The ‘Hindu Taliban’ May Take India
Back to the Paleolithic Age
By M.P. Prabhakaran
The Muslim Taliban who ruled Afghanistan from 1996 to 2001 nearly succeeded in taking that country back to the Neolithic Age. The ‘Hindu Taliban,’ those who have been masquerading as the guardians of Hindu culture, could take India back not just to the Neolithic Age, but the Paleolithic Age, unless they are stopped right now. The initiative to stop this motley crowd, belonging to the Bharatiya Janata Party, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad, the Shiv Sena, and such other Hindu-sectarian organizations, must come from progressive-minded Hindus who, fortunately, are in a majority. The authorities in India who are in a position to stop them often act as their enablers. A few recent cases would substantiate the point.
We all know that Hollywood actor Richard Gere loves India, visits the country several times a year, and is a driving force behind many worthy causes aimed at helping it. One cause which he is very passionately involved in is India’s campaign to combat AIDS. Indians will always be indebted to him for the contribution he has made to the campaign and the efforts he has been making to bring India’s AIDS problem to the consciousness of the rest of the world. They want him to know that those who reacted unreasonably to what he did at a rally in New Delhi on April 15, 2007 are in a tiny minority.
The Fuss Over a Kiss
The rally was organized to promote AIDS awareness among India’s truck-drivers. With him on the stage, holding his hand, was Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty. In a playful moment, he turned toward Ms. Shetty, embraced her, twisted and turned her, and kissed her on the cheek. Ms. Shetty played along and the audience enjoyed it. But the ‘Hindu Taliban’ took offense to it. According to them, it was un-Indian to kiss in public. They held protest rallies and burned effigies of Gere and photos of Shetty. Mr. Gere's “sincere apology” and his explanation that “my clumsy attempt at a ‘Shall We Dance’ dance move was a naïve misread of Indian customs” did not pacify them. Nor were they restrained by Ms. Shetty’s calling them a “lunatic fringe” and her wish that they had focused on "AIDS awareness, and not three pecks on her cheek."
More than the behavior of the moral brigade, it's the performance in this connection of a judge in a court in Jaipur, Rajasthan, that surprised most people. A member of the brigade had brought a citizen's complaint before the judge. Instead of dismissing the complaint as a baby's cry for attention, Dinesh Gupta, the judge, characterized the kiss as "highly sexually erotic" and even criticized Ms. Shetty for not resisting it. He issued warrants for the arrest of the couple on charges of "obscene behavior." It's a shame that a judge in India, a country which has a theater at every other street corner showing movies with love scenes that leave nothing to the viewers’ imagination, should find a playful kiss of a man on the cheek of a woman “highly sexually erotic.” The noble cause the man and the woman were promoting did not mean anything to the judge.
A Celebrated Painter Goes Into Exile
The case mentioned above and the judge’s performance in it bring to mind the numerous other cases that are now pending in various Indian courts against the celebrated Indian painter, M.F. Husain. Those cases, too, are the outcome of the moral outrage of the ‘Hindu Taliban.’ The most recent case, brought before a court in Gujarat State, pertains to a painting by Mr. Husain, captioned “Bharat Mata [Mother India].” The painting depicts a nude woman, with the names of Indian states scribbled on various parts of her body. The judge presiding over the case ordered that Mr. Husain's house in Mumbai be confiscated as punishment for his non-appearance in court on the day of the hearing. Mr. Husain responded that he was not aware of any summons requiring his court appearance. The laughable thing about the court order is that the house in question is no longer in Husain’s name. [It has since been reported that the Supreme Court of India has stayed the Gujarat court’s order.]
The main charge against Mr. Husain in almost all cases – there are about 900, Mr. Husain told a reporter recently – is that he has been portraying Hindu gods and goddesses in the nude. For doing that, in 1988, the Bajrang Dal, a Hindu-extremist group, attacked his house and destroyed his artworks. In February 2006, he was arrested and charged with “hurting sentiments of people.” One Hindu group even offered a reward of $11.5 million to anyone who would murder Mr. Husain.
Harassment by the 'Hindu Taliban' and a legal system that willingly cooperates with them forced Husain to go into exile. The 91-year-old artist, whom Forbes magazine had once called the “Picasso of India,” now spends his time between Dubai and England. Though he has told news reporters that he is feeling “extremely homesick” and that “I am missing my country,” he has been advised by his lawyers to stay away from India for the time being.
An editorial in the May 8, 2007, edition of The Hindu, an Indian daily known for its balanced views, speaks for all right-minded people. “There is something terribly amiss about a social order," says the editorial, "that coerces a law-abiding 91-year-old artist – India’s most celebrated painter – into leaving the country because of harassment by rank communalists and moral vigilantes. There is also something lopsided about the priorities of a criminal justice system that orders the attachment of his properties when cases against hardened criminals drag on interminably.”
The editorial ends with this profound observation: “There is little doubt that the criminal cases against Mr. Husain will fail. But the mischief-makers may have already succeeded – because the process has become the punishment, especially for a nonagenarian free spirit.”
Another Victim of the Moral Brigade
The most recent victim of the Hindu moral brigade is a young graduate student. In this case, too, the brigade is from Gujarat State. As part of the course requirements for his master’s degree in fine arts, from the prestigious Maharaja Sayajirao University, Srilamathula Chandramohan, the graduate student, had submitted a digital enlargement of a painted work depicting a female form with many arms, wielding weapons and giving birth. Obviously, the work alluded to a Hindu goddess. It was later exhibited on the wall of the art department. A Hindu fanatic by the name of Neeraj Jain, who is a lawyer by profession and belongs to the Bharatiya Janata Party, found the work offensive to Hindu culture. Accompanied by police officers and television news teams, he barged into the art department and got Mr. Chandramohan arrested and sent to jail on the charge of “deliberately offending religious sentiments.”
Reporting on the incident in the May 19, 2007, edition of The New York Times, Somini Sengupta, the paper’s New Delhi correspondent, quotes Mr. Jain as saying, in justification of his action: “I cannot tolerate any insult to our culture and to our gods and goddesses.” The question most Hindus have for him is: Who in the world made you, a fellow with a primitive view of Hinduism, the spokesman for Hindu culture? The message I have for him is: Go get a life. Leave my religion alone.
A lawyer-politician craving for publicity – please note: he was careful to take TV news teams with him – acting and speaking in this manner does not surprise most people. He and his fellow goons might have marched into the university and seized the student’s art work in pursuance of their political and personal agendas. But if in the process they are interfering with the university’s academic activities and destroying its reputation, the head of the university has a responsibility to stop them. Regrettably, the head of M.S. University, vice chancellor Manoj Soni, did not. In fact, according to news reports, he extended his full cooperation to the hooligans and urged the police to arrest his student. Most people find Mr. Soni's behavior despicable.
The despicable behavior did not stop at that. In protest against Chandramohan’s arrest, his fellow students had held an exhibition of several artworks, which they pulled out from the archives of the art department and which they knew would offend the self-styled champions of Hindu morals. The vice chancellor approached the acting dean of the department and demanded an apology and ordered him to close the exhibition. Shivaji Panikkar, the acting dean, refused. The refusal resulted in his losing the job.
The courage and integrity of Mr. Panikkar, who has given 27 years of his life to the university and its art department, have earned him admiration and applause from academics, artists and art lovers around India. Rallies held in various cities condemned the university authorities, police and the Hindu chauvinists responsible for the ugly incident.
Mr. Chandramohan, after spending five days in jail, was released on bail. Fearing further harassment from Hindu activists, he went into hiding. Meanwhile, Neeraj Jain, the chief architect of the ugly incident, is reported to be basking in the glory of his success. There is no denying that Mr. Jain’s arrogance and conceit come from the fact that Maharaja Sayajirao University is a state-run institution; that the state that runs it is Gujarat; and that the elected government which is in power in Gujarat is led by the Bharatiya Janata Party to which he belongs. He doesn't realize that, very often, the activities he and his ilk are engaged in, in the name of preserving Hindu culture, go against the very tenets of that culture. He doesn't accept the basic principle that a piece of art is interpreted in as many ways as there are beholders. It's his warped interpretation of a student's artwork that started the storm which destroyed the reputation of a university.
Freedom of Worship in Hinduism
Gods and goddesses in the Hindu pantheon have been portrayed from time immemorial in as many forms and shapes as the imagination of the portrayer permitted. They have been portrayed naked and they have been portrayed fully clothed. Hinduism gives one the freedom to choose and worship any, or all, of them. Hinduism also gives one the freedom to reject all of them and worship a shapeless, formless cosmic spirit. One who worships nothing at all, and seeks guidance only from reason, is also a Hindu. There is no excommunication in Hinduism.
There are Hindus who worship Linga (penis). There are Hindus who worship Yoni (vagina). There are temples, dedicated to Lord Krishna, which have sculptures, paintings and carvings showing Krishna in every imaginable form of sexual activity with his Gopis. Among the many things that earned India fame around the world are the erotic sculptures in the temples of Khajuraho and uninhibited sexual acts described in Kama Sutra. The world should thank itself that there were no ‘Hindu Taliban’ at the time these masterpieces were created.
[First published on June 8, 2007. It has since been slightly edited.]
UPDATE, March 15, 2008: "Gere Is No Longer a Wanted Man in India," says a report in the "Arts, Briefly" column of today's New York Times. An appeal had been filed in the Supreme Court of India against the warrant issued by the Rajastan court for the arrest of Richard Gere and Shilpa Shetty. Quoting The associated Press as source, The Times report says that "Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Justice K.V. Raveendran indefinitely stayed the warrant." The general public would have applauded the two scholarly justices of India's apex court if, instead of indefinitely staying the warrant, they had reprimanded the Rajastan court judge who had originally issued it and ordered him to dismiss the case on the basis of its being frivolous. Nobody knows how much more time and taxpayers' money will have to be wasted before this laughable matter is brought to an end.
[Readers are invited to comment. Send your comments to letters@eastwestinquirer.com]
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Reader's Response
Problem for the Rest of the World
Let's face it: What one witnesses in India today is a fast breakdown of law and order. The rule of law is steadily getting eroded and the rule of the jungle is taking its place.
It's sad that the authorities are unable to see the writings on the wall. Unless things are set in order, the rest of the world will soon be faced with the problem of having to give refuge to millions of South Asians.
Pakistan's diplomatic mission in Athens has already warned Islamabad of this problem and of Pakistanis' contribution to it. The warning was about the 100,000-plus Pakistani males, 16-to-20 years old, who were in Turkey, on their way to Greece and Italy. They were wearing military uniforms. Some were traveling in armored vehicles and some on foot. They were playing a cat-and-mouse game with the security forces of Greece and Italy while trying to sneak into those countries. The security forces were trying to catch and send them back to Pakistan.
This should give an idea of the security and safety implications of the South Asian refugee problem for the rest of the world. So here is my request to the leaders of South Asia, and also of China: Please do something to prevent a possible mass exodus from your countries. Please do something to stabilize social life and maintain law and order.
Kulamarva Balakrishna, Chemnitz, Germany
June 11, 2007