Comment

MF Husain is the face of contemporary Indian art. Whatever the critical position on his work of the last decade or so, he is the one name every Indian remotely connected with art recognises. Like it, or not, it’s Husain who has enriched—literally—painters, gallery owners, dealers and collectors and has made modern Indian art a world-wide phenomenon.

That’s one side of the story. The other is this: MF Husain has 1,250 cases filed against him in India. That figures come from the Hindu Jan Jagruti Sangh which is keeping count. That’s a lot of cases. Most of them have been registered under Section 295 A, which deals with hurting the religious sensitivity of a group of people, which is a non-bailable offence. The paintings causing all the trouble are of Bharat Mata, Saraswati and other goddesses, all of them considered offensive because, the complainants say, the goddesses were shown ‘nude’.

In fact, these are really not nudes at all. The figures are mere outlines of women, whose clothes haven’t been painted on.

This is not being clever; it’s a distinction anyone familiar with any form of painting will understand. Husain’s figures are abstract; more accurately, they are symbolic: there is, for example, no depiction of skin and flesh, a primary requisite of a nude, no hint of eroticism.

As it happens, our country has a rich tradition of showing our goddesses in extremely voluptuous ways. Khajuraho, Ajanta, Ellora…But even in that too, the overwhelming feeling conveyed to the viewer is not of a prurient nature, but of the wonderful beauty, symmetry and grace of the human form. Obscenity, surely, lies in the eyes of the beholder. Unfortunately, at this point in our history, there are too many of these beholders ready to see obscenity behind every fig leaf.

To digress a little, does anyone remember the furore caused by Aamir Khan’s statements on the Narmada Dam? All he had said was that resettlement should be a priority. There was so much anger that effigies of the actor were burned and there were calls to boycott his film, Rang De Basanti.

Arundhati Roy has been a far more vocal opponent of the Narmada dam, but I do not recollect a call to boycott her novel. Later, Diya Mirza, was asked tocomment on Khan’s stand. Yes, she said, I agree with him. The villagers should be resettled quickly. The police got so alarmed, they smuggled her out of the city in the middle of the night. Do you see the common link between MF Husain, Aamir Khan and Diya Mirza? And we are expected to believe that the campaigns against them were not communally motivated?

But just to prove that our country is indeed secular,other communities have jumped in to show that intolerance in India now knows no religious boundaries. Catholic groups have stepped up their objections to the release of the film, The Da Vinci Code.

The CatholicSocial Forum, have lit candles and prayed for “sinner” Dan Brown, the book’s author. Five thousand signatures have been collected to send a protest letter to the President.

At least these are peaceful protests countered by sane voices like that of Bishop Angelo Gracias who found the book “a poor novel… based on tenuous arguments”, yet said that, “I don’t think the movie should be banned. People should be discerning enough to distinguish between fact and fiction.” He should have said that to former corporator Nicholas Almeida, who got up on his own self-appointed pulpit and announced a reward of Rs 11lakh for anyone “who brings Dan Brown dead or alive” before him.

Isn’t it absurd to protest against a film already released in 34 countries including the home of the Catholic Church, Italy? Isn’t it absurd to protest now against a book that has sold millions of copies all over the world? Worse than that, isn’t it criminal that people like Almeida can get away with instigations to murder?

He joins the distinguished company of UP Minister Mohammed Yaqoob Qureshi who offered Rs 51 crore for the head of the Danish cartoonist in the Prophet Mohammad cartoon controversy. If intolerance seems to be growing, it’s because it is allowed to grow, encouraged by cowering governments.

Don’t forget, India was the first country in the world to ban Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses, and the state has caved in every time one community or group has put pressure on it. Things will only get worse unless the government shows a firm resolve: protest peacefully all you like. But better stop at that.