[Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi

Rahul Asthana rahul_capri at yahoo.com
Wed Aug 27 16:19:40 IST 2008 

Please make the point here,from that story,if you can.

--- On Wed, 8/27/08, S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:

> From: S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi
> To: rahul_capri at yahoo.com, "Prabhakar Singh" <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com>, "Shuddhabrata Sengupta" <shuddha at sarai.net>, "Sarai" <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Date: Wednesday, August 27, 2008, 1:11 PM
> Er... Sorry, but being the selfish, elitist, intolerant,
> liberal, feminist
> Martian  I do see the difference between hurt and hurt.
> 
> And from my non-existent moral ground I can still ask you
> to please find the
> story about Vivekanand in Khir Bhavani.  If you're near
> a library do look at
> Civil Lines 5 (ed. Mukul Kesavan and Kai Friese). 
> You'll find an essay by
> me called Spirit of Place. You'll find the Vivekanand
> story there.  Please
> read it.
> 
> I'll be happy to continue this conversation after.
> 
> --sj
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> On 8/27/08 5:54 AM, "Rahul Asthana"
> <rahul_capri at yahoo.com> wrote:
> 
> > Sonia,
> > 
> > A question to you.Don't you think someone else
> deciding on what people should
> > get hurt from;and what they shouldn't is a tad
> condescending?When you see a
> > person lying down on the road after an accident,do you
> tell him that hey
> > listen, you shouldn't really feel hurt or do you
> try to resolve his\her
> > situation?
> > Its another thing to tell someone that they can stfu
> and you don't care about
> > how they feel.Thats insensitive at the worst.But I
> don't see what moral ground
> > a person has,to tell anyone else what they should feel
> hurt from.
> > For the same reason I don't get this debate on
> nudity.How does it matter
> > whether your mother or mine is okay with
> that.According to a widely accepted
> > social norm one can safely say that many people would
> not be okay with a
> > goddess painted nude and Hanuman's tail going
> through her legs.So why not stop
> > reducing this to freedom of expression and say that it
> is in bad taste,because
> > it offends the sensibilities of a group of people?
> > By the way ,I had made a similar point on the Prophets
> cartoons as well.The
> > issue was highly distorted by the Western media.It
> painted Muslims as some
> > kind of crazy cave dwellers who would kill if someone
> paints there prophet.
> > There would sure be some people like that,but the
> media made us fall prey to
> > the binary.If you have to criticize the violence by
> the fundoos you end up
> > supporting the media's rally for the freedom of
> expression.Its another matter
> > that there are paintings of prophet in some Islamic
> traditions,and Muslim
> > anger was not against the painting of the prophet per
> se but painting him in a
> > bad light;and it was not a single incident but it took
> place repeatedly,in an
> > obvious in the face attempt to spite them.It stopped
> being a matter of freedom
> > of expression.
> > One more point,Hussain being a Muslim and painting a
> Hindu Goddess like that
> > is important.Its perfectly human to have a group
> identity and recognize other
> > group identities as "the other".It does not
> matter what my world view is,there
> > shouldn't even be an argument on that.Just
> recognize human tendencies and
> > respect them,on the basis of what a large group of
> people may feel.
> > I feel that the more liberal a person becomes the more
> intolerant that person
> > becomes of others points of view.I am sure a devout
> Muslim would find that
> > painting offensive.If the media can be a little bit
> less obsessed with their
> > own world views and try to respect points of view of
> other people and
> > groups,for eg if a significant section of media had
> come up and said that
> > those paintings were offensive,perhaps such issues
> would not flare up.
> > 
> > regards
> > Rahul
> > 
> > 
> > --- On Mon, 8/25/08, S. Jabbar
> <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> >> From: S. Jabbar <sonia.jabbar at gmail.com>
> >> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Husain Exhibition
> Attacked in Delhi
> >> To: "Prabhakar Singh"
> <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com>, "Shuddhabrata
> Sengupta"
> >> <shuddha at sarai.net>, "Sarai"
> <reader-list at sarai.net>
> >> Date: Monday, August 25, 2008, 8:25 PM
> >> 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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