IN THE OTHERWISE serene world of Carnatic music, vocalist T.M. Krishna has been a polarising voice. The divide seems to have reached a crescendo with many musicians protesting The Music Academy (popularly the Madras Music Academy) conferring the prestigious Sangita Kalanidhi Award on him. Singer sisters Ranjani and Gayatri said they would boycott the Academy’s annual music festival. Instrumentalist Chitravina N. Ravikiran, who received the award in 2017, said he would return it. Vocalists Trichur Brothers―Srikrishna and Ramkumar Mohan―have withdrawn from the Academy’s annual music conference. Vocalist Vishakha Hari criticised the Academy’s decision to honour Krishna.
Soon the liberals and Dravidian leaders came in Krishna’s defence. Chief minister M.K. Stalin, Lok Sabha member Kanimozhi and Dravida Kazhagam leader Ki Veeramani praised Krishna for his contributions. Academy’s president N. Murali replied to Ranjani and Gayatri, saying their stance was “unbecoming of artistes and in poor taste”.
It is not Krishna’s music, but his politics that triggered the controversy. He is known to be a ‘communist’ and a sympathiser of Periyar E.V. Ramasamy. Many in the Carnatic music fraternity were upset when he came out with a composition on Periyar. In 2018, when a statue of Lenin was brought down in Tripura after the BJP’s victory in the assembly elections, author Perumal Murugan wrote a poem on how statues were the symbols of different thinking. Krishna composed it in the Kalyani raga and Adhi talam. In 2023, Krishna sang another song penned by Perumal Murugan―‘Sindikka Chonnavar Periyar’ or Periyar asked us to think―and released it on the occasion of the centenary of the Vaikom Satyagraha.
Krishna was once a darling of Chennai’s Carnatic music aficionados. A disciple of Semmangudi Srinivasa Iyer, he was a regular at the sabhas in Mylapore. Though a conservative in the beginning, he soon started thinking about democratising Brahmin-dominated Carnatic music. And he started talking about it. That was when the friction began.
“Krishna’s intent is noble and needed. But sadly, in the process of trying to bring about change, he became aggressive, arrogant and egoistic, and he assumed a moral superiority over his peers without engaging with them in a constructive way to effectively bring the cause to fruition,” said Surya H.K., who is the great-grandson of the legendary Carnatic vocalist M.S. Subbulakshmi.
Krishna’s comments that Subbulakshmi distanced herself from the devadasi culture to gain wider acceptance had triggered a controversy, and he was called “anti-national” and was not allowed to perform at the Dance and Music festival organised by the Airports Authority of India and the cultural body, SPIC-MACAY. “The only concern I have about Krishna’s statements about Subbulakshmi is that he makes it seem like it was a personal tragedy and claimed that her music became melancholic,” said Surya. “Since he is trying to be an activist, he should have been more nuanced and considered the larger context of the time. Subbulakshmi found her own ways of breaking the glass ceiling and navigating caste hierarchies and patriarchy. So a personal analysis of her life as being tragic is not true and there is no real evidence of this. Whether it is T.M. Krishna or Ranjani-Gayatri, they should fight their own battles and not needlessly drag Subbulakshmi’s name into every controversy.”
A popular vocalist, Krishna’s concerts are always well-attended. And his worship of the art is absolute irrespective of the stage―be it a temple in Kerala or a concert in Mylapore or a stage in New York, he can traverse through the ragas and the talas with ease. His most popular book, Sebastian and Sons: A Brief History of Mrdangam Makers, talks about the caste divide in the world of music.
In 2015, Krishna and his activist friend Nithyanand Jayaraman started Urur Olcott Kuppam Vizha, a counter to the popular Margazhi music season in Chennai. It happens at a fishermen hamlet near Besant Nagar in south Chennai. The boys and girls in the hamlet now have an in-depth knowledge of music and dance.
In 2017, when his Carnatic composition on Jesus triggered a backlash, Krishna announced that he would release one Carnatic song on Jesus and Allah every month. Another big controversy was him questioning some of the compositions of Tyagaraja Bhagavathar, the 18th century musician who is among the trinity of Carnatic music along with Muthuswami Dikshitar and Syama Shastri. “They reeked of caste and gender discrimination,” he said. It left many in his music fraternity upset.
And then came the environmental song ‘I am Poramboke’ for the Save Earth, Save Wetlands and Save Ennore campaign. The song spoke about the evils of urbanisation and the need for protecting natural resources, but its lyrics had the caste and class subtext laced in it, which triggered a huge controversy.
Interestingly, the Academy has always been the preserve of conservatism. A large majority of its patrons belong to the upper castes. In fact, Ranjani-Gayatri replied to Murali’s criticism suggesting that he and other Brahmins in the Academy’s executive committee should resign and make way for non-Brahmins. When asked about Ranjani-Gayatri’s statement, Murali told THE WEEK: “I have said whatever I want to say in our first letter. I don’t want to comment further and give them undue publicity.”
While Krishna’s fight is against the poor practices in Carnatic music, much more is at stake. “We believe that Carnatic music has been and will be a unifying factor,” said the Trichur Brothers. “We have valid reasons to believe that Krishna is only being divisive with his narrative, and is unnecessarily making the issue political. Leave music out of it.”