Two top notch Carnatic vocalists, Ranjani and Gayatri, have decided to boycott the prestigious annual music festival organised by the venerable Music Academy of Chennai. This is to protest against the Academy's decision to invite vocalist T.M. Krishna to preside over the 2024 conference.
In an FB post, the sisters said: "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 (Saint) 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 who1. Openly proposed a genocide of ‘brahmins’2. Repeatedly called/abused every woman of this community with vile profanity3. Relentlessly worked to normalize filthy language in social discourse"We believe in a value system that respects art and artists, vaggeyakaras (composers), 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."
The singing sisters' decision is likely to be followed by other artistes who feel that Mr Krishna has created a wholly unnecessary controversy by raising casteist issues in music specially Carnatic music. "Music knows no barriers of caste and creed. It is unfortunate T.M. Krishna had manufactured a perfectly avoidable controversy," said Dr Avisha Kulkarni, a music scholar.
Periyar, who is regarded as the father of the anti-Brahmin movement, was a controversial figure throughout his life. The last one was when he married at a ripe old age a girl old enough to be his daughter.
The Dravidian movement draws its ideological inspiration from him.
