MALVIKA SINGH
And now we are making life miserable for M.F. Husain, the one Indian contemporary painter who put modern Indian art on the map of the world long before the prices went over the roof. I recall Roberto Rosselini, the great Italian film-maker, having many of Husain’s works, as did collectors and museums in Mexico and elsewhere. In those days, S.H. Raza was unheard of, even though he lived in Paris. Today, as Indian art becomes commercial and joins the ranks of international art, India is demeaning its pioneer. Whether you like Husain’s work or not, a democratic nation must protect its citizens against any kind of partisan assault. It is the political leaders who use the vast section of unemployed people and turn them into lumpens by compelling them to act against the law of the land. All the men and occasional women who lead these packs from behind must be hauled over the coals and be made accountable.
The profound silence of the authorities over this is ominous. Husain’s works hang in many government homes and, if I am not mistaken, in the prime minister’s official residence. Industrialists buy his art hoping the resale value will soar. Will any of these exalted men and women, the privileged and fêted, ever stand up and speak out? Or will they hide quietly in their ivory towers, hoping against hope that their silence will protect them? Where are the voices of protest? Where are the strong voices of the privileged and successful, the Tatas, the Mahindras, the Narayanamurthys, the Premjis, the Razas and the Sabavalas, the Dodiyas and the Sheikhs, the institutional buyers and the museum heads of India, the Amartya Sens, the Amitabh Bachchans, the V.P. Singhs and the Gujrals, to name a few? Are they going to allow this country and civilization to be suffocated with this horror and not pressurize our rulers to govern correctly? Will they watch, with their mouths shut, when these same lumpen elements are given the task of demolishing Khajuraho, because a band of people find it vulgar? Have we become a nation of dumbed down, frightened people, devoid of honesty and integrity, overwhelmed by fear?
Forces of anarchy
When Christian priests are hounded and beaten up in front of television cameras by Hindus, and the authority allows those who led the assault to roam free, what is the ethic that the political rulers are endorsing? Both acts are unacceptable. The Hinduism that I know is tolerant, secure, confident of its tenets and as an Indian, I am appalled by the desecration of an ancient, tried and tested way of life.
Our Constitution has enshrined in its pages the many sane and humane norms that are meant to govern India. Successive governments have permitted those norms to be mutilated. One such law permits any two consenting adult individuals, man and woman, to marry. It is legal. But, the authorities that are mandated to protect that law, never seem to protect those who operate within the law and allow the most horrendous assaults to happen. The rulers of India never act with urgency, nor do they commit themselves by speaking out in public, damning such illegal acts. Kings protected their people. Our leaders are failing our modern democracy.
An unwritten, illegal code of conduct has begun to rule India, a parallel lumpen law, akin to the parallel economy! Akin to the authority silently looking the other way, accepting the continuing use of that black money. Policy-makers indulge occasionally in cosmetic surgery, with voluntary disclosure schemes. Our plural civilization is similarly beginning its gory journey backwards, into talibanization. Our benign rulers look on and away! Soon it will not matter whether the rate of growth is 15 per cent or more, because no investor will want to enter an anarchic, rigid and violent land.
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