MF Husain apologises…?
I havent checked the veracity of this story but here it is:
Indian painter sorry for nude art
| By Nick Bryant BBC News, Delhi |
India’s most famous artist has apologised for a painting in which he represented the country as a nude goddess.
Maqbool Fida Husain also promised to withdraw the controversial painting from a charity auction.
Hindu nationalist groups had accused the artist of hurting their religious sentiments.
Mr Husain had donated the painting to a charity auction to raise money for the victims of the South Asia earthquake.
Police complaints
India is often portrayed in popular culture and arts as a mother goddess.
But the 90-year-old artist took that a controversial step further by painting the goddess without any clothes.
In response, two hardline Hindu groups lodged formal police complaints.
It is not the first time that India’s most famous contemporary artist has provoked the ire of Hindu nationalists.
Ten years ago, there were huge protests in Mumbai after he painted a whole series of nude Hindu goddesses.
His home in the city was even ransacked by an angry mob.
Hindus have become very intolerant in the recent past. Ransacking and pillaging is a means they employ to show their disapproval.
My opinions are at
http://sujaiblog.blogspot.com/2006/05/mf-husain-and-nude-paintings.html
Sujai
Sujai,
Thank you for your comment.
I just read your post and my first reaction is that it is not entirely accurate.
Hindu Gods and Goddesses have not routinley been painted in the nude in the past and the Khajuraho sculptures that you refer to are not those of Gods and Goddeses (as no doubt you are aware).
As regards whether Hindus have become “more” intolerant than before, that is open to debate.
At least partly, it is in reaction to what they see around them (we dont live in a vacuum) – I agree though that pillaging and ransacking is not the most appropriate way to convey diapproval or displeasure.
Jai Hind.
@Sujai Karampuri
Intolerant UK strikes again. If this is their Secularism then what right do they have to lecture us when they misbehave like this?! Please read “Hindus Religious Rights suppressed in UK”.
Apologist, Push-over and appease all attitude will take you only so far, sometimes you just have to push back. Take it easy.
Hindus anger is not the result of the fact that M.F. Hussain painted Hindu goddesses nude, but that he painted ONLY Hindu religious figures in the nude but managed to clothe all the other non-Hindu figures he painted. In addition, Hindu anger is directed at those who say that freedom of expression is exclusively reserved for those who denigrate Hindu religious icons, symbols etc. but cannot be extended to those who criticize minority religions. Case in point the banning of “Satanic Verses” by Rushdie and preventing the movie “Da Vinci Code” from screened in India.
Also, a Government, which is not prepared to reign in rioting crowds protesting some Danish cartoons, has no moral authority to reign in Hindu fanatics.
@Sujai
Nowhere in karjuraho or whatever place you imagign your dreams have Sita Mata sitting on the lap of Hanuman. Show me a proof and I will fight for M.F.Hussain. You misused your insufficient knowledge in your post.
Get over it..Bharath Mata literally means ‘Mother’ and our feelings for her are not different. I do not mean to disrespect you, but would you protest peacefully if someone markets your mother’s nude picture? I hope not. So I don’t think pillaging and ransacking in such cases is wrong. This is not the question of ‘intolerance’, its the question of fighting for our dignity, in other words ‘patriotism’.
@ Harapriya
>>>>>>”…anger is not the result of the fact that M.F. Hussain painted Hindu goddesses nude,..”
It is.
There is absolutely no call to paint Godesses in nude.
Especially by a person who does not believe in those Gods.
By all means, let MF Hussain paint Allah in any form he likes.
But he has no right to paint another’s Gods in a form that is clearly indecent and derogatory.
If it is not indecent or derogatory to some, let them have MF Hussain draw their own parents in the way he has drawn ancient Indian Gods.
Will any of these worthies who pronounce judgements on these matters care to have their Gods, and if they don’t believe in Gods then their parents, drawn in a similar fashion ?
I would also like to see the people who are approving of this kind of paintings worshipping their Gods in this form. By which I mean, those who are willing to allow MF Hussain to paint Gods in this form should be made to worship those Gods in that very form.
Lets also have worthies like Marx and Mao in such nude caricatures on the walls of communist party offices.
Will a major political party like to see the sychophants and their dynasty icons shown the way Hanuman and Sita is depicted ?
Will these people allow anyhbody to make caricatures of the dynastic icons in such derogatory manner although these people have shown themselves to be so deserving.
If anybody does not know the full extent of ‘graphic art’ of Hussain, check this link- http://protestnudebharatmatha.blogspot.com/
Image of Gods and Godesses are representative of various qualities.
The sculptures of ancient India were not product of vulgur imaginations.
Temples of ancient India likewise were not mere buildings. They were made with precise calculations and representative of spiritual significance.
Those who made them were spiritual minded and were directed by spiritual purposes.
Ignorant bigots bereft of spiritual values have no understanding of the spiritual pupose of life and the spiritual significance of images of Gods and Godesses. These spiritually idiotic people would do well to desist from judging matters of spiritual import.
There is no ‘my concept of this God’.
The concepts of these Gods have been made clear by ancient indians through enough literature.
Those concepts do not change. Those concepts cannot be interpreted in a manner that is clearly against the concept itself.