[Reader-list] US varsity plans symposium to honour M F Husain

[Yousuf]

Its interesting that many Indian scholars are participating in this conference, but the TOI report does not mention their names.

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US varsity plans symposium to honour M F Husain
30 Mar 2009, 0118 hrs IST, Anubha Sawhney Joshi, TNN

MUMBAI: India may be undecided on what kind of welcome to accord M F Husain if he chooses to come home, but elsewhere the honours are piling up. North Carolina's Duke University is celebrating the artist in an international symposium from April 9 to 12.

Titled "Barefoot Across The Nation: Maqbool Fida Husain and The Idea of India", the four-day symposium is a tribute to "arguably modern India's most iconic and celebrated painter and also possibly that country's most embattled artist today''.

Speaking to TOI from Dubai, Husain said he has mixed feelings about the Duke project, which also looks at the "cultural politics of risk in our troubled times''. While he isn't planning to attend it, he does feel slightly downcast that such an event is taking place on an international platform and not at home.

"There's a saying in Hindi that goes diya tale andhera, which means the darkest place is under the lamp. Maybe that's why an international university had the vision to honour my work, while a small section of Indians still feel I have wronged them.''

Does this step-motherly treatment from some people in his motherland make him angry? "If I were a reckless 40-year-old, maybe it would. But thank god I'm over 90,'' he laughs.

Among the many events on the conference calendar will be presentations by Peabody Museum's Susan Bean, University of Michigan's Barbara Metcalf, screenings of the making of Gaja Gamini, a lecture on

"M F Husain as a Muslim Painter" by Bruce Lawrence, director of the Duke University Islamic Studies Centre and another lecture called "The Bliss of Madhuri: Husain and his Muse" by Patricia Uberoi, a visiting professor at the University of North Carolina.

Does the artist believe he can ever return to India? "I think 90% of Indians love me. To the rest, who have been offended by my work, I have apologised. After the Supreme Court's landmark judgment last year refusing to initiate criminal proceedings against me, there were rumours about my returning and being given high-class security and a bullet-proof vehicle. I'm sure the government doesn't plan to give me more security than Rajiv, Indira or Mahatma Gandhi. What can they do if some fanatic decides to shoot me on the street?''

That said, Husain is "very optimistic'' that the changing political scenario has good news in store for him. "I'm craving to come back.''

anubha.sawhney at timesgroup.com