The Santhome church itself was built after vandalising the Kapaleeshwarar temple. Most Hindus of Chennai don't even know that the present site of the Kapaleeshwarar temple in Mylapore is not the original site.

This slow cultural appropriation is the modus operandi for digesting a native culture and completely replacing it with an Abrahamic one, successfully followed everywhere by the proselytising Abrahamic faiths. The sentinel example of this process is the ancient pagan practices of celebrating the winter solstice, which was converted into Christmas.

The missionaries appear to be doing something similar here. They have turned yoga and meditation into secular practices and now they have Christian Yoga and meditation. Now they are secularising Carnatic music and Indian classical dance. Tomorrow they will tell you how the shankarabharanam raga is actually yesobharanam and how it is based in the Bible; and the media will extol the same and expect us to applaud, or will run a smear campaign against the discerning. My concern, however, is that there would be nobody left to even identify such appropriation and call it out if it happens sometime in the future, because we Hindus are quick to jump on the “secular” bandwagon and say our culture and its symbols have nothing to do with our religious beliefs.

Can anything be further from the truth? When any musician or dancer performs their art without understanding the bhavam (emotive spirit of the lyric) behind the composition, we reject such a performance as soulless. The bhaavam is the life of the performance and it can only stem from bhakti (devotion) and understanding of the spirit of the composition and the composer. Carnatic music and Indian classical dance are rooted in Hinduism, just like yoga is. Without Hinduism and bhakti, there is no glory in the music or the dance. When we see a Vempati Chinna Satyam dance, the Shivashtakam, we see Shiva himself doing the tandav. When we hear a Balamuralikrishna sing the Pancharatnakritis, we can visualise Tyagaraja himself doing padapuja of Sri Rama. This is possible only due to the devotion of the artist towards the art and the composer and deep understanding of the emotive spirit behind the composition. Take the emotion away, and there will be no difference between these great artists and any learned member of the audience. We sway to the emotive spirit and not the brilliance of the jatis or the swarams.

While the leftist ecosystem expects us to stand by and watch as culture is appropriated, and celebrate it as some great achievement of secular ideals, non-Hindus become heads of Kalakshetra and remove idols of Nataraja himself. Some singers may be ready to kill the bhavam for whatever compulsions they may have, and then claim to have done it because art is secular and they want to foster communal harmony; but we, as art lovers, would do well to remember that there is no Indian classical music and dance without Hinduism. We should remember this not only for the sake of art, but for the sake of Hinduism itself.

Remember, the cultures and religions that let their practices be digested into Abrahamic faiths thinking, “Oh, what harm can come out of cultural appropriation”, are today extinct, and we learn of them only in museums and encyclopaedias. Cultural appropriation is dangerous. It strips a culture of its uniqueness and makes the followers of the religion that the culture is based in to think there is nothing special about their way of life – and this is what stirs trouble.

This rarely happens in one large sweep; it is a gradual process. We view each such small change as harmless and keep adjusting to the new equilibrium, losing out on it one bit at a time. New generations do not even have an idea of how things stood even a few decades ago and directly start from the new state of things, and thus whole cultures and traditions just vanish and are replaced by their new form. Consequent generations have no knowledge or pride in their native inherent culture and look at everything as an import of the West and keep feeling inferior to the invading cultures.

Protect your culture, stand up for the great composers of Carnatic music and Indian classical dance, for yoga and its origins from Shiva. The media and artists, driven sometimes by selfish motives, money, and vested interests, would slander your stand as bigotry. They have all the reason to do so as the preservation of Indian culture is not their priority. Be unapologetic about your stand, voice it out loud and clear, and boycott their concerts as the cause is worthy. Hinduism and Indian culture are worthy enough to be preserved in the face of this relentless and all-devouring slow-but-steady evangelism of the Abrahamic religions.