M.F. Husain - The Wronged One | Nazar - A South Asian Perspective

M.F. Husain - The Wronged One

By Vaibhav Jain 5 March 2008 359 views One Comment

Artistic intolerance, in my view, is stimulated in opposition to expressions of hate made through art. However, as Monica Chadha reports for BBC News, “ a sudden increase in the number of legal cases being filed against artists, actors and writers for ‘offending’ people has caused great concern in India’s art community” ¹. Much has been said and theorized about why issues relating to sex and religion, when brought up by artists, faces such vehement intolerance. In most cases, it is agreed upon that the the root of the dissent and protest is the lack of understanding in that section of Indian society that consciously attempts to distance itself from western culture. However, in the case of India’s best known artist, Maqbool Fida Husain (popularly known as M.F. Husain), a combined effort of these feelings, political propaganda, media reportage and to some extent, his own persistence has created a sizeable lobby of hate and disrespect for the venerable artist resulting in him having to flee the country.

Initially, it was the publication of an article in 1996 on nude images of Hindu deities painted by Husain in the ’70s that triggered off a series of complaints (roughly accumulating to 1,250 in 11 years) filed against the artist for “hurting” the sentiments of Hindus. His property had been attached by the Mumbai Police under orders issued by the Haridwar Court as a result of his failure to attend court summons (before the Supreme Court intervened)². For the last decade or so, every award or accolade that has been heaped on Husain has met the wrath of many Hindu organizations. The latest of these was an attack on NDTV’s office in Ahmedabad last month by a group of 15-20 young people. Calling themselves the Hindu Samrajya Sena (not to be confused with HSS / RSS), they rationalized their act by blaming NDTV’s airing of an SMS poll on the Bharat Ratna award with famous painter M.F. Husain as a contender³.His election for the prestigious Raja Ravi Varma award for outstanding contributions in the field of art by the Kerala government in May last year, has received a mass outcry from various organizations. The stakes have now been raised to a point of ridicule. While Ashok Pandey of the ‘Hindu Personal Law Board’ has announced a reward of Rs. 51 croreⁱ for his ‘elimination’, Akhtar Baig of the Madhya Pradesh Congress Minority Cell has offered Rs. 11 lakh ⁱⁱ to any person willing to chop off the artist’s hands. The latter, being Muslim, believes that Husain’s work has disrupted communal harmony and it will be a patriotic deed to chop off the artist’s hands⁴.

However, what hurts me the most is when these organizations begin playing the guilt by association game. Asking people like Sachin Tendulkar⁵ and Nafisa Ali⁶ to apologize for hurting the nation’s sentiments by patronizing Husain’s work is simply going too far.

With organizations like ‘Hindu Janajagruti Samiti’ (HJS) taking on Husain as yet another one of their dozen campaigns, one is reduced to ponder upon what ‘jagriti’ ⁱⁱⁱ is being implied here. Who is being awakened? And to what ‘reality’? This brings us to the heart of the controversy baring “the long-running dispute and disagreement over the nature of Hinduism and its role in modern India” ⁷. Supporters of Husain point out that nudity is not new to artistic expression in the Hindu culture. In fact, it is what strengthens our arguments about how Hinduism is liberal in its view of the divine. Illustratively, we should recollect the stories of Krishna retold over the centuries. When defending his actions (such as stealing the clothes of the bathing gopis ^iv), often the reason that story-tellers provide is that Krishna is demonstrating, in jest, the true way of becoming one with the absolute divinity - that of becoming free from the cycle of Karma^v and the canons of Dharma ^vi through the rasa^vii of devotional love. And then, of course, the sculptures and paintings that depict nudity including all kinds of sexual positions; the acme of which are the temples of Khajuraho^.viii HJS has piled up arguments to shield the Khajuraho. I wouldn’t be surprised to know that they went so far as to edit the Wikipedia page on Khajuraho to suit their ends. There wouldn’t be anything new about this behavior. If the HRD^ix Minister of the NDA^x government can have passages removed from textbooks overwriting the knowledge and expertise of scholars like Romila Thapar ⁸, why can’t HJS? I don’t stand to disprove their arguments because I consider that to be a waste of time for any readership that this article receives.

Part of the what HJS has to say is that Husain would never dare make such a painting of the Prophet or that none of his depictions of Muslim religious heads is shown as nude. Thus, they claim that he is a hypocrite and must be answerable for this hypocrisy. Why should he? There is no such tradition in Muslim Art or Christian Art. Objections to him being conferred the Raja Ravi Varma Award is being branded as a “death blow to the sacred and revered memory of Raja Ravi Varma as one of the greatest exponents of modern Hindu art ” ⁹. What they fail to see is how the diversity in both artist’s visual image strengthens the essence of Hinduism that allows an artist to be as free as he may desire with his visualization of what is pure, and divine.

Fingers are then pointed at the blasphemous paintings of say, the headless Shiva, or Sita depicted on Ravana’s lap or even that of Sita in Hanuman’s heart. What is pure about these paintings? What, indeed, is divine? And I find myself cornered; cornered by ‘pundits’ of Hindu scriptures glaring down on me and demanding an interpretation. And like a meek child who knows but little, I sink down amidst these suffocating glares and chance a cheeky reply, “They are open to interpretation!”. Yes, people, that part of us that is cultivated to understand the ‘finer elements’. This seems to all have been put very vaguely, considering the fact that the objects of Husain’s paintings are not abstract. At the same time, however, what needs to be realized is that he himself might be the visualizer or creator but we are the interpreters and each interpretation opens up a piece of art to a greater value, in every sense. The fact that Husain’s works have fetched millions of U.S. Dollars / Euros at many-an-auction in the past few years has obviously been overlooked.

“I long to walk through the streets of Grand Road and Byculla where I have spent some of the best years of my life”, says Husain as he continues to London on a voluntary exile. “I have become an international gypsy. It is no secret that I am wandering around the world with only my art for company” ¹⁰. There are still thousands of his fans that want him to return. In October last year, Sahmat^xi, along with hundreds of artists, writers, musicians, dancers, film makers, actors, students, activists, professors, lawyers and journalists celebrated Husain’s 92nd birthday on Gandhi Jayanti (15 days before his real birthday) signaling that the atrocities that are being meted out to Husain are similar to what Gandhi faced. They had all gathered to defend the freedom of expression and creativity.

However, this opens up a new dimension to the debate. That of the definition of freedom of expression and whether an artist’s definition is the ultimate one. I believe that over one’s work, one is the ultimate authority. However, when the deal includes inciting such a huge multitude of people, one has to be somewhat socially responsible. It does not matter then that what kind of people are getting hurt.

Keeping the snail pace of the courts and the resultant hype out of the picture, I think it is fair to say that the government is totally helpless in such cases, not ready to sway either way. When the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) filed a complaint in Delhi in 1998, ¹¹ the BJP was moved to investigate the paintings. However, they were dismissed in 2004 by the Delhi High Court as the prosecution couldn’t gather support from the Union and State Governments. However, in February 2006, with the publication of an advertisement titled ‘Art For Mission Kashmir’ in the India Today ^xii, which featured Husain’s painting of ‘Bharatmata’^xiii as a nude woman stretched out in the rough shape of India with the different states written on different body parts, he was charged once again for hurting Hindu sentiments. He apologized and withdrew the painting but the damage was done. I can’t understand why it is so hard for Husain to realize that the risk in exhibiting something that is bound to enrage people, in general, is not a worthwhile enterprise. Again, I see a lot more to the painting than what it seems to take to get every religio-chauvinist excited but the question is: What is the point of jeopardizing a lifetime of honor and achievement? I fail to see his reason.

Then again, the solution to this bizarre state of affairs, where a jewel of India has to stay away from his motherland for so long calls for the dire need for artists to realize the limitations of artistic freedom in a society plagued with propaganda and the need to educate that section of society that lacks the true appreciation of art.

So, what is my stand?

Maqbool Fida Husain is a patriot. He has been justly named ‘Picasso of India’ by Forbes magazine. In his paintings I see his secularity rather than hypocrisy or blasphemy and a vibrance that fills me up with as much energy as a Prakash Jha movie. He has always felt free to find his images from the cultural diversity of his motherland. His art calls to the nation, asking it to anew its perspective. In fact, his life and work have looked to infuse the feeling of the secular in what is still a very young India.

Footnotes:

¹Indian artists fear intolerance by Monica Chadha, BBC News, Mumbai (May 16, 2007)
²India’s Supreme Court suspends arrest warrant for artist M.F. Husain , International Herald Tribune (May 8, 2007)
³NDTV, an Indian News Channel, attacked by Right Wing Group , NDTV.com (January 19, 2008)
ⁱ$ 13 million ( www.mattersofart.com )
ⁱⁱ$ 28,000 ( www.mattersofart.com )
⁴www.mattersofart.com
⁵Sachin criticized for accepting painting from Husain , Hindustan Times (September 9, 2007)
⁶HJS lodges FIR against Nafisa Ali for selling Husain’s Art , OutlookIndia.com (February 10, 2008)
ⁱⁱⁱ awakening
⁷Expression borrowed from Indian Artist upsets sensibilities , Daniel Lak, BBC News New Delhi (July 8, 1998)
^ivFemale cowherds or milkmaids
^vConsequences of Action (as a law of nature)
^viReligiously defined social behavior
^viiEmotional tone or mood
^viiiThe largest group of medieval Hindu and Jain temples (in Madhya Pradesh, India) famous for its erotic sculptures
^ix Human Resource Development, Ministry in the Union Government
^xNational Democratic Alliance (was in power from 1999 to 2004)
⁸A new brand of history , Vishwa Mohan Jha, Frontline magazine, Volume 20 – Issue 4 (February 15-28, 2003)
⁹Ravi Varma Award for MF Hussain is national insult , V Sundaram, iVarta.com (June 24, 2007)
¹⁰Top Indian Artist bemoans exile over nude painting , Agence France-Presse, Eastern (Nov 17, 2005)
^xi Safdar Hashmi Memorial Trust, works to build solidarity among the artists and intellectuals
¹¹Indian Artist upsets sensibilities , Daniel Lak, BBC News New Delhi (July 8, 1998)
^xiiA national English weekly
^xiii Mother India