Rang roop vesh bhusha chache anek hain.
Remember that animated movie on Doordarshan? Sure all that is bullshit. When it comes to cold hard facts, Hind desh ke nivasi are always fighting over language, region, religion, caste, class, skin colour, and whatever else suits our fancy.
The North Indians are irked by the South Indians and the South Indians don’t really ooze love for their Northern counterparts. Heck, even people from two neighboring states don’t get along very well. Amidst all this are the stupid politicians and people in the public eye who are constantly riling people up, talking about preserving regional language and culture and making life hell for people from other cities who are making a living in theirs.
But then, we all know that already, don’t we? And we are not really shocked by such behavior. But amidst all this, somewhere deep down, we are accepting of all kinds of people. We fight, but then we are a people of all kinds of cultures, religions and habits, living together, and not splitting into a 100 different countries, just because we are different. We also accept all kinds of people who can express themselves in different ways. Sure, authors, artists and other creative personalities have faced a lot of anger or violence sometimes, because their expression has hurt some people, but still, I believe we are way better than any other countries around us. Imagine my shock then, when I learnt what M.F. Hussain had to recently say about India when he accepted the citizenship of Qatar(and some of the things he had to say about his new country shocked me too). He said he loves India but the country rejected him. I feel for him, that he had to go away from his country for having expressed his creativity, but I can also understand how some people could have gotten hurt by his ‘expression’ of Hindu goddesses in sexual ways. Well, people like you and me can just brush that away but for some others it is hard. Well, I only have one question for Hussain, would he ‘express his creativity’ by depicting any other religion’s sacred symbols in the same way?
And get this,
“I enjoy complete freedom in Qatar. Now Qatar is my place. Here no one controls my freedom of expression. I am very happy here,”
Ahem! All I want to say is, Dude, just try your antics with Islam and you would see how much freedom you then enjoy!
PS: The point of this post is not to diss any particular religion, far from it. I am not a religious person, nor do I care about any such differences. I was just angry that this man, who enjoyed immense publicity and celebrity in India, went out and said that about India, and more than that, he says no one controls his freedom of expression in his new country. It is just a little hard to digest. I guess, other than that, there is really no point to this post!
shilpadesh
For some reason I never liked this guy MF Hussain. Yeah he is a creative guy and all that. But creativity too has some sense and meaning. However all he does is blabber about some thing or the other. If he dislikes India so much, why does he even talk about it?
The last time some one tried to depict prophet Muhammad in certain way on facebook called for a huge uproar in the islamic community. Hussaini baby, you wanna try some of your ‘new found freedom’? C’mon dare you win. Ha ha
I like a lot of his paintings, but did not like his comments. I can guarantee he will have the same problems in any other country if he tries the same with their culture.
well said.. When you are living in a country , you need to respect others beliefs/way of living. You can not ignore your responsibility towards it by calling it “creativity”/right to express.
I am waiting to see his “creativity” expressed in Qatar;-)
On one hand I appreciate his creativity and freedom of expression, what I did not like was his comments about India, when it is true that he will have similar problems in any country. That comes with his territory, being a painter who uses cultural references as subjects.
I agree that Husain probably won’t find absolute freedom of expression in Qatar any more than in India.
However, I am not convinced by the idea that he should try painting controversial images of the Muslim religion. This point is one commonly raised by people who object to, and have got violent, over his work and I find it disingenous. As an artist, he should be free to paint what inspires him. People need not like it, they can criticise it, but getting violent over it, seeking to ban it, threatening the artist (and often following through with violence) etc is where I draw the line. And I think this applies to all religions/cultural groups. There have been depictions of the Madonna in highly sexualised ways (the popstar Madonna is a prime example) but as I Christian, I just see it as someone’s point of view and move on.
Moreover, I don’t see why sexualised images of goddesses are objectionable. One of the things I find refreshing about Hindu mythology is that it’s so open about sex, there are even temples with sexualised images. That’s something to be celebrated and maybe Husain is doing just that.
In India, we seem to have an increasing number of groups taking offense and getting violent over something or the other. Where does it end? Who decides which offenses are worthy of the silencing of the offenders? The latest was the Shiv Sena and Rohinton Mistry’s book. I don’t think this trend is something to be supported. If somebody paints/writes/expresses a view that we find distateful, why not just register one’s disapproval and move on. Or paint/write something in response?
Ok here is what I think about freedom of expression. People should be free to express what they like, and also be ready to face the opposition when their expression hurts other people. Having said that, I agree that violence is no way to express disapproval or anger. In writing this post, I am not siding with the people who threw stones at his studio or his apartment in Mumbai, I am merely saying that he cannot say in black and white that he was not loved in India. I could move on saying it is his point of view, but for god’s sake do not say that you have freedom of expression in another country, while what you express has NOTHING to do at all with the culture of a majority of the people of that country.
About the topic of sexualized images of goddesses, I really have nothing to say, because it is a very personal subject for a lot of people.
I like different opinions and artistic expressions and appreciated some of Hussain’s paintings, especially Saraswati and Bharat Mata, and some of the other Mahabharat related paintings, but when he disses India in that way, it riled me up. And this is my way of registering my disapproval to his comments. People might find it difficult to express themselves in India, but that is true with any country on earth.
Lovely header Shilpa ! Is that you in the pic? Beautiful location and you look very pretty too.
I agree with you that Qatar is hardly the bastion of freedom of expression. But there are countries where if an artist goes against or ridicules the dominant ideology (and I actually don’t believe that’s what Husain is doing in his work), he may face opposition but need for fear for his life because the state will protect him. This is sadly not the case in India, or even Qatar.
I don’t think he said he was not loved in India… actually he said it was only 10 per cent of people who were against him (maybe he is being optimistic there). Sadly in India, that 10 per cent can make life very difficult.
And yeah, blog posts are a good way of registering protest, as are letters to the editor, or to him or even peaceful protests outside his studio. But clearly, in his case, it went beyond that.
agree with every word you have said here shilpadesh