Fellow forumer Plum's article on IR's struggle to come to top gets featured in media

The brilliant article was a twitlonger to begin with:
http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1sqdt5j

Following is the content :

Plum wrote:

Why we dont need to shy away from stating Raja's caste

---

1. "பாளையம் பண்ணபுரம் சின்னதாயி பெத்த மயென்(மகன்) பிச்சமுத்து ஏறியே வாரான் டோய்..ஓரம் போ". 
"Make way for this cart;
Pay obsequiance; lend a hand,
To push it forward 
For, here comes -
The son of Chinnathayee from Pannaipuram
On his all-conquering march
"

Thus proclaimed the  lead character at the beginning of a fun ditty in the movie, Ponnu Oorukku Pudhusu. The year was 1979.  

The State broadcaster,  All India Radio, promptly banned the song. The ostensible reason quoted was vulgarity,  yet a considered glance of the lyrics reveals nothing risque. Certainly,  nowhere in the league of "Elandhapayam", a song that, not too long ago, was gleefully carried across the airwaves, by the same establishment.

To understand why, one needs to comprehend the then prevailing environment of popular arts and the fora through which they were disseminated; and one needs to understand the career trajectory of Music Composer Ilaiyaraja, recently awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India's second highest civilian honour,  by the Government of India. The 74 year old, who has composed music for over 1000 films in an illustrious career spanning over 40 years was delighted by the recognition, calling it an “honour bestowed on all Tamils.” Reactions in Tamil Nadu were overwhelmingly positive, with politicians and celebrities congratulating the composer for what many felt was a long overdue honour and even inadequate to suitably honour his accomplishments.


In the early seventies, when Ilaiyaraaja and his brothers came to Madras looking for an opportunity to make music in films, the Tamil film industry was a bastion of upper caste dominance. 

Tamil cinema and the media that appraised it  were controlled by the elite upper class - inevitably upper caste, and more often than not, Brahmin order. A revolution was brewing, of which Ilaiyaraaja was a chief protagonist. However, victory was still years away foe the revolution.
Barely three years after his first break, Ilaiyaraaja was the number one music composer in Tamil cinema. And the song was his message to detractors: Time For You To Give Way.

 Manimaran, who contributes regularly on Tamil Film Music, writes that “Oram Poyiduvaan” (He will soon be sidelined) was the phrase most commonly employed by those that opposed Ilaiyaraaja. 

Chinnathaayi was Ilaiyaraaja’s mother. Pannaipuram, his village. The song, written by Ilaiyaraaja’s brother Gangai Amaran, was a thinly veiled message to their oppressors in
 
All India Radio, run by upper class administrators who saw it as their responsibility to be the gatekeepers of culture, took exception to the song because this was interpreted as a clarion call from the irreverent, low class, folk-music(it is impossible to capture in writing the snigger with which this word was uttered by the detractors)  peddling upstarts from a remote southern village. 

The ban led to a procession by Ilaiyaraaja supporters on Chennai’s Mount Road; and the controversies helped fuel the song’s popularity. The popularity was also fueled by a predominantly rural (and lower caste) vehicle: loudspeakers in tea shops across the state that played the song repeatedly, breaking AIR’s monopoly over the airwaves.

Another song that All India Radio banned for vulgarity was Kettele Inge. Again the lyrics reveal no ostensible vulgarity. 

But the song was set to a folkish tune and the lyrics were in Brahmin dialect; this was enough for the establishment to take exception
***************
 Thus starts the story of Ilayaraja's arrival into Tamil Film Music, and thus, his journey continued. Even as the great composer broke down barrier after barrier of caste hegemony, opposition to him never wavered. His  musical dominance was grudgingly accepted, but resentment at a dark-skinned, dalit man owning the musical ethos of the time persisted.

In the nineteen eighties, Ilaiyaraaja’s dominance of the Tamil Film industry was absolute. He WAS the music industry. He scored for big banner films and big heroes, and was the face of several small and medium budget films; his output was prolific and high quality.
He was the most saleable star in Tamil Films.

His commercial heft made him untouchable - just not in the sense that his ancestors were deemed to be by the brahminical society of past. 

Even Kailasam Balachander, "liberal" Brahmin and a doyen of the old order, who until then had resisted using Ilaiyaraaja in his movies, gave in, but it was an uneasy relationship that fractured very soon.

Balachander's last film with Ilaiyaraaja was the 1989 release, Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal, The movie released with, as it turns out, stock music for its background score. The director blamed Ilaiyaraja’s supposed arrogance; the truth emerged years later. The year saw a strike by the film workers' union in Tamil Nadu, and Balachander could not use Ilaiyaraaja’s dates because of the strike. When the strike ended, and Balachander wanted his movie released right away, the composer was in Mumbai for another recording. 

Balachander took Raja's refusal to dishonour a prior commitment as an insult by and went on to incorporate stock music as background music, an act that drew the ultra-professional Raja's ire. The songs from the movie were superhits, propelling an ordinary movie to box office success. The movie turned out to be  Balachander’s last major commercial hit as a director. 

The influential Balachander, though, used his formidable influence and media savvy to plant the narrative: Ilaiyaraja was arrogant and difficult to work with.

Interpreting this spat as driven by personal animosity - there was plenty of it - misses the big picture. The number and identity of people who immediately banded together against the composer in this period belies any such benign interpretation.
 
Ilaiyaraja may have been the emperor of common men's hearts, and reluctantly embraced by the upper caste film establishment due to his success but his identity was always a source of derision for the establishment. And the establishment struck back when it saw a chance. While the professional side of this, the choice of new composers by these directors/producers can never be faulted,  what was and remains unpardonable is the venomous propoganda against Raja's character, unleashed by this axis, complemented by the antipathy to Raja of GV, one of the biggest and most influential producers of the time. This antipathy was said to have developed over the recording sessions of his brother's Thalapathy, with rumours of casteist invectives having been thrown. 
Another set of antagonists in this Shakespearean tale comprised Raja's childhood mate, Director Bharathiraja and his protégé  Vairamuthu, a lyricist who rose to prominence thanks to  Raja's patronage. As both fell out with Raja,  their antipathy turned ugly with them hurling unseemly abuse and unsubstantiated  allegations on Raja's character, with stoic silence being the composer's dignified response.

Raja has refrained from washing dirty linen in public, despite a long history of provocation and defamation from these detractors.  It reflects his philosophy of expressing himself through his music - and music alone. Thiugh he also refrains from publicly discussing his caste - ironically drawing the ire of Dalit activists, for apparently brahminising himself - his caste is entirely relevant to his career and identity 
***********
Another aspect of the resentment of his identity accepts Ilaiyaraja, but rejects his more rooted music. This writer was once chided for listening to the soodhra (lower caste) music of Solla Marandha Kadhai by a cousin. The cousin  was an unabashed Ilaiyaraaja fan, yet here he was, casually rejecting an album merely because of the background of the movie not being of the upper caste or upper class environment,  of say, a Manirathnam or Kamalhassan movie. The mind boggles at these people's ability to classify even music along varna lines
Another instance had the writer's extended family in its Whatsapp group, resentfully discussing why "Tharai thappattai" should not be Raja's landmark 1000th movie, the snigger being caused by the association of instrument referred to by that title being associated with lower castes, in fact, beyond even the caste system's four-tiered hierarchy. The resentment was even more ironic considering these are instruments well in harmony with Raja's background, many a masterful score having been produced by him using these very instruments.
It just meant one thing - Ilaiyaraja may have been accepted,  but his background,  even in 2016, was anathema to a certain influential class of people.
********
It is in this context,  then, that we muat examine the holier-than-thou responses to a controversial  article by The New Indian Express, a Chennai based English daily that struck a different note,describing the award as part of the BJP led Central Government’s outreach to India’s Dalit community. The award, the newspaper said, is “important against the backdrop of Dalit movements in Gujarat led by Jignesh Mevani and the Bhima Koregaon uprising of Maharashtra.”

The story was - justifiably - widely condemned, with both celebrities and social media users criticizing the newspaper for suggesting that the award was political, or that Ilaiyaraaja’s Dalit background had something to do with the timing of the award. However, some of the disingenuous - naive, if we are being charitable- reactions need to be dissected 

Actor Kasthuri Shankar, in a widely shared Tweet said “Gods have no caste. Music has no walls.” The tweet was accompanied by a video - shot at an airport - of her spitting on the newspaper and dramatically ripping it into two with a bemused airport official watching. 

https://twitter.com/KasthuriShankar/status/956778091598168065

Kasthuri’s reaction was typical of the refrain of many upper caste fans of the composer: He is beyond caste, and society has accepted him for his genius.  This, as discussed earlier,  was not even true of the film insustry he operated in , let alone the broader society 

Ilaiyaraja is Dalit. There is absolutely no need to shy away from stating it, even if he dignifiedly refuses to discuss the struggles he faced because of it in the industry 

The “We are above caste” narrative that followed the New Indian Express story is naive and false. We are not above caste. The elite, upper caste establishment tried every trick in the trade to diminish him. His rise is despite the establishment and prevailing mores, not because of them.
 
Ilaiyaraja’s struggles and his background are important to understand the context of his Padma Vibhushan. 
That he shattered the sheltered and protected doors of music academy is his - and only his - triumph. Not a benign caste-neutral, liberal acknowledgement from the Carnatic establishment as they would like people to believe. That door needed an Ilaiyaraja to break caste barriers. They wont open for a regular talent from unprivileged backgrounds similar to Raja's
His Dalit identity needs to be acknowledged, not papered over. The casteism and discrimination in the film industry mean that only an extraordinary, once-in-centuries talent like Ilaiyaraaja can make it to the top if he is from an unprivileged background.
 
 The resentment against the only other reasonably successful Dalit artist of recent times,  Ranjit, reemphasises this. It is not easy to be  Dalit, stay true to your roots and succeed in the industry.

Such, then, is the environment in which Ilaiyaraaja operates still. This is the environment that young Dalit aspirants enter into. 

Yes, Ilaiyaraaja is a dalit, and it's entirely appropriate and important to state this fact in the context of his award. 

If you didnt know it before, it is time to know and understand the disadvantages and hatred he faced due to it. 

Ilaiyaraaja can not be a role model - geniuses seldom.can be The above average talent that emerges from similar backgrounds like his deserves a better environment than he faced.  The route to that is not proclaiming genius is casteless, but by acknowledging that even he was accepted only after he embraced theism and his own brand of spiritualism. 

So, yes, Ilayaraja is a Dalit. His phenomenal career and immortal creations are all the more beautiful and rare, when you consider the innumerable disadvantages he continues to face because of his identity.

The article later got published in the internet media, with some minor editing (I placed the link earlier in "anything about IR on the net" thread):

https://silverscreen.in/tamil/features/ilaiyaraaja-is-dalit-theres-no-need-to-shy-away-from-stating-it/

Ilaiyaraaja Is Dalit; There’s No Need To Shy Away From Stating It

பாளையம் பண்ணபுரம் சின்னதாயி பெத்த மயென்(மகன்) பிச்சமுத்து ஏறியே வாரான் டோய்…ஓரம் போ.

Make way for this cart;
Pay obeisance; lend a hand
To push it forward
For, here comes –
The son of Chinnathayee from Pannaipuram
On his all-conquering march

So goes the beginning of a song in the movie, Ponnu Oorukku Pudhusu, composed by an up and coming music director named Ilaiyaraaja. The year was 1979.

The State broadcaster, All India Radio, banned the song for vulgarity, yet the lyrics reveal nothing risque. Certainly, nowhere in the league of “Elandhapayam”, a song that not too long ago was carried across the airwaves.

Why then was the song banned?

*****

On Thursday January 25, music composer Ilaiyaraaja was awarded the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second highest civilian honour, by the Government of India. The 74-year-old, who has composed music for over 1,000 films in an illustrious career spanning over 40 years, was delighted by the recognition, calling it an “honour bestowed on all Tamils.” Reactions in Tamil Nadu were overwhelmingly positive, with politicians and celebrities congratulating the composer for what many felt was a long overdue honour.

However, The New Indian Express, a Chennai-based English daily struck a jarring note, describing the award as part of the BJP-led Central Government’s outreach to India’s Dalit community. The award, the newspaper said, is “important against the backdrop of Dalit movements in Gujarat led by Jignesh Mevani and the Bhima Koregaon uprising of Maharashtra.”

The story – done in poor taste – was widely condemned, with both celebrities and social media users criticizing the newspaper for suggesting that Ilaiyaraaja’s Dalit background had something to do with the timing of the award. Actor Kasthuri Shankar, in a widely shared Tweet, said: “Gods have no caste.

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Music has no walls.” The tweet was accompanied by a video – shot at an airport – of her spitting on the newspaper and dramatically ripping it in two, with a bemused bystander watching.


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[/ltr]

kasturi shankar

@KasthuriShankar

[ltr]#Ilaiyaraja is a national treasure. God's have no caste. Music knows no walls.[/ltr]
1:37 AM - Jan 26, 2018

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Kasthuri’s reaction was typical of the refrain of many upper caste fans of the composer: He is beyond caste, and society has accepted him for his genius. That narrative is naive and false.

Because, Ilaiyaraaja is Dalit. And, there is no need to shy away from stating it.  The elite, upper caste establishment tried every trick in the trade to diminish him. His rise is despite the establishment and prevailing mores, not because of them. Even though he has refrained from discussing his caste – drawing the ire of Dalit activists for brahminising himself – his caste and his identity are entirely relevant to his career.

*****

In the banned ‘Orampo‘ song, the lyrical references are unmistakable. Chinnathaayi was Ilaiyaraaja’s mother. Pannaipuram, his village. The song, written by Ilaiyaraaja’s brother Gangai Amaran, was a thinly-veiled message to their detractors in the Tamil film industry.

In the early seventies, when Ilaiyaraaja and his brothers came to Madras looking for an opportunity to make music in films, the Tamil film industry was a bastion of upper caste dominance. Even after Ilaiyaraaja got his big break through Panchu Arunachalam’s Annakili, he continued to meet with opposition from large sections of the industry. Manimaran, a writer who contributes regularly on Tamil Film Music, writes that “oram poyiduvaan” (He will soon be sidelined) was the phrase most commonly employed by those that opposed Ilaiyaraaja.

But barely three years after his first break, Ilaiyaraaja was the number one music composer in Tamil cinema. And the song was his message to detractors: Time For You To Give Way.

Tamil cinema and the media that appraised it were controlled by the elite upper class – inevitably upper caste, and more often than not, Brahmin.

A revolution was brewing, of which Ilaiyaraaja was a chief protagonist.  However, victory was still years away for the revolution.

All India Radio, run by upper class administrators who saw it as their responsibility to be the gatekeepers of culture, took exception to the song because this was interpreted as a clarion call from the irreverent, low class, folk-music peddling upstarts from a remote southern village.

The ban led to a procession by Ilaiyaraaja supporters on Chennai’s Mount Road; and the controversies helped fuel the song’s popularity. The popularity was also fueled by a predominantly rural (and lower caste) vehicle: loudspeakers in tea shops across the state that played the song repeatedly, breaking AIR’s monopoly over the airwaves.

Another song that All India Radio banned for vulgarity was ‘Kettele Inge‘. Again, the lyrics reveal no ostensible vulgarity, but the song was set to a folk tune, and the lyrics were in Brahmin dialect; this was enough for the establishment to take exception.

*****

In the nineteen eighties, Ilaiyaraaja’s dominance in the Tamil film industry was absolute. He was the music industry. He scored for big banner films and big heroes, and was the face of several small and medium budget films; his output was prolific and high quality.

He was the most saleable star in Tamil films.

His commercial heft made him untouchable – just not in the sense that his ancestors were deemed to be by the Brahminical society of past.

Even Kailasam Balachander, “liberal” Brahmin and a doyen of the old order, who until then had resisted using Ilaiyaraaja in his movies, gave in, but it was an uneasy relationship that fractured very soon.

Balachander’s last film with Ilaiyaraaja was the 1989 release, Pudhu Pudhu Arthangal. The movie was released with, as it turns out, stock music for its background score. The director blamed Ilaiyaraaja’s supposed arrogance; the truth emerged years later. The year saw a strike by the film workers’ union in Tamil Nadu, and Balachander could not use Ilaiyaraaja’s dates because of the strike. When the strike ended, and Balachander wanted his movie released right away, the composer was in Mumbai for another recording.

Balachander took Raaja’s refusal to dishonour a prior commitment as an insult, and went on to incorporate stock music as background music, an act that drew the ire of the ultra-professional Raaja. The songs from the movie were super-hits, propelling an ordinary movie to box office success.

ADVERTISEMENT

The movie turned out to be Balachander’s last major commercial hit as a director. But the narrative had been planted: Ilaiyaraja was arrogant and difficult to work with.

Interpreting this spat as driven by personal animosity – there was plenty of it – misses the big picture. The number and identity of people who immediately banded together against the composer in this period belies any such benign interpretation. Ilaiyaraaja may have been the emperor of common men’s hearts, and reluctantly embraced by the upper caste film establishment due to his success, but his identity was always a source of derision for the establishment.

And, the establishment struck back when it saw a chance. While the choice of new composers by producers or directors can never be faulted, there was more to the rapid decline of big banner opportunities for Ilaiyaraaja than met the eye.

*****

Ilaiyaraaja’s struggles and his background are important to understand the context of his Padma Vibhushan.

His Dalit identity needs to be acknowledged, not papered over. The casteism and discrimination in the film industry mean that only an extraordinary, once-in-centuries talent like Ilaiyaraaja can make it to the top if he is from an unprivileged background. The resentment against the only other reasonably successful Dalit artist of recent times, Pa Ranjith, reiterates this. It is not easy to be Dalit, stay true to your roots and succeed in the industry.

*****

Another aspect of the resentment of his identity accepts Ilaiyaraaja, but rejects his more rooted music. This writer was once chided for listening to the ‘soodhra‘ (lower caste) music of ‘Solla Marandha Kadhai‘ by a cousin. The cousin was an unabashed Ilaiyaraaja fan, yet here he was, casually rejecting an album for its roots.  The composer’s unabashed use of hitherto neglected folk instruments – such as the thaarai and thappattai, were also sources of derision for much of the establishment.

Ilaiyaraaja may have been accepted, but his background, even today, is anathema to a certain influential class of people.

Such is the environment in which Ilaiyaraaja operates still, and the one that young Dalit aspirants enter into.

Yes, Ilaiyaraaja is Dalit, and it’s entirely appropriate and important to state this fact in the context of his award. If you didn’t know it before, it is time to know and understand the disadvantages and hatred he faced due to it.

Yes, Ilaiyaraaja is Dalit, and a genius. He cannot be a role model for aspirants – geniuses seldom are role models. The above average talent that emerges from similar backgrounds like his deserves a better environment than he faced. The route to that is not proclaiming that genius is casteless, but acknowledging that even he was accepted only after he embraced theism and his own brand of spiritualism.

Yes, Ilayaraaja is Dalit. His phenomenal career and immortal creations are all the more beautiful and rare, when you consider the innumerable disadvantages he continues to face because of his identity.

*****

The author can be found on Twitter at @nom_d_plum

Opinions expressed on Silverscreen.in are those of the contributor, and not those of the company or its employees. 

Translation of the article by @PrasannaR_ (Prasanna Venkatesan):
https://medium.com/@prasannaR_/%E0%AE%87%E0%AE%B3%E0%AF%88%E0%AE%AF%E0%AE%B0%E0%AE%BE%E0%AE%9C%E0%AE%BE-%E0%AE%92%E0%AE%B0%E0%AF%81-%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%8D-%E0%AE%85%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%88%E0%AE%9A%E0%AF%8D-%E0%AE%9A%E0%AF%8A%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%B2%E0%AE%A4%E0%AF%8D-%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%AF%E0%AE%99%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%95-%E0%AE%B5%E0%AF%87%E0%AE%A3%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%9F%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%AF%E0%AE%A4%E0%AE%BF%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%8D%E0%AE%B2%E0%AF%88-920f3826707a