I was just reading about a painter whose work was called blasphemous and whose house was attacked by a mob of 90 militants as a result. 
They also attacked an art gallery that was showing his paintings and destroyed 28 of his canvasses. Two other painters whose work was displayed with his at a different gallery were also attacked. He has been the subject of repeated police investigations in the past, and was just booked by the police yesterday for offending religious sentiment.
It might surprise you to know that this is not a story of Islamic intolerance. Instead, this is a story about Hindu religious sensibilities offended by the work of one of India’s most famous painters, Muqbool Fida Husain, a man whose paintings were recently auctioned by Christie’s for $2 million a canvas.
Hindu groups objected to Husain’s pictures of Saraswati, Durga and Draupadi naked in 1996, when militants rioted, and are currently objecting to a painting of “mother India” naked:
Acknowledged as one of the living legends of Indian art, Maqbool Fida Hussain created a public furore by painting Hindu goddesses in the nude in 1996…. Hussain later apologised and said he had not meant to hurt the sentiments of any religious group. He even expressed his willingness to go before a committee of three persons – an art critic, a lawyer and a representative of the Vishwa Hindu Parishad – that could scrutinise his entire collection. Hussain said he would immediately destroy anything that the committee found objectionable. That suggestion was brushed aside as members of members of hard-line Hindu organisations ransacked the painter’s house in Mumbai and also manhandled artists outside a gallery in Delhi that had Hussain’s works on display. [Link]… the Shiv Sena … endorsed the Bajrang Dal’s attack on Husain’s home… Bal Thackeray said: “If Husain can step into Hindustan, what is wrong if we enter his house?”… [Link]
IN the October 11, 1996 incident, a group of Bajrang Dal activists forced their way into the Herwitz Gallery in Ahmedabad’s Husain-Doshi gufa, the well-known art complex. Armed with tridents and wearing saffron scarves, they intimidated a lone guard and destroyed about 23 tapestry items and 28 paintings which were on display there. The work destroyed included Husain’s series on Hanuman, a depiction of the Last Supper and the famous Madhuri Dixit series. [Link]
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WARNING: Thumbnail versions of the offending images below the fold, click to see larger versions
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In addition, Husain was investigated several times by the police for his paintings, although charges were never brought against him:
A few days before Hindutva fundamentalists vandalised Husain’s paintings in Ahmedabad, the Mumbai Police had registered a case against Husain under Sections 153-A and 295-A of the IPC. (Section 295A is concerned with deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs.)… [Link]
He is currently back in the news for stirring up controversy with his painting of a naked “Mother India”:
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… 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. [Link]The Vishwa Hindu Parishad has demanded that Husain be placed under arrest for hurting sentiments of the majority community. Meanwhile, state Bharatiya Janata Party president Nitin Gadkari has also extended support to the demand for Husain’s arrest, saying that the renowned painter has hurt religious sentiments. [Link]
So why didn’t these protests grow large in 1996, like those we see today in Arab countries? Well, protests have to be organized and fomented by groups – spontaneous protests are rare and don’t last very long without support. In this case, the Bajrang Dal was probably restrained by the BJP because of Husain’s high profile:
By 1955 he was one of the leading artists in India and had been awarded the Padma Shri. He was a special invitee along with Pablo Picasso at the Sao Paulo Biennial in 1971… Husain was awarded the Padma Bhushan in 1973, the Padma Vibhushan in 1989 and was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1986. [Link]
He was also well supported by India’s intelligentsia, and it didn’t make sense for the BJP to let this go too far. Husain also apologized right away, and his investigation by the police probably assuaged many of those who had been offended at first. By contrast, it is in the interest of Islamicist leaders in the Middle East to continue to whip up protests, and Western newspapers are continuing to insist on their right to offend. The politics of the current Danish cartoon affair go a long way to explaining the difference in outcomes between the two cases.
UPDATE:
Here is a list of paintings that Hindu groups found objectionable, their descriptions, and some links. The entire passage below is taken from a group that objected, so these are their interpretations of the photos:
The Obscene Paintings
Painting 1: Naked Sita on the long tail of Hanuman
In this painting Goddess ‘Sita’ and ‘Hanuman’ have been depicted in the nude. Sita was never rescued by Hanuman. Further, Sita is the icon of chastity for millions of Hindus all over the world. Here, Husain depicts Hindu Holy figures in violation of Hindu Holy Scriptures.
Painting 2: Lord Hanuman with His genitals pointing towards a woman having sexual intercourse
The title of the painting is Hanuman V. It shows a three faced Hanuman, and a nude couple in sexual intercourse. The erect genital of Hanuman is shown bent in the direction of the female.
(Critique of the ‘Hanuman V’ painting by noted critic, Shyamal Bagchi:
“While the brave and valiant Hanuman tries to concentrate on his meditation, the naked figures of Rama and Sita can be seen in the foreground…” Read more here.)Painting 3: Hanuman opposite Sita sitting on the thigh of naked Ravana
This painting signed as ‘Hanuman 13’ by Husain shows naked ‘Sita’, sitting on the thigh of naked ‘Ravana’, while naked Hanuman is attacking him.
Painting 4: Naked Goddess Saraswati
Hindus regard Saraswati as the Goddess of knowledge, art and wisdom. She is worshipped as the one ‘wrapped in white, pure garment’. Showing Her naked is in violation of Hindu Scriptures.
Painting 5: Bull copulating with Parvati, with Shiva watching
Painting 6: Durga in sexual union with tiger
In this painting of Goddess ‘Durga’, she is not shown astride, but in sexual union with a tiger.
Painting 7: Naked Goddess Lakshmi on the head of an elephant
‘Lakshmi’ is also shown naked, perched on the head of an elephant.
Painting 8: Naked Krishna with His feet and hands cut off
Husain’s some other denigrating paintings of Deities (available for sale or exhibition on the Internet).
Related posts: Provocation, The Danish cartoon controversy, Husain’s record-setting art sale
If someone had published the 12 Danish cartoons in India, they could have been arrested under the same clause too, i.e. ‘incitement of religious hatred’. But the difference is, there would have much more public furore, esp by Leftists.
Is ‘bharatmata’ also a Hindu goddess??
You should add following article about MF Hussain too.
Painter Maqbool Fida Husain has pulled out his movie, Meenaxi — A Tale of Three Cities, out of movie theatres a day after some Muslim organisations here raised objections to one of the songs in it.
“I have told my sole distributor Yash Chopra to withdraw the film from public shows with immediate effect,” Husain said in a statement today. Husain who was visibily upset, however, refused to provide any reasons for his action to reporters. “I have not made the film to make money, nor have I sold it to anyone. Therefore, I need not give any reason for the withdrawal of the screening of the film to public,” Husain said.
Yesterday, the All-India Ulema Council kicked up a row by terming the qawwali number in the film, ‘Noor-un-Ala-Noor’ as blasphemous. The council claimed that the song featuring the film’s main protagonist, Tabu, contained words directly lifted from the Quran. The council’s statement was supported by Muslim organisations like the Milli Council, All-India Muslim Council, Raza Academy, Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Hind and Jamat-e-Islami.
http://www.tribuneindia.com/2004/20040417/nation.htm#8
The sad thing is that Indian culture used to be full of naked and even erotic depictions of gods and goddesses. Somewhere along the road this new morality took hold. Anyway, protests are a part of freedom of expression and people are well within their rights to do so. If no-one ever flexed their muscles people would begin to take advantage.
Don’t know what to make of Hussain – whether he’s really artistically inspired or whether he just wants to provoke. I notice that he doesn’t dare take liberties with his own faith which makes me a bit suspicious of him. Hindus are a soft target and if he’s only taking advantage of that I have no sympathy for him.
As Divya above points out, why is it that he never illustrates his “art” about any other religious group, especially his own ? Is he worried about the results ? Why only hindu gods, godesses, etc. ? Plain hypocrisy and some underlying attempt to demean Hindus by him ?
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Deja Vu – II
“Behzti”
Interestingly the faith leaders had this compromise in mind.
The “Behzti” episode was commented on by Abhi , razib and Amardeep
Unfortunately this show had to be discontinued as the moderate voices were drowned out by the Khalistani zealots and the administration did not have the stomach for this sort of controversy. I donÂ’t know what came out of this. Did anyone follow this after it was not the front page news ?
Sibin, If you are posing a genuine question, then I will hazard a guess. I think Hussain finds the colorful symbolisms of Hinduism inspiring. There is not other religion that I know of where the deities are depicted, decorated and exhibited with such enthusiasm. I can understand why you suspect that there is a motive behind his choice, however, IMHO he is just being an artist.
There is a long tradition of the depiction of Hindu deities, however there is no such tradition with respect to the Islamic God, and little of a tradition about painting Mohammed. Most of his paintings are not on religious topics at all though, these are simply the ones that get him into trouble. You can see a selection of his paintings on his website.
I’ve seen many of his paintings and although I’ve never been a religious person, I was quite shocked and appalled. Its worse than just painting Godessess nude. He also has a painting of a naked Sita and Ravana engaged in intercourse….that offended me!
Thanks bleep! That was enough to help me find some of the images.
Ennis, did you find that one? Google Images didn’t turn up anything for “Hussain Sita Ravana.”
You misspelled his last name. I googled “Sita Ravana Husain” and got the Sanatan.org page. While that painting isn’t linked, it is described.
Ah, thanks. It was spelled with a double S here.
Looks like Sanatan’s biggest objection is that the deities are depicted nude. Humans really baffle me, sometimes.
That’s right. They consider this series of paintings obscene, yet in most of these the only objectionable quality is that Rama and Sita are naked. Given older Hindu religious imagery, I’m a bit confused.
They also object to this “Derogatory painting of Shiv Parvati” even though all three figures are fully clothed. Are they objecting to the mixing of animal and human features on Parvati and Shiva? They don’t say.
However, I should clarify that these do not seem to have been the images that led to the riots. For example, the “Shiv Parvati” painting was pained in 1977, and the Hanuman series was painted in the 70s and 80s.
Tom & Ennis… going by your logic, how come he didn’t paint his own family members or prophet muhammad’s daughter in the nude when he did paint them (you can search for those paintings online)? I’ll tell you why… because the muslim community will not accept it. Can you imagine a Hindu in a Muslim majority country painting the prophet’s wife in the nude, for instance (since the prohpet himself can’t be depicted in images)… he wouldn’t live a single minute. Husain should have thought about this before he painted & exhibited it.
This blog lays out some of the reasons for offense, they seem mainly to be the cavalier use of religious figures without regard to the sentiments of worshippers. For example:
NOTE: This group (and the blogger above) did not endorse violence:
If the Hindutvas deemed it fit to destroy Hussein’s paintings in a public/private exhibition, then why don’t they think its necessary to perhaps blast down the temples at khajuraho? what about rajasthani miniature paintings which depict rama-sita/krishna/radha intercourse that sell like hot cakes to tourists in cities like udaipur/jodhpur, does anyone see a blatant double standard? So its okay for Hindus to engage in this sort of depiction, but not for Muslims? Hindu fundamentalism is one of the ugliest plagues to hit India in the past century.
Besides, I don’t think the observation that somebody made about him “not taking liberties with his own faith” holds any water. As Ennis pointed out, Hinduism has a long tradition of visual depications of gods in the pantheon and its very much a foundation of modern Hinduism in idol worship, image worship and so on. Islam does not have such a vibrant tradition, although as someone pointed out in a post on a previous blog, there have been a few depictions of the prophet here and there. Many Muslims in India have coexisted with Hindus for centuries, causing them to appreciate Hindu art forms, and in the case of an artist like Husein, his vast repertoire of paintings shows that he has a range of subjects to match.
I thought Muslims weren’t supposed to paint any animals or humans, naked or not.
He started by painting signboards for films, so clearly he was willing to paint some figures:
Well, that’s why Husain and everyone else in India should be grateful to have a secular, liberal democratic India. The comparison you draw doesn’t shed any light on Husain or his motivations — it just highlights that Muslim countries don’t offer any freedoms and India shouldn’t try to emulate them. The whole idea of this Section 295A is offensive and should be jettisoned.
Muqbool Bhai is not the only target.
The Bajrang Dal targets an organisation dedicated to the conservation and promotion of folk art and culture in Rajasthan for using posters that allegedly denigrate Hindu deities.
FYI, there are no Gods and Goddesses shown having intercourse in khajuraho, only ordinary mortals including kings, courtesans etc. Having said that, I uphold the “Hindutvadi” or anybody’s right to protest the paintings but not wilful destruction of property.
Related post on Husain’s $21 million art sale.
Durga in sexual union with tigerPainting 5: Bull copulating with Parvati, with Shiva watching
Thats pretty outrageous! Has MFH lost his mind?
I think the majority of Hindus in India are pretty tolerant when it comes to mocking of Hindu gods. Can anyone imagine what will happen in the US, if a famous painter painted Jesus getting fucked in the ass by a dog while Mary watches him and masturbates!
X-file: There is a very blurry line, if there exists one at all, between god and man in Hindu beliefs. Rama, Krishna, Shiva, etc are clearly worshipped as deities but what about characters from the Mahabharata like Arjun, Karan, and so on…they have been attributed with god-like characteristics through the ages. In fact, that’s one of the most interesting things about modern Hinduism, you can have faith in whatever form/shape/creature you choose. The temples at Khajuraho are considered to be one of the most famous icons of Hinduism or Tantrism which is an offshoot. As an aside: my question was purely rhetorical, I’d be shocked if it seemed like I was suggesting the temples be destroyed.
Yes it should be thrown out. Not only in the name of freedom of speech, but also because in practice, the law gets applied unfairly ans selectively almost always. So this ends up giving more ammunition to fundamentalists to pit one community against others.
Harsh, my comparison does shed light on Husain’s motivations – if his intention was to explore artistic creativity, he could’ve explored the myths of other religions too, not exclusively Hinduism… surely he could find characters from the myths that abound in other religions? Sadly, he doesn’t seem to appreciate the creative freedom he enjoys in a democratic and secular India. I drew the comparison in the second part of my post only to highlight this.
I can only guess. Maybe his Mum is uglu and he finds Islam dull and uninspiring. I would say you this though, that there is a long tradition of Islamic Calligraphy in Islamic cultures and I have seen several beautiful caligraphy pieces. So I can only hope he will try his hand at this form of art too.
There is a possiblity that this might happen. Some people might bring Jehad to New Delhi with Bukhari of Jama Masjid leading the mob of killers.
My comments were made in abstract, where I speculated on what might have inspired Hussain to draw these paintings.
Please look at my comment #7 above, it is not necessary to have an illustration to incite a mob of thugs, provocative writing is enough. In case of Behzti episode the bone of contention was a play written by a Sikh. This play allegedly had a powerful imagery of a Sikh holy man raping a girl in a Gurudwara (Sikh temple). I have no knowledge of how many days this show ran, but it was discontinued after a mob of Khalistani thugs went on a rampage. Another case in point is ‘Jo Bole So Nihal’ where some alleged Khalistanis blew up a cinema hall.
“Has MFH lost his mind?”
No. Hey, ALM in new incarnation.
I really like Hussian.
People like Hussian push limits of human thought. So do Picasso. So do Galileo. So Charles Lyle. So do James Hutton.
If we stop putting limits because of religious dogma, being sensitive to the thoughts of the masses – we will never have Galileo.
“Advisory: Frontline Magazine (published by The Hindu) is a communist run magazine. Everyone in opposition of US/Isreal is their friend and everybody else falls under ‘enemy’. Read recent issues to confirm their support of Hamas.”
Dude, what does this have to do with communism/US/Israel/Hamas?
These paintings are probably offensive – but the violence exhibited by the ‘protectors’ of the hindu culture is worse. I don’t think MFH has any agenda though, he has painted Mother Theresa to Madhuri Dixit – nor do I think he has done it for publiciity sake. In situations like these, it seems like we, in the east, don’t know how to protest without violence. People get together and one or two gets killed and that is accepted as the norm – It is ironic in the land of Gandhi. Indira’s assassination, Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination, Babri masjid, Gujrat, even kidnapping of kannada actor Raj Kumar – in every instance, innocents got killed.
“how come he didn’t paint his own family members or prophet muhammad’s daughter in the nude”
BS. Maybe, on this token I should never:
a) criticize Dante because I am not a European Christian b) nor practice Shotokan Karate, I am not Japanese c) nor dicsuss merits of Galileo, because I am not a Catholic. d) nor criticize algebra or algorithm, because I am not an Arabic
Come on……….There is no such entitlement.
Ok I’ll bite. Kush tandon: What “limits of thought” does Husain push through his paintings of deities copulating? I’d really like to know. I also don’t understand how you can equate that with Galileo’s work. Could you please elaborate? You also say “BS. Maybe, on this token I should never:
a) criticize Dante because I am not a European Christian …”
This is completely flawed logic. If I had said that only a Hindu can paint Hindu deities, your statement would be an apt analogy.
Luscious moon: Times change, and people change. Things that were found offensive centuries ago may not be so now, and vice versa. Just because people sculpted nude figures in temples doesn’t mean we should ignore the sensitivities of the present day people.
Observer, I would not dismiss your bewilderment as a biased observation and it is rather curious why some artists embrace certain subjects while discarding others. I would still say that Hussain’s finds his muse in Hindu deities, on why he chooses to stay away from subjects related to Islam (or any other religion), we can only guess.
Come on, don’t be such so disingenuous – you know exactly why he does not do that – because he would be dead if he did.
That would be a guess.
The group behind this was actually anti-hindu even though hindus have been blamed for this incident in most of the foreign media. They were actually marathas who want their own religion called Shiv Dharma.
This comment is not about MFH’s work per se – but about a point raised by some commenters which goes something like “He chooses to offend religion X by making inappropriate depictions, why doesn’t he draw something inappropriate within his own religion and then something inappropriate about a religion Y”.
I have two issues with this argument – firstly maybe he is working in areas that he wants to. Its his choice to work on a particular theme – as an artist I suppose he has that freedom. Secondly assuming he caves in to your “demands”, so you want him to depict something inappropriate in every religion so that everyone is equally upset and offended (not just the current set of people)?
P.S: I am not trying to say that these pictures are not offensive to Hindus and/or whoever else but just trying to understand what you are saying
Just to clarify, the violence happened in 1996. The only current part of this is the offense surrounding the naked painting of Mother India.
Hmm, I glad you asked about Galileo.
Galileo’s work in his time was considered blasphemy by the Roman Catholic Church but now is the core foundations of mordern science. He suffered a lot for it.
People like Charles Lyle, James Hutton (age of earth pioneers) challenged the bedrock of the Chruch and Christianity at that time – They stuck to their guns, I am glad they did. They were challenging the establishment more than Hussian will ever do.
A lot of ideas were just challenging the accepted Christian thought – sometimes through exepriments, sometimes even not that. Because they was not instrumentation to verify his ideas back then.
MORAL: Human thought (be it art, cartoons, science, philosophy) should be given a free rein to develop. Who knows what leads to what? There are no pre-conditions on who can do what. That is how human beings progress. Create something yourself, rather than being a moron (I am being generic, not you so please do not take it directed toward you.)
Human Creation = Paintings = Cartoons = Books = Science = All are equal and necessary
a) criticize Dante because I am not a European Christian …”
Again, Because Dante’s work sits on the core of Christianity. My critique should be unwarranted, since I am not a Christian. I should only discuss Hinduism, Hindu authors, and keep mouth shut in other matters. I am thinking of getting PhD on Dante, How about that?
However, at some point human thought and progress is no one’s entitlement.
this is a vector, magnitude, type issue. hindus can be just as savage as muslims about these things, though pound for pound they aren’t quite as bad. the fact that a muslim painter did this in a hindu majority country does say something about the nature of that country.
I still don’t see the point in bull copulation picture. I personally find it quite offensive and pointless.
I will make an artistic photo of Jesus (since he had always been portrayed on the cross) with a lady doing things to him. Using the logic of Luscious Moon, it should be perfectly alright. Lets see how people react !
by my last sentence, i mean that hindus or christians in bangladesh and pakistan would have to tread much more softly than vice versa. india isn’t perfect, and the reason that these incidents are dispiriting is that perhaps it suggests we should move india from the civilized to non-civilized judgement category. if it was in the latter, and judged by the standards of the arab and muslim world, or china, it would be a paragon of tolerance still. if we hold her to higher standards, the results are more mixed.
btw, if the artist is a believing muslim, i do think it is in bad taste to do what he did. shit in your own backyard first dude.
There are aspects of India that put it firmly in the Rwanda mode and even place it below Pakistan and Bangladesh – carrying out 3 day continuous rapes and murders of minorities whilst police and politicans watch on and laugh is something unique to India.
well, it isn’t unique, it is common in many uncivilized places. in a nation of 1 billion there is going to be a lot of variance, the key is how frequent barbarism is. india is certainly not equivalent to china or the arab world…but the gujarat incident shows that the whole country has not entered civilized territory either. onward and upward, god willing.
Thanks, I wasn’t aware of this.
Perhaps I should refer you to the discussion on the “Provocation” blog…sensitivites are relative – what might be to you is not to me…who decides what is or isn’t sensitive? the perceiver of course.
Have you ever lived in those 3 places or do u know what kind of atrocities are committed there WITHOUT CHECK??? Its orders of magnitude worse, buddy. Get your facts right.
the logic might be mine, but the acccountability for the action I leave entirely to you my friend
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piss_Christ
Jesus on cross with piss in the tank.