Jnanpith Award winning Kannada playwright and actor Girish Karnad in The Pioneer, Delhi:
“Music is germane to Indian life. Through Bhakti tradition from the 6th century till the 19th, singing was believed to take you to god, even without classical training. It went to the heart of Indian families. The sufi class also made music central to the Indian tradition personality.
“V.S. Naipaul who has written scathingly about Indian history, seems to have something to say about everything but nothing on music. So he must be tone deaf. This leads to him making a mess of the Muslim contribution as you read his diatribe. But he doesn’t understand music, so what can he speak? Poor fellow. Totally at a loss.”
Read the full article: ‘Naipaul, poor fellow, must be tone deaf’
After a long time Karnad – really committed explorer – starts some fireworks; much better than Kaveri court verdict he upheld and got house arrested or even the bar timings issue recently.
He says
1. The Russian ballerina, Anna Pavolva, for instance, danced as Radha to Uday Shankar’s Krishna in 1923. Madras Music Academy also got involved in saving, what till then was called sadar (the Persian word) or dasiattam (after devadasis).
By 1932, the new word Bharatanatyam was coined. “Indians like to say everything here is over 2,000 years old,” Karnad commented, “but Bharatanatyam is barely 72 years.” The use of the Sanskrit words in the name gave it gravitas!
By 1937, the first Indian government in Madras banned devdasis. Karnad added ironically that, “they did not ban prostitution.”
2. In 1922, if you remember your art history, Rabindranath Tagore had invited the Bahaus art and architectural school from Germany to introduce new concepts to Indian artists. Karnad felt this set back the country by a century
3. He reinstates the contribution of sufi music with parallel of bhakthi.
4. “British introduced tension in our arts. You can see which ones suffered and benefitted. ”
5. For westernization he comments on the onset of Technology hilariously and eloquently as
i . When it came we thought it would spread the word of the Bible and Christianity. Instead, it brought out the vernacular texts.
ii. With sound, Indian films began to sing and the Western ones talked.
iii. The colonial policy cut the city from villages.
and concludes with hope – “The new hope is that the computers will bridge the gap, especially since it is now available for the vernacular languages.”
With this he has started to break the class Tamil has created for itself in India writing some malicious stories for whole of India and Bengal following it. Hope he carries on and breaks all the shackles we are tied to.
Along with SL Bhyrappa’s recent works Kannadigas are really speaking like they should. Kudos and even I hope -present generation will take forward your hope from hands of Seregaras.
Wow! This is a wonderfully insightful observation.
How could a man whose ears are presumably accustomed to Calypso be sensitive to melodious Indian music?
If an auteur like Mr. Karnad can announce that he repents for having adapted Dr. S. L. Bhyrappa’s works into movies, then his opinion about a litterateur who seems to have rediscovered the faith and the land of his forefathers, will have the same credibility.
I wouldn’t say Bharatanatyam is only 72 years old. Dance has always figured in the mythology and ancient texts, there were court dancers in most royal dynasties, and is known to have been a gift of Shiva himself. Perhaps calling it “Bharatanatyam” is 72 years old. And Rukmini DEvi did not “ban” devadasis, although she did sanitise it. Thanks to her, Bharatanatyam became acceptable and even fashionable among the Brahmins, who appropriated it from the Devadasis, leaving them destitute. Rukmini Devi’s guru was Gowri Amma a Devadasi attached to KApaleeswarar temple of Mylapore, Chennai. In fact Rukmini Devi fought a futile battle with the authorities after the Anti-Nautch Bill was passed, to ensure Gowri Amma was not left destitute.
When Gowri Amma was forced to vacate her quarters at the temple, she chose to live in a place close to the temple, and Shah Jahan like spent her days gazing at the beloved Kapaleeswara temple gopuram from her window.
In a parallel story, M.S.Subbulakshmi, who belong to the Devadasi community, got “Iyerised” and became a Brahmin icon with her divine music. Until them the handful of women CArnantic singers were having a tough time in the largely male bastion
All of this is beautifully described by TJS George in his book on MS.
Girish Karnad should re-read Naipaul’s Mong the Believers and Beyond Belief. VSN identified the streak of fundamentalism about 20 years before the world knew it as a problem.
GK deserves an ‘Agnani Peta’ to with his ‘Gnana Peeta’. The dude is a complete idiot. IMHO I am happy to note that VS Naipaul may be tone-deaf but he is certainly not blind as over own ‘Stevie Secular Wonder’ GK. As Kaangeya observed VS Naipaul has gone to great lengths in recording for posterity the various achievements of the ‘believers’ in all fields leading to much murder and mayhem today all over the World.
DB,
>>As Kaangeya observed VS Naipaul has gone to great lengths in recording for posterity the various achievements of the ‘believers’ in all fields leading to much murder and mayhem today all over the World.>>
This is the very fact that infuriates the likes of Girish Karnad and Gouri Lankesh :)
Namma nudina “vernacular” antha yaake kareyodu? I know Karnad was born while we were still under British rule.