[Reader-list] Barodascape(2 of 3).

[Amitabh Kumar]

9th of May, 2003.
I sit in a cyber cafe in baroda with the attendant humming around me trying
to verify my photo id proof and wanting to know if kumar is actually my last
name. It's sweltering hot outside. Anyways this note is more about the
events that have recently taken place at the faculty of fine arts MSU
Baroda, and the questions towards which they point.
            What hapenned was this.The annual fine arts display is  a
congregation of all the alumni of fine arts. People come from all over India
to celebrate another batch that comes out of the academy. It was during this
event that another was born.  A final year M.V.A student of printmaking
called Chandu had put huge blow ups of his woodcut prints for the annual
display. The visuals included a Christ like image on the cross and his penis
being exposed and a few nude drawings of a few 'deity' like
figurines.Whatit led to was a few BJP activists storming into the
faculty and shutting
down the display. They claimed that these were misusing the license given to
an artist and were doing works simply for the sake of publicity. On being
asked by the BJP people about why he had created those images, he quipped
back saying that if M.F Hussain could do it , then why couldn't he ? That I
think did him in. The BJP Chief ranted and raved about how the works were
perverting and diluting their Culture. The culture that belonged to the
great city of Sayaji and the Gujarati community.He was the vigilante who
would not allow such absolute perversion.Under this pretext ,the dean in the
faculty was manhandled and slapped and the few students who spoke out were
cowed down by the cops. Yes , the cops were there throughout. Flexing their
paunch  and chatting up with the 'activists'. The artist in question,
Chandu, was taken away by the cops and had been earlier beaten up by the BJP
people. All the students were asked to leave the campus. Ofcourse no one
left. We stood their, muted by what we were witnessing.
The seedy nexus between the moral police and the police police can be best
described by this liitle observation:
BJP Activist: Either you seal the prints and destroy them or we will destroy
all the works in the display..
Cop : No, No... We don't need to get violent here.. don't worry the works
will be sealed.
   The entire place rife with rumours about why what had hapenned had
hapenned. A vendetta, an old grudge, politics(internal and external). But
the one rumor that stayed in my head was about how after the Hussain Scandal
there was a ruling passed by the supreme court that said that any image that
depicted a religious deity in a vulgar light was a crime and the artist was
liable .to being arrested. The dean too was rumoured to be facing arrest,
since everything was done under his supervision and he was responsible for
what had happenned.  The journalists jumped at anyone who spoke over a few
decibels and a crowd forming around that. The BJP activists with their hands
folded, glaring at anyone who looked like a fine arty( There is a certain
prototype of a fine arts student.. me for example). The few voices that came
from the faculty students and alumni being completely muted down by a
cacophony of shrieks of the BJP people. People shooting from everywhere .
Lost in a jungle of handycam's.

Last heard, the artist was in the jail under a non -bailable warrant. ( the
top lawyer in Baroda is also a well known BJP henchman ).. Ofcourse the joke
going around is that , our artist has made it in the Indian art marker.
Nothing works like a little censorship and 'hulla-gulla'. And I am also
under no illusion about the artists innocence. Of course he knew what he was
doing.. perhaps didn't assume the reactions would take such a turn , but I
am fairly certain he knew what he was getting into.. But this little note is
also not about the politics of Indian Art in particular..

What was happenning was bigger than a Chandu being arrested or a dean being
slapped. What was happenning was the blatant hijacking of  culture by force.
Or are there other tools? Who has the right to produce culture? Who can
stake claim to it? Who is the vigilante and who the goonda? What is
acceptable.? Can thoughts be censored ? Can the translation of thoughts be
censored ?

I do not how the events will unfold. In all probability a hero and a villain
will emerge. The Gods and Goondas will be created from different
perspectives and things would be so simple from so many different corners
that it would eventually die a respectful quiet death.

Should it ?




-- 
www.amitabhkumar.blogspot.com
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