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Let the singing go on in India: In Solidarity with TM Krishna - A Statement by students and teachers of Universities in Delhi

18 November 2018

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sacw.net - 18 November 2018

In Solidarity with TM Krishna:

A Statement by students and teachers of Universities in Delhi

On February 20, 2018, TM Krishna delivered the 3rd AK Ramanujan Lecture organized by the History Society of Ramjas College, University of Delhi. He drew upon Ramanujan’s work, especially the essay‘Three Hundred Ramayanas’and Ramanujan’s translation of a verse from Nammalvar, and spoke of his (Krishna’s) own demanding and liberating journey towards a critical engagement with the beauty and performative aspects of the music he re-imagines and sings afresh each time. Hearing him speak that morning, many of us understood for the first time perhaps, the centrality of questioning—along axes of gender and caste for example— to Krishna’s life and work as a singer. Many of us understood, for the first time perhaps, that Krishna’s forceful acknowledgement that Art, like everything else about human life, is embedded in specific social processes, and his commitment to try to emancipate it from this encasement, are in fact the qualities that make Krishna’s music singularly beautiful, apart of course, from compelling him to stand up against injustice in many different ways.

No wonder then, that, when Krishna ended his lecture at Ramjas College by singing the Nammalvar verse that he had quoted in the beginning, it was not difficult for many of us to imagine the lived experiences of not just a few, but of all kinds of people inhabiting the universe of the song’s text, to imagine the softer notes left out in the crescendo of power. He sang, as he often does, for the people and of the people. He sang, as he often does, the poetry of banished poets and the music about ’poromboku’.

The sudden indefinite postponement of the concert at which TM Krishna was to sing at the Nehru Park in New Delhi, has grossly violated and weakened the right of all Indian citizens to express themselves freely, as also our rights as citizens to listen to, and experience art in freedom and without fear.

We, the undersigned students and teachers of Universities in Delhi, unequivocally protest these violations and stand in solidarity with TM Krishna. We shall be present to listen to him sing at the Garden of the Five Senses, New Delhi, on the evening of

November 17, 2018.

Signatories:

1. Mukul Mangalik, Department of History, Ramjas College, University of Delhi
2. Vinita Chandra, Department of English, Ramjas College, University of Delhi
3. Pooja Thakur, Department of History, Ramjas College, University of Delhi
4. Roopa Dhawan, Department of English, Ramjas College, University of Delhi
5. Chitra Joshi, Department of History, Indraprastha College for Women
6. Vebhuti Duggal, School of Culture and Creative Expressions, AUD
7. Rina Ramdev, Department of English, Sri Venkateswara College
8. Suvritta Khatri, Department of History, Deshbandhu College
9. Sanjay Kumar Bohidar, Shri Ram College of Commerce
10. Abha Dev Habib, Department of Physics, Miranda House
11. Mihir Pandey, Department of Economics, Ramjas College
12. Debjani Sengupta, Department of English, Indraprastha College for Women
13. Rashmi Pant, Department of History, Indraprastha College for Women
14. Gagan Kumar, Department of History, Ramjas College
15. Nandini Dutta, Department of Economics, Miranda House
16. Ratna Raman, University of Delhi
17. Deeba Zafir, University of Delhi
18. Swati Singh, Department of History, DU
19. Shreya Das, Department of History, DU
20. Ahvana, Department of History, DU
21. Kaveri Choudhury, School of Liberal Studies, AUD
22. Somok Roy, Ramjas College
23. Dhruv Dev Chauhan, Ramjas College
24. Mayank Charan, Ramjas College
25. Siddhant Datta, Department of English, DU
26. Priya Poddar, Department of English, DU
27. Moksh Kalra, Ramjas College
28. Satyam Yaduvanshi, Ramjas College
29. Dipanjali Singh, Ramjas College
30. Malik Irtiza, Ramjas College
31. Avijit Singh, Department of History, DU
32. Rupal Anand, Ramjas College
33. Ananya Pandey, Ramjas College
34. Amogh, Ramjas College
35. Abhinav Nair, Ramjas College
36. Shatakshi Whorra, Ramjas College
37. Kakali Kalita, Ramjas College
38. Akash Chattopadhyay, Department of History, DU
39. Urvi Dhar, Ramjas College
40. Rohan Sagar, Ramjas College
41. Rakesh Kamal, Department of History, DU
42. Sanjeev Kumar, Department of History DU
43. Piyush Kukrety, Formerly in Hindu College
44. Somnath Pati, Hansraj College
45. Rushnae Kabir, CHS, JNU
46. Krishn Kumar Upadhyay, CHS, JNU
47. Yashaswi Singh, CHS, JNU
48. Souradeep Roy, SAA, JNU
49. Gudipalli Ravali, Department of History, DU
50. Sonakshi Srivastava, Department of English, DU
51. Vartika Rastogi, Hindu College
52. Ashi Datta, Hindu College
53. Anant Gupta, DCAC
54. Paribhasha Yadav, Hindu College
55. Hiya Harinandini, Hindu College
56. Ashutosh, Ramjas College
57. Aman Sinha, Ramjas College
58. Mitsu Sahay, Ramjas College
59. Gaurav Sharma, Ramjas College
60. Nishita Alagh, Department of Psychology, University of Delhi
61. Aditi Jain, Department of History, University of Delhi
62. Aswathy Nair, Ramjas College
63. Ameen Muhammed P S, Ramjas College
64. Santosh Kumar Yadav, Satyavati College
65. Dinesh Kabir, Department of Hindi, DU
66. Shailendra pratap, Department of Hindi, DU
67. Rakesh Kumar, Satyawati College
68. Shahana Bhattacharya, Department of History, KMC
69. Saumya Gupta, Department of History, Janki Devi College
70. Saumyajit Bhattacharya, Department of Economics, KMC
71. Madhav Nair, Department of History, SOAS, London.
72. Rahul Kumar, Ramjas College
73. Smriti Pathak, Dept of Political science DU
74. Amit Pradhan, Philosophy, Ramjas College.
75. Vishal Deo, Department of Statistics, Ramjas College
76. Mihir Pandey, Ramjas College
77. Rudrashish Chakraborty, Department of English, Kirorimal College
78. Tanvir Aeijaz, Department of Political Science, Ramjas College
79. Biswajit Mohanty, Department of Political Science, Deshbandu College
80. Debraj Mookerjee, Department of English, Ramjas College
81. Benu Mohanlal, Department of English, Ramjas ollege
82. Sneha Sharma, Department of English, Ramjas College
83. Kumar Rahul, Department of Political Science, Ramjas College
84. Sanjeev Kumar, Department of History, D.U.
85. Manjeet Sabarwal, Satyawati College