05-28-2007, 10:00 PM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In the backdrop of art controversy, are we creating an intolerant fascist state by curtailing liberal imagination?
Expressing his feeling over the arrest of Chandra Mohan, Manel Gupta, a young art student from Delhi said, âI think it is totally unacceptable because if we want a progressive society, we have to be more tolerant, give freedom to every other religion and it is a total political act. All such things have existed in our culture. So, if we have to grow forward, we have to keep politics out of it.â
On CNN-IBNâs show India 360, renowned Artist Rajiv Sethi and Pioneer Columnist Sandhya Jain came together with host Smita Nair to argue â Should freedom of art be unlimited?
Artist Rajiv Sethi gave a history of intolerance relating to arts in this country. âWe always have been a very intolerant country. Religion has often been used to leverage power. Hindu emperors demolished Jain monastery in the South, Muslim rulers demolished Hindu temples and now some attack churches and destroy libraries. I think such myopic view of life by no means restricted to our times,â said Sethi.
Blaming lack of facilities to learn things to become tolerant, Sethi said, âI donât blame the fringe fanatic of right wing Hindutva for knowing so little about our Ganga-Yamuna culture â I think they are just pseudo secularists. But I also believe that pseudo Hindus and hyper Hindus, who knows so little about the great religion â Hinduism."
"And I think this is largely because there are so few centers of learning. There are 40 departments of artistry in America for Indian Art but there are three in India. There is hardly any department for comparative religions, so you canât expect people to even know better. And what I think, we should realise is that irreverent of at least playful images of the gods appear even on our household shrines,â added Sethi.
Speaking on the issue, Pioneer Columnist Sandhya Jain said, âI donât think, this is just a matter of freedom. There is a tradition in which iconographic images are always presented and the freedom within which you will present those images will always have certain rules. Now in this case, I repeatedly told about the family background of this student, that he is a son of a poor carpenter from Andhra Pradesh. The persons of such a background would have a greater reverential attitude towards tradition and culture than this student seems to have displayed. So, the kind of training he has been given in that institution itself is very questionable, because the image of God in sculpture or in painting is itself an icon.â
The great Artist Pablo Picasso once said, âArt is never pure, we should keep it far away from the innocent ignorant. We should never let people approach. Yes, art is dangerous but itâs not pure. Because if itâs pure, itâs not art.â
Against Picassoâs statement, Jain said, âIt doesnât apply to an Indian context because we do have our Shilpa Shastras and other things to determine what art isâ.
Sethi interrupted by saying, âEven those are allowed for interpretation. There are hundreds of arguments; there are hundreds of Shilpa Shastras and there in fact there are Lakaraga â when the musician takes something, itâs no longer described as one, he gives his own interpretation. Which is what makes India creative. So, the guy has been innovative, he is taking something, which he has read and seen as child and he is re-interpreting in a way that he sees. He is a student for heavenâs sake, he is supposed to do that.â
But can art ever be perverse?
âArt is a mirror. If society is perverse, art will reflect that,â said Sethi.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india-360-art-...2-3-single.html
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Expressing his feeling over the arrest of Chandra Mohan, Manel Gupta, a young art student from Delhi said, âI think it is totally unacceptable because if we want a progressive society, we have to be more tolerant, give freedom to every other religion and it is a total political act. All such things have existed in our culture. So, if we have to grow forward, we have to keep politics out of it.â
On CNN-IBNâs show India 360, renowned Artist Rajiv Sethi and Pioneer Columnist Sandhya Jain came together with host Smita Nair to argue â Should freedom of art be unlimited?
Artist Rajiv Sethi gave a history of intolerance relating to arts in this country. âWe always have been a very intolerant country. Religion has often been used to leverage power. Hindu emperors demolished Jain monastery in the South, Muslim rulers demolished Hindu temples and now some attack churches and destroy libraries. I think such myopic view of life by no means restricted to our times,â said Sethi.
Blaming lack of facilities to learn things to become tolerant, Sethi said, âI donât blame the fringe fanatic of right wing Hindutva for knowing so little about our Ganga-Yamuna culture â I think they are just pseudo secularists. But I also believe that pseudo Hindus and hyper Hindus, who knows so little about the great religion â Hinduism."
"And I think this is largely because there are so few centers of learning. There are 40 departments of artistry in America for Indian Art but there are three in India. There is hardly any department for comparative religions, so you canât expect people to even know better. And what I think, we should realise is that irreverent of at least playful images of the gods appear even on our household shrines,â added Sethi.
Speaking on the issue, Pioneer Columnist Sandhya Jain said, âI donât think, this is just a matter of freedom. There is a tradition in which iconographic images are always presented and the freedom within which you will present those images will always have certain rules. Now in this case, I repeatedly told about the family background of this student, that he is a son of a poor carpenter from Andhra Pradesh. The persons of such a background would have a greater reverential attitude towards tradition and culture than this student seems to have displayed. So, the kind of training he has been given in that institution itself is very questionable, because the image of God in sculpture or in painting is itself an icon.â
The great Artist Pablo Picasso once said, âArt is never pure, we should keep it far away from the innocent ignorant. We should never let people approach. Yes, art is dangerous but itâs not pure. Because if itâs pure, itâs not art.â
Against Picassoâs statement, Jain said, âIt doesnât apply to an Indian context because we do have our Shilpa Shastras and other things to determine what art isâ.
Sethi interrupted by saying, âEven those are allowed for interpretation. There are hundreds of arguments; there are hundreds of Shilpa Shastras and there in fact there are Lakaraga â when the musician takes something, itâs no longer described as one, he gives his own interpretation. Which is what makes India creative. So, the guy has been innovative, he is taking something, which he has read and seen as child and he is re-interpreting in a way that he sees. He is a student for heavenâs sake, he is supposed to do that.â
But can art ever be perverse?
âArt is a mirror. If society is perverse, art will reflect that,â said Sethi.
http://www.ibnlive.com/news/india-360-art-...2-3-single.html
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