Freedom of Expression: Between secularist govt. and brazen fanatics

BEYOND ART

Editorial, The Telegraph, August 29 , 2008

Between fair-weather secularists and brazen fanatics, it is often difficult to decide who is the more deplorable. The India Art Summit, which opened last week in New Delhi, was supposed to be the biggest-ever art trade fair in the country. What could have been a platform for modern Indian art to assert itself in a major way has suddenly turned into a source of acute embarrassment. Among the 400 names that feature on this grand show, put up by Hanmer and Partner with the support of the ministry of culture and tourism, the most striking absence was Maqbool Fida Husain. This omission remains unpardonable for several reasons. It is audacious even to conceive of an exhibition of Indian art that leaves out works by Mr Husain from it. The very idea not only reveals a pitiful ignorance of art history but also expresses disrespect towards one of the most universally acclaimed of Indian artists. It is not without reason that Mr Husain is considered to be a modern master. He made his mark for the first time in the late Forties with a distinctly original idiom — a cosmopolitan blend of Western and indigenous influences. This pluralism has turned him into one of the highest-selling Indian artists worldwide.

For this reason alone, it is unforgivable that the United Progressive Alliance government, with its avowedly secularist agenda, chose not to rally for the inclusion of works by Mr Husain for fear of a backlash from religious fundamentalists. Since 2006, Mr Husain, now in his nineties, is on a self-imposed exile. The Hindu Right continues to bay for his blood for painting some of its holy pantheon in the nude. Mr Husain was unceremoniously left out of the art summit as the organizers refused to risk an attack by a bigoted mob. It did not matter even if the so-called controversial works were not shown: Mr Husain has ceased to be the symptom of a malaise in Indian democracy, he has become the disease itself. When Sahmat, an NGO, protested by putting up an exhibition of prints by him, 10 members of Ram Sena, a pro-Hindutva outfit, disrupted the show violently. The fiasco has not only exposed the tensions within the secular ideals of the UPA, but has also revealed a deeper fissure in the polity. Beyond the murky politics and shifting ideologies, it is the ideals enshrined in the Constitution that have been threatened by this incident.