T.M. Krishna stir: The world of Carnatic music needs to open up further

Krishna has been known as a disruptor for nearly a decade now, and this time, his decision to accept an award from the Madras Music Academy has both his supporters and detractors in a huff. While this debate animates a minuscule section of society, the Carnatic music ecosystem of Chennai could serve as an example to explain why inclusion is petrifying to some: Lead performers, concert organizers and even critics and arts writers come largely from the same caste, their centuries of social capital working to keep them in that position, even allowing them to keep others out. Until about a decade ago, journalists with the “wrong surname" who were covering the arts beat in Chennai were at times stonewalled by gatekeepers of the insular world of Carnatic music. Krishna has written and spoken about some of this injustice, looking within to question an unfair social ecosystem that sustains Carnatic music, the role of creativity in such a structured form of classical art, the role of the arts in democracy, and more. This entire storm over Krishna, the Music Academy and purported protectors of tradition, therefore, remains an esoteric argument among privileged upper-caste performers and connoisseurs about who should be “allowed" to play in “their" performance spaces.