Thanks to Shwetanshu for forwarding me the mail about MF Hussain’s painting and that mail became responsible for making me write about art and recent attacks happening on the artists.
I have seen many people talking about freedom in art and everything but I really do not understand the meaning of freedom here. Does freedom mean hurting sentiments of people? I do not think so.
I just looked at the paintings of MF Hussain and I must say, if he calls it freedom then I would simply just kick his a**. I mean, what is so called freedom in showing our goddess without the clothes doing the things what we have never imagined? What kind of art is that?
I think the government should just arrest these kind of artists immediately so that can understand the real meaning of the freedom. And yea, government should also arrest those moral police guys who prefer taking law in their hand. Infact these moral police guys should be arrested first because taking law in their own hand is much bigger offence than these stupid paintings.
You can make arrests only if the artist has violated some law. If he has done that then it’s perfectly acceptable to arrest him without any questions asked. Unfortunately if there are no laws against such so called artistic freedom then it falls in a morally grey area. And that’s why I guess some police took law into their own hands. Too bad some people have nothing better to do then hurt the sentiments of people all over the country.
Deep,
Why don’t you just let go of the mindset that you can’t bear to see goddesses in the nude form? Why do you think this is offensive? Because that is what you have been conditioned to think? What catastrophe has taken place if the goddess was depicted in the female nude form?
You react that way because that’s what is ingrained in your psyche. When something of this kind comes up you don’t think twice, the reaction comes automatically to you. This is offensive, I am offended. Now if you let go of your so called ‘values’ and ‘tradition’ what the society has been blabbering for thousands of years……I mean just take away all your preset ideas and premonitions and all those baggages, and then look at the paintings. Does it hurt you now? It won’t. Because there is nothing in your mind to tell that this isn’t right. This lack of past baggage of archaic ideas and values led to the sculptures on the very temples we pride as our heritage with gods and goddesses procreating and what not.
With the risk of being labeled a mystic or some net junkie who hasn’t got a life or better things to do, I can’t help but quote Bruce Lee and Lao Tzu in this context:
“Be water, my friend”— Bruce Lee
“By letting go of what I am, I become what I can”— Lao Tzu
Anyways, it was a nice departure from technical discussions.
I do not see any logic in showing Sita nude on the lap of Ravan or Durga having sexual intercourse with a lion or Lakshmi goddess sitting naked on the head of Ganapati or Parvati sleeping naked in front of her son Ganesha.
It just does not make any sense to me. All it shows me that “I don’t care about the Hindu morals and I would paint their goddess naked”
If we see the Muslim paintings of MF Hussain, each and everyone is wearing full clothes, not even a single is naked. It is more like baised stuff, the person might hates Hindu religion and culture and because of that he came up with such obsece paintings.
If he would have done the same with any Muslim god then he would have been killed till date.
But the point here is, what kind of point of view can be in showing any goddess naked? Leave hindu muslim or any cast apart.
For we pray to our god and goddess and do you think any indian would be able to diest these kind of thing? Atleast I can’t.
well i haven’t seen the painting of MF Hussain so can’t comment on it.
but will say just things when it comes to religion we indians are still over-sensitive so i advice all artists should stay away from playing with a traditional form gods
& godesses.
Let me know if anyone of you guys want to check those images, I have that mail.
Or simply check the paintings here: http://www.sanatan.org/hussaincampaign/painting.php
Deep,
Just because we pray to Gods doesn’t mean that they can’t have sexual intercourse. We are not for sure if Gods look just the way as we depict them. So if we imagine them in their human manifestation why should the basic human need for having sex be left out?
This is very much similar to the Church claiming that Mary was a virgin and Jesus was born to her by some supernatural events. How logical is that given that they themselves claim on the contrary that Mary was just a mortal?
You again bring forth the issue of morals. I won’t be wasting the comments space by repeating what I said in the 1st one. Someone says “ah! these morals you shall follow” and so an arbitrary benchmark of decency and obscenity is created and when that is breached, there is chaos all over. Later on, these violent acts would be defended under the garb of cliched rhetorics about tradition and values.
I feel I should discontinue this discussion lest it be interpreted as a personal attack on Deep.
I will say that was bit disturbing not bad but disturbing. But If I am right this is not the first time God and Goddesses have been shown naked. There are some temples and even some scriptures in India where the Gods and Goddesses are shown nude though no one says anything about that just because they are ancient(I am trying to find the name of that temple if anybody remembers do tell.)
What M.F. Hussain showed was disturbing I agree but these moral police did attack the student in MSU and his paintings were destroyed even though the paintings were not even meant for public display that is where it shows how bad the moral policing situation is. The student of MSU is in Jail and I guess that satisfies all the moral police guys.
@Rohit: these people are not police actually they are public like you and me who try to tell the world what is wrong and what is right. And while doing so they resort to violence mostly(I should say always.)
anomit – I will never take this as personal attack or anything. Infact I love healthy discussions.
How will a person feel when some painter paint’s his mother having sex with a lion or any animal? doesn’t it hurt?
God’s can have sex but the problem is, intercourse with a Lion? Did he ever dare do the same stuff with any Muslim god? If he really wanted to show is artistic skills then he never would have thought of what is Hindu or what is Muslim. But here the case is diffeent. He knew that it will be wrong if he does like this to any Muslim god or may be he knew he might get killed if he does it with Muslim gods. So in short, it just does not make any sense to me or shows any freedom in showing hindu goddess in obscene positions.
You might call me Hindu fantic or whatver but the reasons what are given just does not convice me about artistic freedom.
If he wants then he can do the stuff at his home and keep for personal stuff but why to hurt sentiments of people by displaying it in Public?
Karthik – it was Khajuraho..
Like I said earlier – what Moral police or bunch of hippocrates did was wrong. No voilence should be part of this process.
“If he wants then he can do the stuff at his home and keep for personal stuff but why to hurt sentiments of people by displaying it in Public?”
because he/she need some attention. wht funny was when those so called art students called all art members from India & organized a rally here ,we found there were many people from nearby cities who were paid to attend rally (they even don’t know of a or art).
whts more ,another moral police dare devil tried to announce 1 lakh prize money to any 1 who draw to Mohemamad Paigamber ,after harsh protest & other things ,poor (or threatened) man said sorry about that.
I agree having been in Gujarat for 5-6 years, I have seen moral policing in all it’s glory and you end up getting sick looking and hearing them.
I don’t agree with you Deep. For the reason that an art work is not acceptable for some, should be banned or jailed.
I don’t prefer a painting where anyone is having a sexual intercourse with lion, that doesn’t means that i’ll kick if anybody does.
“If he would have done the same with any Muslim god then he would have been killed till date.”
AFAIK there’s only only one god for Muslims.
I’ve seen the prophet cartoons. I pity on people those who can’t enjoy a simple cartoon.
I agree with what Voltaire said: “I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it.”
Cartoon and normal pics are totally ok but I do not feel it is right to show any god having intercourse with animal or even in the position that will hurt sentiments of people. (For e.g. goddess parvati sleeping naked next to her son Ganesh.. this is totally wrong)
deep, i saw the paintings posted on the site, but i personally dont see anything wrong in it, as far as “freedom of art” is concerned, i believe no artist should be ordered or asked to express what the world wants or the people like… people like ekta kapoor and himesh reshamiya are already satisfying the needs and greeds of indian people. atleast we must spare the artists.
sex has been an integral part of indian culture for ages, the temples of khajuraho and the kamasutra being some of the best examples, so..are all these people who are against potraying nudity in art will be against the temples also? or will they burn the copies of kamasutra?? will such people raise their concern over child abuse, molestation of working women, abortion of female foetus, child marriage too?
art is not democratic, and it should never be, peoples votes can choose a corrupt politician to run the state but people dont have right to dictate what the artists in the country should be doing or should not be doing. i dont think any artist thinks for religion or is biased towards one. if hussain paints things then i dont see him provoking hindu mindset all across the nation, such sort of “talibanism” shouldnt be practiced or appriciated by the masses of hindus in india.
The term “culture” is very much temporary, a culture is what the people are, what they think, what they do.. it can not be same for thousands of years, culture is bound to change, you and me can not stop being it to change, to get modified. Culture and ethics can not be same for me and you, everyone has his own scale to measure them. We are in a country where we get agitated by art if it reflects what we dont like to see, but i have never seen people outrightly appriciating art when they really like, may be because they dont understand art. we always tell kids to study more to become doctor, engineer, MBA or scientist, i have rarely seen people telling their children to become an artist, a sculptor, a musician, a movie maker.. these are the professions where nothing is right or wrong. and if one feels that artists are bunch of crazy psychos and they should be jailed all across then i would say that we need some more psychos around us.. to set this world into an equilibrium.