TM Krishna’s Magsaysay Award Sings A Raging Raga

Everyone’s abuzz about T M Krishna’s Magsaysay award. There are now articles about articles on this. Here’s my take.

TM Krishna, is equally celebrated and riled by those touched by Carnatic music.

(Photo: Wikicommmons)

TM Krishna’s rasikas, the media and the world online have been playing ‘toss’ with his Ramon Magsaysay award (in the ‘Emergent Leadership’ category).

The man, his efforts in “ensuring social inclusiveness in culture”, his proficiency as a singer, the award, the citation — nothing has been left un-discussed.

A TM Krishna concert, is devoid of format. No set beginning. No specific ending. You could be treated to a piece that begins in a certain raga and switches mid-way into another. Anything’s possible.

I’m going to go his way, and start with this video, that features somewhere at the end (hopefully) of the controversy surrounding his award.

TM Krishna (among many others) shaking a leg at the Urur Olcott Kuppam Margazhi Vizha. TMK was one of the organisers.

A Hatke Music Festival

The festival was held in February this year and debuted in December, 2015 to highly positive public response and participation.

(Photo: YouTube / Orange Street)

The Urur Olcott Kuppam Margazhi Vizha brought together practitioners of classical and folk arts from across Tamil Nadu, to a fishing village in Chennai.

What was awesome about the event is that it brought Carnatic music out of the ‘Sabhas’ and onto the sands. It made it accessible to non-brahmins. This was one of TMK’s ongoing efforts towards making the carnatic music scene more inclusive and less caste driven. So far so good.

In an article extolling TMK’s efforts, The News Minute wrongly termed Olcott Kuppam a ‘slum’. In a beautifully written letter on Facebook, the residents of Olcott Kuppam and the organisers of the event responded thusly;

Urur Olcott Kuppam is a fishing village, not a slum. Our village is probably older even than the city of Chennai. We object to the use of the word slum because the word invokes certain stereotypes — of illegitimacy of tenure, of crime and violence, of unsafe environs and dangerous people.

K Saravanan, Velan, Palayan. Translated by Nityanand Jayaraman

And this was their position on TMK’s role in the festival.

The festival was not and could not have been organised by any one person. TM Krishna was the most prominent volunteer organiser, and we are happy to have a person of such talent as part of our community of organisers. Neither was the Vizha a Carnatic festival. It had on display Carnatic, Bharatanatyam, Koothu, Villuppattu, rock music, parai-aattam, and songs from several languages.

K Saravanan, Velan, Palayan. Translated by Nityanand Jayaraman.

TNM Apologises, TMK Has Nothing to Be sorry About

The News Minute’s Ramanathan Subramanian responded promptly and altered the article. He also tendered an apology on the same thread, which was much appreciated.

Interestingly TMK neither saw Olcott Kuppam as a slum, nor himself as the star of the show. In an interview to Headlines Today two years ago, while promoting his book A Southern Music, he spoke about how the world of Carnatic music is not inclusive and that since he’s part of the system, he must introspect and see how he can change things.

Whether through the Olcott Kuppam festival or through initiatives like Svanubhava, Jaffna initiative or the Margazhi Raga, TMK has sought to bring the art form (Carnatic music) closer to students and other communities who usually don’t have access to it; as artists, they’d be barred from entry. As rasikas, they simply wouldn’t be invited.

Premature or Undeserving?

Jeyamohan, a Tamil and Malayalam writer, blogged about how TMK was an average singer and so;

It is <i>The Hindu</i>’s (the newspaper) backing that has got him this award... this is a ‘crown’ secured (for TMK) by those with money and power.

Jeyamohan, writer and literary critic

While Jeyamohan spewed vitriol (unnecessarily, in my opinion), The Wire’s Sharada Ramanathan writes that the award was premature;

Krishna has taken some very worthy steps in the right direction to blur caste boundaries in the world of classical music, but these are really only baby steps... And it doesn’t help that he is juxtaposed with Bezwada Wilson, albeit in the emergent leadership category, since Wilson is nothing short of a phenomenon.

Sharada Ramanthan

She also raises a pertinent question on the point of ‘social inclusiveness’, which the citation states as a reason for the award. Who is to include whom? And who gets awarded for it?

Speaking of Citations...

Swarajya, an online magazine for Right and Centre discourse, took umbrage to the entire citation, calling it;

... an insult to Carnatic music and all the great vidwans and practitioners who keep it alive and vibrant today. How any sincere admirer or lover of Carnatic music can feel “proud” of this award, I wonder.

Jataayu, Swarajya

The Best, The Only, The Greatest

As someone reading the news and taking in the buzz around Bezwada Wilson and TMK, I am left with the feeling that they are the best, the greatest and the only individuals who work for Dalit rights or for the disenfranchised. TMK and Wilson are one man armies and lone fighters.

An award that encourages ‘courageous service to people’ should do just that. In this sense, I believe the award is neither about Wilson, nor TMK. It is an opportunity for us to turn the spotlight on others like them (K Ramaiah, Anil Srinivasan, Paul Jacob, Asha Kowtal, and a hundred others) who continue to do yeomen service, unnoticed.
I’m sure all of this year’s Magsaysay awardees will wholeheartedly agree.