Even as fringe elements hound a bunch of veteran Carnatic singers for evoking deities and Gods of other religions in their lyrics, this Christian institute in Dakshina Kannada has been training Carnatic music enthusiasts for close to three-decades irrespective of caste, creed or religion. Harsha Raj Gatty has more on this unique jugalbandi in Mangaluru.
Hindus, Catholics and Muslims alike, over 300 students have been trained solely in Carnatic vocals by Sandesha – Foundation for culture and education in the last 27 years.
Run by Karnataka Regional Catholic Bishops’ Council, Sandesha – a public trust trains aspirants in several cultural domains such as Bharatanatyam, Carnatic Vocal, Guitar, Tabla, Sitar, Harmonium, Eastern Violin, Drums, Keyboard , Yoga, Drawing, Painting, Art and Crafts.
The institution that has been visited by prominent people like Bharat Ratna Blessed Mother Teresa, Gnan Pith M. T. Vasudevan Nair, Former Chairman of Press Council Justice P B Sawant, Professor Amrith Someshwar, Gnan Pith Prof. U R Ananthmurthy, Padmashree Adoor Gopalakrishnan (2004) who have hailed its contribution in the field of art and literature.
Recently, veteran artistes like T M Krishna, Nithyasree Mahadevan, Aruna Sairam, O S Arun were labeled ‘Traitors of Hinduism’ by fringe elements on social media for scheduling their performance in Chennai titled ‘Yesuvin Sangama Sangeetham’ (Fusion Music of Christ) organised by Malayalam music composer T Samuel Joseph (Shyaam) on August 26. The singers were targeted by the conservative rollers as shamers of Carnatic Music’ after realizing that they were due to sing for deities of other religion.
Not limiting themselves to merely cyber-bullying, the right-wing supporters have even issued veiled threats to the singers for singing Christian hymns, as alleged by O S Arun – who apparently recorded the conversation. The Coimbatore based Rashtriya Sanathana Sewa Sangam (RSSS) that has been the front runner of this campaign, has forbidden Arun from performing at the event. Artistes like T M Krishna hit back at the trollers for inciting communal hatred in music through the media, adding that he will release a song for Jesus and Allah every month. Following the outcry, the event was cancelled.
While the authorities of Sandesha did not directly comment on the ongoing controversy, they said that music was secular and universal by nature. “We have at least 15 different disciplines of cultural studies at the Sandesha institute. Besides Carnatic vocals, every other subject domain is taught by subject experts who are recognised and have aced their their field of arts for several years. None of these art forms carry any religious implication or connotation whatsoever, each one of them is a well-established and autonomous discipline on its own,” Director of Sandesha, Rev Fr Nelson D’Almeida said.
Speaking on aspirants’ motives in enrolling for the Carnatic music course, he says that they come from different backgrounds, and each of them have different aims and objectives. “Some want to learn the music, there are a few researchers, some students come from an inter-disciplinary background, and some to simply improve their voice quality.” As recently as two-months ago, a catholic lady student enrolled to study Carnatic music simply to improve her quality of voice, it was a sincere commitment. How can one paint such genuine interest with communal colours,” D’ Almeida adds.
For over nine-years now, Sandeep Ballal who has been training students at Sandesha in Carnatic vocals, says that Carnatic music has no religious context at all whatsoever. The 30-year old who is the alumni of the same institute says that most of the composition are from the legendary works of Kakarla Tyagabrahmam or Saint Tyagaraja who was a Vaggeyakara’ (a lyricist and a composer) in Carnatic. “Although there are number of devotional songs, the lyrics do not necessarily have to be in reference to God or deities. Earlier, on many occasions, the vocalists who travelled from one place to another hailed or praised the rulers or the Kings in their verses and impressed upon them. It was common practice back then, we were told,” Ballal says.
He adds that these days of course the youngsters are attracted towards western and freestyle music; however there are students who want to pursue Carnatic music. “It’s not just Carnatic music; all the traditional art forms are facing a challenge to keep new students hooked on to the traditional art form. The students are also pressurised by their parents to pursue their studies instead of music. In our days, at least for a year we were only taught vocal exercises, but now we encourage them to sing a few songs as well during the initial years just to keep them motivated,” he says.
Generally till date majoritarian groups under the aegis of ‘Cultural appropriation’ have been able to quite significantly thwart the performance of artistes who don’t toe their line, in fact a recent performance by T M Krishna, scheduled for the Siva Vishnu Temple in Maryland was cancelled. The concert was to be held at the Sri Siva Vishnu Temple in Maryland, one of the largest in the US, on 9 September. The organisers communicated the cancellation of the event on social media. “T.M. Krishna’s concert scheduled for September 9th is cancelled,” was the statement that the organisers put out on Facebook.
On the one hand, while the popular inclination towards traditional music is declining – artiste’s like 2016 – Magsaysay Award winner for ‘social inclusiveness in culture’ TM Krishna has repeatedly held that Carnatic music and vocals is not the prerogative of any class or religion. The next generation must be encouraged to preserve protect and develop this great musical art form.
