The Governmental lapse in officially communicating the allotment of two acres of land and the decision to constitute a society and its governing body replete with bureaucrats and others prompted sarod maestro Amjad Ali Khan to eschew the project for setting up an international music institute in the capital.
Mr. Khan told The Hindu on Friday that so far he had not received any official communication on allotting land at Kadakampally village, near the Veli tourism village, since the decision was made on February 18, 2016.
He was peeved at the formation of the society for managing the institute. The society governing body comprises Mr. Khan, his wife and sons, bureaucrats and others.
Breach
This was in total contravention of his concept about the institute and he decided to opt out. “Till date I haven’t received an official letter on land allocation, but only a message to create an organisation consisting of my family members and bureaucrats, among others. If the Government was keen on floating an organisation, it could have opted for Sarod Ghar, a registered organisation in Delhi,” he says.
Mr. Khan expressed his desire to settle down in Kerala and open the institute to former Chief Minister Oommen Chandy when he was honoured with the Swati Sangeetha Puraskaram in 2015. Mr. Chandy promptly consented.
Gurukula system
“My dream was to revive the traditional gurukula system and have a guru-sishya paramapara that would master and propagate Indian music, its two streams, North Indian and South Indian schools. The guru would be the institution and his disciples would take lessons from him in a bohemian fashion. It was not just meant to be another institute for paying salary to teachers by collecting fees from the students,” he says.
The subsequent decisions to form the society and its governing body were all felt to be a deviation from the original concept and he backed out.
Mr. Khan who is travelling all over the world giving concerts said that those inclined to learning music should go to him with the sole intent to understand it and not to thrive in reality shows. “Now the YouTube is the guru for the youngsters and that is not advisable,” he said.
He also voices his concerns about linguistic barriers that tend to divide people and warns against injecting communal venom in impressionable minds with devious intent.
