[Reader-list] FW: The Free Chandramohan Committee: Public Meeting, 12 May 2007

[Shilpa Phadke]

Forwarded message ----------
From: Art <art at gallerychemould.com>
Date: May 11, 2007 4:02 PM 

The Free Chandramohan Committee: Public Meeting, 12 May 2007


The Free Chandramohan Committee will hold a public meeting on
Saturday, 12 May 2007, at 6 pm at Gallery Chemould Prescott Road, to 
protest against the arrest of the young artist Chandramohan by the
Baroda police earlier this week.

The meeting will be addressed by a number of speakers, among them
noted cultural activists, commentators, film-makers, lawyers and 
artists, who will express solidarity with Chandramohan and draw up
practical measures to secure his release.

Among other issues, the meeting will discuss the ways by which the
constitutional  safeguards can be implemented, as well as legal 
redress by which the onus in cases of alleged incitement of communal
disharmony can be placed squarely on demagogues who distort artworks
for their own political ends. More significantly, a lunatic fringe
cannot claim monopoly over public space. Let us resolve not to 
cedepublic space to the forces of intolerance. Equally importantly, we
must re-assert our claim, as citizens, to the resources of iconography
- to which image-makers and storytellers of every kind have always had 
a right. Iconography is not the preserve of a few self-appointed
custodians of religion alone.

Date: 12 May 2007 (Saturday)
Time: 6 pm
Place: Gallery Chemould Prescott Road
           Queens Mansion (3rd Floor) 
           A K Naik Marg
           Fort, Mumbai 400 001
           Phones: 91 22 22000211, 91 22 22000212, 91 22 22000213
           Email:
<http://by122fd.bay122.hotmail.msn.com/cgi-bin/compose?mailto=1&msg=30A5E1C0
-1F56-4628-A812-DCA9967ED52B&start=0&len=13492&src=&type=x&to=gallerychemoul
d at gmail.com&cc=&bcc=&subject=&body=&curmbox=00000000-0000-0000-0000-00000000
0001&a=24e315ba5eb8c1937e260109a6985bbb980704e288bb5ebc6a386446965a0053>
gallerychemould at gmail.com

*

An Outrage in Baroda

An intolerable violation of cultural and academic freedom by communal
forces took place in Baroda on Wednesday, 9 May 2007, when a group of
Vishwa Hindu Parishad goons led by local BJP leader Niraj Jain stormed 
into the campus of the Faculty of Fine Arts, M S University, Baroda.
Breaking into the annual display of the final year students, the goons
abused and attacked a student, Chandramohan, claiming that they found
his works obscene and offensive to religious sentiments.

The police, entering the campus, arrested Chandramohan without a
proper warrant and without consulting the Faculty of Fine Arts, while
allowing the inflammatory Jain and his goons to go free. Later, Jain 
was cordially received by the Vice-Chancellor of the University. This
august functionary has not only refused to register a First
Information Report against Jain, but has also refused to extend any
assistance to Chandramohan. Indeed, the Vice-Chancellor has demanded 
that the student and the Dean of the Faculty of Fine arts should
apologise to Jain.

Chandramohan is now being held by the police while a charge-sheet is
being prepared. He has been charged with various non-bailable 
offences, including the attempt to incite communal disharmony and
public obscenity.

This constitutes a straightforward violation of a young artist's right
to express himself. It is also a grave case of the invasion of 
academic space by the police. Had such an incident taken place in
Dhaka or Islamabad, we would all have been protesting against the
dictatorial ways of authority.

*

Questions before Us

The Baroda outrage raises serious questions about the State's ability, 
or even desire, to protect the cultural freedoms of individuals. We
strongly condemn all attempts on the part of communal forces to
violate cultural freedoms.

The Baroda outrage takes on an ominous colour, given the history of 
infringements of artistic freedom during the last two decades,
especially the campaign of vilification and persecution launched
against M F Husain, and the rise of a chilling intolerance.

Can we allow India to become an illiberal democracy, guided by 
competing populisms? Surely the onus, in such cases, should be on the
people who create communal disharmony, using a cultural work as their
pretext, and not on artists?




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