HUSSAIN & HIS FETTERED ART
M.F. Hussain is an Indian citizen and has been living in exile for close to four years and residing in Saudi Arabia. He is a controversial painter. In the past he has made paintings of Hindu deities showing them naked. First of all, I have no doubt, he is an excellent painter. But that doesn’t mean he can draw nude drawings of Gods, especially where people are against nudity culture. There are lots of things to draw; I don’t know what made him draw nude paintings of Hindu Gods. Art should not hurt people’s feeling, it must give gratification to them.
It was protested by a section of society. According to parties like Bajrang Dal and Vishwa Hindu Parishad : “M.F. Hussain depicts the Deity or person he hates as being naked. He shows the Prophet’s mother, his own mother, his daughter, all the Muslim personalities fully clothed, but in contrast Hindus and Hindu Deities along with Hitler are shown naked. This proves his hatred for Hindus.”
Some say in his favour , “He drew those goddesses ,whose nude portraits or sculptures are already on the temples in Khajuraho.” But let me tell you, even I have visited Khajuraho, the nude sculptures are not of Gods!!!
He also drew sexual acts like Durga having with tiger, naked Sita on the lap of Ravana, which is just figment of imagination and are not ‘depicted’ in caves or temples anywhere in India.
India has been wounded by innumerable terrorist attacks. Instead of expressing her pain, MF Hussain has humiliated her and has added insult to her injury by showing her being raped in his painting “Rape of India”. Representing India as a woman being raped, is nothing but terrible denigration. For an Indian, ‘Bharat Mata’ is a Goddess and not some figurative concept and showcasing her in this manner is highly outrageous and a completely unacceptable form of denigration. No one is having right to point on Nations image and culture. Especially a person who is having social responsibility should be having a common sense to take people into right way to the beautiful life.
The Essay on Hindu-Muslim Conflict In India
India is in the centre of a very serious conflict in the world today. It is a very diverse place composed of people from many different religious backgrounds that come from many different regions. Two of the country’s main religions, Muslim and Hindu, have been fighting for hundreds of years for many different reasons. Their feelings of hatred and mistrust for each other are embedded in their ...
As Hindu Janajagruti Samiti truly claims that if MF Hussain is truly an artist (as claimed by the artist community) and that all his thoughts about being outraged by terrorism were genuine, then why does he not paint others being nude. But we have observed he depicts only India and Hindus in this manner.
He is probably of the opinion Hindus are soft and tolerant and would not react. For me, it’s the same like when the Danish cartoonist drew the offensive cartoons which offended Muslims.
It’s an insult to even think of naked Sita sitting on the lap of Ravana. Did he try to imply that Sita was sexually abused by Ravana after he got her kidnapped ? He has also painted Fatima (daughter of Prophet Mohammed) and Mother Teresa fully clothed.
Art, creativity and freedom of thought doesn’t mean or give anyone license to hurt, intimidate others feelings and sentiments. He got what he deserved. He is not the only nude artist we have in India but the difference is all other nude artists are creative enough to show their talents with out using gods and goddess.
Now that he has chosen to live in Qatar. So, it looks like it is goodbye to India for M.F. Hussain. The other stories have yet to be confirmed: that Hussain has already begun travelling on a Qatari passport; that the Qatar royal family will spend millions on a museum for him, etc.
Hussain has raised a fresh debate on the question of absolute freedom of expression of an artist.
But what about artists like Taslima Nasreen or Salman Rushdee? Why doesn’t the Qatar government give citizenship to them? Just because they expressed their views against the religion they belong to? In the case of Hussain of course the Arabs will let him paint naked Hindu goddesses. But will they let him paint anything that even remotely offends Muslims? Anything that offends the royal family? Or even, nude portraits of Arab women ? He wont dare do that. He will be dead next time.
The Term Paper on Hinduism India Gods Hindus
Hinduism, religion that originated in India and is still practiced by most of its inhabitants, as well as by those whose families have migrated from India to other parts of the world (chiefly East Africa, South Africa, Southeast Asia, the East Indies, and England). The word Hindu is derived from the Sanskrit word sindh u ("river"-more specifically, the Indus); the Persians in the 5 th century BC ...
Hussain will have no artistic freedom in Qatar. He will be no more than a court painter to a medieval monarch.
Photographer, designer and activist Ram Rahman, who is close to the Husain family, responded to the news by saying : “The citizenship has been offered by the sheikha, the wife of the sheikh of Qatar, and it has several implications. On a personal note, I feel it is quite clear that the man who is 95 years old and cannot return to his country to die, there is no point of him remaining an Indian citizen.”
First in a democracy, responsibility comes before rights – all have responsibility not to hurt others and then the freedom to express. Hussain cannot hide under “creative artistic” etc. and do whatever he wants. It’s a loss for him to lose citizenship of a great country, the largest demoracy. No question of considering dual citizenship who voluntarily disregarded his citizenship disgracing the Mother India.
There are lakhs of great talented painters in India, who are not in lime light. Instead of wasting time and money on M.F Hussain, we can help those talented painters to reach that extra mile
A gross transgression!
