UK academics stand up for Husain

LONDON: Scholars and intellectuals of Hindu origin in Britain have launched a campaign to reinstate MF Husain’s solo exhibition in London, withdrawn about 10 days ago after an attack by Hindu fundamentalists.

Disgusted by the attack on the valuable paintings of the world renowned artist, a group of around 50 scholars from South Asia wrote a letter to The Guardian highlighting the issue and demanding that Asia House — the hosts of the exhibition — not succumb to the intimidation of the Hindu right.

“We were offended by the whole incident and the way the tactics of fundamentalists had succeeded in curtailing freedom of expression and we wanted to make a stand,” said  Chetan Bhatt, Reader in Sociology at Goldsmiths College, University of London and one of the main forces behind the letter.

“As Hindu scholars, we were upset that groups like the Hindu Forum of Britain and Hindu Human Rights are speaking on behalf of all Hindus and hijacked the agenda. After all they are not democratically elected to speak on behalf of us,” added Bhatt.

After the attack on the paintings of Durga and Draupadi, Asia House, withdrew the exhibition and have refused to make any comments. Considering the magnitude of the incident, the British press has also been suspiciously silent on the issue. Apart from the Observer, no other paper has even reported the attack. “MF Husain is not a minor artist, he is India’s most well-known painter around the world, and if something like this can happen to an exhibition of his in a city like London, it is disgraceful, particularly if it goes by unnoticed,” said Mehreen Rizvi Khursheed, an Indian art specialist at Bonhams.

Picking up from the letter another group called Asians in Media have launched a petition to have the exhibition reinstated. “Hindu traditions have an extensive history of diverse representations of deities, include nude and erotic images of gods and goddesses. Hinduism has never possessed a concept of censorship of the kind that these authoritarian groups wish to promote. We urge Asia House to reopen this exhibition — by doing so it will honour the rich and diverse traditions of expression arising from Hinduism and from India,” reads the petition which has already been signed by scholars, films makers and editors.

Sunny Hundal, editor of the Asians in Media attacked the Hindu Forum of Britain and Hindu Human Rights who have been in the forefront of the agitation for he called desiring ‘victimhood status’ and becoming the self-appointed representatives of Hindus in Britain.

Here are a few signatories on the letter and petition till date:

• Chetan Bhatt, Goldsmiths College, University of London
• Rajeswari Sunderrajan, University of Oxford
• Priyamvada Gopal, University of Cambridge
• Swagato Sarkar, University of Oxford
• Sudeshna Guha, University of Cambridge
• Manali Desai, University of Reading
• Subir Sinha, SOAS, University of London
• Subha Mukherji, University of Cambridge
• Pablo Mukherjee, University of Warwick
• Sunny Hundal, editor Asians in Media
• Sajini Wijetilleka, Imperial College London