MF Hussain and Secularism

MF Hussain, a long-time offender of Indian/Hindu sentiments has died a quiet death today in London.

As I survey the web – reading about his past and the reasons that surrounded his defection to an Arab country, I increasingly spot polarization in people’s opinions.

Two factions appear dominant – one that thinks his death is good riddance and that justice has been served. For example, look at this comment by Srivathsan on the Indian Express website:

…the fact remains that he was unrepentant till the end for his depictions of Hindu deities. Also, he himself had told earlier that he liked to depict characters he despised, in nude. So, he had equated the Hindu deities with Hitler. Moreover, I believe, even the Delhi HC (or was it the SC?) refused to close some cases against him due to which he ran to an Arab country and became its citizen. He dared not to use his artistic license to depict Prophet Mohammed or Christ in the same light, in his artworks…

He has a point. In today’s India, bashing the mainstream Hindu religion, its practises and its rituals have come to assume a status of legitimacy under the name of “Secularism”. However, when Theo van Gogh exposes the poor plight of muslim women in his movie or when a Danish cartoonist draws Prophet Mohammad, it amounts to blasphemy – to the extent that a muslim MLA in Uttar Pradesh promises 50 Lakh to the one who would bring his hand. When Varun Gandhi talks about Muslims, they term the speech inflammatory and fomenting religious violence. When MF Hussain paints Hindu deities and Bharat Mata in nude, it is a work of art. While art and speech are forms of expression and artists and orators should be given the freedom of expression, they must guard themselves against treading the line of religious tolerance. Not every act of misdemeanor can be bracketed under “freedom of expression”.

The other faction, which I would like to term “Progressive Intelligentsia” is condoning the nation for meting out the treatment that it did to one of its prodigal sons. They are no different to the “think-tanks” of the Congress who suck up to the minority vote banks to ensure a stable government in the centre. These elites are the sole reason why such double standards have seeped into our value system. They have corrupted generations of young indians by inculcating this attitude in the name of education. These elites react strongly to acts of Hindu violence while lending a blind eye to the transgressions committed by the minorities. How can the conception of ‘blasphemy’ be subjected to multiple interpretations depending on who (and of which religious affiliation) commits a transgression?

In India, it pays the political parties to not find a permanent solution to this caste and religious divide. When the whole of India came together to drive out the British who divided and ruled the country on the basis of caste and religion, there appears to be no binding force in sight that can bring together the people who are torn apart by religion and caste affiliations to work together for the greater good for everyone.

Unless people realize that they are being held puppets by politicians for their own financial good (which would require extricating themselves from exposure to the doctrines imparted by the Indian education system, which, incidentally is a Christian-dominated territory), the Indian education will continue to mass-produce this progressive intelligentsia who will finally end up selling this country to its minorities and be at their mercy for sustenance.

Update: Also see Mrs. Hilda Raja’s open letter to N. Ram of ‘The Hindu’ last year.

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