Bharat Mata by M.F.Hussain
Saffron army's Bin Laden Swamiji

Intolerant!!!

After reading this post, u may think that am an anti- hindu. I dint particularly impress the Hindus by speaking bad about the revered Mataji Nirmala Devi. But, let me make one thing clear now itself. Am a god fearing Hindu myself. Am writing all these posts from the viewpoint of a normal human being, who thinks beyond any caste, creed or race. So read on...

India is becoming a hard place to live in, day by day. Our soceity is becoming increasingly intolerant. A case in point is the recent widespread attack on art and artists by the saffron brigade, who proclaim themselves as the caretakers of the great Indian culture. The BJP, Vishwa Hindu Parishad, Shiv Sena, Bajrang Dal and the other similar dirty bunches have taken it upon themselves to clean up our country of everything that goes against our so called tradition and culture. There were attack on art exhibitions at many places, most notably at MS University Vadodara's fine arts gallery. Bajrang Dal activists barged into the gallery and vandalised the student's paintings. In another incident, VHP and Bhajrang Dal activists attacked the Golden art gallery in Surat for allegedly exhibiting blasphemous paintings. The reason they gave for all this atrocious behaviour is that it hurt their religious sentiments. I have a question to ask to them, ''Is your religion so weak as to get hurt by some simple paintings?'' Religion is about belief, its not about idol worship.. Religion is about being tolerant not about vandalism. These uneducated blind believers should understand that art is something as divine as the God they worship.

The recent protests against India's greatest artist M.F.Hussain are also being carried out by this very own saffron army. He's been a victim of their attack for a long time. It is sad to note that there are no people mature enough in all these hindu organisations to guide their illiterate followers in the right path. Instead, these senior leaders themselves are making them do these attacks. There's much more to the 'Nude Saraswathi' than the nudity it displays. The last thing that might have come to Hussain's mind while painting it is the nudity.

My own explanation for the 'Nude Saraswathi' painting is that ''nudity is the purest and most divine form of any living being. When God created us, he dint give us clothes. Those are material things we acquired later on. So by depicting a God/Godess in nude, the artist might be trying to convey to the people the purest form of God.'' Hussain might have been trying to convey a different meaning. So much of thought and imagination goes into that genius's paintings. But, when our religious army sees the painting, their eyes would go straight to the lady's private parts on display. WHY? Because, thats the way they are used to looking at woman. One who wears red glasses will see even a dove as red in colour. These people should learn to look at the bigger picture. No artist would purposefully try to hurt religious sentiments. They are attacking all this without even studying the meaning of these paintings.

What is more disheartening is the attitude of the police. What they did after the attack at Vadodara University was to arrest the student who did the painting. The guys who carried out the attack were talking jubiliantly and threateningly in front of the press. The Dean of the arts faculty, who showed the guts to support the student was reprimanded by the University Vice chancellor. Its no secret that the VC was appointed by the uncrowned king of saffronisation, Mr.Narendra Modi. This kind of moral policing is a shame for our great country. This is not our culture[which they are boasting of protecting] or our tradition. We were once called the most tolerant soceity in the world. Now we are slowly losing that name. One week back, there was a murderous assault on a preacher right in front of his house. The faces of prominent VHP leaders, who carried out the attack were caught on camera. Still, the police didn't take any action for more than 10 days.

These kind of attacks make us no different from those intolerant-as-hell islamic countries. The prophet mohammed cartoon controversy is still fresh in mind. This moral policing is not limited to arts alone. The Shiv Sena has made it an annual affair to burn greeting cards and carryout attack on young couples on Valentines day. They also regularly visit parks and other public places to drive away young couples. Who gave them the license to do all this? Is there something wrong in celebrating love? Is there something wrong in two people kissing, with mutual permission? Its all wrong according to them. Everything western is wrong. Rock concerts are bad. Ghazal is muslim music. So it should also be attacked[Remember the attack on a famous pakistani ghazal singer's concert some years back]. They raised a hue and cry when A.R.Rahman released Vande Mataram. Their line of thinking was that Rahman being a muslim was purposefully trying to show disrespect to our national song. Its another matter that he's one of the most patriotic musicians India has ever produced. That day is not far away when the saffron army declares that music is against our beliefs. So lets burn all cassettes and close down all the music shops. This is exactly what is happening in Pakistan right now. The music shop owners there are now selling vegetables. There are reports that all music shops in some provinces are closed down because of pressure from hardcore Islamic organisations. Even teaching music is banned in some of the Pakistani universities.

If u dont want to see India in that state we should resist this saffron army. If u still want to hear Floyd, Nirvana and Rahman, if u still want to feast your eyes on divine works of art and if u still want to kiss your girlfriend, you gotta say ''FUCK OFF'' to these moral policing...

NB- The writer is a devout Hindu who hates the hindu political organisations who boasts of fighting for the cause of Hindusim

your crusader Praveen