DO WE STILL NEED A CMANA ? IF SO, FOR WHAT ?

     The late Seventies when CMANA (The Carnatic Music Association of North America) was formed was indeed quite a different time compared to today.  The population of Indians in the USA was very small, with a concentration in the East Coast being primarily in Queens, New York, with even New Jersey sporting but a minuscule population of Indians.  There were few teachers of Carnatic music among us, and only a handful below eighteen who could sing Carnatic music even at the level of a varnam or perform an instrument.  There was no public, not-for-profit organization devoted mainly to Carnatic music.  Getting to listen to a leading Carnatic musician in a live concert was a rare luxury and available only in places like New York such as when an international body like the UN hosted M.S. Subbulakshmi, or at Wesleyan which had an ethno-music department.   In most of these respects, not only the East Coast of the USA, but the entire USA has undergone a major change.

     It would not be an exaggeration to say that CMANA was very instrumental in providing a backdrop in which Carnatic music could grow enormously not only in the East Coast but all over the USA.  Unlike some other organizations, which were very local in focus and often conducted all their events across just a couple of days in a year, CMANA was there year round, and year after year, despite severe losses and many other hardships.  Filling a major void, CMANA organized, on a regular basis, two tours to the US each year of a visiting troupe from India making the artists available at near or below cost to many centers including both major cities like Atlanta, Philadelphia, Seattle, and Los Angeles and many small towns across USA, where only a few Indian families were present. It has helped the growth of many local Indian cultural organizations in the US.    It provided a forum for many visiting artists, local teachers, and promising local musicians to perform. Through its ‘Great Composers Day’ and events like ‘Teachers Day,’ and programs honoring musicians and composers, CMANA raised the interest and awareness for Carnatic music among the diaspora and created a market for it.  By holding various lecture demonstrations and the like (even at significant financial loss), the association has served to increase the level of music appreciation among the general audience and to provide opportunities for the young and the local musicians to hone their skills.

    CMANA’s contributions did not stop there, but went all the way back to the very citadel of Carnatic music and the community of Carnatic musicians.  In fact, a specific event that led to the formation of CMANA was the way two (well-known) musicians got stranded due to an unexpected funding crisis experienced by their (American) sponsor and forced them to take refuge with Dr. P. Rajagopalan, CMANA’s founder, and Mr. Sury Subban who has served CMANA in many capacities and is now an Honorary (and paid) Patron.   That event heightened the need for a non-profit, public organization owned by the Indian community at large that could support Carnatic music and musicians.  Dr. Rajagopalan initiated a call to friends in New York city admitting although that one more organization may be desired by people only “as much as a bullet in the head,” but was indeed necessary.  He received warm support from many lovers of Carnatic music, and the rest is history.

     Many of the now well-known musicians were introduced for the first time to the USA by CMANA, and to many of them that invitation formed a major milestone catapulting them to greater fame even in music circles in India.  The list of such musicians include some easily recognized names like Mandolin Srinivas, P.S. Narayanaswamy, the Rudrapatnam Brothers, K.S. Gopalakrishnan, and Sudha Ragunathan to list just a few.  With no parochial or other vested interest, the Association worked for music without any favoritism based on any criteria other than musical excellence and service to music.  With a carefully crafted award Sangeethasagara that is unique in many respects such as a clear up-front listing of the criteria for the award and the requirement of a high level of multifarious achievement for a recipient besides being just a concert performer, it has honored artists of the highest caliber.  Among the most memorable aspects of this award is the fact that it brought the venerable Semmanugudi Srinivasa Iyer out of a long period of hibernation back on the stage and got four generations of the Pattammal family to perform together.  The Semmangudi award program was even more special in that after a long time, Professor T.N. Krishnan, another Sangeethasagara, played as an accompanist after many decades.  Thus, the Association’s services do not stop at the shores of the USA.  It has established several worthy endowments in India to encourage young musicians.   I am indeed proud to have a long association with CMANA and am a staunch supporter of it.

    It is nice to see that the US landscape has changed in many ways for the better with a vibrant interest in Carnatic music supported by a large number of organizations, teachers, students, and patrons.  The number of organizers conducting music tours and holding Carnatic music programs has multiplied enormously to the extent that in places like Central New Jersey, several concerts take place concurrently on the same day and sometimes even during the same time slots by different entities.  Many organizers support performances by youngsters encouraging them to reach higher levels of proficiency.   But with a well-established ‘market’ for it, the music scene and musicians have also become quite commercialized posing several hurdles for a public, not-for-profit organization in conducting many activities it once pioneered even at significant loss and personal sacrifice of numerous volunteers and donors.  In this backdrop, an inevitable question that arises is indeed the one forming our title, “Do we still need CMANA?”  Outrageous as it may seem to some, this question has been raised even by some (younger) musicians and local teachers of music.  I would be lying if I did not admit that it even crosses my mind, although only rarely and only when I get too dismayed by the artists' and listening public’s inability to distinguish and discriminate between organizations.  Thus, the question is indeed one that deserves to be answered at least once.

    Consider Chennai as an example (although I could pick Mumbai, Bangalore, Trivandrum or many other places and other organizations).  Imagine someone asking why, given the large number of music organizations, television and multimedia, and ongoing entrepreneurial efforts of individual musicians, an organization like the Music Academy or the Narada Gana Sabha should continue to exist.  I am sure any sane person would consider the question as insane for many good reasons.  Those reasons are precisely the ones that not only would obligate an affirmative answer to the question in our title, but will even provide the fundamental reasons for strengthening and supporting CMANA:

1.     When it comes to Carnatic music and related fine arts, there are institutions and there are ‘organizations.’  The latter concentrate primarily on entertainment and, oftentimes, on private profits, but the formers’ goals go far beyond. Organizations like the Music Academy, Narada Gana Sabha, and Shanmukhananda Sabha are institutions that serve the art form in diverse ways.  They celebrate the stalwarts while at the same time expending much effort to sustain the art form and to generate and support future talent.  They have helped to raise the respect and stature of the very art form and its practitioners.  Some have established schemes to support musicians and musicologists, who have not been fortunate, with pensions etc.  They conduct scholarly discussions and events raising the art to higher and higher levels.  CMANA certainly belongs in the class of institutions by its demonstrated focus, activities, and accomplishments that form an illustrious track record for a 100% volunteer organization.

2.     Organizers come, and organizers go, and that has been the painful history of Indian music and dance in the USA.  When an organization is by an individual or by a small oligarchy and run with a vested interest of profit or to promote a special subset of artists or students, its activities and operation are not only hostage to the whims of one or a small few, but the very continuity of the organization gets threatened when a main person can no longer perform a lead role.  One reason Dr. Rajagopalan chose to make CMANA a public organization with elected trustees etc., despite recommendation from many founding members to keep it as a private entity, is to ensure continuity and to eliminate as much as possible the operation of vested interests or profit motives.  Again, there are very few organizations of the type of CMANA devoted to Carnatic music and related fine arts that fit these lofty criteria.

3.     A Harvard Business Review article on non-profits has emphasized the importance of transparency and fiscal responsibility as two of the most important desiderata of a real non-profit.  In its own words, this is to ensure that the obligation of the founders and trustees towards future generations – note not just their cohorts, but future generations – are met, and to assure continuity of operation over a very long future.  They called this ‘inter-generational equity.’  CMANA shines as a (rare) beacon in these respects with successive teams of trustees sharing much of the financial information with CMANA members with a high level of transparency and running its affairs with utmost probity and fiscal responsibility.  We not only need CMANA, but we need to put pressure on other organizations to step up to the highest levels that CMANA has maintained from its start in matters that characterize a true non-profit, public organization enjoying tax subsidies.

4.     An unfortunate fact of the Indian diaspora is that it has carried with it the baggage of all forms of divisions that divide Indians.  Though many organizations based on state, language, and other criteria may support Carnatic music and the arts, CMANA’s greatest strength is its non-sectarian character.  Never in my long tenure of over twenty-five years with CMANA can I cite one instance where anything other than musical merit has played a role in the selection of a musician for a tour or even for a single concert.  We, as trustees, have differed and even quarreled sometimes, but never on the issue of maintaining a high level of impartiality.  An event like the Great Composers Day, for example, is conducted with so much meticulous care to avoid even a semblance of a conflict of interest in the selection of judges for the competitions or in the opportunity to youngsters irrespective of who their guru is.  Yes, we need organizations like CMANA for this reason too.

     Not that I cannot cite more reasons to support my affirmative answer regarding the need for continued presence of CMANA, but if the above four will not convince you to agree and to support CMANA strongly, then nothing more will.  So, let me turn to what role CMANA should play in the future to continue to distinguish itself from the crowd of music organizers in the USA, a good many of whom may be motivated by a variety of interests not as lofty as CMANA’s.

    a. First and foremost, the Indian community in the US has come of age, and we now have a group of young Carnatic musicians born and brought up in America.  CMANA should take it as an important objective to help them attain high visibility in India and around the world so that they have a level playing field that is well deserved by their hard work and effort.  Similarly, there are many highly talented young musicians in India who lack visibility in the US, with most organizations here marked now by a competition for only name brand artists.  CMANA should revive its pledge to young talent from India by making them visible to music lovers in the USA.  I am pleased to see that CMANA has forged a major partnership with Narada Gana Sabha for this purpose.   A similar effort with one other major organization in India, I learn, may also bear fruit soon.  The trustees of CMANA deserve high kudos for thinking up such a collaboration and working hard towards making that possible.  It has indeed been my pleasure to help them in both those efforts.

    b. Carnatic music in the East Coast is still by and large an activity limited to the South Indian diaspora.  The art form is highly rich in many ways, and it would be a travesty not to bring it to the attention of a wider audience – our North Indian fraternity and our American friends.   “Man does not live on bread alone,” and certainly not we, the successful Indians in the US; Carnatic music is a cultural heritage that we need to display as proof of that.  As a leading organization, CMANA should take it upon itself to elevate Carnatic music to higher levels by taking a variety of steps to draw support from a much larger community.  In the old days, we used to have lunch hour demonstration programs in several NJ companies to popularize and inform about Carnatic music.  These, and several other means of outreach, should be considered in addition to running music programs, tours and children’s competition aimed primarily at the Indian diaspora.

    c. It has become quite evident that a very narrow focus makes an organization not sustainable.  Although CMANA needs to maintain its primary focus on Carnatic music, pragmatism requires it to support other Indian art forms so that the support base of the organization can be enlarged.  This should also form a priority for CMANA.

    d. Finally, a major regret of mine is that even after forty years of existence, CMANA has not assured its long-term existence through an adequate corpus of endowments.  It does not even have a permanent venue of its own to conduct its activities.  For the perpetual continuity of CMANA, it is absolutely important that a careful plan is evolved to raise such an endowment and to lay down clearly the principles under which the association will continue to be operated in the future.  CMANA cannot meet loftier goals like the ones mentioned above unless the trustees and organizers are freed from the financial burden.  I truly believe that for CMANA to rise to its due level, activities have to be supported by an endowment to a substantial degree. 

     Although I have stated some lofty goals for CMANA (and am doing my part to make some of them possible), it is for the community at large to step up to the plate and make it happen.   This is a precious organization of the community and not of any individual or small group. We cannot just want our children to sustain an Indian connection and culture, but we need to also make it easy for them to do that.  We need to support CMANA much more than we do at present recognizing its uniqueness as an institution and as a great legacy for future generations.  For example, a sufficient number of us are at the stage of life when we are in the exercise of estate planning, and I would beseech every one of the senior members of CMANA (and senior citizens interested in Carnatic music and related fine arts) to step up to the plate and make it possible for CMANA to free CMANA from the fear of going bankrupt through some unanticipated major loss or competition from vested interests.  Based on the support that has made CMANA to have survived and prospered this long, I have the confidence that you will not only agree with my analysis, but will join me in strengthening CMANA. 

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[1] Dr. V. Ramaswami is a former Secretary and President of CMANA.   With a keen interest in things Indian, he has authored many articles related to India and has also written recently a book titled, “innovation by India for India, the Need and the Challenge.”  He holds no official position in CMANA, and opinions expressed here are personal and do not represent those of CMANA as an organization.