Meet sisters B Ranjani and B Gayatri, in the eye of the storm
The Carnatic musicians registered their protest on TM Krishna receiving the Sangita Kalanidhi. The difference isn’t just opinion on what is art, it’s political
Sisters B Ranjani (51) and B Gayatri (50) who have performed for more than 30 years together in the classical music world are now in the middle of a raging controversy after they announced their withdrawal from performing in The Music Academy this year as the institute awarded its top honour, the Sangita Kalanidhi, to T M Krishna.
Ranjani and Gayatri, singers and violinists, have been vocal in their support for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, they sang a rendition of Vaishnava Jana To and posted on their social media handles asking people to vote for Modi. More recently, they inaugurated the Sri Parthasarathy Swami Sabha’s 124th-year celebrations with Ramabhajana to commemorate the consecration of the Ram temple in Ayodhya. Later, the same month, they performed at the Rameshwarman temple in the presence of Modi.
On Wednesday, the sisters Ranjani and Gayatri, both popular singers, shot off a letter to the Academy and posted a series of posts on X in which they said that they would not perform during the music academy conference citing TM Krishna’s participation.
The sisters said that Krishna “vilified Carnatic music” and that it was “dangerous” to overlook Krishna’s eulogising of Dravidian movement founder E V Ramasamy, revered as ‘Periyar’. “His actions have tried to spread a sense of shame in being a Carnatic musician and has been exhibited through his consistent denigration of spirituality in music,” the sisters said in a letter to the Music Academy. “We believe in a value system that respects art and artists, vaggeyakaras (lyricist/composers), rasikas (fans), institutions, our roots and culture. We will be in moral violation if we were to bury these values and join this year’s conference.”
However, the Music Academy stood by Krishna. In a response to the sisters, the Academy president said he was shocked by the “vituperative content” of their letter. “It is replete with unwarranted and slanderous assertions and insinuations verging on defamation, and its vicious tone against a respected senior fellow-musician,” N Murali wrote.
Ranjani is the older of the siblings and the duo often performs wearing similar sarees. They both began learning music in Mumbai as children under TS Krishnaswami taught them violin for a decade between the 1980s and 1990. According to their website, they shifted from Mumbai to Chennai, for Carnatic music in 1993.
After training under P S Narayanaswamy, a Padma Bhushan recipient, they started presenting vocal concerts in 1997. Their mother, Meenakshi Balasubramanian, who is also a singer, trained them in vocals and their father Balasubramanian had learnt the violin. As violinists, they have performed along with musical legends such as M Balamurali Krishna, a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan.
They have performed across the world and in various languages across India and have been the recipient of several awards in the country. While Ranjani did a chartered accountant course, Gayatri pursued literature. HT was unable to verify if they pursued further education.
The duo are among at least six top musicians and performers pulling out, and one even returning his own Sangita Kalanidhi award, and the Academy, founded in 1928 — instituted the award, of which usually only one is given every year, in 1942 — standing its ground.
Tamil Nadu’s BJP on Friday stood in solidarity with the sisters and other musicians. “The Music Academy, revered as the Temple of Carnatic Music and spiritual consciousness for more than nine decades, is under the threat of disintegration by divisive forces detrimental to the sanctity of the organisation,” BJP’s state president K Annamalai said. “The last refuge for proponents of Defunct propaganda & ideology of hate & division cannot be the Temple of Carnatic Music!”
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