Now that M F Husain has been ousted from India the Hindutva fundamentalists must be happy. Added to the so called insult to the Hindutva ethos by the paintings, Mr. Husain is from a Muslim background too. And VHP/Bajrang Dal/RSS have not fond of Muslims. I don't think these Hindutva groups will go all out to destroy the paintings and the person had it been some Sharma, and not Husain.
Muslims have a very valid reason to feel sad, and all India should indeed be sad. After all Mr. Husain was a good artist, and losing him was like losing the Sachin Tendulkar of painting. On the other hand making a person's life miserable is not only found among Hindutva members. Muslims have also made certain lives miserable. Taslima Nasrin and Salman Rushdie are names that immediatley surfaced whenever we hear of such story. If Muslims can make lives miserable for Nasrin and Rushdie why can't Hindutva members make lives miserable for Husain? Instead of justifying Hindutva members, I guess, it's wiser to condemn both the parties. But this is a lesson for the Muslims. I think Muslims should protest against their fellow Mullahs whenever a fatwa is issued on any writer/painter for hurting their religious sentiments.
But this also opens up another tricky question. Should Christians protest when poster of Jesus with cigarette in one hand and a bottle of alcohol on the other hand is displayed? I think here it is important to ask whether the poster was made for artistic value or to provoke the Christians. If it is for the latter reason I think it's abusing freedom of expression. As a Christian I won't ask book like Da Vinci Code to be banned though it has anti-Christian elements. I would rather write articles/books critiquing the idea of the book. Nor would I endorse any Christian group issuing a threat to the writer, even if such threat was there.
Iit's important that we don't destroy an object or person for writing against a person we admire or worship. I think Shiv Senas were wrong to protest the way they did against Laing's writing on Shivaji. I also think Muslim fundamentalists were wrong in issuing fatwa to Rushdie or Nasrin for writing things unpleasant to them. I think Hindutva members behave like anti-national elements when they destroyed paintings of M F Husain.
Muslims have a very valid reason to feel sad, and all India should indeed be sad. After all Mr. Husain was a good artist, and losing him was like losing the Sachin Tendulkar of painting. On the other hand making a person's life miserable is not only found among Hindutva members. Muslims have also made certain lives miserable. Taslima Nasrin and Salman Rushdie are names that immediatley surfaced whenever we hear of such story. If Muslims can make lives miserable for Nasrin and Rushdie why can't Hindutva members make lives miserable for Husain? Instead of justifying Hindutva members, I guess, it's wiser to condemn both the parties. But this is a lesson for the Muslims. I think Muslims should protest against their fellow Mullahs whenever a fatwa is issued on any writer/painter for hurting their religious sentiments.
But this also opens up another tricky question. Should Christians protest when poster of Jesus with cigarette in one hand and a bottle of alcohol on the other hand is displayed? I think here it is important to ask whether the poster was made for artistic value or to provoke the Christians. If it is for the latter reason I think it's abusing freedom of expression. As a Christian I won't ask book like Da Vinci Code to be banned though it has anti-Christian elements. I would rather write articles/books critiquing the idea of the book. Nor would I endorse any Christian group issuing a threat to the writer, even if such threat was there.
Iit's important that we don't destroy an object or person for writing against a person we admire or worship. I think Shiv Senas were wrong to protest the way they did against Laing's writing on Shivaji. I also think Muslim fundamentalists were wrong in issuing fatwa to Rushdie or Nasrin for writing things unpleasant to them. I think Hindutva members behave like anti-national elements when they destroyed paintings of M F Husain.
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