[Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi

[S. Jabbar]

You are welcome to critique the works of the artist and what you perceive to
be the motives that drive her/his art.

But why is it that you feel the need to defend the right to destroy that
art? 



On 8/25/08 8:44 PM, "Prabhakar Singh" <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com> wrote:

> The work of art is for the consumption of people but it should not consume the
> consumer itself.The artist should know it very well.He should not try to play
> with their faith just for his/her cheap fun.An artist who is not sensitive to
> emotions and faith of the people at large is not an artist at all.Art is not
> an end in itself.It is for the people and for the good of the society.
> Prabhakar
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
> To: Prabhakar Singh <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com>; Shuddhabrata Sengupta
> <shuddha at sarai.net>; Sarai <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Sent: Monday, 25 August, 2008 8:25:17 PM
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi
> 
> People have become rather emotional and touchy of late.  Everyone seems to
> have become hypersensitive and quick to take offense-- of course it helps if
> there are TV cameras to record one's display of piety.
> 
> Is one's faith so fragile that a drawing or a piece of poetry or writing and
> can shake it?  Evidently so and mores the pity.  Why tear down works of art
> when it is faith that is crumbling?  My prescription is twenty years of
> solitary meditation in a cave in the Himalayas.
> 
> Do you know the story of Swami Vivekanand who stood in front of the goddess
> at Khir Bhavani? Look it up.  It's instructive.  And humbling.
> 
> 
> On 8/25/08 7:52 PM, "Prabhakar Singh" <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
>> Artists should be careful about the cultural or religious sensitivities of
>> the
>> people.Art can flourish even without delving on such sensitive and touchy
>> issues which may have emotional importance for some
>> people.
> Prabhakar
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta
>> <shuddha at sarai.net>
> To: sarai list <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Sent: Monday, 25
>> August, 2008 6:30:19 PM
> Subject: [Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in
>> Delhi
> 
> Dear all,
> 
> Once again, with depressing, monotonous and disgusting 
>> 
> predictability, a group of hooligans affiliated to the Hindutva 
> (Hindu
>> Fundamentalist) agenda who call themselves the 'Shri Ram Sena' 
> have attacked
>> and ransacked a small exhibition in Delhi of images by 
> and about the
>> nonegarian painter M. F. Husain, The exhibition was 
> held on the premises of
>> the office of the Safdar Hashmi Memorial 
> Trust (SAHMAT) in Delhi, to protest
>> against the decision by the 
> orgnaizers of an Art Summit in Delhi to exclude
>> work by Husain citing 
> reasons of security. This incident demonstrates, yet
>> again, how 
> inimical the forces of Hindutva are to an open society and to
>> the 
> freedom of expression.
> 
> See - 
>> http://www.expressindia.com/latest-news/Husain-photo-
>> 
> exhibition-vandalised-yet-again/352835/ for a report in the Indian 
> Express
>> that carries details of the incident.
> 
> This list has discussed such attacks on
>> freedom of expression before, 
> and just as we have had forthright criticism
>> of Muslim 
> fundamentalists attacking Taslima Nasrin, and the CPI (M) led
>> West 
> Bengal government making it impossible for her to stay in Kolkata, so 
>> 
> too, we must take into account this latest assault on cultural 
> liberty.  I
>> appeal to all to condemn this attack on the freedom of 
>> 
> expression.
> 
> regards
> 
> Shuddha
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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