The Madras High Court on Tuesday impressed upon the need for the State government to safeguard the interests of traditional musicians such as those who play Thavil and Nagaswaram and lamented that the art and artistes were on the verge of extinction.
Justices M.M. Sundresh and R. Hemalatha told the government counsel that failure to save the traditional art forms would lead to the erasing of the rich history and culture of the State. They hoped the government would not allow any such setback.
The observations were made during the hearing of a public interest litigation petition filed by K.R. Kukesh, president of Tamil Nadu Isai Vellalar Ilaigner Peravai, seeking a direction to the government to provide COVID-19 relief. His counsel contended that as of now they had been made part of the welfare board for folk artistes though they had insisted upon creating a separate board for Thavil, Talam, Mridangam , flute and Veena players besides Bharatanatyam performers.
In its affidavit, the petitioner association stated that its members were earning their livelihood by performing at marriage functions and temple ceremonies. However, due to the prolonged lockdown to fight COVID-19, they were struggling a lot economically. When their case was listed for hearing along with another case filed seeking financial assistance to unregistered construction workers too, a Special Government Pleader sought a week’s time for the appearance of Advocate General Vijay Narayan.
Accepting the request made by the law officer, the judges said that they would also want the A-G to represent the cases considering the larger public interest involved in the matter and adjourned the matters to Monday for further hearing.
