Speaking at the traditional oriental convocation aka the Sadas of the Music Academy in 2020, Suresh Krishna, chairman, Sundaram Fasteners Ltd, made a strong case for striking a balance between lyrics and music and said, “When language is not understood, the audience switches off.” He argued, “When a song in other than Tamil is rendered music dominates and not the lyrics.” He chose to speak the words at The Music Academy, the premier institution whose Sangita Kalanidhi Award is a byword for recognition in Carnatic music, which in the past had been less tolerant of language politics in music. It should be kept in mind that the Academy even banned Bharat Ratna M.S. Subbulakshmi for five years for being at the forefront of the Tamil Isai Movement and singing Tamil songs in the major, first section of a concert.
Stiff opposition
“Even though a lot of people supported the Tamil Isai Movement, it was T. Sadasivam and his wife M.S. Subbulakshmi who sustained it from being wiped out when it faced stiff opposition,” noted late writer and journalist Kalki Krishnamurthy, whose writings on the Tamil Isai Movement were published as Sangeetha Yogam. It was anathema to start a Carnatic music concert with Tamil songs. Tamil songs could be rendered only after the main ragam was sung elaborately, which would be followed by a ragam-tanam-pallavi. They were and are still referred to as uruppadis. Late Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi used to castigate those who called Tamil songs as uruppadis since the term means “soiled clothes”. The sabhas, though patronising classical music, did not take lightly to the singing of Tamil songs as a main items. Late Chief Minister C. Rajagopalachari, Kalki Krishnamurthy, and Tamil scholar T.K. Chidambaranatha Mudaliar were some of those who fervently campaigned for Tamil music. Freedom fighter Sathyamurthy, asked to speak at the end of a concert at a sabha in 1938, said more Tamil songs should be rendered. “I could fully enjoy the concert only when songs are rendered in Tamil,” he said.
A lame excuse
Kalki, who had recalled Sathyamurthy’s speech in the All India Radio (AIR), quoted him as saying that it was only a lame excuse that there were no good songs in Tamil. But the aspirations of these leaders became a movement when Rajah Sir Annamalai Chettiar, the founder of Annamalai University, organised a conference to promote Tamil Isai at the university in Chidambaram in 1941. India’s first Finance Minister R.K. Shanmugam Chettiar also plunged himself into the movement. Kalki wrote a detailed article about the conference held at Annamalai University. But The Hindu commented adversely on a proposal at the conference that only Tamil songs be sung at music concerts. “The Hindu said the proposal, if implemented, would mean a ban on songs in other languages like Telugu and Canarese [Kannada] which had produced composers like Thyagaraja and Purandaradasa,” according to the book, A Hundred Years of The Hindu: The Epic Story of Indian Nationalism.
Turning point at Devakottai
The Chidambaram conference was followed by another at Devakottai, where M.S. Subbulakshmi gave a full Tamil concert. “It led to the creation of the slogan, ‘Let us promote music by singing in sweet Tamil’,” writes Kalki. Writing in the Sruti magazine, journalist Gowri Ramnarayan says M.S. Subbulakshmi’s concert dispelled the myth, “Sing Tyagaraja and you grip every ear. Try Tamil and the concert sags.”
“All you had to do was to go to the Devakottai Tamil Isai conference (1941) and hear MS — in midnight blue vairaoosi sari with an arakku border, her blue jagger diamonds twinkling on ear and nose, jasmine crescent on her bichoda coiffure as fragrant as her brigas and gamakas — in the Hamsadhwani opener Arul purivai karunai kadale, by Suddhananda Bharati, the nationalist poet and yogi. Listeners went into a trance when MS sang a rousing viruttam by Subramania Bharati which asked, ‘Is there a language as sweet as our Tamil in the entire world?’,” she writes.
Long before the Carnatic Trinity — Muthuswami Dikshitar, Thyagaraja, and Shyama Shastry — Tamil music was heard across the Tamil land. Tamil scholar U. Ve. Swaminatha Iyer, who also learnt from Gopalakrishna Bharathiyar, the author of Nandan Charithiram, had recorded that his father and great-uncle had sung the Rama Nataka Keerthanas of Arunachala Kavi. It was the time when the songs of Thyagaraja were gaining popularity.
The establishment of Tamil Isai Sangam in Chennai give new momentum to the Tamil Isai Movement and even renowned singers like Ariyakudi Ramanuja Iyengar, an opponent of the Tamil Isai Movement, joined it and rendered Tamil songs. Tamil Isai Sangam instituted Isai Perarignar Award to be conferred on musicians every year.
Olive branch
Subsequently, the Music Academy extended an olive branch to M.S. Subbulakshmi. She accepted it with her own conditions and it resulted in a long-lasting association between the two. She became the first woman to win the Sangita Kalanidhi Award in 1968. The confrontation between the Tamil Isai Movement and its rivals gradually lost its intensity as singers included more Tamil songs in their concerts.
The Tamil Isai Movement was not against singing in Telugu or other languages; it only wanted inclusion of more Tamil songs at concerts. The inclusion of songs from other languages by stalwarts such as Madurai Mani Iyer, M.S. Subbulakshmi, M.L. Vasanthakumari, D.K. Pattammal, and Palghat Narayanaswamy at their concerts at Tamil Isai Sangam makes clear the stand of the movement. Similarly, singers render Tamil songs as main items in the Music Academy. But it required a long struggle and persuasion for the change of heart.
