[Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi

[Shivam Vij शिवम् विज्]

Equal Opportunity Fundamentalism

by Salil Tripathi
(Tehelka Feb 17 , 2007)
http://communalism.blogspot.com/2007/02/equal-opportunity-fundamentalism.html


The right's only objection to MF Husain's depictions of Hindu deities
is that they are made by a Muslim, says Salil Tripathi

Who's Profane? A Husain interpretation of Lakshmi
As you enter London's netherworld — its labyrinthine underground
subway system — you will notice large images of a Hindu deity, looking
sinuous and sensual, cavorting cheerfully and wearing almost no
clothes at all. There are other posters nearby, of sexy women
advertising perfumes or holidays, wearing almost as little as the god
in the poster, but the god wins hands down in attracting your
attention.

More unusually, nobody from London's neo-hypersensitive Hindu
community has expressed any criticism or outrage over the nearly-naked
image of the Hindu god staring at almost 2.5 million commuters daily.
This is surprising. I remember last year, when Asia House — a gallery
near Oxford Street in central London — hosted an exhibition of
paintings, which included some canvases of nude Hindu deities, a
self-styled Hindu human rights organisation (and the so-called Hindu
Forum in Britain, claiming to speak for the 700,000 Hindus who live in
the country), protested immediately, and forced the gallery to cancel
the exhibition.

Why are the Hindu groups quiet this time? And why were they so noisy
last time? The answer is simple, revealing, and banal: for them, the
show last year had to be opposed because the artist, Maqbool Fida
Husain, was a Muslim. But the show this year was to be revered, for
what the Sackler Wing of the Royal Academy of Arts in Piccadilly is
showing are the famed Chola bronzes: seductive and erotic certainly,
but presumably untouched by the hands of a Muslim artist.

The Royal Academy has brought together nearly 40 sculptures, from
India, Germany and the United States. These sculptures are
consistently evocative, exuding virility and sensuality. You see a
divine male caressing a female deity; elsewhere, a willowy maiden
strikes poses meant to guide the viewer towards her attract-ive body.

To be sure, the Chola bronzes are not only about sex or erotica. The
quintessential Chola image, — of the dancing Nataraja performing the
celestial tandava nritya — personifies not only the defeat of evil,
but also the destruction of the world as we know it, so that a new
world can begin.


True, Husain has painted several goddesses in the nude, but his works
reshape our thinking about Hindu myths, they are not lewd drawings
meant to titillate
But then Husain's art is also hardly meant to titillate. That's the
deep-rooted hypocrisy among people who claim to lead Hindus — in
Britain or in India. They say they are deeply wounded when a Husain
depicts Draupadi, Saraswati or Sita without clothes, even if the image
Husain portrays is elegant, bold, linear and sharp. Inspired by the
expressionists, Husain's figures are not always complete, and leave a
lot for the viewer to imagine. The Chola bronzes, in contrast, are
curvaceous and vivacious. For much of December, they competed for
attention, in that respect, with the majestic sculptures of Rodin,
which were also on display at the Royal Academy at the time.

Whether coincidental or by design, the coexistence of Rodin and Chola
at the Royal Academy was resonant with meaning. As William Dalrymple
noted in an article in the Guardian: "In Western art, few sculptors —
except perhaps Donatello or Rodin — have achieved the pure essence of
sensuality so spectacularly evoked by the Chola sculptors; or achieved
such a sense of celebration of the divine beauty of the human body.
There is a startling clarity and purity about the way the near-naked
bodies of the gods and the saints are displayed. Yet, by the simplest
and most modest of devices, their spirit and powers, joys and
pleasures, and above all their enjoyment of each other's beauty and
their overwhelming sexuality, is highlighted."

And yet, those offended Hindu leaders in Britain have remained silent
about the bronzes. It is a tragedy of our times that Hindu
nationalists have succeeded in running a nearly decade-long campaign
against Husain and forced him into involuntary exile, shuttling
between Dubai and London.

True, Husain has painted several goddesses from the Hindu pantheon in
the nude, but those are bold works that reshape our thinking about
Hindu myths, revealing them in a new light; they are not lewd drawings
meant to titillate. His nudes delineate the body in sharp lines,
elevating it to an abstract realm, suggesting the formlessness of
divinity.

This explanation, which is faithful to Hindu philosophy, is too
abstract for the semi-literate fundamentalists who have protested
against his works and, in some cases, ransacked art galleries
displaying his art in India. There are some 1,200 cases filed against
him.

Even though he does not need to, Husain has apologised for hurting
sentiments. Explaining his motives, the painter has traced his art to
India's millennia-old heritage in which gods and goddesses were "pure
and uncovered".

But we live in complicated times. Instead of celebrating the openness
of Hinduism, which should make those who claim to lead the faith feel
proud of a non-Hindu artist expressing homage to their gods, Hindu
nationalists are busy trying to outdo other faiths, by complaining
that they, too, have the right to be offended. So if Muslims want
Danish cartoons banned, Hindus want Husain's drawings banned. The
attention Muslims have commanded with their protests against images
they consider blasphemous — a concept alien to Hinduism — has left
Hindus wanting equal treatment. Don't mistake them for being liberals.

The sacred and the profane have always coexisted in India. As a faith,
Hinduism is broad enough to include some sects that think sex is the
main way to enlightenment, and broadminded enough to overlook sadhus
roaming around naked, their bodies smeared with ash, during the Kumbh
Mela.

Indeed, in many aspects of Indian literature and art, nudity connotes
purity and openness, not vulgarity. Architects have decorated many
temples with nude deities. The Chola bronzes, which depict
scantily-clad Hindu goddesses are no less divine. The temples in
Khajuraho from the Chandela period have hundreds of erotic statues.
The Gangaikondacholapuram Shiva Temple has an almost nude Parvati, and
that hasn't diminished her holiness. The Parshvanatha Temple of
Khajuraho has nude sculptures of the holiest of the holies in the
Hindu pantheon. And many sculptures in Bikaner have Hindu divinities
clad only in exquisite and ornate chains, necklaces and bangles.

For the Hindu nationalists, if Husain did any of that, it would be
sacrilegious. But when anonymous sculptors carve such figures, it
becomes divine, even if not high art. That's the hypocrisy that is so
fundamentally against the Indian ethos, not Husain's art. Husain's art
may not be sacred, but what the fanatics are doing is profane.