Malavika Avinash
The Government of India sets up a mission for Advisory Body for Intangible Cultural Heritage to safeguard the Intangible Cultural Heritage of our country and to send nomination Dossiers for UNESCO recognition. However, recently some offensive and some defensive articles came to the fore in the media on the celebratory occasion of Chennai city being nominated as Unesco’s Creative City of Music 2017.
Following the 2015 nomination of Varanasi as a Creative City of music, it certainly was a moment of pride and acknowledgement that we now have two cities as part of the Creative City network.
The Prime Minister, like on previous times, tweeted the announcement of the Chennai nomination and a member of the Advisory Body for Intangible Cultural Heritage, the very body that sent the dossier for the nomination wrote a lengthy piece in a newspaper deriding the city and its musical infrastructure and stated that there is no need to
celebrate this nomination!
Obviously, the musicians and stakeholders reacted and how? A barrage of articles appeared in the media. Some apologetic, some sarcastic, some celebratory!
Jarring Dissent
Acceptance with much reluctance and what’s worse, (patronising) repudiation too displayed when the Prime Minister proudly tweeted a few days ago, that Chennai has been included in the Creative Cities Network of the UNESCO, for its rich musical tradition. A consolatory, “Makes no difference but Accept it with grace” said one, With a twitch in his left eye, “No reason for celebration” said another and these are all “acclaimed” scholars, historians and critics who would otherwise not be so proud of such an honour for their Chennaipattinam. A handful, of the artists who are in effect striving through practice/performance to keep the tradition of the ancient Indian classical arts in the city applauded and rejoiced. How unfortunate that political preferences have crept into not just the arts…Manufactured dissent staged as the Intolerance drama had even musicians busy taking bizarre
positions on how Bhakti would imply Right of centre, while grammar would make their music Left inclined. So much so that a member of the Advisory Body proclaims that Chennai is probably unfit for the recognition or not yet ready to receive such a recognition!!
Even a UNESCO recognition is viewed with cynical scepticism simply because Narendra Modi has announced it.
Background Efforts
“A letter from whose table in Chennai to the Honourable Minister for Culture could initiate the process of nominating the City for Music, to be among the UNESCO creative cities network, do you think?”, Usha RK called to ask in October 2015. She was just then basking in the glory of the PM tweeting about Varanasi’s inclusion in the UNESCO’s creative cities Network, having prepared the dossier for Varanasi soon after taking over as the Member Secretary to the Advisory Body for Intangible Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture, GOI. Gangai Amaren, (President of the Sanskar Bharti, TN), the cultural wing of the RSS), in his letter dated 24/03/2016 to the MOC, elaborating the greatness of Chennai’s musical heritage and tradition that set the ball rolling.
Usha along with Kavitha Ramu, acclaimed dancer and an officer in the Govt of Tamil Nadu, Chitra Vishweshwaran, a legend in her own right and Member Secretary of the Tamil Nadu were among the first to come on board to further the cause.
Letters back and forth from several important officials, including the Principal Secretary of the Govt of TN to the MOC, Union of India led to the formation of the advisory panel for endorsing the cause in November 2016. It included names like N.Murali, Nandini Ramani, Chitra Visweshwaran, Charumati Ramachandran, Anita Ratnam, Sudha Raghunathan, Anil Srinivasan, G Ravikiran, Kavita Ramu and Sri Prabhu.
What is unfortunate though is that the woman who initiated it all, burnt midnight oil over the dossier didn’t stay on as Member Secretary for Intangible Cultural Heritage, Government of India to celebrate the UNESCO recognition conferred upon a city.
“Our Culture”, itself has become an unpalatable word for someone who scribbles a multitude of expressions and tosses the entire oxford dictionary’s at you, much like the Farrago man, to scorn, express his anguish and disappointment over the UNESCO recognition.
Cradle of Culture
That Chennai has been a cradle for the Arts since Vedic times, patronised for centuries by the rulers thereafter and the evolution of the city as a nerve centre for dissemination, practice, performance Post-Independence
owing to its geographical and commercial positioning as a
metropolis is all part of the dossier that UNESCO had received. Music and the allied arts to them have been presented as a “Way of Life” in Chennai where every grand temple and great dynasty nurtured musicians, dancers and their arts as divine. Such was the multi-dimensional musical perspective that added every painstaking detail of all art forms, classical and folk, sculpture and painting, including the emergence of film-music as a genre in itself, all of which the city has inspired and incubated that has resulted in this recognition as a Creative City. Incidentally, Gangai Amaran’s cherished dream is to nurture a whole village in Tamil Nadu as an incubator for folk arts.
The city prides itself on being the home of Ilayaraja, AR Rahman, Carnatic Doyens, Folk practitioners, instrumentalists, Sabha’s and Institutes, formal and informal methods of learning and training, stores for musical instruments and Bookstores and library, allied businesses that support the economy of music etc.
It’s deeply saddening that instead of what should have been a cause for joyous celebration coupled with the unconditional embracing of the recognition, has become a bane of lament. Has there been a cliched mother-in-law like nitpicking simply because the honour has been bestowed in the “Intolerant” Modi regime? Would there have
been luncheon of the Chennai’s ‘Custodians’ of the Dance and Music along with their friends from Lutyens Delhi to gloat over Its newfound status, had the same been received during the UPA regime?
(The writer is a Karnataka-based Artist and a Board Member, Kalakshetra)
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