CONGRESS-LED GOVT WON'T PROTECT MUSLIM ARTIST FROM HINDU RIGHT

An Artist in Exile Tests India’s Democratic Ideals (New York Times)

"Maqbool Fida Husain, India’s most famous painter, is afraid to go home.

"Mr. Husain is a Muslim who is fond of painting Hindu goddesses, sometimes portraying them nude. That obsession has earned him the ire of a small but organized cadre of Hindu nationalists. They have attacked galleries that exhibit his work, accused him in court of 'promoting enmity' among faiths and, on one occasion, offered an $11 million reward for his head.

"In September, the country’s highest court offered him an unexpected reprieve, dismissing one of the cases against him with the blunt reminder that Hindu iconography, including ancient temples, is replete with nudity. Still, the artist, 93 and increasingly frail, is not taking any chances."

See also:

Shiv Sainiks attack Husain exhibition, vandalise paintings (Times of India (December 27, 2008))

New York: Husain's paintings auctioned amid protests (rediff (March 21, 2008))

A Muslim Artist and Hindu Images: It's a Volatile Mix (New York Times (June 16, 1998)): "Early last month, members of the far-right Bajrang Dal, upset at a stylized portrait of a Hindu goddess, slipped into Mr. Husain's Bombay apartment, destroyed one painting and mauled several canvases before being arrested by the police."

It's time to stop harassing M F Husain by Shashi Tharoor (Times of India (July 29, 2007)): "The question of why Husain doesn't paint Muslim figures in the nude is a red herring. The Islamic tradition is a different one from either the Hindu or the Western; what causes offence in one is different from what causes offence in another. Islam, after all, prohibits any visual depiction of the Prophet, whereas visualising our gods and goddesses is central to the practice of Hinduism."

And see:

M.F. Husain in Museum of Contemporary Indian Art

Epic India: Paintings by M.F. Husain at the Peabody Essex Museum

M.F. Husain at Spear Art Museum