Rejecting Sangeetha Nataka Academy awards

[K Riyaa]

Dear Rasikas,

I just heard from a friend that the renowned vocalists Ranjani and Gayatri have posted in Facebook on not accepting the Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar award bestowed on them this month. Is that an appropriate decision by them? I would like to know your views on this.

Thanks,
K Riyaa

[venkatakailasam]

Here is what they have posted...

UNABLE TO ACCEPT YUVA PURASKAR 2012

Sangeet Natak Akademi has informed us that we have been selected for the Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar for 2012 (announced this month). We felt that it would not be appropriate for us to accept this Puraskar, and have communicated the same to SNA.

Here is an extract of our communication to Sangeet Natak Akademi:

“
We have great regard for Sangeet Natak Akademi, an institution that is synonymous with the propagation and promotion of Indian art and culture. Ustad Bismillah Khan is among the greatest of great musicians of India and a Puraskar in his memory would be such an honour. We thank you for selecting us for the Bismillah Khan Yuva Puraskar.

However, we regret that we are unable to accept the Yuva Puraskar. We understand that the Puraskar has been instituted to encourage emerging artistes and youngsters and we believe we do not qualify on those parameters.

We request you kindly consider according the same to young and upcoming artistes.

Thanking you,

Ranjani and Gayatri

https://www.facebook.com/Ranjani.Gayatr ... 40?fref=nf

I understand this award was communicated by mail almost 3 weeks back to them and it was published in The Hindu on Friday with their picture. . The award is very clear given to people below 40 years given as Yuva. As per GOI seniors should be over 60 years.

[Nick H]

Thank you for the quote. SOme of us just don't "facebook."

It seems like a straightforward, unselfish and apolitical reason for refusal. They are successful and well-established artists and certainly not "youngsters" or "emerging" in professional sense, whatever their physical ages may be.

Whether they are right or wrong in their belief can be left for those who are willing to research the terms of the establishment of the award, but their refusal, according to those beliefs seems honourable and and non-controversial.

[kvchellappa]

Very polite and pointed refusal. If any hurt was there that they were not recognised in due time (cf. MA award), it is not discernible in the refusal. Pleasant and likeable artists.

[venkatakailasam]

List of awardees.



http://sangeetnatak.gov.in/sna/ad-yuva2012.htm

[VK RAMAN]

Interesting - what makes one youngster and emerging. Gayathri Girish is a very popular artist too. By age she might be older than Ranjani and Gayathri. Of course it is upto the artists how they feel themselves and whether they want to accept a certain puraskar.

[Nick H]

I think we had seen the list before, and had a round of celebratory/congratulatory posts.

The few names that I know could probably not be described as emerging artists.

[musicmantra]

They should have accepted it.

[kssr]

Emerging or emerged is decided by the amount of remuneration they demand and get for their concerts. RaGa must have felt that at their " level" they are no longer emerging !!!

[arasi]

Coming to think of it, it's a matter of considering where they are today. I heard them in the millennium year when they truly were very promising emerging artistes, and what a long way they have come and enjoy the status of being established artistes! Especially now, in the past several years when emerging artistes are becoming full-fledged ones in no time at all! Also, in RAgA's case, if popularity is any indication, they are way past 'promising', by jove! Wish they had thought about some truly promising youngster who is advancing impressively in her/his music.

Another thing to consider is the panel itself. How many of them really read the rules carefully before voting? Or, did they have any idea about their stardom in CM? Age, for instance--my guess is that they are just around forty. Past it perhaps. I don't know.

Then as with many other awards, there are other considerations which go beyond logic...

[dhanurasi]

Knowledgeable sources say that the other names considered for this year’s Yuva Puraskar were T N Seshagopalan, Trichy Sankaran and posthumously for MS Subbulakshmi.

But committee thought some of these artistes can wait for another year or two.

[arasi]

Dhanurasi,
I'm intrigued by what you heard. It can't be! Was it meant as a joke?

Well, I thought I'd ask a few people in India who would know more about this. What I've gathered so far is as follows:

The artistes are nominated by Senior awardees from all over India. Then, in a large meeting at Delhi, they decide on the recipients for the puraskar. They take a long time to decide, obviously (both by the year I see on the notice posted above, and by announcing ra-gA's name in the list after perhaps overlooking them for some years). They caught Abhishek early (like Sudha for SK after all the geriatric years?).

A national award, however slow in coming, is a prestigious one indeed. Now I wonder. Should they have said no to it, after all?

[hnbhagavan]

Any prestigious award should never be rejected however eminent or established they are.As the awards go thru a long process and involvement of Committees,the awards may not come strictly in order of seniority.Some times this causes life time agony as it happened to sri Lalgudi jayaraman who rejected the Sangitha Kalanidi award as he felt that the academy was late in conferring the title.
In case you consider today's situation of sangita Kalanidhi,so many persons deserved the award ahead of Sudha raghunathan.But they cannot reject the award in future due to this reason.

[varsha]

Rejecting it is fine.
Doing after that announcement was released is immature ( the gaudy look of the announcement , itself being a good reason to reject)
Telling the world about it on face book is vanity.
Reasons quoted or assumed :::
not eligible as yuva artists .
OH WHAT WOULD I NOT DO GET MY YOUTH BACK .
WITH THE UNDERSTANDING OF TODAY AND THE PHYSICAL PROWESS OF MY YOUTH ..
Not my words but Lalgudi Jayaramans.(IN A FIT OF DISAPPOVAL WHILE WE LISTENED TO AN OLD RECORDING OF HIS)
Would be interesting to know which of the two will go in for hair dye first ,in order to roll back time [-x

encouraging emerging artists
There is a kind of emergence say
From the shadows
From the dawning of a new wisdom or experience
From a crowd of similar looking artists (like the last few seconds of a long distance running race)
and so on
--
In 1970 I remember a full page in TOI WITH PHOTO GRAPHS in a grid six across by 7 down.
In the top layer were the masters
bottom layer was for emerging musicians
Bhimsen Joshi was in the fourth row - the first whom i recognised.
Jasraj was in last but one He took another ten years to giving a blistering series of performances that lasted a decade and - arguably - heralded a new gharana
I have spent the next 40 years understanding the legends above these two artists .
----
.

[dhanurasi]

I'm intrigued by what you heard. It can't be! Was it meant as a joke?

Yes, I tried:)

Irrespective of the process, the Delhi administrators of these institutions should have some respect for the art and the artistes. Often, the award lists demonstrate a callous and careless attitude of invisible committees.
In this case, a quick glance of the recipients of the award since 2006 revealed no consistent criteria though some are good names IMHO.

At times, some artistes grow bigger than some of the awards. MA had to create a 'Lifetime Award' for honouring LGJ. Can one announce a Yuva Kala Bharati for Abhishek Raguram now?

Before you all start aiming your guns at me, let me add that I am not suggesting that is necessarily applicable here.

May be...

[rupavathi]

Rejecting it is fine.
Doing after that announcement was released is immature...

Oh cmon varsha, what's public life without publicity?
We all know there are guidelines for the award and that one can read them on the SNA website. No one can be nominated or selected without consent. And award selections are communicated to the awardees in advance of the public announcement. Yes, the graceful thing would have been to either refuse the nomination or politely respond in private to the award announcement letter. But then, you know... there is this little something called publicity. Shouldn't the world know of your noble sacrifice, else what's the point of sacrificing! :p :p

[rajeshnat]

We all know there are guidelines for the award and that one can read them on the SNA website. No one can be nominated or selected without consent. And award selections are communicated to the awardees in advance of the public announcement. Yes, the graceful thing would have been to either refuse the nomination or politely respond in private to the award announcement letter. But then, you know... there is this little something called publicity. Shouldn't the world know of your noble sacrifice, else what's the point of sacrificing! :p :p

Rupavathi
I am not fully aware of how all this works? I am assuming prior to announcing awards to public , time varying from few days or at times even few hours some one from committee informs the awardees. In sangeetha kalanidhi award is it not true that the awardee just knows and at the same time the information gets passed to the press. In short I am not sure if the awardees are given time to keep things in private and then give their stand .

On the process of even informing the nominations , by nomination do you mean as one of the finalist for the final award who would be selected or is it a nomination for the final award itself?

[rupavathi]

In sangeetha kalanidhi award is it not true that the awardee just knows and at the same time the information gets passed to the press. In short I am not sure if the awardees are given time to keep things in private and then give their stand

Yes, they are. In this case, I know for sure

On the process of even informing the nominations , are you sure if the prospective nominations are informed that too with only few are going to get awarded.

Nominations require supporting documents, including recommendation letters. Information such as age proof has to be supplied by the nominees. Winners are informed by letter at the time of selection. Please see procedural guidelines: http://sangeetnatak.gov.in/sna/guide-yuvapuraskar.htm (The age limit USED to be 35. Now it is 40... not updated n the site)

[rajeshnat]

rupavathi
Tx for the clarification, makes sense . WIth respect to Govt of India awards , apart from padmasri to bharatratna awardees, the list of awards are very limited to carnatic artists . Sangeet Natak academy/Yuva puraskar awards are fairly prestigious for brand recognition , one sister is certainly below 40 for sure - they rejecting is bit unfortunate. Hopefully the awards committee acts quickly and rewards some one else this year. I saw this link listing out the yuva puraskar awardees from 2006 http://sangeetnatak.gov.in/sna/yuva.htm .

While we are not going to open any thread here to say why this musician has not got sangeet natak academy award , but this award is indeed a great national recognition(outside of carnatic pockets).

On a side note I just now noticed this year visaka hari has also got the yuva puraskar award not for music but for traditional music (tamilnadu) category. I thought sangeet and natak is only sangeetha upanyasam :-* and she indeed fits well for the sangeet natak award.

[vasanthakokilam]

rupavathi, thanks for the link to the rules of this award. Though it says the nominating person needs to supply proof of age ( which makes sense given the age limit ), it does not say what kind of age proof is required. While I do not discount the possibility that R&G would have been asked to provide proof of age, I do not think it necessarily implies they knew of the nomination. Do you actually know based on knowledge that is not available to the public that R&G did know they are being nominated? If so, that is indeed weird that they will reject it. But let us make sure that is indeed the case.

[rupavathi]

Do you actually know based on knowledge that is not available to the public...

:-BD

[harimau]

Shouldn't the world know of your noble sacrifice, else what's the point of sacrificing! :p :p

The Duelling Abhangists are known for their sangeeth. Now, they have added natak to their repertoire! ) )

[kvchellappa]

Nice one. Then should they not have accepted sangeeth-natak award?

[kittappa]

sangeeth-natak-academy. now who is the akkA and who is the dummy between the duellists?

[carnatricks]

i guess looking at the past list of people who seem to have been awarded, their stance and feeling is justified. but there have been so many deserving artists who have been given the recognition much later with respect to other awards. given that this is a government recognition, should they have said no or accepted is my only thought. i dont have an answer.