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Singing at Communist meetings to NDA’s Rajya Sabha pick — Ilaiyaraaja’s journey to Parliament

The 79-year-old maestro was nominated to the Rajya Sabha earlier this week. Many believe the choice to be a “political move” on the part of the BJP.

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Chennai: Nearly five decades after he scored music for his first film Annakili, in Tamil, Ilaiyaraaja — the 79-year-old maestro, who has composed thousands of songs in multiple languages — was nominated to the Rajya Sabha earlier this week.

His nomination came alongside those of three other noted personalities — screenwriter and director V. Vijayendra Prasad, veteran athlete P.T. Usha and philanthropist Veerendra Heggade. While Ilaiyaraaja will represent Tamil Nadu in the upper house of parliament, the others will represent Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka, respectively.

The President of India nominates 12 members from among people with special knowledge or practical experience in the fields of literature, science, art and social service, to the Rajya Sabha for a period of six years, on the advice of the Prime Minister.

Ilaiyaraaja’s Rajya Sabha nomination came as no surprise, however, since speculations had been rife since April, when the music composer wrote a foreword for a book, comparing Prime Minister Narendra Modi with B.R. Ambedkar. His words had drawn backlash from many at the time.

The comparison had also earned him the ire of the BJP’s political rivals.

In the foreword for the book Ambedkar & Modi: Reformer’s Ideas, Performer’s Implementation, Ilaiyaraaja wrote: “Both these striking personalities succeeded against odds that people from socially disempowered sections of the society face. Both saw poverty and stifling social structures from close quarters and worked to dismantle them, but both are also practical men who believe in action rather than mere thought exercises.”

He added: “Pro-women legislation such as the banning of triple talaq and the rise in sex ratio due to the historic ‘Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao’ movement, which has brought in social transformation, is something that Dr B.R. Ambedkar would have been proud of.”

While writer and social activist Shalin Maria Lawrence told The Print she did not personally agree with the foreword, she said it doesn’t mean Ilaiyaraaja is a supporter of the BJP.

“Ilaiyaraaja has always projected himself as apolitical. He has been on stage with Jayalalithaa (former Tamil Nadu chief minister and AIADMK leader) and Kalaignar Karunanidhi (former CM and DMK leader), but if you say he was associated with either party, that’s not accurate,” she said.

“Similarly, he has never endorsed the BJP’s ideology, or the views of the party. He has always been secular,” she added.

In fact, the music maestro’s initiation into music had come through attending political meetings organised by the Communist Party of India.


Also read: How Coke came to be known as Thanda and will now be synonymous with Ilaiyaraaja


The language of Ilaiyaraaja’s music

Affectionately referred to as “Raaja sir” by music lovers and fans, Ilaiyaraaja was born in the hamlet of Pannaipuram — close to Tamil Nadu’s Madurai district — in 1943.

He was exposed to political activities from a young age through his older brother Pavalar Varadarajan, a prominent Dalit-Communist leader and it was while he accompanied his brothers to political meetings organised by the Communist Party of India that he was introduced to music.

Ilaiyaraaja was a singer in political meetings, said T. Dharmaraj, professor and head, department of folklore and cultural studies, Madurai Kamaraj University. “His older brother Pavalar Varadarajan, took all his brothers to various villages to perform in Communist Party meetings, they were the crowd pullers,” he told ThePrint.

Lawrence noted that it was when she started learning about politics that she understood Ilaiyaraaja’s whole family was actively involved in politics. “They were campaigning, doing a lot of political activism through music and poetry,” she said. “The brothers wrote very progressive left wing songs.”

When Ilaiyaraaja later moved to Madras — as Chennai was referred to at the time — to find work in Tamil cinema, he infused some of his politics into his work, say observers.

Writing in The Wire in 2018, coinciding with Ilaiyaraaja turning 75, academic Kartikeyan Damodaran wrote: “Ilaiyaraaja provided music that satisfied the expectations of large sections of society — which includes the working classes and the rural masses — and brought attention to their way of life and gave meaning to their emotions, desires, sorrows, anxieties and struggles.”

Damodaran cited the song Pattale Puthi Sonnar (through songs he expressed morality) in the 1989 film Karagattakaran (dancer, where Karagattakam is a Tamil folk dance). “The lines“Ezhaikalum Yeval Adimaigalaai Iruppadhai Pada Sonnargal (they asked me to sing how the poor were toiling and living as slaves), exemplify that,” he wrote.

Lawrence noted that many of Ilaiyaraaja’s songs from the 1980s show a communist influence. In the 1983 film Kan Sivanthal Man Sivakkum (If the eyes turn red, the earth turns red) she said, “In the song Manidha Manidha (mankind mankind), you can hear a Russian brass band music with trumpets and drums. It is a really invigorating communist song.”

Though his music had communist undertones when he entered the film industry, said Lawrence, “he was also inclusive”, working with filmmakers from different social and political backgrounds.

The composer is also known to have contributed funds to help build a tower at the Srirangam Temple.

“Whatever was in his mind, would be translated into music,” said Lawrence.

A musician for all

It’s known when late writer K.A. Gunasekaran wrote Isaimozhiyum Illayarajavum (The Language of Music and Ilaiyaraaja) in 2022, the composer was offended and sued the publisher and author for defamation. However, not much information is available on this.

Soon after the Rajya Sabha nominations, Dharmaraj noted, many political analysts felt honouring Ilaiyaraaja will help BJP make inroads within the Dalit community in Tamil Nadu. The composer is himself a Dalit.

But “fans of Ilaiyaraaja cut across all caste, creed, religious background,” he said.

Dharmaraj too believes that the composer’s Rajya Sabha nomination is “not for his music”, but a “political move” on the part of the BJP against its rivals.

“In my opinion, rightful recognition for him would be establishing a university of music for popular film music, or a research centre in the name of Ilaiyaraaja. It should consist of archival materials of film music, where everybody can get access to all development and history of film music, cutting across all languages. That should be established by the central government,” he said.

Dharmaraj added: “He is a person who is an authority on folk, classical, western and film music and the greatest recognition would be establishing a research centre in his name.”

(Edited by Poulomi Banerjee)


Also read: Rajya Sabha was India’s ‘elite space’. Modi has breached it with Dalit artist Ilaiyaraaja


 

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