Here's a piece of art the legendary artist sketched for MiD DAY 16 years ago. Cut and keep this masterpiece for posterity
Here's a piece of art the legendary artist sketched for MiD DAY 16 years ago. Cut and keep this masterpiece for posterity
Having worked as a painter of film hoardings when he first came to Mumbai, MF Husain always had his finger on the pulse of this city.
And being essentially a wanderer, he travelled wherever his artistic impulses carried himu00a0 with or without shoes on his feet.
When we approached him with some trepidation to do a cover for a special section for MiD DAY's special anniversary issue for 1995, he agreed readily.
We were trying to marry short stories on Mumbai with works of art, by both well-known writers and our readers who entered a contest (looking back at the issue, I see Chandrahas Choudhury, now an acclaimed author, was a winner at 15 with his story on pollution) and by city artists.
But back to the great man and his promises. When I dropped into Husain's Cuffe Parade flat to pick up the painting for the cover, it was not ready.
Before butterflies in the tummy could turn into wasps, the maestro picked up a sheet of art paper and some crayons and produced this masterpiece.
Husain had painted in public many times and I have witnessed a few of those, but to be there right in front of him was a magical experience.
His firm sure lines soon gave us a portrait which contained his obsession at the time, film star Madhuri Dixit, though this was five years before the film Gajgamini was released, an iconic Husain horse, the Gateway of India, the sea, a boat, a fish and you can see how it all comes together for yourself.
The man was gentle but sharp in his ideas and opinions and filled with the exuberance of life a rare artist who neither posed nor covered himself in vain glory.
The thrill of this experience left me soaring like a bird it must have made quite an impression because your editor today, then a young boy, still remembers my excitement. I interviewed Husain several times after that, including for MiD DAY, but the joy of watching crayon strokes turning into art is one for the ages.
Lessons to learn from Husain's death
The government has called the death of Maqbool Fida Husain a "national loss". But the loss to the nation came long before Husain died in a London hospital at the age of 95 on June 9.
The loss began when the Indian State could not save him from attacks by vandals and bigots, culminating in the venerable artist's self-imposed exile from a country he loved in 2006.
Now everyone can mourn his mortal passing, but the biggest blow to the artist came when his nation could not support him.
Every great artist pushes boundaries and courts controversy and Husain was a past master at both. Art which does neither is not art it is at best a pleasant picture, at worst cheap kitsch. Many of his fellow artists who are today singing his praises were once his fiercest critics.
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Some, it is said, out of jealousy, since Husain's success was enormous and others because they took issue with his art itself.
But all that is acceptable within the discourse of everyday life. What was unacceptable however was the way the Hindu rightwing hounded him because of his so-called "transgressions".
The fact that he, as a Muslim, depicted Hindu deities in his paintings was bad enough, according to the rightwing but this was made worse by some of them being "naked".
Thus according to this mindset, Husain had offended and insulted all Hindus and so his work had to be destroyed and he had to be harassed. The government stood back and watched in its usual helpless manner when it is asked to defend freedom of expression against violent outpourings of "public sentiment".
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Freedom of expression is viable, as far as successive Indian governments are concerned, only if some political entity or social group, no matter how prejudiced or ignorant, is not bothered by it.
We see it when it comes to books, to art, to ideas - they are all too often proscribed or attacked because the government is too frightened to defend the Constitution.
A mature society is one which understands and appreciates dissent and we are still a long way from that. Interestingly enough, despite the venomous rants of the Hindu rightwing against Husain, none of his so-called "offensive" works depicted even an ounce of vulgarity.
Husain's lines were sharp and spare - you had to have a great imagination or truth be told, a very puerile one - to read either insult or eroticism into them. Indeed, illustrations in Amar Chitra Katha comics were far more evocative than Husain's Sita!
His admirers have also argued that coming as he did from Pandharpur, he has a strong connection to the Hindu faith and was one more shining example of the syncretic nature of Indian belief systems.
The lines between religions are often blurred by custom, practice and personal choice except of course when politicians get involved. But oddly, the facts are of no consequence here. Whatever Husain's background and his compulsions, his right to explore was absolute.
His attackers were not just ignorant folk driven by hatred: they were (and are) severe threats to the foundation of democracy. They are those who cannot accept the viewpoint of the other without resorting to violence.
Now that Husain has died in exile, it is hard to see how we can redeem ourselves for this act of cowardice that we have shown towards him.
We will and must now examine his art in isolation and history has its own way of rewarding and punishing. But we must also examine our treatment of him.
By claiming him as one of India's greatest painters and calling him the "Picasso of India' and then abandoning him when he most needed us, the nation has actually failed itself.
Perhaps to honour his legacy, the government can start by refusing to tolerate further attacks on freedom of speech and expression.
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It can also accept that the government does not need to get involved in the arts the finest expression of the human imagination does not require bureaucratic interference. What happened to Husain must not happen to anyone else.
The biggest irony of course is a representative of the Bharatiya Janata Party calling Husain's death a loss to the nation. If the BJP had realised this earlier and reined in its brother organisations, India's most celebrated artist would not have had to die in a foreign land yearning for his country.
Ranjona Banerji is a senior journalist
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