Has The Family Of MS Subbulakshmi Been Disrespected And Snubbed?

Two days after her twentieth death anniversary (December 11), Bharat Ratna MS Subbulakshmi may be feeling a little jolted up there. Or at least some of the late singer's family members down here will think feeling shortchanged. 

For, a division of the Madras High Court set aside the earlier single judge order stopping the Music Academy and The Hindu from making a cash presentation under the title ‘Sangita Kalanidhi M.S. Subbulakshmi Award’ to singer T M Krishna. (The cash award has been doled out since 2005 alongside the Academy's annual Sangita Kalanidhi award). The High Court decision was handed out in an appeal filed by The Hindu.

In the immediate aftermath of the order passed by the second Division Bench of Madras High Court, the grandson of the MS Subbulakshmi, V Shrinivasan, who has been fighting the case on behalf of her family, knocked at the doors of the Supreme Court to get the order stayed as the Music Academy's kicks off its season with the award ceremony on Sunday. 

If the appeal is taken up for hearing only on Monday, it would be infructuous, said Additional Solicitor General N Venkataraman, who is appearing for Shrinivasan. He mentioned this orally in a submission to a Bench comprising CJI Sanjiv Khanna and Justice Sanjay Kumar. However, the CJI did not allow the request for an urgent hearing, and he said the award could be taken back if the Court ultimately finds any merit in the appeal.

In this context, it is pertinent to point out that the injunction against presenting the award in MS’ name was on both The Hindu and The Music Academy. But the appeal was preferred by only the news publication and not the Academy. So, technically, the injunction against The Academy, under whose aegis the whole award function happens, still holds as it has not gone on appeal. So how the courts view this legality remains to be seen.     

Less legal, more emotional 

So, the issue is now caught in a legal web. But, in a sense, the case is less about legal issues but more about the emotions and sentiments of the family of India's most well-known Carnatic classical and devotional singer. If it feels slighted by the turn of events, well, we can't blame them.

The facts of the issue are simple and straightforward. The Madras Academy announced in March that it was bestowing its Sangita Kalanidhi award on TM Krishna, and it immediately triggered an avalanche of reactions, most of which were antagonistic to him. A section of the Carnatic music community felt the award to TMK,  who has some controversial takes on the ecosystem, was wrong or misplaced. A few of them led by the top singers of the day, Ranjani and Gayathri, also announced that they would be boycotting this year's Academy season in protest.

But truth be told, the Academy is a private body and its team can choose for its honour whoever it deems right. Despite the uproar in Carnatic music circles, the real bone of contention is not the Sangita Kalanidhi award itself but the 'mirror award' that is tagged with it: The 'Sangita Kalanidhi MS Subbulakshmi award'.

This cash award instituted in her memory is what has become problematic in the context. The grandson of Sadasivam-MS Subbulakshmi couple and the son of Radha Vishwanathan (who accompanied MS on stage and everywhere like her shadow for close to 50 years) felt that the 'mirror award' in MS' name to Krishna was not right.

The family of India's iconic singer harbours the feeling that Krishna had consistently besmirched her through his writings and speeches. Well, there can be opinions on Krishna's opinions. Whether what he put down in words and speeches were really disrespectful to MS, whose devotional renderings are anthems to millions of Hindu households in India, is a matter that can never be resolved. 

But it is well known that Radha Vishwanathan herself was said to be 'deeply hurt' by what Krishna had written in one particular piece in which he had started off with a quote that he attributed to an anonymous musician saying that MS was the greatest hoax of the twentieth century. That the quiet and unassuming Radha chose to refrain responding in public can be put down to her innate goodness.

Intellectually dubious

That Krishna piece, even if it was an intellectual inquest into the times and mores of Carnatic music world gone by and MS' family (particularly her guiding hand, her husband Sadasivam) lacked the one good quality of acceptable art: empathy.

We need not debate whether there was indeed a musician who held that view that she was a hoax or whether this was imagined by Krishna. But the fact that he began his laboured article with that quote clearly suggests that his idea was to indulge in what we can term as ‘intellectual titillation’. An easy shot at sensationalism, if you will. Of course, it can be a view of someone, but how you present it conveys the true intention. On that score, it cannot be gainsaid Krishna’s motives were not beyond reproach. Again, this is just an opinion.

The real nub is, however, in the fact that the family of the late singer felt that an award in her name being bestowed on the person who (in their view) had been less than charitable to her would not be appropriate. That is the sum and substance of Shrinivasan's case.

Remember, he had not pleaded in the court against the Sangita Kalanidhi to the singer-cum-activist. MS' grandson had merely sought stopping the mirror award to be given in her name. He just wanted MS' name NOT to be part of an honour given to Krishna.

As we said, forget the legalese, this was a straightforward equation. Both the Music Academy and The Hindu, which claim to respect MS, could have done the gracious and obvious thing. They could have just removed her name from the award in deference to their sentiments (which had real reasons to be what they were). Instead, both the organisations chose to be petty and even questioned insidiously whether Shrinivasan was indeed the grandson of the late singer (it was a cheap shot at the fact that MS never had biological children of her own). It was hugely disrespectful to the family of a Bharat Ratna. 

TMK’s somersault

It is anybody's guess as to what will happen at the Supreme Court. But since the matter is sub-judice it is only in the fitness of things that they eschew from going ahead with the award in her name. Of course, nobody can stop them from conferring the standalone Sangita Kalanidhi award. 

But what of Krishna himself?

A man who has placed himself as being compassionate and mindful of others’ feelings, should he not recuse himself, as it were, from taking that award in MS' name? It will be an act of grace and magnanimity.

But him accepting the Sangita Kalanidhi in the first place can be argued to be a hypocritical act itself. For, his political position in music has been built around the opposition to the culture and ethos that an institution like the  Music Academy engenders. The sabha system, as it is called, grated him no end that he has boycotted the Academy for some years now. So, for him to slickly somersault and accept its honour is, to quote in words the disdain of a sharp-tongued aspiring but anonymous singer: 'biggest hoax of the twenty-first century'.