By opening its doors for all people of all faiths and interpreting it in our own cultural and spiritual contexts, we have claimed a shared heritage that is equally ours. I reject all attempts that prevent making Carnatic music inclusive.
Carnatic music and Bharatanatyam belong to me just as it does to those enjoying it in a Sabha during the Margazhi season. But Carnatic music is not anybody’s exclusive property as trolls seem to imply in the tons of vitriol that has poured on social media since the controversy erupted. Oh boy!ĭidn’t this just get better? I can see the delirious faces of the right wingers smacking their lips. Here is a fun fact, Yahova Na Mora was written and composed nearly 180 years ago by a great seer of yore, Purushottama Choudary, a Bengali Brahmin who lived in Ganjam Orrisa and wrote in chaste Telugu.
Yahova Na Mora is a perfect example of the Christian cultural appropriation of not only Carnatic music but also Bharatnatyam. People have taken what they see and love and made it their own by imitating, and creating anew. It has more than four million views on YouTube and it has further inspired at least 250 similar versions in India and abroad, all of which are circulating on social media. To add to its universal aesthetic appeal, my dear friend Ms Kavitha Ramu, a civil servant and danseuse in her own right choreographed the song in Bharatanatyam. The old hymn was set to new music to make it relevant and meaningful to a new generation of music lovers. The first song that I produced – Yahova Na Mora – is a Telugu Christian hymn set in Raag Shankarabharanam to Adi Taal. My second album introduced Hindustani, and Qawwali into the spiritual potpourri. My first album was a wonderful fusion of Western and Carnatic instrumentation, melodies and sounds.
Two Telugu Christian music albums that I produced in the world music genre are called Thrahimam which simply means – the thirst of the soul.
0 kommentar(er)
