M F Husain to lose home over nude "Mother India"

lotus blossom

you'll get no disagreement from me there!

there certainly needs to be some female energy in christianity.

it was only a hypothesis, and probably not a very good one at that. of course, respecting one's religion or belief system is paramount to universal harmony. that does not mean however that we should blindly accept the dogmatic and dangerous elements of religion.

yeah, what's up with that sort of hypocricy!

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Not all who wander are lost

lotus blossom

where do we draw the lines with free speech, is the question? what offends some has no effect on others. i was personally quite offended with the cartoon in question, and therefore feel that publishing it was in very poor taste. forget about free speech; why publish that sort of thing knowing that it would incense people to riot?

since 9.11 muslims have taken a lot of heat so i understand their angst over the cartoons. i do not however agree with the way that some of the fundamentalists handled it, but it is important to keep that in it's proper perspective since they only represented a small fraction of muslims. yet the world seems to want to paint them all as terrorists.

batistuta

But if we look at the major religious faiths ,all of them appear to be flights of fancy. Virgin birth, Resurrection, going to heaven on a horse, birth of Humanity through Vishnu's navel, none of these things need to be accepted as they have no clear cut precedent of having ever occured before or of occuring again . So ,aren't they all dogmatic in one form of the other?. But the Problem of free speech is that these views are held as sacrosant by a majority of the people in this globe and any form of insult , intended or otherwise will be taken seriously and hence care must be taken by People on not to insult the masses.

Personally, if this imaginary person is taken out of the lives of these people there will be a collective loss of identity and would empower thier spritual growth.

kmalik

Interesting to see belligerent responses from Battistuta and kallikrates. I had quoted some content from ACLU - not because of the relevance of the source but that of the content. I forgot that it is the source that means all to you, and content is irrelevant.

I do not pretend to speak for India, but neither do you. There is no dearth of agitators in India - for meaningful as well as meaningless causes.

This hardly the last word on the M.F. Husain matter. Higher courts will rule on the matter. I hope this goes the way Gere's kiss went.

batistuta

It seems to have escaped your attention , I did mention that it was a good content.It is not applicable in this case imho. You may think it is a meaningless cause, I just beg to differ on that one. I hope this idiot goes to Jail, if he has the courage to face his detractors and not slink away in a cowardly manner.

I generally tend to agree with most of your posts(the ones that i have read) Let's just agree to disagree on this one.

noflylist

IMHO, Hussain painting offends Hindus the same way as western women gets affected by being groped in India.

capt_mahajan

Some stray thoughts on a mediocre (obviously, in my opinion) painter..


- Look at his history. He has often used controversy to sell, and that cynical manipulation is what I find most objectionable.

-A lot of Indians (not just Hindus) find the totality of such incidents objectionable.. a painting hyped for controversy and sotheby auctions, the governments pandering selectively to free speech from some minorities, the VHP/Bajrang Dal types over the top responses... but if you ask MFH, he will be happy, laughing all the way to the bank... and that is disgusting.

-So, maybe for the wrong reasons, he shouldnt be crying too much over this 'persecution'.
In actual fact, he may be hysterical with joy... the price of the next painting just went up.

-MF Hussein does not have any special freedoms just coz he is allegedly an artist.

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Outside the machine

kmalik

Captain - I personally separate my own views on a work of art or opinion of the artist from the defense of the rights of artist and freedom of expression. I have little to say about this particular painting from MFH, but found no particular redeeming value in Mapplethorpe and thought Satanic Verses was one of the poorer works of Rushidie. Mapplethorpe definitely benefited from the provocation and controversy, and your take on MFH is likely on the mark. To me, the reaction of the people/country/society says more about it than the work of art. That's why I would like to see India rise above it.

Batistuta - Thanks for agreeing on relevance of the content. Sorry I missed that part earlier. We can agree to disagree on this issue.

capt_mahajan

True, but I still find it easier to defend Dali than Hussein

kmalik

The SC has stayed the lower court's order. Also worth noting (given the subject header of this thread) is that the same article mentions that house attached did not belong to MFH.

Nick-H

No Thanks

This is not about to become a competition on what offends which religions.

Any such post will be deleted.

(Posted as a moderator)

slumpainter

Nick, this thread is heating up to an uncomfortable degree. Time for some levity:

Which version of Mother India is more acceptable?

(I hope I don't lose my house!)

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Nick-H

I'm more than a bit suspicious of what that guy is doing with his right hand !

I suppose Mother Bollywood would be somewhere between no 2 and no 3?

batistuta

I would prefer the 2nd one in those pictures.

SlumPainter, Please don't show the painting anywhere near the Indian Public.

The guy , evidently, is a student of Richard Gere.

lotus blossom

1. au natural
2. goan
3. bollywood
4. muslim