 This is the transcript of an official letter that Sangeetham.com will be forwarding to the Department of Culture, Government of India.
To
R V Vaidyanatha Iyer
Secretary,
Department of Culture,
Ministry of Tourism and Culture,
Sastri Bhavan,
New Delhi 110 001.
Dear Sir,
I write this to you in my capacity as a practising Carnatic musician and as the editor of
www.Sangeetham.com, a website dedicated to the promotion of Carnatic music on the Internet.
As you may be aware Carnatic music is one of the premier classical music systems in the world. In this respect I would like to bring to your notice the abject lack of exposure to this wonderful music system in many parts of our country.
While there are a lot of attempts to promote our culture and heritage in other countries through the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, there seems to be hardly any effort to promote cross-cultural interaction in our own country.
For instance, we really should be having more festivals of India in different parts of the country first before venturing abroad.
As you know there is not much awareness of the many beautiful music and dance systems of our own country. How many in Tamil Nadu or Karnataka have seen Manipuri dance on theatre. For that matter how many Rajasthanis have really heard Carnatic music live.
In this context I would like to make a few suggestions to you:
1. Festivals of India, featuring the best in Indian classical music and dance should be held in different parts of the country.
2. These can coincide with the tourist season in order to give the artistes international attention.
3. These festivals can be part of a five-year plan whereby the entire country is covered state by state. Three or four states can be chosen every year for this purpose.
4. State Sangeet Natak academies can be used for the purpose of local coordination.
5. Because of the tourist attraction, travel and the hospitality industry will come forward with adequate sponsorships also, thereby benefiting from the mileage got.
6. Premier cultural websites or local cultural organisations can be involved in the selection and coordination with the artistes.
If this kind of a festival can be visualised and executed, it would go a long way towards bringing about a true cultural integration in the country. This kind of integration is what will give us the confidence and strength to exhibit our talents and skills on the world stage.
I take this opportunity to let you know that I will be most happy to be of any help in the matter of strategy or execution of the above mentioned idea. Of course, my own personal and selfish agenda in writing to you is the hope that Carnatic music can move out of the south of the Vindhyas and get exposure in other parts of our country.
Thanking you,
Sanjay Subrahmanyan
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