He who steals must steal no longer…

Carnatic music is one among the greatest treasures of South India and which is being performed since several millennia.  Carnatic classical music originated from the Sama Veda. Historically, this form of music is known to be the among the easiest way of connecting with the Divine, owing to the fact that Bhakti is known to be its driving force.

To this day, several enlightened masters who contributed the most to Carnatic music are remembered, respected, quoted by all Carnatic musicians and musicologists alike.  Among the stalwarts, were the Trinity of Carnatic music, consisting of shri.Thyagaraja Swamigal, shri.Shyama Shastri and shri.Muthuswami Dikshithar.

Now, I want to bring to your attention something horrific that has been happening in the world of Carnatic music, the last few months. For those of you who don’t already know, a few Carnatic musicians have been misappropriating  Kritis and other works associated with pure form of Carnatic music, plagiarising and presenting them in praise of other religions.  It is obvious that they are doing this to showcase themselves as being “secular” and have taken it upon themselves to ‘bridge the gap’ between religions.  Now, you might wonder, what’s wrong with this ? What’s the worst that could happen if a few words are edited, here and there ?

Well, lets be very clear in the fact that there is a VAST difference between appropriation and appreciation. Carnatic music in its original form is meant for the entire world to enjoy and this is irrespective of peoples’ race, religions, caste and creed. It’s meant to be shared with the whole world, for the whole world to experience the ecstasy of Bhakthi.  However, misappropriating the lyrics from Krishna to Jesus is unacceptable and such acts of plagiarism hurts the sentiments of thousands of Hindus world over. Such an act is as good as one Nation stealing the National Anthem of another Nation !

Currently, Carnatic music has become the newest platform for the intellectual recolonisation of India and is leading towards degeneration of Hindu culture in particular.  Hence we need to WAKE UP before it is too late.  At this rate, in about 100 years, future generations of Hindus will be made to believe that these Kritis and Compositions are based on the bible !

https://thewire.in/communalism/in-tamil-nadu-non-hindu-carnatic-musicians-are-being-othered

I urge you to read the above link, where a presstitute, Krupa GE, makes atrocious statements about how Cristian Carnatic music is already an ‘established genre’ of music. As an aspiring Carnatic musician, it boils my blood to see how Carnatic music is being ruthlessly plagiarised and then flippantly justified, without any respect or credit being given to the creators of this divine form of music.

As sacred sentiments were hurt, Carnatic musicians who had taken part in this horrendous activity received back lash to which T.M Krishna (a musician) called it ‘communalism’

As a practicing Hindu, I wanted to point out that in NO way do we cherish hatred towards any other religious group or anyone . After all, Hinduism states ‘ Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavanthu’ , which is a blessing for the entire world, saying ‘let the whole world be happy as everyone is an extension of me.’

So in essence, please don’t strip any Hindu practice of its originality, irrespective of whether it’s Carnatic music or even Yoga.  Learn and practise these in its original form only.