Chennai: Eminent musician T.M. Krishna, who rebelled against the ‘sabha system’ in the weighty Margazhi music festival, was on Wednesday chosen for the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2016 for “social inclusiveness in culture”.
Human rights activist Bezwada Wilson, the national convenor of the Safai Karmachari Andolan, is the other Indian recipient of the award, which is widely regarded as Asia’s Nobel Prize.
Forty-year-old Krishna, who has been performing since 1982 when he was just six years old, will be awarded for his commitment to “heal India’s deep social divisions, breaking barriers of caste and class to unleash what music has to offer not just for some but for all.”
The annual award is presented in memory of late Philippines President Ramon Magsaysay. While choosing Krishna for the award, the jury said he recognised that dismantling artistic hierarchies could be a way of changing India’s divisive society and so devoted himself to democratising the arts as an independent artist, writer, speaker, and activist. No ordinary musician confined to studio or the sabha, Krishna often stepped out to mingle with the masses of all hues with his Carnatic music. He is also an activist who opposes manual scavenging and has expressed his heart on several issues, which usually the others artists do not indulge in readily.
The Uroor-Olcott Kuppam Marghazi Vizha held in February this year on the Besant Nagar beach was the icing on the cake of his carrier as Krishna attempted to “push out caste elitism from the existing Carnatic music system” and unite various art forms. He made his audience that included the elite, as well as the local fisher folk.
