MF Hussain, Mother India and my narrow mindedness.

While Hussain controversy has been going on, I got a few mails from some of my friends who hardly ever send/forward a mail to my private mail box. Thank you for recollecting our connection. The e-mail is of a comparison on Hussain’s various paintings where some of them are clothed whereas others are not. One can find this out at a large number on the web and this may not be something new to anyone since many of you might have visited or received the same. The funny thing I noticed in most of these mails is that the ‘cc’ columns contained only Muslim names. Hope they all keep only Muslim friends. But the funniest thing is that all these mails carried a note reading something like, ‘I didn’t write this mail, I am just forwarding it.’ Cho chweet! I appreciate; even some Marxist Leninist boasters did the same. For their kind information I would like to elucidate my opinion over it. For me Hussain is just an artist and his name does not portray any particular identity in my mind. For me his name is just another Iraq Hussein Osama or Barack Hussein Obama. I don’t care a damn as long as he does not benefit us.

When a Danish cartoonist depicted prophet Mohammed (PBUA) in his works, some of the Islamic fanatic blockheads reacted to it aggressively because it is not allowed as per the holy book. If you are a true follower of any religion you must have withdrawn from these kinds of attacks and should have just pointed out the wrongdoing. If you believe in God, let it be between them. But it was made to a big scream and that was absolutely unnecessary. The same mind set can be felt here in this case also. One has all the rights to criticize anything in a free country like ours and nothing in this world is absolutely perfect to evade an analysis; even the great religious scripts are discussed and compared and it is never considered as anything unhealthy. But it is also true that you should not hurt anyone’s sentiments, you should be extremely careful when making derogatory comments on one’s belief. But does it apply to art? Are we going to react the same way as some fanatics did in the aforementioned case? You should not. We must observe temperance, must stay away from excessiveness. We must be more civilized. If we do not spread this mails how many of us are going to watch it? No one will go abroad to see it simply by the fancy of it. How many of you can give an authentic confirmation of his credits over all these pictures? I hope none of you can.

We live in a world where hoaxes are created in every second. We live in a part of the world where massacre of human beings being justified as a sacred act involving eradication of evil but killing a cow is sinful. We live in a society where slaughter of cows for consumption is regarded as sinning but the Ahoris who eat human flesh live here peacefully. Cry of hundreds of rape victims remain unattended in too many cases but depicting a terror as a rape of a country gets immediate attention. In our culture, nudity is a symbol for purity and it is not created by an Osho or any other modern sage. We were not hesitant in accepting anything. The good and the bad had its share in our culture and we explained that it depends on the way you look at it. Exceptionally multifaceted is our culture and attitude towards any happenings. But that is the beauty. We do have a tradition of accepting both believers and atheists. We are in such a composite and complex society where we believe man made wonders existed in Treta Yuga, around 1.8 million years back but at the same time study of ‘Homo erectus’ is being widely accepted in academic curriculums. We are just beautiful people who accept anything and everything. Do not try to destroy it. No other nation in this world can claim such a vibrant culture.

Coming back to art whether it is by Hussain or anybody else one has to accept the fact that the art has been always ahead of time and yesterday’s controversial men were always accepted and appreciated by the history. Regarding war of words on countries, when Qatar is being targeted for accepting Hussain shall we be dare enough to ask all Indians there to come back to our country to serve as guardians of our culture. We all know that most of India’s natural gas is bought from there, two-thirds of oil comes from that part, and more than 50 Lakhs Indians work there bringing more than Rs.50000 Cr. of accounted money every year and still looking for another Rs.2500000 Cr. investment on infrastructure development for us. Do not feel sarcasm and do not let yourself to be caged by our dependability. But it is a reality. Would you like to make them an enemy of ours? As long as we don’t have the courage to do that it will remain something like Indo-Pak issues where we always turn a blind eye to the harsh realities. People say that they feel offended especially when a minority questions the mass. How dare people ask, ‘Are you a Muslim or an Indian?’ I am not at all a Hindu by religion but a true loyal Indian by my heart. There are sects which exploit these circumstances for their vested interests. People tend to fall in to their hands when their voices are not properly heard.

I would not mind telling the truth that, when discussed with a very close friend of mine on this, even my first reaction was that “Have I ever said that Hussain is my uncle?” That is the enormity of religious taints affected our mind. No religion ever would have taught its disciples to hate another religion. No culture ever would have taught its people to hate each other. Are we going back to a prehistoric era where rage, hatred and cruelty were the leading factors of survival? I had to tell you all these just because an issue on art has been made to a topic of discussion on religion by at least a few people who are always looking for a chance to infect our minds with hatred. We must stop this before it is made to a big cry by the ruthless sects without compassion and daring to commit cruelty on human lives only for their political gains. We must realize that to love one’s people is not fanaticism but to inflict cruelty on other people is definitely considered one.

One does not have to keep an apprehension on a person who speak up openly about whatever view he has on a matter but one has to be more observant on person who ‘Just forwarded it, but did not write it.’ They are the breed of persons who spread hatred in most of the dialogues. Most of us hate to admit that our opponent has a reason. We have all the rights to oppose but only to those beliefs that go against the laws in our country or the norms of our refined planet. We are in democratic country where our grievances can be appealed in a descent and proper way to the supreme authorities to take an action against any offence we feel like to be addressed with utmost importance without taking the matter to the streets. As in any other case it may take its own time but some day the offender will be penalized. The younger generation of our country must spend more time on key factors like eradication of poverty and education to all since they are the leaders of tomorrow.

About the difference of opinions on Hussain’s paintings, I am not against the sentiments of the mass and personally I am hurt by some of his paintings and his doing it again attitude. But I am more hurt by the manner we are reacting to it. Should I take it as an inferior consciousness of mine failing to understand his mentality? Should I feel myself not grown enough to make a comment on his works? We should respond if we feel offended but we must bring to an end paying needless attention to some loud noises without intellect. We have to be more focused on our progress towards a better nation. I really feel sad about some hundreds of our fellow citizens who lost their jobs abroad as a part of the global economic recession. But I am very much narrow minded in my dreams thinking about westerners struggling to get admission in our academic institutions and foreigners working in our offices as our subordinates in our country. I am broad minded enough longing progress of all nations. But I always dream of making our country richer in all aspects compared to other.

Back again to the key topic; if someone painted my family nude I will not circulate it and I have said it a thousand times that India is my family. See the irony here. We should try to understand the current situation. Circulating these pictures again and again to spread it to more and more people do not create any scar in our minds, but we feel that only an apology from a person or his deportation would solve everything. This is hypocrisy. This is pseudo affection. If we feel hurt by these paintings do not give it much publicity. As I said here before, try to get a mass petition to remove it at least from the web. We should not visit any art gallery displaying his controversial paintings. Just avoid it and treat those as worthless. Only we Indians from the land of Budha can do it. When I saw Danish cartoonist's controversial pieces of works I did not store it in my computer and I did not circulate it. I did not ask anyone's opinion on it. No Muslim might have taken a hard copy of it because not doing it is another way of showing respect to their prophet.

Mother India, if you were my real mother I would not have circulated it to defame you further. I know you are crying. I am sorry. I will never do it in my life again because you are more than a mother to me. From the bottom of my heart I beg you.. Forgive me.