Why we aren’t returning MS’s Sangita Kalanidhi title

In view of the controversy that has engulfed the world of Karnatik music, I wish to express my views on some important points, not least because I am the grandson of Bharat Ratna M S Subbulakshmi and the son of Radha Viswanathan.

The current building of The Music Academy, Chennai, was constructed primarily with funds generated by the many benefit concerts presented by my grandmother in the 1950s. 

On October 9, 1955, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru laid the foundation stone for it, and attended the first ever concert there by MS and my mother Radha (Sadasivam). 

In his concluding remarks, Panditji made his famous speech: “Who am I, a mere prime minister, before the queen of music?” MS soon became the first woman to be awarded the title of Sangita Kalanidhi.

In protest against T M Krishna being nominated for the same title, Ranjani and Gayatri have withdrawn from this year’s music conference hosted by the academy in December. They have said one of the reasons for their non-participation is the “insult of icons” like Thyagaraja and MS by Krishna. 

I fully endorse the decision of the sisters, and also of other musicians such as Dushyanth Sridhar, Vishaka Hari, Trichur Brothers and Arjun Kumar, who have also expressed their desire to refrain from performing at the academy this year. 

Krishna had boycotted the academy and other sabhas in Chennai since 2015, saying the world of Karnatik music is “socially stifling and narrow with all of us unable to see that this art must be made accessible to the larger society and welcoming of it”. It is truly mind boggling what drove such a protocol-driven institution as The Music Academy to waive the rules for a person who had refused to perform for it for almost a decade!

I would also like to mention that some of the views expressed by Krishna on my late grandmother over the years have been downright disgraceful. To posthumously attack a musician who is in no position to defend herself reeks of arrogance.  He wrote many provocative articles which not only hurt the feelings of millions of MS fans but also my late mother Radha Viswanathan, who shared the concert stage with MS for almost five decades. 

Writing in Caravan magazine in 2015 , in an attempt to shock readers, Krishna begins by quoting an unnamed “young musician” who purportedly said, “MS Subbulakshmi is the greatest hoax of the twentieth century.” 

In the same article, he wrote: “It is said that a leading musician from Madurai, a member of the Isai Vellalar community, once remarked that MS used to sing beautifully until she came under the tutelage of two Iyers.” (He is subtly belittling both Musiri and Semmangudi from whom my grandmother and mother learnt innumerable masterpieces.)

Why does Krishna fire from someone’s shoulders and make near blasphemous remarks especially when these views were far from the truth and possibly represented the views of the fringe and not the mainstream?

Krishna also writes in the same article that the release in1963 of Subbulakshmi’s Venkateshwara Suprabhatham was a “popular coup but it was musical free fall as far as the serious listener was concerned”. It is inexplicable how the Suprabhatham, which will be remembered for centuries, can be dismissed as a musical free fall. 

Sometime in Nov 2017, addressing an audience in Hyderabad, Krishna said: “If MS’s voice came from a dark, non-upper-caste lady, would all of us celebrate her like we do today?” 

How could he make such statements about a person regarded as one of the greatest icons in music? 

I read out some of these articles to my mother Radha who was bound to a wheelchair and subsequently confined to bed. She would be utterly dismayed at the disrespect in the essays. But she would advise me not to respond and dignify his statements. The two of us were overwhelmed that thousands of people (both musicians and rasikas) rose to the defence of MS in the mainstream media and on social media, for which I remain eternally grateful.

Some well-wishers recommended legal recourse but on second thoughts we decided against it as the judicial process would not only consume time but also provide the oxygen of negative publicity for Krishna. My mother would say, “The Paramacharya of Kanchi has said Amma’s name will endure as long as the sun and the moon. However much Krishna tries to besmirch her pure name, he will not succeed.”

The Sangita Kalanidhi title was among the awards MS cherished the most. We are being asked whether the family intends to return the title. It was awarded almost six decades ago and no one in the family intends to go back in time, and we have no right to do so either. 

However, we respect the decision of Chitravina N Ravikiran and the family of mridangam legend Palghat Mani Iyer to return their Sangita Kalanidhi titles. 

(The author is the managing trustee, Suswaralakshmi Foundation for Classical Music and Performing Arts, Bengaluru)