The collective wail of the fraternity sounds deafening and the cacophonous resonance of the message becomes a bit intimidating too. Initially, the dissent seemed spontaneous, but as one delves deep, the situation looks murky, unbecoming of a pristine art, leaving many people frustrated, disillusioned and disgruntled, with the entire classical music world divided into two. 

Once again, Thodur Madabusi Krishna(48), one of the most original and creative singers of carnatic music, has ruffled the feathers of traditionalists. For a change, this time, it was not the singer, who always comes up with progressive and provocative thoughts and actions to rub the conservatives the wrong way, has kicked up the row, but the most revered institution of carnatic music, The Madras Music Academy. 

One would have expected voices of dissent from carnatic music world considering the social, political and musical stands taken by T M Krishna, but not at this magnitude as many big names have already come out expressing their displeasure and disagreement over the decision of Music Academy to confer this year’s Sangita Kalanidhi, the biggest award in carnatic music, to Krishna. 

The opening salvo was fired by renowned carnatic musicians Ranjani and Gayathri, known as RaGa sisters, as they announced their withdrawal from the annual music conference of Madras Music Academy scheduled to be held in December this year. The reason they have said  is that they don’t want to perform during the conference as it would be presided over by the Sangita Kalanidhi, this time it would be TMK. “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 are to bury these values and join this year’s conference’, they said in their letter to the Music Academy. 

They also have said that, TMK has made disparaging and vilifying remarks against Tyagaraja and MS Subbulakshmi. Yet another point they have raised is that, TMK tried to glorify Periyar, who had openly proposed a genocide of brahmins. They alleged that, Periyar had repeatedly abused every woman of brahmin community with vile profanity’. 

A former Sangita Kalanidhi awardee, Chitraveena N Ravikiran, too has withdrawn from the conference and has said that he would return his Sangita Kalanidhi award to the academy in protest against their decision. “I have taken this step after careful consideration as principles much larger than all of us are at stake’, he said.  

Sreevalsan J Menon, renowned carnatic musician from Kerala, is of the view that the controversy would not benefit the music world whatsoever. ‘Sangita Kalanidhi is being given for a musician considering musical excellence and creative contributions. In my opinion, Krishna has all the qualifications needed to be considered for this award as he is one of the most outstanding musicians of his generation. Personally, I have some reservations regarding his aesthetical approach. But, that is another matter for discussion. Here, I feel that, he deserves the award well and hope this controversy would end soon’, he said. 

Apart from RaGa sisters and Ravikiran, more musicians have raised their banner of revolt against the academy like Thrissur brothers - Srikrishna Mohan and Ramkumar Mohan, Harikatha exponents Vishakha Hari, Dushyanth Sridhar and Mridangam maestro Banglore Arjun Kumar. All of them have said that they would not be participating in the annual conference of Music Academy scheduled to be held in December 2024. Yet another big development in connection with the ongoing controversy is the decision of the family of great mridangist Palakkad TS Mani Iyer to return the Sangita Kalanidhi award which was conferred to him by the academy in 1967. Mani Iyer’s son Palakkad TR Rajamani had conveyed the decision of the family to N Murali. 

Krishna has been abstaining from performing in the margazhi season of Chennai in protest against the brahminical hegemony prevailing in the field. His political statements and social activism also have irritated the traditionalists. 

Meanwhile, N Murali, President of Music Academy has said that, T M Krishna was honoured with Sangita Kalanidhi for his excellence in music and no extraneous factors influenced the selection by the academy. While replying to RaGa sisters' protest letter to Music Academy, he said that he was shocked by both the vituperative content and the vicious tone against a respected senior fellow musician. He also has slammed the intention of the sisters for posting their letter to the academy on social media without waiting for his reply.  He said that their letter was replete with unwarranted and slanderous assertions and insinuations verging on defamation. 

Instituted in 1942, Sangita Kalanidhi award given by Madras Music Academy is considered as the highest award in carnatic music. The Sangita Kalanidhi awardee will preside over the Music Academy annual conference held in the margazhi season, festival of music. As per the custom, TM Krishna will preside over the annual conference which is scheduled to be held from December 15, 2024 to January 1, 2025. 

Even as the controversy refuses to fade down,  with artists, music lovers and even hate mongers taking sides, indefatigably debating the subject, flooding social media with all sorts of accusations, frowns and slanderings dividing carnatic music world, the point should not be missed that, nobody has said that Krishna doesn’t deserve this title. What irks the so-called traditionalists is his pro-Periyar, progressive and anti conservative political and social stands. His tirades against the prevalence of casteism in carnatic music too has been causing continuous headaches to the traditionalists, as they strive hard to prove that TMK is wrong in this regard. Many musicians, though they particularly do not like the maverick attitude and bouts of eccentricity on the stage as TMK denounces the traditional formats of concert singing, vouched that his contributions to the field of music can not be ignored and his progressive thoughts should be discussed so that, the art should become more secular and democratic, giving space to the under privileged too.   

Apart from his official thanks saying regarding the Academy's gesture conferring him the title, Krishna has not responded to the pandemonium raised by the musical fraternity.