MF Hussain on Sarswati

[Mo]

full article on www.rediff.com
Since there are a lot of questions on the
Saraswati painting this is what I have to say: Saraswati
is
the goddess of arts and literature and it has been
depicted in
Indian culture and Indian miniatures in the past in
various
forms. The one which I painted was with great respect
and
conviction, there was no intention except to create an
image
of Saraswati in the modern language of painting, which
some people couldn't understand the nuances of artistic
appeal. This was not a painting but a drawing which was
done 20 years back and was not meant for exhibition or
publication.
Here I would like to quote E M Foster "I don't
believe in God, Oh God help me in my disbelief."
MFH, Have you done any paintings of Mohammed?

The horse
is a combination of male and female, the front part of
the
horse is the male which is very aggressive; the back
part is
like a woman. So it is like a ArdhNareshwar (Half
Man-Woman) the horses are a metaphor for the male and
the female and is not depicted as an animal. Besides
horses I
have painted the Mahabharata, Ramayana and a whole
series on Mother Teresa. Just three years back I did a
series
on the major nine religions of the world --
Christianity,
Judaism, Buddhism etc, and about ten years back I did a
series on the British Raj, then I have done a series on
major
cities -- Calcutta, Benares, Rome and when I went to
Yes I have already seen DTPH 5 times and its sheer
poetry of song and dance and the way she appears as a
highly romantic form is like you see in the
impressionistic
paintings. She is not the Mona Lisa of the Renaissance,
but
she is Picasso's Mademoiselle D'Avignon.

[Mo]

The thrust of the VHP attack, led by B.L. Sharma 'Prem', former member
of
Parliament from East Delhi, was that the "painting" of
Hanuman and Sita portrayed
both in the "nude". Sharma expressed his opinion by
leading a physical assault on artist
Jatin Das and by holding out threats against Arpana Caur,
along with eminent author
Ajit Caur, at the Academy. But his charge was in fact
meaningless. Sita's figure was
represented by a dark-gray outline form, bereft of
distinguishing features of any kind.
Although the contours of a body were visible, these are by
no means vulgar.
Masterpiece representations of Sita, for example, the
sculpture in the Chola-period
gallery of the National Museum in New Delhi, have a bare
torso, considerably more
offensive to the prudish than anything in Husain's
lithograph. Other pro-VHP
commentators have suggested that the fact that Sita was
perched on Hanuman's tail had
a phallic resonance, but the simple fact that both face
opposite directions make
allegations that Husain's lithograph contains sexual
innuendo somewhat mystifying.

VIVEK BENDRE
M.F. Husain.

It is hard to explain how anyone could have arrived at the
conclusion that Sita and Hanuman were in a state of
undress. "The fact that Sita was shown without features or
contours," explains Chopra, "is very much part of the
representational idiom for gods in Hindu tradition." But
aware of the potential for trouble, the organisers of the
exhibition attempted to end the controversy. "First," says
Chopra, "we renamed the lithograph 'Epic Forms', instead
of 'Sita Rescued', and then
replaced it with another work that Husain had done for the
Safdar Hashmi Memorial
Trust." But the threats continued, with Sharma 'Prem'
vowing to burn down the
gallery.

Five weeks after the exhibition in New Delhi closed down,
Husain's home in Mumbai
was targeted by the Bajrang Dal. What was most curious
about the attack on Husain
was that his representation of Hanuman and Sita was
anything but radical. Indeed, the
lithograph had been shown several times over the years,
not only in New Delhi but at
peasant gatherings nation-wide, without creating a
controversy. The Ramayana
lithographs, housed in the Badri Vishal Pitti collection,
were made for a
Lohiaite-socialist political mobilisation opposed to
atheism, Communism and Nehruvian
modernity. "Husain's iconography," points out eminent art
critic Gita Kapur, "is
founded on the notion of an unbroken continuum between
Indian tradition and
modernism. Mythological subjects have been dealt with
since the beginning of Indian
modernism, in often strongly interventionist ways. But
unlike many other artists, whose
use of traditional iconography was ironic or satirical,
Husain's work is suffused with
affection for his themes." Thus, what was in fact a
conservative representation of the
Ramayana iconography was singled out for attack by the
VHP.

HUSAIN'S non-existent "naked Sita", like his "naked
Saraswati", is certain to be
deployed by the VHP in the coming Madhya Pradesh elections
to attack Muslims at
large. In this enterprise, a large section of the media
has been a willing collaborator,
choosing to cast the attack on Husain as only a freedom of
speech issue, without
questioning whether his imagined insults to Hindu
tradition in fact existed in the first
place. Curiously, the VHP's lines of attack on Husain are
themselves insults to the
tradition it claims to represent. As Pavaiya unwittingly
acknowledged, Hindu tradition
has always celebrated the body. "In Hindu tradition, there
is no such thing as a nude, in
the European classical sense," argues Chopra. "Rather, the
body has, in several
traditions, including the Jain, been associated with
divinity." Important epic figures in
Indian tradition have always been a part of the lives of
people, and thus open to
reinvention. In vesting figures such as Hanuman and Sita
with the status of immutable
Semitic gods, the VHP is in fact, assaulting their
traditional epic role.

The VHP's attacks on Indian tradition, and its efforts to
restructure Hinduism, unite it
with fundamentalists of all hues. In West Bengal, Islamic
fundamentalists have been
threatening to boycott the Patuas, painters who for
generations have made their living
by painting Manasa - goddess miniatures. The VHP-Bajrang
Dal's objection to a
Muslim "denigrating" Hindu beliefs stems from exactly the
same mentality. The real
tradition of India is one where the Mughal nobleman Abdul
Rahim Khankhanan
commissioned some of the most famous miniatures of the
Ramayana; where the
Mughal court stored the Razam Namah, a translation of the
Ramayana into the Persian
language, in its treasury. But the VHP-Bajrang Dal, with
the backing of the Shiv Sena,
assault Husain not because he assaults Hindu tradition.
The artist's crime is that he is a
Muslim with a profound concern for Hindu tradition, a
Muslim who believes
passionately in India's composite culture and
civilisational heritage, and a Muslim from
a State where communal mobilisation offers the Hindu right
its sole opportunity to take
power.

Images of predatory Muslims defiling Hindu faith and
womanhood are integral to the
far-Right's mythology - the Shiv Sena's latest threat is
to "strip" Husain should he
proceed with making his film starring actress Madhuri
Dixit. The images of Saraswati
and Sita were images invented to affirm this mythology.
But if the truth be told, the
only thing that is naked is the fundamentalists' predatory
pursuit of power.

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[Ombuster]

Hindus here are showing just another act of human quality, that is to take
sides, and be pre-judiced because the painting is by a muslim. I can understand
that and there is nothing wrong with it.

Have you forgotten, sexual representation in Hindu mythology, Ajantha Elora,
and what is this LINGUM? - Shiva's TESTICLES (PENIS to be exact ) worn
around the body on a string. Apparently, the Testicles also has a piece of
female VULVA. What is all this crap??

Have a forgotten, how some hindu women wear a bigger LINGUM - bigger PENIS
around their waist if they become a widow. Hello world, this act of wearing
publicly displayed LINGUM is very de-humanizing and degrading to women. I am
not joking, this is a fact.

Why don't the hindus bereft themself of these primitive acts, before
compalining about a muslim intellectual artist.

[shri...@hotmail.com]

And what precisely is this irrelavant info doing here ? A request to Mo:
please take your nationalist discussions (even though they might have slight
cinematic content) elsewhere.It just makes a mess of Ramli, IMO.

Shridhar

In article <358ad500...@news.clara.net>,

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[Mo]

Very big fool , it was to do with MFH's new film with Madhuri
-cant get any relevance than that can you? The Shiv Sainiks have now
decided to let him go ahead.