Speech delivered by T.M Krishna in 'Manushyasangamam', Thrissur

Manushyasangamam, a mass initiative against fascism held at Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala on March 26 & 27 in 2016 was an attempt to evolve new ways of encountering and resisting all kinds of fascism. It was organized by a common platform shared by individuals, groups and organizations upholding the principles of democracy and secularism.

[@MarjorieBakre]

Krishna is gifted with a high classical musical sense and has been fortunate to develop it under masters of Carnatic music especially the maestro and doyen of the Carnatic system, 'Semmangudi'. He has many more years ahead for serving all with an inborn aptitude for listening to it (and learning it), and it will be a great service indeed since it is rooted in the best of spirituality which is the essence of true religiosity. That this system does not attract large audiences is due to this same spirituality since spiritual evolution of people is low in the majority and is unequal among them. Only by practising spiritually balanced life based on love of all mankind and ecology can a person accelerate his or her progress on the spiritual ladder. In this a person can use music that does not just tickle but help the listener and singer/performer get glimpses of the divine. Non-divisive measures have always been welcome, as are well as genuine innovations that do not throttle the existing foundations. The great flute genius experimented with innovations and he could attract larger audiences by coming up with the true classical basis of folk music items such as "themmaangu". he even enthralled his audiences with playing Western classical tunes with a mysterious flavour of the raaga. That said, there are any number of demogogues, orators, and speakers on any subject given them, and many of them having taken to oratory using their gift of soeech, may change coats between politics, social activism, and whatnot -- for a living. Krishna's gift is in Carnatic music and let genuine social reformers attend to the task of 'reforming' society wherever holes are tgere to fill. What Krishna says about casteism as an influential factor in Carnatic music is all absurd and exhibits his confusion and a lack of logic. Numerous greats, overpowering divisive labels, have been, and are, attracted to Classical arts -- as practitioners or audience - like ants to honey, and it is the duty of enlightened leadership in society, media, and government to promote and patronise Classical music/arts without fouling up the efforts with irrelevant diversions based on fallacious thinking. Right now such leadership is largely wanting in harnessing their inborne talents to the spiritual evolution of society without which there can be no happiness with peace and prosperity. This is because of its preponderant pursuit of sectional and selfish pecuniary interests.

[@legendrams548]

+Majorie Bakre. Spirituality does not thrive because of arts form. Infact Carnatic music survives by painting itself with the brush called divinity. Even if divinity be the core essence of it, it forfeits the fact that that knowledge be shared with all classesof people. Though the legendary Shri Thyagaraja openly sang to the public without restrictions for classes, over the centuries Carnatic music has been restricted and passed over by/to a certain class of people alone with rare exceptions. And if divinity be its bloodline, how many Carnatic musicians have become Self realized spiritual Gurus in the past few decades? Carnatic music will become truely divine if and only if the differences are thrown away and musicians learn to touch the souls of any class of audience. Carnatic musicians don't mingle with other groups of people, why? Established musicians' children shine in Carnatic music, why? Aren't there no other talented singer? Or is the art's tradition and intricacies strictly transmitted to the families alone? There are assumed restrictions or selfish interests that are followed for centuries which one cannot recognize unless one comes out of the circle to realize that they were caught up inside a circle. Changes are inevitable, hence some justified alterations like taking arts to many people and beyond that circle is necessary!

[@parvatham6608]

P

[@ebenezervictor5449]

You’re excellent man. Beautiful voice and practical. J. Ebenezer Victor.

[@shrinivasprabhakaran]

Very well said , one of the big reason such ancient music form are still commercially a negligible portion of global music pie

[@subramaniansenthilarumuham5308]

Asatharada mappla! Parkka parkka acharyamaa irukku! Pure at heart!So very courageous & revolutionary to create a Renaissance like the bharathi,ramanujar& other great eminerants who strived in the past for the same cause!

[@legendrams548]

Truthful, best and intellectual speech ever! Vaazhga TMK!

[@hariharanramanath8249]

This debate is like that between Communist and Capitalist ideologies. Communism has failed world over, because capitalism is natural and communism is imposed. Man is a social animal and works in groups. So there are groups everywhere, world over. This is natural. When you say groups should talk to each other, and and should be brought together under some umbrella, is that not a facet of fascism, which you now seem to oppose. Why be such a hypocrite?

[@arjuncalidas2736]

Actually, they should be brought together not by the bullet, but by talking and conversation.. That is how social changes have happened the world over all through the ages.. This is the direct opposite of fascism.. Glad to see that you have a good grasp of the concept....

[@Vinu23280]

Carnatic music is full of praise for Hindu gods and gurus. So are Christians and Muslims okay with sharing or enjoying the krithis? How did you implement your vision as 7 years have passed since this speech.

[@jayasreeshanker]

Multi Faced n Multi Talented Multi Humanity Humane.....indeed..SPADE IS A SPADE.

[@periyathambisampath]

he speaks truth, what Rohit understand about this man.

[@pankajaraosurabhi6524]

simply rocking... very inspiring talk...

[@vishnumurthy2081]

Dear mr.krishna i started to hear your speech with an open mind until you said rama or wall i dont care !! Ra, ma is only sounds for you. I pray for your listeners who were thinking that you were singing in bhakthi but now got to know that u were only imitating the musical sounds. God bless you. Anyways ,lotus blooms among the dirt n reaches the lotus feet of the god. No matter whoever try to blemish the art or its form it carries on....your speech is like someone having sumptuous ghee panchabhakshya paramaanna upto the throat but blaming the host for not keeping hot water to wash the dirty hands.

[@narayanamoorthynarayana8278]

My sympathies to him.

[@NishanthSalahudeen]

12:00 is very courageous statement from a person of his stature. He has too much to lose by irritating the view points of his limited and close knit audience.

[@thangaia9523]

the introduction of tamil nadu and keral is totally true. love from tamil nadu

[@sureshkumarm1153]

Culture ❤ there is no nationality,,,, nailed it sir

[@athreyavasanth2929]

There was hardly any tamil in the speech....

[@kperiyasamy8780]

Ur speech about tamilnadu is true

[@sureshkumarm1153]

Thanks sir T M Krishna on 🔥❤

[@sridharvaidyanathan594]

How can devotional song be sung without bhakti. Even if it is sung, then what is the fruit of singing it. . Saint thyagaraja composed many songs on Lord Rama. . So if one sings a song based on composition of Saint Thyagaraja praising Lord, how can he say that he don't care whether Lord Rama exist or not? .Or else one should not sing from such divine composition and should compose and write song himself to project his ideas. .

[@rakholify]

Music is Bhakti if you have Bhakti, if you don't have Bhakti, it is not Bhakti. You can keep your personal faith to yourself. Do not ruin Bhakti in Music for others who actually reach out to God through Carnatic music

[@pravachanas]

The very purpose of carnatic music raagas identifiers, were for bhakti but people like TM Krishna are nicely misusing them

[@VishalVNavekar]

I really don't understand what is 'brahminical'in Bhakti?!

[@ktsatyajit]

The specific ritualist form

[@raghunathmr1]

I shall not talk about the main thrust of the talk; the cultural classes and discrimination in art, taking art to people etc that he is so passionate about. I have just one bone of contention with him and his art. Music for me is an act of worship, which for him he admits, is just art and the little illustration which he makes in the speech is without any emotional content, i.e., Bhakti, he would have us believe. Maybe he can. But even to me, a completely unlettered person in music, music can and does bring me closer to God. And this happens with 'classical music', be it carnaic or hindustani. It does not happen if I listen to "mere sapon ke raani, kab aayegi tu'; a great piece of music, but miles away from evoking worshipful feelings. But the raaga underneath the 'mere sapon ke' , Can.

[@osnmurty6317]

Criticizing Tyagaraja and ancient musicians is a sin

[@bharanidharanswaminathan6915]

Firstly as a evolved carnatic singer, he should have courtesy to not underrate others in public speech (and he is not politician by the way) even though he may not mean it. == He may have connection to God in his own way but he should not undermine others saying they worship thro pictures.This is silly. the word Rama which was there from Ram yuga and we all worship and in fact great Composer Thiagarajar imagined and realised Rama and wrote many beautiful krithis. Without he realising, that if word "Rama" is not there and ragam , he would not be able to connect to different plane in the music with his devotion. In fact here he is using Bakthi Yoga thro music to connect to divinity. == He is driving the point that an art is nowadays with select group of people and ofcourse he has right to take it all cross sections of society. But what "classical" means is an evolved art and what "aesthetic" means his own particular style. he should not get confused here. == In one place he mentioned about Sri Sri Ravishankar World culture Festival. He should first understand that Sri Sri has been the messenger of peace throughout the world. and with his right influence he brought all religious across the world in one platform to see different culture(different art forms) in India and all other countries also participated with equal fervour. And by the way the World culture festival was not for the upper sections of society alone and everyone participated

[@srivatsatj7238]

carnatic music has never said that the singer will give the glimpses of god. just bigger you are a 'big' musician, don't think we will believe whatever you say. Carnatic music is never rigid. you are allowed to sing freely whatever you want. dont try to put down such a great art. you have earned some good name bcoz of carnatic music. carnatic music never mentions anywhere about being hierarchical and being on top. you hardly give any evidence. rama nannu brovara and kamakshi you can still sing well though see rama or kamakshi. and thats what shows carnatic music never sells bhakti. the composer who ever composed the kritis never composed to divide people. they just chose to worship god through music. they never said you have to sing only that kritis. it is the people like you who is trying to give it a wrong perspective. there is a kriti called english note which is so much accepted among all carnatic music where no godly refrence is given. still it is so much loved by all carnatic music lovers and singers. you never speak about those kritis and the acceptance of those kritis. you are just being selective about what you want to speak and trying to destroy the glory of a beautiful music form. worst worst worst. never I will listen to you. i will say this till you read this comment and understand the mistake you are doing.

[@ravisarojgopal7995]

Excellent speech .Too many words are not necessary to praise TM Krishna.

[@barkrish]

If your music touches the soul of the listener then you are on the same wavelength.How can you know if your own music is so confused and incidental? If you want to bring reforms in music through socialism do not have double standard and try to earn by singing carnatic kriths

[@Saameeri]

Tyagarajanutudau Sri Ramuni Tatvamu teliyanidoka Padava (Biruda)???!!!

[@srividyapradeep6956]

I appreciate Mr.Krishna's views. I would like to ask him if he would be ready to send his children to a corporation school as he is talking so much about equality, abolishing the word classical. He sounds highly hypocritical. His views are mostly based on Jk's views.

[@siddhartha5186]

Why won't he... He will send his kids to best schools of London or Cambridge and will develop his kids who will go on to change the scope of education and knowledge transfer in this land (India)

[@PSAjithKumar]

Great speech 👍

[@vemmanr]

@13:30 onwards

[@NishanthSalahudeen]

9:40 referring to graded inequality... Typically comes up in class and caste. It's true that it occurs in art too.

[@gopal380]

Wonderful talk touches my heart ...drives the idea "Sabka Sath Sabka Vikas"

[@venkataramanvaidehi5181]

The more he talks the more I dislike him. The more he sings the more I like him. He is a gifted singer.

[@ktsatyajit]

You lost the point

[@vidyasraoraok7815]

True...he has a magical power in singing but total flop in speech..

[@VenugopalanKMcpiml]

Inspiring, intelligent speech!

[@rakholify]

That is the difference between Sri Tyagaraja and him. SriTyagaraja composed music due to devotion, with devotion, He became immortal. He is just singing mechanically. Devotion is an essential part of music. It gives the music it's soul. Without devotion it is just a string of swaras. Beautiful perhaps, but dead.

[@amulyayeduguri3309]

who are we to say his music is devoid devotion? Relation with god is entirely personal and should and cannot be judged. We should definitely be inspired by SriTyagaraja, but cannot dismiss every other person who is not.

[@rangarajan2676]

if all the "villains" dont support him, who is going to listen to him?

[@osnmurty6317]

He is thinking of himself as great which is not at all correct. Let him discontinue to sing Tyagaraja, and others kirtanas by singing only swaras with gimmicks.

[@AkhilaVenkat]

Only you look down upon others. Other artists don't. This is ceap politics

[@AkhilaVenkat]

And ofcourse classical has a meaning ...traditional. carnatic music is definitely classical. What is he trying to say..totally confused .

[@madhuritubahaar4thMarch1996]

12:08 👌👌👌👌

[@jithendtk9381]

then what is culture?

[@AkhilaVenkat]

No one other than your family looks down upon others. Other are most humble and do please don't generalise with ttk family

[@rpremkumar64]

GREAT SPEECH. SPELLBOUND.

[@osnmurty6317]

Criticising Tyagaraja and earning fame by singing Tyagaraja kirtanas. There are so many Musicians who helped poor people with charity like Mssubbulaxmi gaaru, so many Hindustaani musicians like karimkhan and others maintained gurukulams. In carnatic Music Parupalli Ramakrishnayya pantulu gaaru maintained gurukulam with his assistance. So criticizing everything is not appreciable, of course he is having high degree of knowledge.

[@kameshupadhyayula8131]

Tm krishna is great

[@HariMSC]

Looks like some missionaries paying TM Krishna to tear apart the cultures

[@rajsub3884]

he doesn't have to be paid he is already rich and he is not supporting any Christianity he trying to portray the negative aspect of carnatic music which is fo long is guided and dominated by upper caste hypocrisy . i don't know if your are aware of this in carnatic music if not learn about it what is culture any way is trying to be intolerant is your interpretation of culture

[@parmeshk1953]

Now do you know how he got Magaysay award . You talk anything against Indian culture / Hindu culture you get the award .. ha ha.. see one thing is there . He could. It become popular through music like grest Dr M S Subbulakshmi .!so he is trying these kind of gimmicks . God bless him

[@legendrams548]

+Hari he didn't mean to say anything against Hinduism or Carnatic music, he insists that humanity comes first before them for art forms and classes to come together. He infact says that even a person who doesn't follow religion are fascist in one way. Carnatic musicians don't mingle with other groups of people, why? Established musicians children shine in Carnatic music, why? Are there no other talented singers or is the art's tradition and intricacies strictly transmitted to the families alone? There are assumed restrictions that are followed for centuries which one cannot recognize unless one comes out of the circle to realize that they were caught inside a circle. Changes are inevitable, hence some justified alterations like taking arts to many people and beyond that circle is necessary!

[@giriraghu7]

What can we expect from a Comrade xD

[@brightstar6386]

Fine... Now let us hear from you... what is Indian Culture? It there any book that talks about Indian culture.. You feel proud for insulting someone who has open out loud as he is from carnatic industry and he knows all the politics behind it. Are you a carnatic musician?... have you gone through any of those situations Mr. Krishna has mentioned?... NO...without knowing anything and not achieving anything you are laughing at him as if you got some award. And do you know Dr M S Subbulakshmi was also from a devadasi community...Stop blabbering around and stop thinking yourself as a god and judging others... Atleast try to be a human..

[@AkhilaVenkat]

Everything only words. What have you done.have you at least brought 2 people from urur kuppam to play just tambura?? What kind of action is this. You are just a man of words my dear Krishna. Waiting to see some real.actiion. By the way, your existence too has no meaning.

[@lalitharavichandran4015]

How many students from slum you have trained? I want them to attend your concerts.

[@rakeshsarvabhotla4998]

People sitting there are very much different from the speaker. He want to integrate unlike others there, want to disintegrate.

[@chandrasekar890]

Enam inatoda tan serrum

[@barkrish]

Become a politican

[@keetchu]

Too much of foolish assumptions from an arrogant artiste ....he probably is afraid of being sidelined in concert platform hence is doing these gimmicks to create a separate platform for him self

[@raveemahadevan]

WAKE UP! SMELL SOME COFFEE

[@keetchu]

ravee mahadevan sure 😄with such a hate speech coffee is overheated and not good 😄

[@chandrasekar890]

Hi ninga entan puratchya pesunalum ...ungla avanga ethuka Katanga ..ipovena heroitica theryalam but ...muthugula kuthatan poranga

[@subrasubramanyam3459]

Nothing path breaking in the field you chose. Accept that and learn to be content.

[@AkhilaVenkat]

A big hypocrite. What is music without bhakthi

[@madhandevarajan3536]

Paithyakaran who is talented

[@rsraman3273]

Madhan Devarajan This itself is a Complement. ,he admits he is a crackpot. Hypocrisy Marries a girl from his own Brahmin community and all tall empty noise. A chameleon colour changing Hypocrites...perhaps this cranky so called Periarist( Periyar..Anna etc, never wanted Freedom from British..) all others have done reform...in day to day life even Kerala......he is to do in Classical Music field. The donkey which he is dreaming to fly is a myth. No body stops or can stop any one from learning anything in this world..the incapable takes shelter by quoting isms. His talk is a soothing for a set of people.,,who are yet to make sincere ..hardworking with intelligence. “” Destiny is in your hands....work hard with wit & wisdom...Swamy..VIVEKANANDA “”

[@sriramks9697]

A talented immature guy. And remember he is not the greatest.. Ms, bmk, etc used to sing excellently without stunts..

[@b29237]

very nice speech

[@looploopbag]

ungalukku tamiz teriyadha