06/02/2013 14:53:51 Dr. Vijaya Rajiva
NDTV ran a program 'From Kashmir to Bangalore. . . music, art under attack' (Feb.5, 2013) and it featured the young upcoming artist Anirudh SainathKrishnamani. The case was about his three nude paintings of Kali,Shiva, and Parvathi being removed from an exhibition of his paintings at an art gallery in Bangalore by the art gallery itself on complaint from an ordinary Hindu.
The young man looked dejected enough. He spoke about the freedom of the artist. His father MN Krishnamani, a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court and now President of the Supreme Court Bar Association was outraged at what he considered the violation of the Indian Constitution's guarantee of the individual's right to freedom of expression. Anjali Ela Menon was also present at the discussion and she held forth as expected on how MF Husain was driven out of India (in reality he chose self exile in Dubai where he was feted, wined and dined and given huge sums of money for forthcoming paintings !) for painting nude Hindu goddesses. Then there was another individual, a non descript person, an art gallery owner from New Delhi, who upheld the Delhi art gallery's right to hold paintings depicting the human body. Fair enough.
It had nothing to do with Hindu gods and goddesses.
It is surprising for a lawyer of Mr. Krishnamani's stature to say what he did about the Indian Constitution. Nowhere in the Constitution is there permission for an individual to violate the sentiments of a community. And legally speaking this is about the sentiments of the Hindu community which does not want to see its gods and goddesses shown in the nude. Even if it be true that the divine entities were shown in the nude in ancient Indian art (which ofcourse is not true) in contemporary and modern India gods and goddesses are always shown clothed. Raja Ravi Varma's paintings whose calendar copies hang in every Hindu home depict the gods and goddesses as fully clothed.
In the Puranas the goddess Sarasvati is hailed as she who wears radiant white robes etc.
A religious Hindu today does not want to go to an exhibition and see what is an insulting portrayal of his/her deities. End of story. A religious Hindu does not have to explain why he/she is a Hindu.
Why is it hard for the beautiful people to understand this basic reality ? Anjali Ela Menon spoke some nonsense about there being naked sadhus at the Kumbh Mela, a silly argument since these are humans exposing themselves freely.
One has to conclude that the participants in the program are not devout Hindus. MF Husain can be pardoned for not being a devout Hindu, but why these others ? Ofcourse they have a RIGHT not to be devout Hindus, but should they peddle their defiance so blatantly and mix it up with sundry other issues such as artistic freedom ?And should devout Hindus roll over and play dead when these vicious individuals call devout Hindus 'illiterates' as one journalist did at another high brow event ?
As for the sad looking artist himself being so misled and misguided by his own parent and by the so called advocates of freedom of expression, let us hope that he will evolve into a mature artist. He has said that he has been reading Hindu scriptures and is currently reading the Mahabharata. No doubt he was looking for material for further 'artistic expression' ! Hopefully his ignoble enterprise has been dampened by the protest at Bangalore.
Let us hope that he will see more in Hindu scriptures than inspiration for painting nude gods and goddesses of his tradition rather than be preoccupied with finding his way up in the artistic world blessed by Anjali Ela Menon and the likes. As for the father, let us hope that he will not continue to mislead his young son with chicanery.
(The writer is a Political Philosopher who taught at a Canadian university).
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proudestkafir
06/02/2013 22:29:15 dear Hindus
The artist need not lose his heart.He can just his own mother to pose nude and paint her nude, stark naked for all art lovers to enjoy! Simple
Senthil kumar
06/02/2013 20:41:01 TV interview by Anirudh
I saw his interview on some TV, I don't remember. He says that people just protest by seeing TV serials of Hindu Gods and think they know everything. But this up and coming idiot thinks he knows something that nobody knows because he has read the scriptures.
BUT SON YOU HAVE TO READ A LOT MORE SCRIPTURES, VISIT A LOT MORE TEMPLES AND GATHER INFORMATION/KNOWLEDGE, FIND OUT WHY AND AT WHAT CIRCUMSTANCES THEY WERE WRITTEN. TILL THEN YOU CAN PRACTICE YOUR FREEDOM OF ART BY PAINTING YOUR
MOM AND DAD
IN THE SAME WAY AND EXHIBIT THEM, WE HAVE NO WORRIES AND WE WONT PROTEST.
Nudity was not a sin when in ancient days the society was much matured to understand it. Now since a new wave of Abrahamic religions entered into India and preached their new dogmas the maturity level has come down. I think my opinion is better not to make/exhibit these kind of paintings in the name of art at least until these desert, immature, imaginative dogmas are completely wiped out of this country.
S.Raguraman
06/02/2013 18:48:38 Mr.M.N.Krishnamani's remarks
Mr.Krishnamani, I believe, is a devotee of Kanchi Sankara Math. It would be very relevant here, to quote the opinion of the Mahaswamighal on the 'Thanthra' path, involving nudity and sex. The Aacharya warns in one of his speeches : "'Thanthra' might have given positive results to some of its adherents; but, such people would have been highly evolved. But, for an ordinary mortal , the 'Thantthra' mode of worship is not at all desirable, since practice of 'Thanthra' is like walking the razor's edge and may cause the seeker a great 'fall' in his spiritual advent, instead of progress. On the other hand, Adi Sankara's 'shanmatha' worship has no such dangers and for the present generation of HIndus that is the only path". So, artists, especially believers in Hinduism, should desist from painting gods and goddesses in the nude.
Ravi
06/02/2013 16:38:29 Nudity.
Nudity cannot be exhibited in films, dramas, TV shows, but for these anti nationals secularists, it is allowed to show if it is about a Hindu goddess! Even a simple cartoon on muslim prophet caused riots. Hindus are not doing that, but requesting these people not to insult our culture.
Shankar
06/02/2013 16:03:56 Freedom of Expression
This is equivalent to portraying the neighbor's mother or sister in nude and telling them that you did it for freedom of expression. We have all seen the uproar all over the world when some cartoons appeared in Danish newspapers. Anirudh Krishnamani is still alive because he painted Hindu deities, imagine where he would be at this time if he had chosen to draw Mohammed Nabi or Ayisha in nude. I would suspect the whole drama was just a technique advised by a cunning father to his son to become popular overnight. Why the respected lawyer did not talk about the freedom of art when a school band from Kashmir was threatened and dismissed by a local imam.
The main goal of attending the Mahakumbh is the sacred bath in the Ghats. Government must restrict the media and ban photography from the snan ghats where half-naked devotees are taking holy bath. All mainstream newspapers will have a news from the Kumbh mela and a picture of Nag sanyasis in their loincloths. This is an utter disgrace and is equivalent to clicking the picture from someone’s bathroom or riverside and claiming that the person is nude while he/she bathes. Leave the devotees alone and let them take bath peacefully.
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