Over the last week, Carnatic musicians in Tamil Nadu have been targets of a vicious online campaign. Internet users have descended on their Facebook pages, taken over YouTube comments sections and even Twitter threads to term them – ‘traitors of Hinduism’, ‘shamers of Carnatic music’ and ‘disgusting cretins’.

And all this because right wing fringe groups and online harassers seem to have suddenly discovered that popular Carnatic singers including Nityashree Mahadevan and OS Arun have been actively singing devotional songs for gods of other religions in traditional Carnatic krithis (songs). These ‘rasikas’ (connoisseurs) as they call themselves, have labelled this a threat to Hindu culture and have launched an insulting offensive against the artistes.

The trouble first started for singer OS Arun when he was scheduled to sing at an event in Chennai titled ‘Yesuvin Sangama Sangeetham’ conceptualised by T Samuel Joseph (Shyaam) on August 6.