March 2024: Well-known Carnatic musicians, Ranjini-Gayatri (shown in the image above), Dushyanth Sridhar, and others have recently decided to withdraw from the Madras Music Academy’s annual festival in response to the Academy’s decision to confer the 2024 Kalanidhi Award to highly controversial musician T.M. Krishna. The Kalanidhi is one of the most prestigious music awards in India that is issued by the leading institution in Carnatic Music based in Chennai (India).
What is Carnatic music?
Carnatic is one of the two major genres of Indian classical music that originated in South India. Both Carnatic and its Northern counterpart; Hindustani, are highly complex and technical styles of music based on ancient Hindu texts (namely Sama Veda and Natyashastra). These distinctions between the genres emerged in the mediaeval era when Indian classical music in the North was influenced by Islamic rule.
Why is T.M. Krishna so controversial?
In the North, classical music adapted for the Mughal Courts by moving away from Hindu spiritual themes. By contrast, Carnatic music has remained tied to Hindu devotional practice but in recent years deliberate attempts have been made to the genre from its roots. Unlike the evolution of Hindustani Music, which was an organic process of cultural exchange (where Muslim artists embraced Hindu culture), the recent efforts to transform Carnatic Music are aggressive and driven by a Hinduphobic agenda. T.M. Krishna has led this movement, which notably includes him making offensive remarks about other artists including the revered 17th-century composer and Hindu mystic Tyagaraja. Krishna has pushed the fake and divisive narrative that Carnatic music is a tool of oppression and used this to target its Brahmin Hindu custodians. A vocal supporter of Periya (a Hinduphobic activist and politician), Krishna took part in the 2021 Dismantling Global Hindutva Conference.
Photograph credits: Poorna Bangtan via Wikimedia Commons (license: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0, modifications: cropped)