[Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi

[mahmood farooqui]

Comrade Jeebesh, thank you very much for the priceless exchange with
comrades Chanchal and Prabhakar. Made my day:(

2008/8/28 Prabhakar Singh <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com>

> Yes I, agree.We,being the lucky few ones who have managed to received some
> meaningful education in this poor country,should behave in a responsible ma
> nner and ensure that we contribute something worthwhile to our
> society,nation and the world at large forgetting about our personal
> preferences of comforts.Through this forum we should be able to evolve a
> consensus and serve our nation.Scoring a point or winning an arguement
> should not be our prime concern.Listening to others,respecting them and
> appreciating their points honestly will take us to new heights.Discussing
> for the sake of discussion may be avoided.
> The issue of global warming has been raised.It is in our mind.We tend to be
> hot-headed and intolerant increasing entropy of the universe resulting in
> sins,greed,hatred,exploitation and violence.We will have to make our life
> green first.It means consumption to the barest minimum resulting in minimum
> violence on nature.The western model of life leading to more comforts, more
> consumption,more profits,creating artificial needs,selling more and more
> come what may,ever increasing exploitation of natural resources has brought
> our Mother Earth to the brink of disaster and extinction.Mother Earth has
> enough for the need of all but not enough for even one man's greed.We all
> are responsible for the reckless consumption.Do we switch off
> lights,fans,airconditioners etc.in our offices or homes when they are not
> needed?Do we see to it that water is not wasted unnecessarily? How much food
> is weasted in our homes,in public places or in hotels? Are we switching
> off AC in
>  car when outside weather is tolerable?Are we using our car even for very
> short distances which we can easily walk? Are we putting on the curtains on
> windows when daylight is available and switching on the electric bulbs? How
> much solar energy is being used which is freely available in abundance? Why
> we have to play matches in nights under artificial lights when they can be
> easily played in daylight?  How much use of daytime and daylight we are
> making in our day-to-day work? Are we shifting our working time to night
> time requring artificial lighting and additional scarce electrical energy?
> How much use of non-conventional energy we are doing which are easily
> available? How much use of local materials and local skills we are making?
> How much use of energy-intensive products we are making? These are very
> simple steps through which we can fight the problem of global warming.
>
> Regards,
>
> Prabhakar
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Jeebesh <jeebesh at sarai.net>
> To: Sarai Reader-list <reader-list at sarai.net>
> Sent: Thursday, 28 August, 2008 4:47:26 PM
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi
>
> dear Prabhakar,
>
> It is absolutely true that Hinduism is not understood. It is not at
> all a religion. Religion is a new concept, developed a few hundred
> years to confuse people. It was always a way of life and remains so.
> Totally agree with you. That is why is very important for people like
> you or chanchal to give some new ways of thinking ahead. Like in case
> of global warming, how will this old civilisational way of life give a
> fresh insight.? These are global questions of urgency and if properly
> given thought can upturn the way world thinks. Please give it some
> thought.
>
> warmly
> jeebesh
>
> On 28-Aug-08, at 4:23 PM, Prabhakar Singh wrote:
>
> > Very rightly said ! Hinduism is not a religion.It is a way of
> > life.If Hinduism is a book all religions on earth are its
> > chapters.It is a great sin to abuse it without properly
> > understanding it. We should first take trouble to understand its
> > philosophy as little surface knowledge may prove to be dangerous.
> > Prabhakar
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----
> > From: chanchal malviya <chanchal_malviya at yahoo.com>
> > To: A Khanna <A.Khanna at sms.ed.ac.uk>; Prabhakar Singh <
> prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com
> > >
> > Cc: inder salim <indersalim at gmail.com>; reader-list at sarai.net
> > Sent: Wednesday, 27 August, 2008 9:33:07 AM
> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi
> >
> >
> > Dear Khanna,
> >
> > 1. There are people in this world who are not ready to take the
> > positive side of their own identity. There are people who would love
> > to rape their own mother and motherland. And there are some people
> > who even protect their intention as personal attitude. Great. Not to
> > say anything to them.
> > 2. You telling that motherland is a metaphor and nothing else
> > explains in itself what you feel about India. I am sure such person
> > also feel the same for their own mother and sister. And I have
> > written earlier that such person would not come to protect their
> > mother also, what to say about the broader concept of motherland.
> > 3. As far as Hinduism is concerned, it has to be recognized through
> > the text only. It cannot be recognized at least now by actions of
> > people. Because India is more Islamic and Christianized than a Hindu
> > country. Of course, people like you are a part of it. Hinduism is a
> > mere subject of attack in India. What I told about Hinduism is
> > exactly what is HInduism. And why Hinduism, this word came into
> > existence only when other Religions forced it upon the people of
> > Sanatan Dharma.
> >
> > I know you will not be able to understand the difference between
> > Dharma and Religion. For you and Gandhiji both are same. But Dharma
> > means Righteous duty and Religion is what you all are talking about.
> > Hinduism is science and teaches righteous duty in scientific manner.
> > World outside India is recognizing this, but our Indians will
> > understand it only when a 'Gora' will come and say and that also
> > when he is ruling us. Sorry.
> >
> > Sex is a power of nature that is to be won by human through various
> > methodologies described in Hindu text. And that is an important step
> > towards Self-Realization. Attempt is that only. Women taking bath
> > nude didn't cover their body when Sukdeva (son of Veda Vyas) crossed
> > them, because they knew that he is a child in his nature on this
> > matter. But they immediately took cover when Veda Vyas crossed.
> > There are many stories where Saints are being enticed by Apsaras for
> > sex. And the theme of all story is same - sex is a very powerful
> > natural factor. And winning over it is the biggest win in life.
> > If sex would have been so prominent in Hindus, we would have found
> > Hindu society also marrying multitude of women.
> > Please do not try to put Hinduism under charge, for this.
> > I have already told you the meaning of Deities, and yet you do not
> > understand and ask me stupid questions.
> >
> > Unlike Islam, where one is allowed to marry as many as they like as
> > per their capacity and in addition keep as many women as their right
> > hand posses (Hindu women) for sex. It is unlike Christian where sex
> > and love are the same thing.
> >
> > M.F.Hussain is a gift of Islam. So, he will see even his motherland
> > only with his Madhuri attitude. No, he is seeing India nude with his
> > Islamic attitude. He has seen Madhuri also with his Islamic
> > attitude, though film stars have a different life style and we may
> > not be protective of them in this matter.
> >
> > It is so simple, if M.F.Hussain is so clean, let him paint his
> > mother. Or if you or the protector of M.F.Hussain has so large
> > heart, please send a photograph of your mother to him and ask him to
> > paint her nude. Let me see, how many of you are not of double
> > standard.
> > Either you all are in favor of Darul-Islam, or you are abusing your
> > own motherland by supporting bloody Hussain.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ----- Original Message ----
> > From: A Khanna <A.Khanna at sms.ed.ac.uk>
> > To: Prabhakar Singh <prabhakardelhi at yahoo.com>
> > Cc: chanchal malviya <chanchal_malviya at yahoo.com>; inder salim <
> indersalim at gmail.com
> > >; reader-list at sarai.net
> > Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 3:36:56 AM
> > Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Husain Exhibition Attacked in Delhi
> >
> > chanchal, prabhakar, Everyone Else,
> >
> > there are three issues i'd like to reflect on in light of your rather
> > rabid postings on the issues of the attack on M.F. Husain's
> > exhibition. Apologies for the rather long posting, i do hope some of
> > you will find it interesting.
> >
> > First, a rather obvious contestation relating to Chanchal's gratuitous
> > offer to speak the 'truth' of 'Hinudism', and more broadly, the
> > aggressive claim of Hindutva forces of a monopoly of what the terms
> > 'Hindu' and 'Hinduism' may mean. More particularly, this is a
> > contestation of the place of sexualness and eroticism in them. What
> > makes it possible for the claim to be made that 'sex is not erotic in
> > hinduism' on the one hand, and the demeaning of artists who brought
> > out erotics in sex as 'failed' Hindus? What exactly is the fear of the
> > erotic? Why are these strange people trying to cleave eroticism away
> > from the lives of 'Hindus'??
> >
> > Surely you are aware that there is a diversity of practices,
> > festivals, mythologies, political economies, cosmologies if you like,
> > in different parts of the country and in different communities in the
> > same regions, that may lay claim to the name 'Hindu'. This is even in
> > the face of colonial, and more recent hindu fundamentalist, attempts
> > to reduce this diversity into a rather boring, often  textual,
> > normative frame. Chanchal offers, in other words, one peculiar vision
> > of some 'pure' or 'original' 'Hinduism' as though it exists in texts
> > (particular ones that by perhaps little more than historical
> > serendipity, and sex anxious coloniality, came to be seen as
> > containing the 'truth' of 'Hindu culture'), rather than in the
> > embodiment and practices of people. chanchal's vision, of a "faith
> > (not religion) that talks about winning over the senses (particularly
> > sex)" is one that, for the large part, stands miles away from various
> > realities, practices and beliefs of those who consider themselves
> > 'Hindu'.
> >
> > In my travels around India researching sexualness and eroticism I
> > encountered a confounding multiplicity of festivals, rituals,
> > identities and idioms in which eroticism, desire and sexualness are
> > central. Way too many of these take place in temples, way too many of
> > these are central to local religious practices, and the logics and
> > experiences of faith, way too many of these lay claim to being
> > 'Hindu', for me to accept chanchal's description of Hinduism as an
> > achievement over sex. Or of the Lingam as light. (is it just me or
> > does this sounds closer to a Victorian Christianity? – a reading of
> > colonial anxieties around sex race and gender into the truth of the
> > self?)  So chanchal, unfortunately yours is one peculiar vision of
> > 'hindu', and a pathetically unimaginative one at that. It sounds to me
> > like the collective voice of a masculinist upper caste that is yet to
> > come to terms with (or even recognise) the damage done to it through
> > the colonial experience and one which clings to rather fragile stories
> > of the self. And it is unfortunate that the political economy of
> > Hindutva allows such a vision so much importance today. (Let me
> > clarify that i am not particularly invested or interested in
> > reclaiming Hindu from the bare teeth of the aggressive masculinist
> > claimants. But i do want to point to the right of others to do so.)
> >
> > The second interesting point in the postings is the tension around
> > nudity. Nakedness. Such a beautiful experience. Do you not love the
> > human body? Do you not love your own selves? Is it a fear or disgust
> > with the self or some other trauma that brings about such anxiety
> > around nakedness? But ofcourse this is not just the representation of
> > the naked human body that seems to have caused this anxiety – it seems
> > to be, more precisely, that you necessarily see sexualness and
> > eroticism in the naked human body. But hold on, it is not just
> > sexualness and eroticism of the naked human body that has caused this
> > anxiety, it is a very particular nakedness – the nakedness of
> > 'Motherland India'. Because, the problem with 'perverted Husain' is
> > that to him "Mother Indian and Madhuri are the same" – therefore,
> > actually its alright for him to paint Madhuri, in fact you probably
> > sat at the edge of your seat, enthralled as many of us were, as
> > Madhuri oh so sensuously thrust her beautiful breasts forward,
> > inviting you to a world of phantasmic pleasure, nevermind the
> > performance of outrage at the LYRICS of Choli Ke Peechhe (and i'm not
> > talking merely of pleasure for the male gaze of Masculine Men. I for
> > one, wanted to be Madhuri). Its the nakedness of Mother India, or
> > Motherland India that caused anxiety. So lets face this ponderous
> > image of a naked, sexualised Mother India head on. There are two
> > things that i find fascinating here.
> >
> > First, the Motherland is a metaphor. A very powerful metaphor
> > admittedly. But a metaphor nonetheless. India is experienced as many
> > things, and through many metaphors – a place, sometimes a 'people', a
> > postcolonial nation state, a geographical entity with multiple and
> > complex cartographic existences, a cricket team, a zone of intense
> > gastronomic density, a colonising force, an a series of competing and
> > collaborating political economies...But India is not simply a woman.
> > And Kashmir is not the head of this woman (as we were unfortunately
> > taught in school in the 80s). The power of this metaphor is truly
> > fascinating.
> >
> > But how does one strip a metaphor?? This must be one hell of a
> > brilliant painting! (on which note, are there any weblinks to images
> > of this painting? If someone knows a link i implore you, please share
> > it on this list). If it is true that this painting has managed to
> > actually bring this metaphor into an embodiment, and then brought out
> > an eroticism in it (rather than what it seems like, the attackers not
> > having even really seen and experienced the the painting) then what it
> > has done is expose Mother India as a metaphor, and weakened the power
> > that 'she' wields. Brilliant. The second thing is of course that once
> > we see Mother India as a metaphor into which we are constantly
> > investing a sense of reality, the metaphor becomes a contested space.
> > And perhaps this is what is creating anxiety for the likes of
> > prabhakar and chanchal?
> >
> > So lets look at what it is about the stripping of this metaphor that
> > has gotten them, and the attackers of the exhibition so aggressive?
> > What is the power of this metaphor? One of prabhakar's email hits the
> > nail on the head. "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 would you react?", s/he asks. A similar
> > point is made by chanchal when s/he says "I am sure, a person who
> > paints his motherland nude, must have done much more nonesense (sic)
> > to his mother and sister". This leads me to understand that the
> > anxiety over the depiction of Mother India in such a way that she may
> > be seen to be sexualised, as erotic, is actually an anxiety around the
> > possibility that heris mother is sexual, or has an erotic side to her.
> > Is it scary, prabhakar, chanchal, for you to imagine that your mother
> > may be a sexual being with erotic desires, and with a body that is her
> > own, and which can be naked? Is it a fear of this possibility that
> > evokes in you, such strong emotions when you see (or perhaps hear of)
> > what some artist has done on a piece of canvas with paint? Is it this
> > fear that you will allow to dominate your very imagination of the
> > Nation of India? Freudian psychobabble, in other words, offers itself
> > up tantalisingly here. Is their Hindu nation structured around an
> > Oedipal anxiety over desire for the mother? (ugh!)
> >
> > The troubling effect of this is of course the denial in nationalist
> > discourse of sexualness or rather the right to sexualness of women, as
> > after all, the big obligation on the good woman is to become the
> > mother of (male) children. This justifies mechanisms of regulation
> > over women's sexualness, and the meting out of punishment and
> > exclusion to those who fail to live within these boundaries, or
> > transgress them at will. The protests against the film Fire being a
> > case in point. But how does a woman become a mother (over and over
> > again, atleast until she begets a Son), when she is bereft of
> > sexualness? Is this an imagination of immaculate conception, or, a
> > belief that the only form of legitimate sex is heterosexual rape? The
> > point here is that if the metaphor of the Motherland and the lives of
> > women must feed into each other, the demand for the recognition of
> > sexualness and women's right to sexuality must also address the
> > sexualness of the metaphor of Mother India.
> >
> > This brings me to my last point. I was brought up with a sense of
> > patriotism, stories of the freedom struggle, stories of the success of
> > Big Nehruvian development and images of Mother India. In fact i
> > sometimes still experience a sense of nostalgia for that heady emotion
> > of being part of that particular 'something bigger'. (yes, i cried
> > when i watched Rang De Basanti). I have, in other words, experienced
> > the power of Mother India, and surely all that investment by the state
> > into making sure that this experience marks my psyche forever entails
> > me to owning the metaphor. I claim the right, in other words to invest
> > this metaphor with things. If i bring my travels around India to bear
> > on this, i'd say 'Mother India', to me, is one hell of beautiful,
> > sensual, sexual, erotic figure, a polymorphous queer body, who laughs,
> > flirts, makes love, has soul-baring intense sex. Oh, and, sigh, S/he
> > also makes steel.
> >
> >
> > Love,
> >
> > akshay
> >
> > --
> > The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
> > Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
> >
> >
> >      Get an email ID as yourname at ymail.com or
> > yourname at rocketmail.com. Click here http://in.promos.yahoo.com/address
> > _________________________________________
> > reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> > Critiques & Collaborations
> > To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> > subscribe in the subject header.
> > To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> > List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>
>
>
>      Unlimited freedom, unlimited storage. Get it now, on
> http://help.yahoo.com/l/in/yahoo/mail/yahoomail/tools/tools-08.html/
> _________________________________________
> reader-list: an open discussion list on media and the city.
> Critiques & Collaborations
> To subscribe: send an email to reader-list-request at sarai.net with
> subscribe in the subject header.
> To unsubscribe: https://mail.sarai.net/mailman/listinfo/reader-list
> List archive: <https://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-list/>