M.F. Husain, India’s most acclaimed painter, calls himself an �international gypsy� having had to flee his native country because of a furore caused by his paintings. The 91-year-old Muslim is besieged with nearly 1,000 distinct legal suits in India that resulted in the display of his nude depictions of various Hindu gods and goddesses.
Celebrated at home and abroad, Husain shuttles between New York, London, Melbourne, and Dubai. According to the Hindustan Times, Husain says �I may be living in London, but I am extremely homesick�I long to walk through the streets of Grand Road and Byculla where I have spent some of the best years of my life.� In India, Husain’s home was once firebombed and some of his paintings destroyed.
Long considered a member of India’s artistic avant-garde, Husain left India earlier this year after a February 2006 arrest when he was charged with �hurting the sentiments of people� with his nude paintings of, among others, �Mother India�. He has also been charged with �promoting enmity between different groups�by painting Hindu goddesses � Durga and Sarswati � in an uncharitable manner hurting the sentiments of Hindus.�
The paintings in question were actually completed in the 1970s but only became of public currency until they were reproduced in a Hindu monthly magazine in 1996. An exhibition of his paintings in London was closed following an outcry by local Hindus. The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, a Hindu nationalist organization, has protested exhibitions of Husain’s work which it considers �blasphemous�. The group asserts that sales and exhibitions of his paintings amount to the funding of a criminal activity. However, an exhibition of his work is currently at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts, and will close in June 2007.
http://www.speroforum.com/site/article.asp?id=6608
>Read: HJS protests exhibition of Mahabharata series by MF Hussain
>The blasphemous paintings of M.F.Hussain
Other related brief
>> The law ministry has examined half-a-dozen works by Husain and told the government that prosecutors would have a strong case against him if they sued him for deliberately hurting religious feelings.
http://right-mind.us/blogs/blog_0/archive/2006/11/17/47803.aspx
>> Khalid Mohammed, press reporter, The Hindustan times has reported that hundreds of artists, filmmakers, writers and social activists have petitioned the president to confer the Bharat Ratna title on the self-described �international gypsy�.
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_1845956,000
