Guest Gunner Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 http://blogs.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/jugglebandhi/entry/hindu-husain Would M F Husain have dared to paint the Prophet, either clothed or otherwise? That question is being asked by many after Husain gave up Indian citizenship to live in Qatar. The artist was constrained to go into exile following a strident reaction by elements of the sangh parivar to his depiction of Hindu deities in the nude. While those who believe in freedom of expression at any cost have rued the Husain case, others not all of whom belong to the parivar have raised the counter question regarding the Prophet, and whether Husain, or any other artist, would be at liberty to portray him. The question is rhetorical: Islam forbids any pictorial depiction of the Prophet. So the question has nothing to do with artistic freedom, or lack of it, but with that old bugaboo: 'weak' Hinduism as compared with 'strong' Islam. In the face of a radicalised Islam which in the name of blasphemy has targeted people as varied as Salman Rushdie, a Danish cartoonist and Taslima Nasreen, to name only a few the so-called 'weakness' of Hinduism in dealing with religious offence has increasingly been called into question. Such arguments are not merely misguided; they are inimical to the very essence of what, for the sake of convenience, is called Hinduism. It has become a cliche to say that Hinduism is not a religion, but a way of life. Perhaps it would be more accurate and less repetitive to describe Hinduism as a life which finds a way to let others live their lives, according to their lights, without seeking to convert them or make them change their ways. The basis of what has been labelled as Hinduism is the opposite of zero tolerance: it is infinite tolerance. There are almost as many Hinduisms as there are Hindus; it's a designer religion. There are shudh shakahari Hindus who will not eat onions or garlic, and equally there are fully paid-up members of the Hindu fold who eat beef without a qualm. There are Hindus who acknowledge a pantheon of 33 million deities, and there are Hindus who disavow the existence of even one God. Far from being a 'weakness' of Hinduism, this endless elasticity of adaptation gives it a supple spiritual and philosophical strength that is unsurpassed by any other belief system or body of speculative thought. Efforts by the sangh parivar and others to 'semitise' Hinduism in the manner of faiths which are based on uniformity rather than diversity (one scripture, one congregation) and so 'strengthen' it are, in fact, witting or unwitting exercises in sabotage. A homogenised Hinduism would not be Hinduism at all, but a travesty of that myriad-threaded fabric of daily ritual and abstract reason which has been ceaselessly woven and re-woven over thousands of years. The face of militant Hinduism the crusade to 'strengthen' Hinduism by robbing it of its life-breath of tolerance is the mirror image of radicalised Islamism. Indeed, a 'strong' Islam is as much of a misnomer as a 'weak' Hinduism. For all its relative youth and seeming monoculturalism, mainstream Islam has many tributaries and distributaries, including that of Sufism in which the Creator is wooed as the romantic Beloved by the suitor intoxicated by spiritual passion. Do these diverse strands of Islam 'weaken' it or 'strengthen' it? To come back to the question as to whether Husain would have dared to paint the Prophet, it is possible that as a good Muslim the idea didn't occur to him. So how come he took such scandalous liberties with Hindu deities? Could it be because the artist thought he intuited the true nature of Hinduism, that in it there are no scandalous liberties deserving of censorship? By bearing witness to its capacity of tolerance was the artist willy-nilly demonstrating that, good Muslim apart, he was also a good 'Hindu'? Too bad he was proved wrong about the tolerance and had to exile himself. Has that 'strengthened' Hinduism or 'weakened' it? Excellent blog post, he has cleanly articulated my views on hinduism and possibly that of several others. He says an atheist is as much a hindu as anyone else, truer words have never been spoken. I am opening this thread not discuss Husain but to discuss the views of this blog, so can we please stick to that. Thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ganeshran Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Great blog post. :clap: My thoughts exactly. The argument that Hinduism should be more radical to counter Islam is in completely wrong direction. If anything, we should look at making the religion more progressive and tolerant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Don't want to be a party pooper, but how is this not a discussion of religion which is supposedly off limits for this site? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gunner Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Don't want to be a party pooper' date=' but how is this not a discussion of religion which is supposedly off limits for this site?[/quote'] Nope, the idea is to discuss a philosophical prespective of religion not the religion itself. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Nope' date=' the idea is to discuss a philosophical prespective of religion not the religion itself.[/quote'] Well the blog spot you quoted talks about specifics of the religions, mainly hinduism. If this is not opening up religious discussion, I am not sure what is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anonymous Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Wonderful read. Am a beef eating, part atheist, part Agnostic and occasionally Hindu (When my Mom is around :(() . Exactly my thoughts..:icflove: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gunner Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Well the blog spot you quoted talks about specifics of the religions' date= mainly hinduism. If this is not opening up religious discussion, I am not sure what is. What specifics? He has talked about the view of the religion, he has not quoted any verses or talked about any other specifics there. I am not sure I follow your line of thought here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
yoda Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Will leave it to you guys to decide, but it rather obvious that this thread is about religion, which is a forbidden topic for this site. I am sure you guys will make exceptions to suit your agenda as in the past, but there is nothing new here. End of my comments on this thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rkt.india Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 How can an atheist have a religion, first thing is that, when an atheist does not even believe that God exist while Hindu religion talks about 33 crores of deities. Being atheist is an individual and intellectual choice someone makes. People are not bound to follow the rituals whether they ae hindus, muslims, or christians and you will find these kind of people in every religion. The philosophy portrayed in this blog is utter rubbish. Hindus believe in Ma, bharat ma and durga ma. Would you like if someone a make a nude poster of one you call Ma. I do not think anyone would like. Why didn't Hussain made nude pics of his Ma then? Author is saying Hindu Hussain. Does he even understand it why we worship these Gods we believe in and what importance they have in our life? He had paint brush and colors, but it does not mean he should have started ridiculing the religion for the name of freedom of expression. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Outsider Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 This thread has the potential to turn ugly in a very short span of time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Gunner Posted June 10, 2011 Share Posted June 10, 2011 Locked. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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