Miscellaneous news and discussion - 2

[Arun_S]

[url="http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=I+love+India,+but+she+doesnt+need+me:+MF+Husain&artid=LqQPDQ%7C0kAQ=&SectionID=lMx/b5mt1kU=&MainSectionID=lMx/b5mt1kU=&SEO=Hussain&SectionName=tm2kh5uDhixGlQvAG42A/07OVZOOEmts"]‘M F Hussain denigrated Indian culture’ [/url]

01 Mar 2010 10:26:50 AM



THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bharatiya Vichara Kendra director P. Parameswaran has criticised painter M.F. Hussain for consistently denigrating Indian culture.



In a press release issued on Sunday in the background of the news that Hussain had accepted Qatar nationality, Parameswaran said that in the name of artistic freedom Hussain had painted Hindu gods and goddesses and even Bharat Matha in a manner, which deeply hurt the sentiments and sensibilities of patriotic Indians.



That M.F. Hussain has accepted Qatar nationality is good news, good for him and good for India.



He got what he desired and lost what he hardly deserved, the statement said.



He had to leave India because of the intense anger of his misusing artistic freedom. Now, he is free to utilise his newly-won nationality to make full commercial benefit of his negative artistic talents while staying abroad, the statement said. A number of human right activists are raising a hue and cry against the denial of M.F. Hussain’s fundamental right to live in India. Their argument is that he has done only what has already been in vogue in India a long time back.



In many Hindu temples, figures have been painted in an obscene manner. But it must be remembered that great Indian patriots like Swami Vivekananda have openly condemned such paintings and described such paintings as degenerate and not representing true Indian art. Nobody now admires them and no artist reproduces such paintings except Hussain, the statement said. It was against such paintings that the great Indian artists Raja Ravi Varma produced hundreds of portraits of Hindu gods and goddesses and won worldwide acclaim, the statement said. It was an act of sheer arrogance on the part of the Kerala Government that it recently decided to honour M.F. Hussain by giving him Raja Ravi Varma award.



It is another matter that they could not succeed in this nefarious attempt due to public protest and judicial intervention, the statement said.



The “righteous indignation!’’ of the human rights activists in the case of Hussain is to be seen in comparison to to their silent acquiescence of the Tibetan spiritual leader Dalai Lama half-a- century-old exile in India. Hussain had to leave India for denigrating Indian culture, whereas Dalai Lama was forced to leave Tibet in order to protect and practise the millennium-old tradition and culture of Tibet.



[color="#0000ff"]It will indeed be interesting to watch if Hussain utilises his freedom as a Qatar national to produce paintings of Islamic symbols in the manner in which he has been painting Hindu icons and symbols. That would also show how genuine is his secularism and the independence of his vociferous supporters in India, he said.[/color]