[Reader-list] Feel free, Mr. Husain. Go paint Qatari leaders

[Shuddhabrata Sengupta]

Dear All,

I don't know whether or not I am secular or pseudo-secular. But  
actually, i do not oppose Cho Ramaswamy's article. Instead of reading  
it ironically, I want to read it seriously, to take it at its word. I  
think it works better if read as if it were written sincerely, than  
it does if read as if it were written as a second rate piece of satire.

And seriously, I think Husain has every right to paint anyone he  
likes in any form he likes, whether nude or clothed. And so, if I  
were asked what my opinion would be on the hypothetical  possibility  
of Husain (or any other artist for that matter) wanting to paint the  
royal family of Qatar, or Queen Elizabeth the Second, or Shivaji, or  
Razia Sultan, or Indira Gandhi, or Savarkar, or M.K. Gandhi (doesn't  
require much imagination to do that) or Bhagat Singh, Subhash Bose,  
Lenin, Mao, or any personage, religious or political, in the nude,  
or, if on the contrary, he wanted to paint a version of a nude by  
Ingres in a burqa, or wearing a boliler suit, frankly, I would say  
that it should be his prerogative to do that.

As far as I am concerned, no painting ever killed anybody, or made  
people get infectious diseases. Paintings are good, or bad, and  
Husain's work, like the work of any other artist is open to  
criticism. But a work of art, in and of itself, is neither harmful,  
nor beneficial. We can derive harmful or beneficial interpretations  
of it, and if we grant that to be the case, then that could, arguably  
be a ground for restricting the liberty of viewership, ( a view I  
must clarify that I do not endorse, I am considering it here, only  
for the sake of argument), but even this cannot by any stretch of  
reasoning be construed into becoming a grounds for a restriction on  
the making of a work of art. If at all we consider such an argument,  
all that it can permit us to do is to imagine provisions for the  
restriction of the said work's universal exposition.

And it should also be his (Husain's) prerogative to live where he  
wants (and this is true of anybody at all), work where he wants, and  
paint, or write, or sing or dance whatsoever he wants. As long as his  
actions do not restrict another person's liberty, I see no reason  
whatsoever to argue for restraints on his location or movements. His  
being in Quatar does not prevent me from being in India. His making a  
nude Durga does not restrict my liberty to either see, or not see the  
said painting. Seeing it, or not, being offended by it or not, is a  
choice that I am making. And an artist cannot be prosecuted for  
choices made by a viewer.

If anyone is offended (or feel that they may be offended) by anything  
that any artist makes, they have to do one simple thing to ensure  
that the unpleasantness of offense does not mar their experience of  
life. Do not look at the work of art in question, simply do not read  
the offending book, or watch the offending play or film. Or, if you  
do, simply accept the fact that just as there are many things that  
you hold dear that others may find offensive or be indifferent to, so  
too, many things that you find offensive might be significant to  
others. A nude depiction of a goddess in the Hindu pantheon may be  
offensive to some, and sacred, or meaningful and beautiful, to  
others, for similar, and/or different reasons. No one should be in a  
position to take away your right not to see something, just as no one  
should be in a position to take away my right to see something.

Frankly, I do not care whether Husain does or does not paint the  
rulers of Qatar in the nude, or Cho Ramaswami with a full head of  
hair. But if asked whether or not he has a right to do so, obviously,  
I would say he does. And so does any artist, anywhere in the world.

best

Shuddha




On 10-Mar-10, at 6:21 PM, Bipin Trivedi wrote:

> Thanks Pawan for posting this article.
>
> Cho Ramaswami is absolutely right by saying ” All those who  
> appreciate his art would now eagerly await his imaginative  
> paintings of the leaders of Qatari
> society, hopefully not artistically clothed.”
>
> Actually it is his dirty mind inspires him to make goddess nude  
> pictures and not the artistic mind. He is really psychic and needs  
> psychiatric treatment. However, pseudo-secular readers here will  
> sure to oppose this article.
>
> Thanks
> Bipin
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: reader-list-bounces at sarai.net [mailto:reader-list- 
> bounces at sarai.net] On Behalf Of Pawan Durani
> Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 5:48 PM
> To: reader-list
> Subject: [Reader-list] Feel free, Mr Husain. Go paint Qatari leaders
>
> Feel free, Mr Husain. Go paint Qatari leaders
>
> March 10th, 2010
> By Cho Ramaswamy
>
>
> Now that M.F. Husain has settled in Qatar where there is total
> freedom, he is free of the shackles imposed by the Indian system on
> freedom of expression. All those who appreciate his art would now
> eagerly await his imaginative paintings of the leaders of Qatari
> society, hopefully not artistically clothed.
>
> His fans would not expect him to confine nudity to Hindu deities
> alone; it would extend to all the religions. Having already painted
> his mother, daughter and Muslim kings fully robed, Mr Husain, being
> the freed citizen that he is now in Qatar, should be prepared to
> remove those clothes. How can the artist in him be satisfied with
> seeing Saraswati and Parvati alone in the nude?
>
> Fortunately for art in the nude, the courts here cannot do anything to
> Mr Husain now that he has run away from the Indian judicial system.
> All the cases could be now buried amidst the pictures drawn by him.
> Both would mercifully go to the dustbin.
>
> I am very anxious not to get branded as communal in my thinking. I
> want to be hailed as a secularist and so I would say with all the
> force I can command that Mr Husain has the inalienable right to depict
> the Hindu deities in the most obscene manner while taking care to
> paint even non-religious Muslims fully clothed.
>
> He can claim that because he hates Hitler he painted him in the nude
> so he could humiliate him and in the same breath justify his nude
> pictures of Hindu goddesses as depiction of purity.
>
> And because I am secular, I would also assert that his not returning
> to India is only to gain freedom from the Indian fascism and not to
> avoid being apprehended by the law enforcers in this country. Being a
> liberal-minded artist, he naturally is not able to put up with the
> protests which do not harm him in any way.
>
> Shunning the Indian system and preferring the Qatar environment is not
> an act of hypocrisy but one of liberal, secular and free thought. And
> now that Mr Husain has established himself as such a stout campaigner
> for free expression, I must believe firmly that he will forcefully
> plead with his new protectors in Qatar to roll out of a bit of that
> red carpet to Taslima Nasreen, another hounded victim from the
> literary world.
>
> - Cho S. Ramaswamy is a well-known political
> analyst, actor, dramatist and editor of
> Tamil magazine Tughlak
>
> Source : http://www.deccanchronicle.com/blogs/others/feel-free-mr- 
> husain-go-paint-qatari-leaders-773
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Shuddhabrata Sengupta
The Sarai Programme at CSDS
Raqs Media Collective
shuddha at sarai.net
www.sarai.net
www.raqsmediacollective.net