[Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi

Aarti Sethi aarti.sethi at gmail.com
Mon Aug 25 23:32:30 IST 2008 

Aditya I really want to understand the imaginative world you dwell in. The
possibilities and limits of this world. I'm serious, i'm not being
sarcastic, or contemptous or anything. Because it seems that your entire
world view is totally colonized by some idea of state "common good"
"society" so  restrictively defined that unless everyone is eating,
breathing, sneezing making love according to the constitution or your
definition of it, there should be no place for them.


> Had something of this scale been done in some other country such as
> Pakistan, Saudia Arabia, China etc.; the person would't have been alive by
> now.
>

What does this even mean? I certainly hope you are not holding any of these
up as examples to follow? How interesting and instructive that despite your
views on Kashmir and Pakistan's involvement you thoroughly approve of some
alleged "hard line" Pakistan ostensibly takes with artists...

A



> Aditya Raj Kaul
>
>
> On 8/25/08, S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > 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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