CITIZEN OF THE WORLD
“You can take Husain out of India, but not India out of Husain” commented Owais, Husain’s son, on Husain’s decision to accept Qatar citizenship. Under the existing citizenship laws, by implication, this means that Husain will no longer be an Indian citizen – as dual citizenship is not permitted. The law is clear [Article 9 of the Indian Constitution]
Who drove Husain to this point? The campaign by right-wing outfits of India. These self-appointed moral guardians have managed to drive into exile India’s most gifted artist of this century. His paintings were destroyed in an exhibition in 1996, around the same time Bajrang Dal activists forcibly entered his Mumbai home. Husain went into exile in 2006 after a hate campaign started by the right-wing outfits over his controversial paintings. Numerous criminal cases were filed against him in different parts of the country – using litigation to harass the artist. In a much-lauded judgment, Justice Kaul of the Delhi High Court quashed these cases. Even the Supreme Court stayed the proceedings of other criminal proceedings against M.F. Husain. This judicial intervention was not enough to ensure Husain’s safety.
Husain issue has become a political playground – in 2009 the Congress government assured Z security to Husain, assuring safety for his return. In contrast the same government issued an advisory against Husain in 2006 to the Mumbai and Delhi police stating “there are grounds to believe that certain paintings of painter M.F. Husain which hurt the religious sentiments of the majority community, and, therefore might be a provocation for communal disturbance”.
M.F. Husain said that it was impossible for him to work in India. To deny an artist his artistic freedom is equal to killing the artist. In his largesse Husain remarked on his decision to accept Qatar citizenship “I am beyond physicality… please know I remain an Indian painter whether I am painting in Paris, London, New York or Qatar… Tu kahe to main unwan badal dun, lekin ek umr darkaar hai afsaana badalne ke liye (only titles of paintings are told, the real story takes a lifetime)”. In this detailed interview Husain reiterates that his decision to accept Qatari citizenship is primarily commercial and one of convenience.
Husain loves his country. But, his art cannot suffer the torment and frenzy of persecution. There is a danger not just to his art, but also to the safety of his person. The threat of the Hindutva-right is as much, if not greater than the Ayatollah’s fatwa. In a sense it is worse, there are spoken and unspoken Hindu fatwas which are no less cruel in their intent and purpose. The Indian state refuses to guard Husain’s person. Contrast the protection to Rushdie by his passport state – Britain. If Qatar gives him personal security and artistic freedom, so be it. If Husain chooses a dictatorial Qatar tolerant of his art, instead of a persecutory democratic India, we Indians must answer for it. Unfortunately, Husain’s persecutors think of him as a Muslim first, and an artist later. India has a lot to learn about building tolerance in a multicultural society.
Rajeev Dhavan and Bipin Aspatwar
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It is a painful reality that the Hindu Right has been able to achieve indirectly what they wanted. Their hate - speech agenda became a victory for them and a great loss for the Nation's spirit of free speech. Can we not say that the acceptance of the citizenship is not entirely "voluntary" rather one coerced by the Hindu right and, thus, Hussain needn't be debarred from the Indian citizenship?
ReplyDeleteThis incident shows that how ideologically and communally motivated Hate-Speech propaganda needs to be arrested from the very inception and we need restrictions more severe than framed by the liberal democratic framework.