[Reader-list] The Bliss of Madhuri: Husain and His Muse - a public lecture

Wed Mar 31 16:25:53 IST 2010

Dear Kshamendra

While I personally have not been asked the questions by you, I think the
entire country, willingly or unwillingly decided the path long back in 1947
during Partition, when it said that all kinds of people, disgusting or
undisgusting, communists or right-wing champions or centrist, capitalists or
socialists, social democrats or dictator-democrats (who perpetrate
dictatorship through democracy, ala Indira Gandhi), cynics and hopefuls, and
various opposites who were attracted. This was the character even of our
independence movement, when we believed that 'sabko saath lekar chalna
chahiye'.

Such communalists or secularists or Muslim or Hindu propagandists or
centrists will always be there. They were there during 1947 also. They were
there during the independence movement.

What worries me, and I would state it clearly, is when people start
championing the causes of those who conduct mass pogroms and treating it as
if it were completely irrelevant. 1947 was no 1984 (Delhi Sikh pogrom), 1989
(Bhagalpur Muslim pogrom), 1992-93 (Babri Masjid demolition and riots after
that, including the terrible Mumbai pogrom of Muslims), and of course, 2002
(Gujarat pogrom along with Godhra). It worries me when there are massive
cases of corruption because of corrupt people in our society which leads to
so many scams. It is a shame when our Centrist party, namely, the Congress,
succumbs to dynasty pressures and organizes a pogrom to win elections, and
then following pseudo-secularism in the name of securing minority votes
without doing anything for them. That worries me. And it equally worries me
when Indian elites remain focused on useless issues like India becoming a
superpower, rather than realizing the brutal realities of India. India has
slowly become a nation of harsh inequalities, as figures will testify.
(compared to 1947).

Rakesh

P.S. :

What probably Modi forgot was that Rajiv Gandhi had presided over the idea
of violence when he was the Prime Minister and the 1984 pogrom took place,
and he also died a violent death in 1991. Before that, Indira Gandhi also
presided over violence in the name of  the Golden temple being cleansed of
terrorists. She too died a violent death, having created her own
Bhindranwale.

Not for nothing after all, did Gandhi and Christ say regularly: 'violence
begets violence'.

On Wed, Mar 31, 2010 at 4:09 PM, Kshmendra Kaul <kshmendra2005 at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Dear Rajendra
>
> I thought your mail was quite disgusting.
>
> But please ignore such thoughts of mine. Instead I would like to be
> educated by you through answers to the following two questions:
>
> 1. What should India do with these disgusting Muslims and all their
> disgusting practices?
>
> AND
>
> 2. What should India do with these disgusting Hindus and all their
> disgusting practices?
>
> These two questions need to be answered simultaneously so that we can make
> the roadmap for a better India.
>
> Kshmendra
>
>
> --- On Tue, 3/30/10, Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi <
> rajen786uppinangady at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>
> From: Rajendra Bhat Uppinangadi <rajen786uppinangady at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [Reader-list] The Bliss of Madhuri: Husain and His Muse - a
> public lecture
> To: "Yousuf" <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com>
> Cc: "sarai list" <reader-list at sarai.net>, "jmi list" <
> jamia_millia_alumni_directory at yahoogroups.com>
> Date: Tuesday, March 30, 2010, 11:06 PM
>
>
> Yousuf, there is nothing special about the fact that mindset of "muse", it
> is quite obivious mindset of few followers of a faith, as conquerers, to
> have woman of different faith in the present time, as if to live with past
> glories, as exhibited by the likes of a Mahesh Bhatt, shahrukh khan Amir
> Khan, in bollywood as well as that of Rizvis and many and many thousands
> who
> still make all out efforts to have faithful "harmony" and the fate of those
> wives with triple talaqs is well known in "secular India. !
> Atleast, individuals like a Harish Salve, Vayalar ravi who have married
> outside the faith, have been more sensitive unlike the My name is khan
> clan.!
>
> Regards,
> rajen.
>
> On Fri, Mar 19, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Yousuf <ysaeed7 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> > JAMES BEVERIDGE MEDIA RESOURCE CENTRE
> > AJK MCRC, Jamia Millia Islamia
> >
> > invites you to a Public Lecture on
> > THE BLISS OF MADHURI: HUSAIN AND HIS MUSE
> > By
> > Patricia Uberoi
> >
> > JB MRC Room, MCRC New Building, 2nd Floor
> > Thursday, March 25, 2010, 2PM
> >
> > By all accounts, including his own, M.F. Husain has found artistic
> > inspiration in several ‘muses’, but none so publicly acknowledged and
> > well-publicized as his relationship with Bollywood screen goddess,
> Madhuri
> > Dixit. Husain committed her image to canvas in a series of featureless
> > portraits, and on celluloid through his five-million dollar film, Gaja
> > Gamini, which he scripted and directed.  ‘It took me 60 years to realize
> > this dream’, Husain wrote, ‘of which 30 years were spent in allowing
> Madhuri
> > to arrive.’
> > Following his trajectory from art to cinema, this illustrated
> presentation
> > critically reflects upon Husain’s project of rendering in cinema the
> > timeless attributes of Indian womanhood in relation to a universal ideal
> of
> > the feminine. In particular it seeks to address two interconnected issues
> > raised by Husain’s Gaja Gamini project and the public discourse that has
> > surrounded it: (i) the problematics of the female ‘muse’; or, should one
> say
> > bluntly, the gender politics of male artistic production; and (ii)
> Husain’s
> > spectacularisation of the female body of Madhuri Dixit.  Admittedly,
> linking
> > these two themes is no straightforward matter, located as they are in
> very
> > different discursive universes. However, addressing these questions might
> > lead us to understand how Husain’s infatuation with his muse is actually
> > pertinent to an understanding of the public controversies in which he has
> > become so conspicuously embroiled in recent years.
> >
> > Patricia UBEROI was formerly Professor of Social Change and Development
> at
> > the Institute of Economic Growth, Delhi, and Honorary Director of the
> > Institute of Chinese Studies, Centre for the Study of Developing
> Societies,
> > Delhi. She has published widely in the fields of family, kinship, gender,
> > sexuality and popular culture with reference to both India and China. In
> > addition to her book Freedom and Destiny: Gender, Family and Popular
> Culture
> > in India (2006), she has edited Family, Kinship and Marriage in India
> > (1993), Social Reform, Sexuality and the State (1996), Tradition,
> Pluralism
> > and Identity (co-ed., 1999), Anthropology in the East:  Founders of
> Indian
> > Sociology and Anthropology (co-ed., 2007), Marriage, Migration and Gender
> > (co-ed, 2008) and Rise of the Asian Giants:  Dragon-Elephant Tango
> (2008).
> >
> > (The JB MRC is supported by funds from the SRTT.)
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > _________________________________________
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>
>
>
> --
> Rajen.
> _________________________________________
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>
>
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