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

[Rakesh Iyer]

Hi

I have forwarded this mail Anupam wanted to send to the forum but was only
sent to me, probably as a mistake. Hope that is indeed the case.

My views are also put up here verbatim as put up in a personal chat with
him:

i never said husain is right or wrong . i said that in india, one can do
whatever he/she feels with hindu identities or not but for muslims and
christian identities, if something is said or done there would be a hue and
cry and apologists would try to beat each other in the name of minority
appeasement if there is one field where  appeasement is done, this is the
field. this should stop

Rakesh

In reply to "Re: [Reader-list] Feel free, Mr. Husain. Go paint Qatari
leaders"


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: anupam chakravartty <c.anupam at gmail.com>
Date: Thu, Mar 11, 2010 at 3:27 PM
Subject: Re: [Reader-list] Feel free, Mr. Husain. Go paint Qatari leaders
To: Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com>


Dear Rakesh and all,

What is wrong in painting a nude saraswati copulating with a tiger?
what exactly do you find offensive here? gods marry, gods have
children, but there it seems is a problem in explicitly stating that
gods were also having sexual intercourse. is it a sign of a healthy
society when only things not allowed to be asserted while others
remain unstated as if it is some sort of an incestuous trade which is
going on? You should ask for a ban on the hindu scriptures as well
where direct and indirect references of copulation of gods are stated.
there are written testimonies of incest, unnatural sex, of
mythological gods impregnating mortals that have been documented very
well in form of scriptures.

Moreover,  when i go to a shiva temple i worship the phallus of Shiva.
in the so-called moral discourse being conjured here especially to
suit the demands of zealots, this act of me going and worshiping a
phallus should be seen as a crime.  i should be jailed for worshiping
the phallus of a god (how perverse is that!). but then believers
including me and my mother, we pour milk on it. that's visually
stimulating but since it is a ritual, we do not question it.

since when, worshiping a god ( in monotheistic) has to do with respect
and reverence? then what about this statement: 'Thou art that".
praying comes from the word praise. singing is a form of reverence.
painting the phallus is my respect. but my request to all vanguards of
hindu religion, do not impose this outdated victorian model of
worshiping on everyone. you are a disease, eroding the very same
foundations on which you rest. and please! i do not want this do paise
ka respect to a god by blaming an artist, when all other things about
belief, about religion, about religiousity  with a bunch of
islamophobes, a set of hardened fundamentalists, crooks minting money
in the name of religion have done nothing but disservice to humanity.

over and over again, hussain is being asked to paint Prophet Mohammad.
Do you have any kind of visual reference of Prophet Mohammad in which
the above things being attributed to Indian deities from the very
scriptures is also true in his case? Islamic thought to be specific
doesnt have such thoughts associated with it. the old testament over
the years have being "denigrated" several times. what would you say
about renaissance painter, Hieronymus Bosch who painted Garden of
Earthly Delights depicting biblical scenes? it is considered as a
masterpiece.

sometimes, stating the obvious is a little difficult, with general
social order as a given. but we have moved beyond Renaissance.
artists, writers, engineers, accountants, even soldiers, labourers,
mostly everyone at some of point of time state the obvious or want
answers for them. what are you going to do about all of them? did
someone deny your faith in god, by painting the god in nude? it did
not in my case. i felt overwhelmed

a whole lot of us believe in gods (there are 33 crores of them
according to several religious estimates). conjuring images of a
pantheon linked by tragedies, relationships, alliances, the stories
around them have always been a part of the visual tradition. hussain
has been exploring these themes. he should be lauded for his efforts
instead.

- Anupam

On 3/11/10, Rakesh Iyer <rakesh.rnbdj at gmail.com> wrote:
> I would say just one thing. In India, it's only possible to denigrate
Hindu
> gods and goddesses, abuse them, paint them in nude, and then get sympathy
of
> a large cross-section of people, including the secularists and the
> pseudo-secularists. But when it comes to Islam and Christianity, try doing
> that, and you will find violence being organized on the slightest of
> pretexts. And the pseudo-secularists would go on a humbug spree to stop
> this. And Hindus have started aping them too.
>
> Why this appeasement? What is this all about? Is it secularism? Are we
> willing to turn our country into a neo-Taliban society where any criticism
> about Islam and Christianity will be dealt with capital punishment and
> violence on the streets?
>
> @Shuddha: It's not the question of rights. It's the question of
enforcement
> of these rights. Howsoever much Hussain may try, the state would never act
> to ensure that the rights are enforced. And it's one thing to say Muslims
> have rights to paint the Prophet in a 'negative' sense, it's another thing
> doing it. Remember the protests in India over cartoons published in a
> certain newspaper in a certain European country named 'Denmark'?
>
> Rakesh
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