcement on social media platform X (previously called Twitter), the academy’s president N. Murali mentioned that Krishna was chosen for the accolade “based on his excellence in music over a long career, with no extraneous factors influencing our choice”. Further, he labelled the duo’s assertions as “unwarranted and slanderous” and labelled their tone as “vicious against a respected senior fellow musician”.
On Monday, March 25 Ranjani and Gayatri responded to Murali’s statement, they said, “We immensely respect this hallowed institution and it will be the happiest day for us and for millions of people to see star performers emerge from underprivileged communities and dominate this stage.”
“This transformation should begin at the top. Kindly start with the entrenched Executive Committee consisting of only brahmins and royalty you have been heading for 2 decades,” the sisters wrote in a statement on X.
Others like Harikatha exponents Dushyanth Sridhar, Vishakha Hari, vocalists Triuchur Brothers have also reportedly declared their intention to skip this year’s conference due to the same reason. Chitravina player N. Ravikiran, who was previously accused of sexual harassment, went a step further and said that he will return his Sangita Kalanidhi which was conferred on him in 2017.
The matter has also taken a political turn.
Tamil Nadu Chief M.K. Stalin called the criticism against Krishna “for his progressive political stances and his constant talk about the ordinary people” as “regrettable”. “#TMKrishna ‘s talent is undeniable. Don’t mix narrow politics in music as you mix religious beliefs with politics! Today’s need is to have a broad human vision and the ability to avoid hatred and embrace fellow human beings!” the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) chief wrote on X.
Meanwhile, K. Annamalai, president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) supported the protesting musicians.
“The Music Academy, revered as the Temple of Carnatic Music and spiritual consciousness for more than nine decades, is under the threat of disintegration by divisive forces detrimental to the sanctity of the organisation,” he said, adding, “@BJP4TamilNadu stands in solidarity with all the eminent artists of the Music Academy who have collectively raised their voices against the inimical approach of the present authority of the academy.”
On all these developments, renowned Tamil singer Chinmayi Sripada spoke to The Wire. Sripada, who has won several Filmfare and state awards and sings in multiple languages, has been vocal about the issue on X.
She was banned by the South Indian Cine, Television Artistes and Dubbing Artistes Union (SICTADAU) in November 2018 after she referred to lyricist Vairamuthu as a sexual harasser and came out in support of the women who had named actor-politician Radha Ravi, president of the dubbing union, in the Me Too movement.
Sripada underlined that vocalists like Ranjani and Gayatri want the Brahmin community to be the “gatekeepers” of Carnatic music. Further, she pointed out that Krishna was being attacked since he “speaks a language that they don’t like” despite being from the same community.
Edited excerpts from the interview follow.
In your social media handle, you have spoken against the Carnatic musicians who are opposing T.M. Krishna and protesting his selection as Sangita Kalanidhi. Why do you think this anger against Krishna is misplaced?
They are just mixing up their personal problems and their personal dislike for the gentleman because he is asking them to dismantle the general casteism that is associated with Carnatic music.
They want to be the gatekeepers of it and they want to say that only a certain caste and a community that is the Brahmin community should be ideally practising the [Carnatic] music. And it’s not that the Brahmin community has always been practising the craft. They themselves have basically hijacked it from the hereditary performing community and they started gatekeeping it saying that nobody else except us, who have any devotion and bhakti can perform this. Therefore, the way of teaching and imparting [music] education [itself] has so many hurdles.
So, here T.M. Krishna has been one of the people who has been very vocal about the Tam Bram [Tamil Brahmin] community and dismantling caste and calling out the casteism and the way of treating the accompanying artists and the sub-human behaviour [meted out] to artists from other communities. He has been doing this for a few years.
They hate it. They hate that somebody within the fold is questioning them. This is not something that has been happening all this while. And him being a Brahmin man himself talking about the problems in the community is not acceptable to them. So, I totally understand that and I understand their anger.
T.M. Krishna is not wrong because I have seen all of this. Because I have faced this thing being a dicorcee’s daughter and know how women are treated even if you are from the same community and [have to face] the misogyny and [know] how they speak of women performers.
In all of their garb of purity, devotion and bhakti, they are really rude and abusive and when someone says something they say what is your pedigree. So that’s why I had to unnecessarily keep saying that there’s this pedigree — my own grandfather [Sripada Pinakapani] was a Sangita Kalanidhi and a Padma Bhushan — so unless you throw weight around like that they don’t listen.
The kind of calling out that I’m doing if somebody else would have done the same, they would basically say you are just a playback singer — what do you know about Carnatic music. I have been trained in classical music and I have had [a] government scholarship when I was a child and was identified as a prodigy and all of that.
[With respect to Me Too allegation], you look at the language and replies that they use. Some of them say that ‘she deserves this,’ ‘I think we believe her molester’. How does somebody even try and talk common sense to this lot?
Do you think that Krishna is being attacked only because of his opinion on casteism and there’s no other reason which is forcing them to protest?
No, there’s nothing beyond it. They are basically opposing the Sangita Kalanidhi [conferred on Krishna] because of his efforts to call out the community. And he is a Periyar follower that too.
You have to look at things with respect to context and time. Many things that somebody said in the past will not be applicable today. And Periyar was one person who constantly told people that even if I tell you, you are supposed to question even me; question yourself and question your beliefs. I would say he was someone who always spoke about rational and critical thinking. Critical thinking and questioning is not something that will be acceptable to bigoted people.
Periyar is non-consequential at this point. That’s why I have responded [on X] saying Periyar is not the one getting the award, he is dead, so why does it matter, if somebody for instance if T.M. Krishna tomorrow converts to a different faith and if he is still a fantastic Carnatic classical musician then they will still argue saying that somebody who is not a Hindu should not get the award. At the end of the day it boils down to that.
You have also mentioned in your X handle that these are the same lot of people who did not speak out during ‘Me Too’. Why did you say so?
A lot of the people who are supporting Ranjini Gayatri are saying that I am a liar and I did not know that they have spoken [against people accused of sexual harassment]. I am glad that they have spoken. I did not know that they did. It is not easy to keep up with who said what and if they said at all, I am happy to stand corrected there.
However, the kind of engagement and the kind of vehemence and [the] anger [with which] they are fighting for this cause I didn’t see then [during Me Too]. Someone is saying I’m returning the award. Please return quietly and go. Someone is saying I won’t perform. Other people who will come and take your slot. So that is absolutely fine.
Also read: T.M. Krishna, the ‘Richness’ of Carnatic Ragas and the Music Akka-Demy
So this entire argument that T.M. Krishna cannot be awarded because he follows Periyar is why I said if you are actually a proper good human being, if you are going into this character [assassination] — what one is doing in their personal life, if one is drinking — if you are digging all this then it’s time that you use the same yardstick for everybody else.
In all of this, the biggest joke is Ravikiran saying that I am returning my Sangita Kalanidhi. He is actually someone who was accused by his own students for molesting them. It should have been taken away from him.
If it had been any smaller, less influential sort of a person without the clout that T.M. Krishna has today, they would have butchered and thrown apart [that person]. They are not able to touch T.M. Krishna because he himself has a lot of personal clout and power.
So they can cry as they like, see how they are grouping together as a community to do this and this is what they will do against anybody who tries to raise a question. There are these kids who tried to form some sort of an ICC with proper accountability, actionable steps and all of that. So, because this Carnatic music community is very small they identified all of these students and kids who were doing this and they started blacklisting them And decided not to give them any kutcheri. So basically they want to show that if you don’t stand up for the community then this is what will happen to you. This is how they treat kids who want to bring about any changes or get anything done and they have constantly stone walled the ICC.
It’s only in this case that they have posted impatiently on social media and responded. Ranjini and Gayatri didn’t respond to me at that point of time [during Me Too] in 2018, like they responded today.
Radha Ravi is the person who had banned me. He is in the BJP now. The person who molested me is Vairamuthu, who is constantly platformed by the DMK, heavy weights like Kamal Hassan and chief minister and everybody from the left wing. I and 18 other women named Vairamuthu as their molester. Vairamuthu paid nothing, I paid the price, and I got banned almost immediately and I have suffered because of that. I’m still fighting the case in the City Civil Court in Chennai. My case is sub-judice.
Women artists like Samantha [Ruth Prabhu] and Parvathy [Thiruvothuhave] have spoken up for me. My mother tongue is Tamil but I have sung in other languages like Telugu, Hindi, Malayalam, Kannada, Tamil and Marathi. I have won five Filmfare Awards so far and 4 to 5 state government awards. There are some people who have given me work post–Me Too like Govind Vasantha, but those are like two films a year or something like that while I was a pretty busy playback singer and dubbing artist prior to that.
I have had to pay a very heavy price, loss of career, opportunity and of course money because of this. So people keep saying that I get a lot of attention and publicity because of the way I speak. I think we need to drive home the point that none of this attention and publicity is worth even one paisa. It doesn’t pay my bills nor does it get me work nor any attention that translates to work.
Do you think that change is possible in the Carnatic music community now though you have clearly suggested that things haven’t changed much after Me Too in the industry?
Whatever said and done, during the Me Too movement in 2018, the Music Academy had said that whoever was named in the movement will not be allowed to perform here [in December 2018]. So that one year they made sure that they [those accused of sexual harassment] don’t perform in the music academy. I don’t know if they have performed in consecutive years.
However, Ranjini and Gayatri have been very conveniently silent now. If they actually cared for the Me Too cause then they should have also put out a statement saying we dissociate with Ravi Kiran associating with this [T.M. Krishna’s Sangita Kalanidhi] issue. Just because it is convenient to them, Ranjini and Gayathri are keeping quiet.
Let’s say I’m Ranjani and Gayatri, then if I really cared about sexual harassment in the community, I would have said that ‘Ravikiran is trying to utilise this to white wash himself and we are not on par with him to judge [T.M. Krishna]’. If they had said something like, I would have had a little bit of respect despite knowing what they are saying is absolutely balderdash.
How do you think the recent developments will have an impact on the Carnatic music fraternity from a caste perspective?
A lot of the students from other castes must have given up a long time ago. They have kind of known that it is a very incestuos [music community], people who are from within the community are taken, only those who are within the community are platformed.
K.J. Yesudas, despite being such a fantastic singer, has not been awarded just because they don’t consider him a Hindu. I actually asked when was the last time a non-Brahmin, a non-Hindu or non-uppercase person was given a Sangita Kalanidhi or something like that. You will have to look at the list and most of them will be Brahmins, if not 95%.
Now their anger isn’t that a non-Brahmin is getting an award it’s just that he [T.M. Krishna] is from the community and speaks a language that they don’t like.