A Challenge to Arundhatis, MF Hussains, Nanditas

A Challenge to Arundhatis, Nandita, MF Hussain, and Chandermohans


By Amba Charan Vashishth


On May 25, according to press reports, Police had to use tear gas to disperse an angry crowd that had collected at Gandhinagar over posters with nude sketches depicting two nudes in front of the Kaba in Mecca that were posted on the walls of the MS University in Vadodara night before. Muslims in Muslim-dominated localities in the city carrying photographs of Osama Bin Laden took to the streets.

The same reports quotes Prof. JS Bandukwala, President of Peoples’ Union for Civil Liberty, say: “Ten days ago a Senate member of the MSU, Deepak Shah, had openly offered a reward of Rs. one lakh to anyone who could paint Prophet Mohammad in the nude”. He does make a reference to this provocation, but obviously fails to make a distinction between painting Prophet Mohammad in the nude and some nudes standing before the Kaba. It certainly does not amount to the same crime.

But there is another side to the story. Only two weeks back, in the same university a painting student Chandramohan, so far unknown, following the footsteps of the great painter M. F. Hussain, shot into controversy – thereby fame – by painting Lord Jesus Christ and some Hindu goddesses in erotic scenes. There was a great furore and violence erupted. The likes of writer Arundhati Roy, film actress Nandita Dass, many renowned painters, intellectuals, liberals and human rights activists thronged the streets beating their chests for the freedom of expression of Chandramohan, the same way as had this tribe, in the past, jumped into the defence of M. F. Hussain when he painted Bharatmata and some Hindu goddesses in the nude.

Everybody -- Chandramohans, M.F. Hussains included -- has a right to freedom of expression, as does the unknown painter who had taken the liberty to paint some nudes standing before the Kaba.

But where were the likes of Arundhati Roy, Nandita Dass, and other intellectuals, liberals, human rightists and liberals when there were violent demonstrations in India over some cartoons published, not in India, but in Denmark? Why did they not crowd the streets in favour of the Danish cartoonist and against those who were there violating his freedom of expression? They have, as yet, not opened their mouth and come into action in support of this unknown painter’s freedom.

Surprisingly, the people in the PUCL, who are now taking cudgels against the MSU Senate member Deepak Shah, had preferred to keep mum when a UP Minister had announced a reward of Rs. ten crores for the head of the Danish cartoonist? Not to speak of taking any legal action against him, he was not even removed from the ministry. Is the concept of freedom of expression not a conviction with them, but only a subjective and selective principle? Do they support freedom of expression of Hussain, Chandramohan but not that that of Danish cartoonist or the unknown painter who has surfaced now at Vadodara ?

Where was this tribe of liberals and human rightists when journalist Alok Tomar was hauled up and imprisoned for publishing the Danish cartoons in his weekly? Did Tomar not have the freedom of expression as have the elites, like MF Hussain and Chandramohan? If he had, why did they go dumb and blind over the treatment meted out to Tomar?

M. F. Hussain did avail himself of the freedom of expression to paint in the nude the deities of a religion not his own. He owes an explanation why did he not first look into his own religion and follow the principle: charity begins at home (his own religion). He dared not, because he knows very well that his life would have then turned a hell for him at the hands of his own fellow religionists.

Lord Jesus Christ is the father to hundreds of billions of people all over the world. So is Prophet Mohammad. Similarly, Hindu goddesses are mothers to hundreds of crores of people in India and the world over. I don't know -- I am may be an ignoramus -- if any great painter in the world has ever painted in the nude his own wife or his own mother. I am open to be corrected. M.F. Hussain needs to tell the world why did he not try? Had Hussain done it, he would have known how it hurts. We are reminded of the common saying that only the wearer knows where the shoe pinches.

The likes of Hussain seem to be following the common practice. Everybody likes to cast an amorous eye on other's wife, sister or mother. But when somebody does so with their wife, mother or sister, it hurts them. It could end up in a crime, even murder.
It is very easy to be liberal and preach tolerance when somebody else’s sentiments are hurt. But it is not always so if someone’s own feelings get injured. It is an open challenge to the likes of Arundhati Roys, M. F. Hussains, Chandramohans, Nandita Dasses: Let Chandramohans and Hussains paint their own wives, mothers and sisters in the nude and display in public. Let Arundhatis, Nanditas declare in public that they will respect the freedom of expression of a painter who paints them or their mothers in the nude in the same way as they have done in the case of Hussain and Chandramohan. If they fail to declare so publicly, they will stand exposed as hypocrites and humbugs preaching others what they don’t practice themselves. ***