[Reader-list] Maqbool Fida Husain: Beyond Art

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

The Telegraph, August 29, 2008

Editorial
BEYOND ART

Between fair-weather secularists and brazen fanatics, it is often
difficult to decide who is the more deplorable. The India Art Summit,
which opened last week in New Delhi, was supposed to be the biggest-
ever art trade fair in the country. What could have been a platform
for modern Indian art to assert itself in a major way has suddenly
turned into a source of acute embarrassment. Among the 400 names that
feature on this grand show, put up by Hanmer and Partner with the
support of the ministry of culture and tourism, the most striking
absence was Maqbool Fida Husain. This omission remains unpardonable
for several reasons. It is audacious even to conceive of an
exhibition of Indian art that leaves out works by Mr Husain from it.
The very idea not only reveals a pitiful ignorance of art history but
also expresses disrespect towards one of the most universally
acclaimed of Indian artists. It is not without reason that Mr Husain
is considered to be a modern master. He made his mark for the first
time in the late Forties with a distinctly original idiom — a
cosmopolitan blend of Western and indigenous influences. This
pluralism has turned him into one of the highest-selling Indian
artists worldwide.

For this reason alone, it is unforgivable that the United Progressive
Alliance government, with its avowedly secularist agenda, chose not
to rally for the inclusion of works by Mr Husain for fear of a
backlash from religious fundamentalists. Since 2006, Mr Husain, now
in his nineties, is on a self-imposed exile. The Hindu Right
continues to bay for his blood for painting some of its holy pantheon
in the nude. Mr Husain was unceremoniously left out of the art summit
as the organizers refused to risk an attack by a bigoted mob. It did
not matter even if the so-called controversial works were not shown:
Mr Husain has ceased to be the symptom of a malaise in Indian
democracy, he has become the disease itself. When Sahmat, an NGO,
protested by putting up an exhibition of prints by him, 10 members of
Ram Sena, a pro-Hindutva outfit, disrupted the show violently. The
fiasco has not only exposed the tensions within the secular ideals of
the UPA, but has also revealed a deeper fissure in the polity. Beyond
the murky politics and shifting ideologies, it is the ideals
enshrined in the Constitution that have been threatened by this
incident