[Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi
Shuddhabrata Sengupta
shuddha at sarai.net
Wed Aug 27 03:32:53 IST 2008
Dear Prabhakar,
Let me follow up on Sonia's mail below.
I see no problem with anyone painting a goddess in the nude. I see no
problem with anyone painting my mother in the nude, provided she
consents to it. And if anyone asks her with respect, and affection, I
am sure that she will say yes. Neither my mother, nor I think of the
human body as impure or indecent. Let me assure you, that she and I
would find the people who think that the body is something to be
ashamed of as the ones who are vulgar, indecent and perverse.
Currently, that would mean you, and the people who burn images and
attack exhibitions because a goddess has been painted in the nude.
I had asked a few days ago, in response to a posting by Aditya Raj
Kaul on another matter what exactly was the problem with nudity? I
had not received a reply. Perhaps you can furnish me with one
instead. I fail to see which part of the body can be considered
unworthy of human contemplation. My question to those who consider
themselves religious and have problems with nudity is always - "so if
you believe that God made you, which part of the body do you consider
not to be sacred? Which part of your body, would you agree needed to
be removed, to make it more presentable? Do you need any help in
having some part of your body removed in order to make it appear more
presentable to yourself?"
And if, as religious people believe, that the human form is made in
the divine image, then, which part of the body of the divine image
would you not consider sacred? Have you even thought through what you
are saying? Do you have any sense of the weight of tradition in
Indic, specifically in Hindu religious iconography that actually
celebrates the unclothed human form as divine?
My father's family's ancestral traditional ishta devata is a jagrata
Kali. Her icon is beautiful, terrifying, naked. How should I commit
the blasphemy of clothing her to satisfy your perverse mind?
Please let me know.
regards
Shuddha
On 26-Aug-08, at 12:48 PM, S. Jabbar wrote:
> Maybe it comes as a surprise to you, but I find nothing offensive
> in nudity.
> My mother is 75 years old and I find her beautiful. If a sensitive
> artist,
> appreciative of the beauty of an ageing body with all that is
> considered to
> be flawed by a culture that glorifies youth and pornography were to
> paint
> her and she were to acquiesce, I would have no problem at all.
>
> BTW, a decade ago I had worked on a photography project with the
> artist
> Sheba Chhachhi where we had explored these very questions in what I
> considered to be stunningly beautiful black & white prints.
>
>
> On 8/26/08 9:07 AM, "Prabhakar Singh" <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com>
> wrote:
>
>> If some artist in the name of art paints your mother nude and
>> displays it in
>> art galleries and exhibitions to public how would you feel and how
>> wold you
>> react? Will you write the same languge which you have written here
>> and take
>> the same action as suggested by you to others? Will you appreciate
>> the
>> beautiful work of art in the same manner? After all every freedom
>> has its
>> sensible limits.
>> Prabhakar
>>
>>
>>
>> ----- Original Message ----
>> From: rohan saha <rohansaha at gmail.com>
>> To: S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
>> Cc: Sarai <reader-list at sarai.net>
>> Sent: Tuesday, 26 August, 2008 12:54:16 AM
>> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi
>>
>> Dear All,
>>
>> I am new to this list and was added recently.
>>
>> I had a couple of observations about the ongoing debate.
>>
>> As regards the definition of "art"; it is an extremely subjective
>> definition
>> and will vary from person to person. But one's is free to express
>> what he
>> wants whether it qualifies as art or not and just because a
>> painter puts
>> forth one offensive painting does not mean that every painting
>> prepared by
>> him should be branded as offensive.
>>
>> Also, I understand the outrage directed against an artist for the
>> manner in
>> which he has depicted a religious deity or a religious symbol but
>> I can't
>> comprehend how that outrage sanctions hooliganism and vandalism.
>> There are
>> legal channels which can be employed to prosecute a person whose
>> expression
>> / "art" outrages the sentiments of a community. Every country has
>> them, as
>> does India under Chapter XV of the Penal Code.
>>
>> I do understand that a country such as Pakistan, China, Saudi
>> Arabia etc
>> would tend to punish such actions more severely, maybe even with
>> death,
>> therefore I tend to be thankful that I'm in India and *not *one of
>> those
>> countries.
>>
>> Finally, would the same controversy have occurred if these
>> paintings were
>> rendered a Hindu artist? By a Menon or Maity or Sen rather than a
>> Husain?
>>
>> Regards,
>>
>> Rohan
>>
>>
>> On Mon, Aug 25, 2008 at 9:37 PM, S. Jabbar
>> <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> What, dear Aditya are you referring to and pronouncing on now?
>>> Is this too
>>> to be labeled under Muslim art and anti-Muslim art, one to
>>> denounced and
>>> the
>>> other to be defended? What a terrible bore!
>>>
>>>
>>> On 8/25/08 9:15 PM, "Aditya Raj Kaul" <kauladityaraj at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Art - It cannot be called a work of Art for sure.
>>>
>>> Wonder why the Danish
>>>> cartoonist abused, maligned and mis-represented. Even
>>> his was a work of pure
>>>> art. Amd, wasn't that his job too...
>>>
>>> Its quite unfortunate to see some
>>>> ultra-liberals (chappal & Jholla fame)
>>> defending such mindless imagination.
>>>> There isn't any justification for it.
>>>
>>> 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.
>>>
>>> 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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Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net
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