M F Hussain: Myth of his Innocence; Truth of his wrongs

MF Hussain
Myth of his innocence
Reality of his wrongs

By Amba Charan Vashishth*
Words: 700


On April 7 the Indian Express published an interview with famous artist Satish Gujaral in which he said that Mr. M. F. Hussain's exile "makes me ashamed of my own culture…the mob culture" and that" we have made such a great man live abroad."

Such utterances just confuse the people evading the real issue. These deprive the people from having a comprehensive and indepth look at the issues involved from every angle. We do drum about "our culture" but ignore that it also that teaches us to introspect on our own conduct before raising an accusing finger on the other. It is the same very "culture" that teaches us only to respect and not to offend others' sentiments. Mr. Gujaral seems to be ignoring "our culture" when he calls Mr Hussain "a great man" who has the audacity to injure, without provocation, the sentiments of crores of his countrymen.

If Mr. Hussain, as he and his supporters claim, has not done anything wrong then why is he afraid of returning to his country? Never has any government declined to provide him adequate security. But it will be expecting to much if they expect the government to grant him blanket immunity from any criminal offence he may or may not have committed. No government worth its name can do that in a democracy. He seems to be afraid to return because of a sense of guilt created by his own deeds and not because of "our culture". Everybody knows that to hurt somebody’s or some section of society’s faith and religious sentiments is an offence -- criminal, social and ethical. If one poses to be brave to stand by his commitments and principles, he should equally be bold to face the consequences.

Neither Mr. Hussain himself nor his protagonists explain why has he availed himself of his democratic right to freedom of expression only with Hindu goddesses and not taken the same liberty with holy men of his own creed?

If “he is a prime target precisely because he is a Muslim”, as some allege, then it can, inversely, also mean that he exercised his license with Hindu gods and goddesses “precisely because he is a Muslim”. Had the liberal and ‘secular’ Mr. Hussain painted in the same fashion somebody belonging to his own religion, or put the caption as “My Mother Durga”, or “My Mother Saraswati” or “My Mother Bharatmata” on the nude photographs, perhaps, he would have blunt the sharpness of the tongue and logic of his critics and detractors.

Mr. Hussain is, no doubt, a great painter but, at the same time, we have yet to know of a great painter, like him, who has painted his mother in the nude.

It is great human weakness and reality that everybody wishes to flirt with or throw amorous glances over someone else’s wife, sister and mother. One wishes to draw vicarious pleasure by seeing them in the nude. But when it comes to our own wife, mother or sister, we would wish to gouge the eyes of the culprit; it could lead to a scuffle and a murder even.

Arundhati Roys, Nandita Dasses, and a horde of well-known writers and artists/artistes throng the streets in support of Mr. Hussain's freedom. Yet, they have never publicly declared that they would appreciate with the same sense of glee and pride their own or of any member of their own family's nude paintings by a ‘great’ artist like Mr. Hussain. They need to do that, otherwise they will only stand exposed as hypocrites who have one standard for others and quite the opposite for themselves.

Do we need to remind what "our culture….mob culture" has done to the likes of Taslima Nasreen, Salman Rushdie? Or the orgy of violence let loose causing loss of innocent lives and to private/public property in various parts of the country following publication of some Danish cartoonist outside India or hanging of Saddam Hussain in Iraq – an act in which "our culture" had no direct or indirect role to play?

It is a virtue to be liberal and condescending; it is a sin to be one-eyed and partial to deliberately gloat over the other side of reality! ***