Remembering Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan

Remembering Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan

                                           Jawhar Sircar

               BV Keskar was Pandit Nehru’s Information Minister for a whole decade, from 1952 to 1962.  For him, Hindi film songs were a strict ‘no-no’ where Akashvani was concerned, as in his opinion, it should be the mission of the public broadcaster, to encourage only classical music. He had to face a lot of pressure and ridicule for this rather obdurate stand, but there is no doubt that had it not been for him, Indian classical music may have never reached and enthralled the common man, because classical music by its very nature was meant primarily for the elite.

          One of the several methods that Keskar introduced to popularise classical music, both Hindustani and Carnatic, was by starting the long tradition of organising the Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan. It all that started with a three-day concert on the 23^rd of October, 1954, at Sapru House, New Delhi. This year will mark the 64^th year of this festival that has helped so much in popularising Shastriya Sangeet and make it an integral part of India’s composite culture.  Keskar felt the government had to intervene to help India’s classical tradition because Pandits and Ustads were losing the support of numerous princes, rajas and nawabs who had to integrate their ‘princely states’ with the new Republic of India. Everyone was really very worried lot. We must remember that in the 1950s and 1960s, there were very few cities that had institutions for the public funding and  organising music annual concerts. Though the Presidency towns of Madras, Calcutta and Mumbai had their own version of the “All India Music Conference” in the early decades of the 20^th century, like Ramaswami Iyer’s AIMC and Music Academy of 1927-28 in Madras, support to classical music remained rather sporadic and uncertain. North Kolkata had a tradition started in (sayI Pathuriaghata and the Dover Lane Music Conference had commenced from 1952, but not every town was so lucky.

Keskar’s message was simple: the State would take over the role of princely patrons and ensure fair play, through a system of ‘grading’ artistes to ensure that the best received their just dues.  It was not absolutely perfect, but at least there was now a transparent system in position.  Keskar had started first with the National Music Programme and then branded the Akashvani Sangeet Sammlen into a reliable and steadfast patron of the arts. Initially, only music experts of international renown were invited and these concerts were broadcast live, but as the Sammelan spread to other important cities of India, AIR decentralised its broadcast and dissemination, to its regional networks and Akashvani reached the common man in his home, as classical music never had, hitherto before. Regional classical artistes vied with each other to participate in this grand exercise. But what was more important was the preservation of these invaluable recordings and Akashvani archives thus served as the repository of the nation’s cultural wealth. Just as Vividh Bharati played a sterling role in ‘democratising’ popular music among the masses, Akashvani’s Sangeet Sammelan did wonders for classical music. 

 Old timers recall how the legendary Bade Ghulam Ali Khan was unable to participate as his health was failing fast, but almost every famous vocalist or musician was indeed honoured to be chosen to perform for this Sammelan.  Top-Grade and A-Grade artistes made it a point to perform in as many festivals as possible, and even now many look back and still complain that they had not been invited as many times as they deserved. India’s musical legends are available to us today though recordings of their performances at the Sammelans.  I mention a few who are with us no more: M S Subbulakshmi, D V Paluskar, Amir Khan, Ali Akbar Khan, Ravi Shankar, Bhismillah Khan, Pannalal Ghosh, Kumar Gandharva, Mallikarjun Mansoor, Gangubai Hangal, Acharya Brahaspathi, Bhimsen Joshi, V G Jog, S Balachander, Shemangudi Srinivas, G N Balasubramanyam et al. The best renditions of living legends like Pandit Jasraj, Bala Muralikrishna, Kishori Amonkar, Rajan and Sajan Mishra, Debu Choudhary, Amjad Ali Khan, Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, T N Krishna, Hari Prasad Chaurasi and Shiv Kumar Sharma, are now part of AIR’s archival masterpieces.

Those were the golden days of Akashvani before television captured the imagination of the nation.  But artistes continued to perform even after Doordarshan splashed with colour in 1982 and came up with memorable programmes.   It became an accepted practice to begin this Sammelan on the same day, in mid-October each year though a few were held as late as December because sarkari funds were not available.  The number of days was, however, reduced in the late 1980s from three to just one as it was becoming increasingly unmanageable and costly. 

While some events have a mixture of Hindustani and Carnatic classicals, there are eight events meant only for Hindustani classical music and there are four concerts reserved for Carnatic in the south. A judicious mix between the seniors and the relatively junior artistes is another practice of these Sammelans. Those who are senior artistes of today recall with pride how they had performed on the same stage as veritable legends. Flipping through the brochure of 1987, one sees veterans  like Sharan Rani, , Ali Ahmad Hussian, C R Vyas, Bimal Mukherjee, Basavraj Rajguru, T.V.Soundararajan, Ghulam Mustafa Khan rubbing shoulders with un-recognisable young faces like Vishwa Mohan Bhatt, Buddhaditya Mukherjee, Parveen Sultana as well as the child-like face of L Subhramanyam.

Anecdotes are in plenty. When Savita Devi, the renowned vocalist, ended her performance at Vadodara in the late hours of the night, the audience simply refused to get up, even after repeated requests that the evening had ended. Savita Devi had no option but to continue playing for about an hour more, until, the crowd was satisfied. 

Arvind Parikh still remembers how he was signalled desperately by Gajanand Rao Joshi at the Indore Sammelan to literally race through the last part of his recital, as he was to make space for Ustad Bismillah Khan’s shehnai. Joshi’s watch was running much too fast and it was only when the audience greeted Gajanandji’s announcement with laughter, that he looked at his watch and went red in the face.

Shanno Khurana recalls how she was hijacked overnight to perform in Lucknow in the mid 80s, because Madhuri Mattoo could not appear, and after a very satisfying performance she went home.  It was then that she received a panic call from the Programme Officer that the recording equipment had failed and they would lose their jobs if she did not come to the studio once again and re-do the entire performance, from memory.  How official records were fudged and the sound of the audiences’ claps brought in at the right intervals remain, however, a matter of mystery.

          After the digitization and the complete commodification of music nowadays, we have a greater choice to access music but every day listeners in millions prefer Indian classical music. Today, so many decades later, when we take classical music for granted, we must recall how precarious were the early years after Independence, when a new nation called India struggled to form its identity in the family of nations. It had not only to to rediscover its past glory in music but also improvise new means to ensure that every citizen was aware of its heritage and then take an informed choice. The role of the Akashvani Sangeet Sammelan has surely come down in the last few decades but we have to remember the critical role that BV Keskar and his Akashvani played — even long after he left — to ensure that the great classical tradition was embedded in the public mind. And also, the knowledge that royalty enjoyed in the past was available to the common man — as democracy ruled over sound waves.