I vehemently object his views for the sole reason he doesn't know what wound Mf husain inflicted on the people of India. before writing this piece, shekhar should have done his research well. He spells Sri Sri ravi Shankar as Shree Shree Ravi Shankar & MF husain as MF Hussein. For god Sake, he is a script writer and columnist and how can we take take it seriously when he cant even get the names right.
So here is my letter to Him,
My dear Shekhar,
Ram, Sita, Ganesh, Saraswati and other Goddesses are venerated by the masses of this country. The masses I refer to you are not the people who would have watched the movies that you have made or know about your academy award nomination or your anti british controvery that you generated.
These are people who make food for the country and whose source of strength is the small temple in their village where they find solace and strength in their gram devta or local deity.
I am Sure, you don't understand what i am talking about. may be these lyrics will help you understand the essence of what i mean to say:
1) oh paalanhaare from lagaan
2) Pal Pal hain Bhari from the Movie- swades : prounounciation : Swa- Desh ( dont rhyme it out like "Blades")
May be i should put it like this,
how did feel when you Walked the red carpet at the academy award or when you had stroked the deal with Richard branson for Virgin comics? A sense of contentment; right?
That's what the people of my country get from small temples where these gods and goddesses are worshiped. and painting them nude and in vulgar poses is definitely no depiction of purity.
To understand the sentiments of people of India who are aghast by this painters depiction and whose voice is not carried you will really need to go down to the countries heart. Instead the same media which has poked the grassroots sadly carries opinions of the so called intellectual secularist and beer farts whose only job is to comment from hundreds miles away and gets paid for cursing and ridiculing its own people.
Therefore don’t make a hero out of this jerk artist who the country never adopted ( till he turned 90+) until he managed to poke the sentiments of the people whose voices are never heard and whose opinions are never carried.
Sri Sri Statements, of course has nothing to do with Art. he said, "It is the intention behind a man's creativity which is questionable." He carries the voice of invisible people of my country whose contribution and whose self esteem, faith and belief matter for the progress of the country. And A spiritual Leader cannot turn a blind eye to it or say "Chalta Hain"
I don want to end it like a letter because i don expect a reply to it from you Sir,
I hope you will not use MF husain as a source of inspiration for the Ramayana graphic series that I believe you are producing.
Thank you!
--
PS :
please find Sri Sri's Statement from its source as you might have missed the point due to editors cut.
It's unfortunate that there is much hue and cry about M F Husain giving up Indian citizenship. While India has a policy of free expression, one cannot accept blatant insult to the heroes of its land. It is the intention behind a man's creativity which is questionable.
In one of Husain's paintings of Mahatma Gandhi, Karl Marx, Albert Einstein and Hitler, he has painted only Hitler nude and said that his way of humiliating a person is to paint him nude. Caught in his own words, his intention is to humiliate. No one has ever sculpted Rama and Sita as nude. Creative expression is always welcome. No country has been as liberal as India, especially Hindus. But there is a limit to tolerance and taking insults. Any nude woman could have been painted by him but calling the women Sita, Lakshmi, Saraswati shows his perversion and hatred.
Will M F Husain show the same creativity and the same spirit with Islamic heroes and would he, then, be able retain his Qatari citizenship? One fails to understand how we can have different criteria for Salman Rushdie and Taslima Nasreen on the one hand and M F Husain on the other. Will the same people who support him, encourage him to paint women / men of his faith in a similar manner?
Double standards, bias and hatred do not go well with men of excellence.
