HVK Archives: Leave Husain alone
Leave Husain alone - The Free Press Journal
Editorial
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7 October 1996
Title : Leave Hussain alone
Author : Editorial
Publication : The Free Press Journal
Date : October 7, 1996
Maqbool Fida Hussain was once described by a journalist
as the nearest thing to God on earth. For this wild
imagery in cold print - and a couple of cover stories in
the weekly that he was then editing - this hawala-tainted
journalist was richer by at least a couple of Hussain
paintings Gratis. Which was a great bedge of honour for
the journalist, for his then employer supposedly spent
tens of thousands of rupees to acquire the Hussains and
even then was unable to acquire the best of the artist's
works. Hussain obviously kept the best for those who lent
their services to him to propogate the Hussain myth! And,
in these permissive times there are arguably any number
of culture-vultures in the Press, politics, bureaucracy
and, of course, in the highly incestuous world of fine
arts who thrive on sheer publicity. It will however be
wrong to say that all art is commercial, but Hussain is
nothing if not commercial. His fans insist, not without
justification, that he is India's highest paid artist.
Surely, he is. But is he her best, too? Opinions natural-
ly differ. (History of modern art is replete with any
number of instances when some of the greatest artists
died in penury virtually unknown, only to be recognised
as such posthumously.) Suffice it to say that no-one
courts controversy (Read publicity), and the rich and the
famous the way Hussain does. And it has paid him rich
dividends. It was Hussain who had depicted Indira Gandhi
as Durga during the latter's Emergency. Even artists are
expected to have a conscience. Hussain revealed he had
none when he endorsed the darkest chapter in India's
history since Independence. For his proximity to the
Establishment he was nominated to the Rajya Sabha. How
India's parliamentary life was enriched by his induction
is not known, but Hussain certainly put his six-year
sinecure in the Upper House to good use when he painted
the vignettes of parliamentary life for commercial ex-
ploitation. The point is that there is really nothing
that he would not exploit to fuel the Hussain legend. In
that lies his commercial success. And in these days of
Hawala and telecom and a dozen other scams, one's success
or failure, including an artist's is measured only in the
price one is able to command. And Hussain indeed commands
a lot of price for his works of art! Even the number of
times he sees a Madhuri Dixit starer must be the stuff of
society gossip for it eventually enriches the cause of
art, these certainly add to his, bank balance substan-
tially.
His latest act meant to further burnish the Hussain
legend is the painting of Hindu goddesses in a manner
which is hurtful to the sensibilities of the devout
Hindus. Depicting Saraswati and Durga in the nude in the
company of various animals and identifying them by name
on each canvas was bound to be a provocative act for a
certain section of the people. Hussain, and his numerous
friends in the well-heeled circle, cannot take shelter
behind usual argument about artistic licence. Admittedly,
the idea to insult Hindus may be farthest from Hussain's
mind. But if his paintings willy-nilly have the same
effect on a large number of the people, Hussain will have
to make amends. (Curiously, this artistic license seems
to be one-dimensional even for an artist of Hussain's
stature for never has he drawn someone whom he is forbid-
den to draw by the religious faith he pursues.) It has
been said by Hussain's friends that the BJP-VHP people
are behind the campaign against Hussain. Maybe, that is
true. But it would have been far better if the so-called
secularists had respected the religious feelings of the
majority community and advised Hussain not to name on
those nude paintings. It is a poor painting if the artist
has to take recourse the said paintings would not have
attracted the kind of notice Hussain wanted them to
attract. The resulting controversy is bound to add sub-
stantially to the millions that Hussain has already
amassed by marketing his works largely to the cash-rich
philistines of this country. Now that those printings
have attracted media attention, Hussain may well have no
problem expressing regret "it I have hurt the religious
feelings of my Hindu brethren..." His paintings have
become value-added anyway. Whatever happened to the
artist as the conscience of the society? The socially
aware artist? The less said about Hussain religious and
political preference, the better. Let's confine ourselves
to his preoccupation with commerce alone.
And that brings us to the Manohar Joshi Government's
purported issuance of a warrant of arrest against Hussain
for his `objectionable and obscene paintings.' The
overzealous Minister for Culture in Maharashtra, Pramod
Navalkar, does neither the Hindu religion not himself nay
good by ordering the arrest of Hussain. Hussain would be
sorrier, only if he were to be ignored. True, that an
alleged slur in a work of function called - The Satanic
Verses - had an religious community the world over crying
for the blood of Salman Rushdie. True, too that the
secularist Indian Government was among the first in the
world to have banned that epic novel. But not for nothing
do the two religious faiths differ sharply in certain
crucial matters. Navalkar claims to be good Hindu. We
believe he is. Since the mainstay of Hindus over the
millennia has been its innate sense of tolerance, nay,
its ability to turn other cheek, and yet survive un-
scathed, Navalkar would do well to order the withdrawal
of the arrest warrant. Instead, use those Hussain paint-
ings to educate the people about the greatness of Hindu-
ism. Let Hussain wallow in his millions. And in the
misery that will be his should he be completely ignored
in spite of a deliberate provocation.
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