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

Thu Mar 11 01:53:08 IST 2010

Dear Shuddhabrata Sengupta

I don't know whether or not i am talking to myself or responding to your
stand. But actually i
am curious about one challenge that people, who have problems with Hussain's
depiction of Hindu goddesses
in the nude and who claim to represent the entire Hindu community, have
thrown at Hussain: try painting Mohammed, and to top it all, in the nude.
Those people who argue in the favour of Hussain by citing Khajuraho and the
history of Indian art fail to see that a Hindu in the contemporary times
don't worship in temples made like Khajuraho. You have a Kaali in the nude
or a Durga in Begal but not Sarswati.You can get away with painting anybody
and everybody in the nude but not the Prophet.

I am vaguely reminded of one book, which people are even forbidden to name
in public, which was written by a Hindu somewhere in the 1920s and which
portrayed prophet Mohammed in bad light. If i am not wrong, the writer was
killed by a Muslim for having written such a book.

i buy this argument as to why Hussain doesn't paint prophet Mohammed and
that too in the nude. Now i am not daring him to do it but trying to find
out   as to why Hussain's painterly imagination staggers at the thought of
doing so. I think only Hussain can answer this question. Either because of
being a Muslim he 'respects' the religious decree against depiction of the
Prophet or he is afraid of the consequences. Or the Muslim religious
imagination doesn't give itself so easily to a painterly imagination.

Hussain has every right to paint whatever he likes, he has all the freedom
to do so. But at the same time he should also be ready to bear the
consequences of the 'artistic' rejoinders that the specific interest groups
would draw in response to his work in the public space. The piece of art
begins at Hussains end but it completes itself at the end of the people who
protest against it and violently. I paint something in my studio and keep it
hidden in my cellar and then one day burns it without anybody's knowledge. I
paint something and shows it to my friend. He slaps on my face: I had
painted his old mother in the nude and, to top it all, i am not a very good
painter! My painting begins on the canvas but extends up to my reddened
cheek. The canvas has been extended a bit. My cheek is a part of the larger
canvas.

Hussain paints a nude Saraswati, a group registers its protest by
vandalising the exhibition space and tearing down the canvas. This 'event'
in history is the actual painting and our stances for or against keep
extending the canvas further. It all seems like a curious game. I have the
right to paint everything i like, i am an artist. I have the right to
respond to your painting and paint it the way i like and make it more
complete. I have the right to take sides, to defend Hussain's right to paint
and to defend the freedom of expression as the fundamental human right, and
add my colours to it. And the painting gets painted. Its just that Hussain
needs to share his earnings with everybody else who helps paint this huge
canvas!

Pheeta Ram

On Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 12:01 AM, Shuddhabrata Sengupta
<shuddha at sarai.net>wrote:

> 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
>
>
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