This very interesting event happens day after tomorrow, 30 March, Saturday, in Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Bengaluru.
Many senior musicians and experts are participating in the event form Chennai and Bengaluru.
Sachi: Hope the drive is worthwhile, and the event enlightening!
How does Sri Malhotra (whatever else his credentials be) qualify to provide the keynote address in this particular context? Has he learned CM, or is he at the very least, a serious rasika of CM?
No, Ravi, he is no expert on CM.
He is conducting and sponsoring this program and he would have discussed the subject with subject matter experts. I would describe Rajiv Malhotra as a crusader and a catalyst, and a man of great intellectual abilities.
His over-arching, well researched, body of work including video interviews and published books is on the subject of subversion of Sanatana Dharma and all Hindu cultural values through a process of digestion and "hijacking". He has now extended the reach to Carnatic music. I remember also some work on Bharatanatyam, etc.
His video interviews with many subject experts like Prof. Nagaswamy attest to some good research.
In fact I expect that after his address he will hand over the floor to experts including people holding positions in CM in Chennai and elsewhere. Also people like DR. T S Satyavathi and even Dr Nagaswamy perhaps will be deliberating.
I look forward to the discussions. Perhaps it is the first time a number of subject matter experts are getting involved in such a discussion.
Hopefully many parts will be video-cast or at least archived.
Just finished the morning session.
Great talks and presentations
1. Dr Mohandas Pai
2. Dr Sumathi Krishnan MA
3. SWAMIJI
4. Rajiv Malhotra
5.Prof Nagaswamy
6. Mahamahopadhyaya Subramaniam (Vedic scholar)
7.Vid Gayathri Girish
8.Vid Vrinda Acharya
9 Dr Satyavathi
The audience are about 200 people, mostly musicians, scholars and rasikas like me.
Afternoon sessions will be also interesting.
The entire seminar will be published as video excerpts and also in book form.
Cannot summarize. Sorry. Too interesting and rich to be reduced to minutes/notes.
The afternoon sessions featured
excellent presentations on
-What are the limits to experimentation
-Christian Carnatic composers and their antics
-TM Krishna deconstruction
-Falsehood about Brahmin patriarchy in CM
-What is "auchitya"= an acute sense of "just right" aspects of CM
-Neurological aspects that support the Dhaatu+Maatu union in CM
Great conference. Wait for videos and publication of papers. A goldmine indeed.
Dr. Sumathi Krishnan (Music Academy) quoted how the last verse of Vande Mataram was dropped when Congress voted for it as the national song in 1937, for the reason that the words were not "secular" enough:
त्वं हि दुर्गा दशप्रहरणधारिणी कमला कमलदलविहारिणी वाणी विद्यादायिनी, नमामि त्वाम् नमामि कमलां अमलां अतुलां सुजलां सुफलां मातरम् ।। ४ ।।
वन्दे मातरम् ।
(Mother as Durga, Lakshmi, Sarasvati)
She said our misplaced idea of secularism is to deny our roots and who we are in essence, just to fulfill someone's convenient wish for us to change ourselves.
