[Reader-list] more on baroda.Fwd: Hindu Sacred Art Offends Self-appointed Custodians of Hindu Culture

[Amitabh Kumar]

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Subject: Fwd: Hindu Sacred Art Offends Self-appointed Custodians of Hindu
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From: Tara Lal <tara at chatterjeeandlal.com>
Date: May 11, 2007 7:28 PM
Subject: Hindu Sacred Art Offends Self-appointed Custodians of Hindu Culture
To: mort at chatterjeeandlal.com

 *Hindu Sacred Art Offends Self-appointed Custodians of Hindu Culture*





In a grimly ironic turn of events following the 9 May arrest, without

a proper warrant, of Chandramohan, a final-year fine arts student at

the M S University, Baroda, the self-appointed custodians of Hindu

culture have now demanded the closure of an exhibition showing the

vital role of the erotic in Hindu sacred art.



Earlier today, 11 May, students of the Faculty of Fine Arts at the M S

University put up an exhibition of reproductions of images drawn from

across 2500 years of Indian art. In a silent protest against the

brutality with which their fellow student has been treated for

exhibiting works that BJP and VHP activists claim are offensive and

obscene, the students put up pictures of the Gudimallam Shiva, perhaps

the earliest known Shiva image, which combines the lingam with an

anthropomorphic form; a Kushan mukha-linga or masked lingam;

Lajja-gouris from Ellora and Orissa, resplendent in their fecund

nakedness; erotic statuary from Modhera, Konark and Khajuraho; as well

as Raga-mala paintings from Rajasthan. All these images, among the

finest produced through the centuries in the subcontinent, celebrate

the sensuous and the passionate dimensions of existence – which, in

the Hindu world-view, are inseparably twinned with the austere and the

contemplative.



This treasure of Hindu sacred art did not win the favour of the

establishment. The Pro Vice Chancellor issued a verbal request that

the exhibition be closed, which the Dean of the Fine Arts Faculty, Dr

Shivaji Panikkar, ignored. A written order followed, and was similarly

ignored. The Pro Vice Chancellor then arrived at the venue,

accompanied by some members of the Syndicate of the University. They

requested Dr Panikkar to close down the exhibition, then ordered him

to do so. When it became clear that the Dean would not bend to their

will, they had the exhibition locked.



It appears that the champions of a resurgent Hindu identity are

acutely embarrassed by the presence of the erotic at the centre of

Hindu sacred art. As they may well be, for the roots of Hindutva do

not lie in Hinduism. Rather, they lie in a crude mixture of German

romanticism, Victorian puritanism and Nazi methodology.



What happens next? Will the champions of Hindutva go around the

country destroying temple murals, breaking down monuments, and burning

manuscripts and folios?





Ranjit Hoskote



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