Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia’s sons say his biography gives impression they are illegitimate.
It came as music to Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia’s ears. The Bombay high court on Wednesday refused to grant ad-interim relief to his sons over their defamation suit against him and Surjit Singh, who has penned Chaurasia’s authorised biography Woodwinds of Change.
The sons — Vinay and Ajay, from the flautist’s first wife Kamala — had sought a permanent injunction, or stay, on the further publication of copies of the biography in other languages. The biography was released on July 1, 2008, which marked Chaurasia’s 70th birthday. However, Chaurasia and Singh has been directed by justice Anoop Mohta to file an affidavit in six weeks.
The sons object to a chapter in the biography relating to Chaurasia’s marriage to Angurbala Roy, aka Anuradha, from whom the flautist has a son Rajeev. (Chaurasia used to stay with both Kamala and Anuradha, and all his sons, in Mumbai, till Kamala’s death a few years ago.)
Vinay and Ajay’s objection pertains to their understanding of the chapter that Chaurasia married Anuradha before Kamala. The sons say the biography gives the impression that the marriage of their mother took place after Anuradha’s and that this leads to the understanding that they are illegitimate; they say Kamala was married in 1957 and Anuradha in 1962. Stating this as defamatory, they seek damages of Rs1 lakh.
Singh’s lawyer Arindam Banerjee said the book says Chaurasia secretly married Anuradha at a temple in Mumbai on August 15, 1958. Shortly after, he was ordered back to his home town Allahabad by his father.
Banerjee said the book says that upon Chaurasia’s return from Allahabad, Kamala was with him. Three years later, on Anuradha’s insistence, Kamala moved in with Vinay and Ajay to Chaurasia’s residence. Rajeev was born after that. “All of them started living together happily. There was great understanding between both wives,” Banerjee said.
“This is an authorised biography. It implies that whatever is written in the book is with authorisation from and consent of Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia. Therefore, the onus of the correctness of what has been written lies with the subject (Chaurasia),” Banerjee said in his arguments before the court.
“My clients will be filing an appeal against the order,” said Mahesh Menon, counsel for Vinay and Ajay. “They maintain that they have been defamed. Their father, being a public figure of renown, ought not have done this to his own children.”
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