Bodhi, I <i>think</i> what Ramana is saying is that MF Hussain is the representative <i>in the art field</i> of the body of the psecularists who've emerged out of the blue in the last decades. In order to both disguise and 'defend' their position of attacking Hinduism to the west and the rest of pseculardom, they are cloaking themselves in the intellectual garb that only western modern art legitimately developed and owned.
Ramana is not arguing that the western and Indian versions are comparable in any real sense, only that the Indian versions (Hussain in 'art', Amartya Sen in writings - Ramana's examples) seek to present themselves to the outside world and the mindless psecular masses as being the modernist Indian counterparts to the west. That is, I think Ramana is arguing that they want to project themselves in such a way as that they can ward off criticism by saying they are doing legitimate expressionist art with the same reasons the west had, while their real intentions of course are beyond obvious.
In this way, when Hindus then protest against MF Hussain (and Amartya Sen - and IMO Arundathi Roy, Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta and the like), these people can cry to the international - actually only western - community and say how The Hindoos are being obscurantist, fundamentalist and 'fanatic', with no sense of art and no understanding of the supposedly 'worldwide' evolution of artforms. (Even though that evolution is particular only to the west and its situation, the west imagines everything it experienced is something the rest of the world also experienced/knows/should know/should care to know.)
It is precisely because these psecular Indians are mounting their attack on Hinduism in a manner that the west innately recognises and in the artform-language the west instantly understands - it is, after all, calculated to appeal to western sensibilities and the western mind - that they know the 'international' community will immediately come to their defense. And so too would the psecularists in India come to their defense, who worship everything western and imagine that Indian civilisation evolved to suddenly and magically come to the exact same destination as where the west is now.
Look at this insightful statement by Ramana:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->MFH suddenly emerges from late fifties with his caveman scrawls attacking Hindu domination of Indian culture. IOW he represent a fake modern and secular image of the new Indian intellectual of the post Independence age. Amartya Sen is the text icon and MFH is the artist icon of this genre.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->See particularly the terms 'Fake modern and (fake) secular', 'suddenly emerges', 'new Indian intellectual'.
'Attacking Hindu domination of Indian culture' explains it all. MF Hussain has applied the same kind of art-form that the west had used to protest against the domination it experienced. Because of this, appeals to the west/international audience will immediately elicit sympathy: people in the west remember how they used exactly the same artform to protest against evil christian domination in their recent past. Unfortunately, what they don't know is that they are being expressly manipulated to think that there is a parallel and to imagine that in India this same artform naturally evolved over time too - just like it had done in Europe - as a protest against domination. The reality is anything but: the situation in earlier church-controlled Europe is not comparable to Hindu India at all; and this style of art in India has actually unnaturally surfaced - or 'suddenly emerged' as Ramana explains - most opportunely. The west won't even suspect that MF Hussain and others are playing them: that such Indians have carefully selected to use exactly those triggers that Europeans and Americans will automatically respond to. Instead, for Europeans, Hussain's works would be seen as additional proof that Hindu culture is dominating India; it is a 'cry' from the world of painting, just like other Indian psecular artists celebrated in the west are understood to emit 'cries' about the same oppression in their works. For the west, all these 'indications' further underscore that secularism, minorities, freedom of expression are being oppressed and controlled in India - just like the Church had stifled Europe where it resulted in similarly articulated cries.
Meanwhile, it's all just a big lie. Only western people and their psecular enfants dans l'Inde recognise MFH's vapid pictures as art. (Whether Hussain can really draw in his secret life or not I don't know - but his public drawings are all severely pre-realistic. Since the late 19th, early 20th centuries, there were legitimate western movements that drew in purposefully unrealistic and simplistic ways to get their ideas across. MF Hussain has merely decided that he will do his damage via art and has precisely chosen to apply a type of art form that the west has an established culture and understanding of.)
The christoislamicommunists in India have strategically planned this. They know their whiny views are a minority at present - views which will take a few decades of media brainwashing to popularise in India. But, they also know they can form a majority for their position by getting help from outside India and appealing to the class of Indian wannabees.
Imagine the west as being whales, and these Indian psecularterrorists as being able to exactly mimic the whale cry for help. In this case, regular Indian psecularists are those who have deluded themselves into thinking they are whales too.
In order to demean Hinduism with impunity in India, the otherwise powerless Indian psecularists emit loud whale cries which draw the real whales by instinct who imagine that other whales are in distress. (This also immediately brings in the support of the Indian wannabees who think they're whales too and so respond to the same cries/to the sight of real whales.)
And we are stuck facing all of them now, but are at a disadvantage because we are unable to communicate in the same language to them about what's really going on.
In this pathetic analogy the chosen artform = the practised whale cry for help.
Ramana is not arguing that the western and Indian versions are comparable in any real sense, only that the Indian versions (Hussain in 'art', Amartya Sen in writings - Ramana's examples) seek to present themselves to the outside world and the mindless psecular masses as being the modernist Indian counterparts to the west. That is, I think Ramana is arguing that they want to project themselves in such a way as that they can ward off criticism by saying they are doing legitimate expressionist art with the same reasons the west had, while their real intentions of course are beyond obvious.
In this way, when Hindus then protest against MF Hussain (and Amartya Sen - and IMO Arundathi Roy, Mira Nair, Deepa Mehta and the like), these people can cry to the international - actually only western - community and say how The Hindoos are being obscurantist, fundamentalist and 'fanatic', with no sense of art and no understanding of the supposedly 'worldwide' evolution of artforms. (Even though that evolution is particular only to the west and its situation, the west imagines everything it experienced is something the rest of the world also experienced/knows/should know/should care to know.)
It is precisely because these psecular Indians are mounting their attack on Hinduism in a manner that the west innately recognises and in the artform-language the west instantly understands - it is, after all, calculated to appeal to western sensibilities and the western mind - that they know the 'international' community will immediately come to their defense. And so too would the psecularists in India come to their defense, who worship everything western and imagine that Indian civilisation evolved to suddenly and magically come to the exact same destination as where the west is now.
Look at this insightful statement by Ramana:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->MFH suddenly emerges from late fifties with his caveman scrawls attacking Hindu domination of Indian culture. IOW he represent a fake modern and secular image of the new Indian intellectual of the post Independence age. Amartya Sen is the text icon and MFH is the artist icon of this genre.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->See particularly the terms 'Fake modern and (fake) secular', 'suddenly emerges', 'new Indian intellectual'.
'Attacking Hindu domination of Indian culture' explains it all. MF Hussain has applied the same kind of art-form that the west had used to protest against the domination it experienced. Because of this, appeals to the west/international audience will immediately elicit sympathy: people in the west remember how they used exactly the same artform to protest against evil christian domination in their recent past. Unfortunately, what they don't know is that they are being expressly manipulated to think that there is a parallel and to imagine that in India this same artform naturally evolved over time too - just like it had done in Europe - as a protest against domination. The reality is anything but: the situation in earlier church-controlled Europe is not comparable to Hindu India at all; and this style of art in India has actually unnaturally surfaced - or 'suddenly emerged' as Ramana explains - most opportunely. The west won't even suspect that MF Hussain and others are playing them: that such Indians have carefully selected to use exactly those triggers that Europeans and Americans will automatically respond to. Instead, for Europeans, Hussain's works would be seen as additional proof that Hindu culture is dominating India; it is a 'cry' from the world of painting, just like other Indian psecular artists celebrated in the west are understood to emit 'cries' about the same oppression in their works. For the west, all these 'indications' further underscore that secularism, minorities, freedom of expression are being oppressed and controlled in India - just like the Church had stifled Europe where it resulted in similarly articulated cries.
Meanwhile, it's all just a big lie. Only western people and their psecular enfants dans l'Inde recognise MFH's vapid pictures as art. (Whether Hussain can really draw in his secret life or not I don't know - but his public drawings are all severely pre-realistic. Since the late 19th, early 20th centuries, there were legitimate western movements that drew in purposefully unrealistic and simplistic ways to get their ideas across. MF Hussain has merely decided that he will do his damage via art and has precisely chosen to apply a type of art form that the west has an established culture and understanding of.)
The christoislamicommunists in India have strategically planned this. They know their whiny views are a minority at present - views which will take a few decades of media brainwashing to popularise in India. But, they also know they can form a majority for their position by getting help from outside India and appealing to the class of Indian wannabees.
Imagine the west as being whales, and these Indian psecularterrorists as being able to exactly mimic the whale cry for help. In this case, regular Indian psecularists are those who have deluded themselves into thinking they are whales too.
In order to demean Hinduism with impunity in India, the otherwise powerless Indian psecularists emit loud whale cries which draw the real whales by instinct who imagine that other whales are in distress. (This also immediately brings in the support of the Indian wannabees who think they're whales too and so respond to the same cries/to the sight of real whales.)
And we are stuck facing all of them now, but are at a disadvantage because we are unable to communicate in the same language to them about what's really going on.
In this pathetic analogy the chosen artform = the practised whale cry for help.