Writing in The Evening News of India in 1956, music critic Mohan Nadkarni stated, “Sangeet sammelan or music festivals must become a comm...
Writing in The Evening News of India in 1956, music critic Mohan Nadkarni stated, “Sangeet sammelan or music festivals must become a common feature of the cultural life in our country.” Evidently, Nadkarni saw music festivals as a welcome change in the Hindustani music firmament at the time.
On the other hand, there have been other voices through the decades that have criticised the environment that music festivals have created. As early as in the 1940s, commentator SK Chaubey soundly criticised music festivals or conferences. In his book Indian Music Today published in 1945, Chaubey wrote, “An All India music conference, today, is neither representative in character nor symbolic of the spirit of classical music. It is neither music nor conference. It is a pompous show organised by some influential organisers who have either power or money at their command. Long-winded patrons and secretaries inaugurate it with long and boring speeches which are exercises in mutual admiration and in which the virtues of our ancient music are described in metaphor, hyperbole and poetic exaggeration.”
He elaborated: “With the veneer of middle class culture is mixed a sufficient quantity of red-tapism and snobbery. In the royal front seats meant for the aristocracy of good taste and good judgement, sit those who...
