Magsaysay award winning Carnatic musician TM Krishna is now facing opposition, allegedly from Hindu groups, for an event scheduled to be held in Mysuru next week.
Krishna is set to play at an event and conduct a workshop titled ‘Rare Kritis of Sri Muthuswamy Dixitar’ on November 22 and 23 at Gana Bharathi in Mysuru’s Kuvempunagar area. The oganisers has received threats and messages claiming that hosting Krishna would denigrate Hindu dharma.
The singer is known for his secular views and his concerts have been running into trouble with right wing communal forces ever since he began including non-Hindu religious songs in his Carnatic repertoire. Nagoor Hanifa’s 'Allavai Naam Tozhudal', a one-line prayer in Hebrew, and Perumal Murugan’s lines set to tune are some of his concert regulars.
“We received a few phone calls asking why we are bringing TM Krishna for an event when he is against Hindu religion. We responded to them saying that he is an artist and we are celebrating the art form more than anything else. We have asked them to bring documents and prove why we should not conduct the programme,” said CR Himanshu, one of the organisers of the event.
The organisers say they are determined to go ahead with the event in spite of the threats. “We do not have to comply with everyone’s wishes and if people have an issue, they can choose not to attend the event,” Himanshu added.
This is not the only concert by TM Krishna that has faced threats from Hindu groups. On Tuesday evening, the singer’s concert at the country’s capital on November 17, organised by the Airports Authority of India (AAI) in collaboration with SPIC MACAY, was cancelled all of a sudden. This action was allegedly sparked off by a volley of hate messages from the Hindu right wing, asking AAI to cancel the concert.
In August this year, a temple in Maryland had called off his concert scheduled to take place in September, following which a group of music enthusiasts helped organise his concert on that same date in Georgetown University, Washington.