Severine Fumoux
New Delhi
INDIA’S art community took to the streets once
again to protest assaults on creative freedom.
The protest was triggered by the sudden arrest
on May 9 of Chandramohan Srilamantula, a student
at Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda, for
having exhibited art works that, according to the
police, “hurt religious sentiments and pose a
threat to public order”.
The artists saw the arrest as a transgression on
the right to individual expression. They also saw a
pattern in such heavy handedness under the BJP
government in Gujarat.
The works in question were a large cross depicting
Christ with his penis hanging out and a nude
woman with a baby attempting to push its way out
of her vagina. The caption below read: ‘Durga Mata’.
The paintings were part of an annual appraisal
show at the Faculty of Fine Arts. The VHP barged
in. Chandramohan was attacked by Niraj Jain, a
local VHP leader. He was then arrested and imprisoned
for refusing to take down his art works. SK
Pannikar, the Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, was
suspended for being supportive of his student and
for organising another nude paintings exhibition
the following day against the orders of the university
authorities.
On May 14, artists, writers, politicians, social
activists and actors protested across the country. In
New Delhi, Sahmat led the protest outside Rabindra
Bhawan with an “appeal to all secular parties, organisations and individuals to raise their voice.”
What are Chandramohan and Pannikar guilty of?
Obscenity? Blasphemy? The court is trying to discern
one from the other. “The police or the court
cannot understand easily the psychology of colours
or lines,” said an editor of the Hindi daily Jansatta,
covering the protest.
“The question is how and from where to define transgression of rights when we talk of a secular democratic set up. The state needs to be more active in the debate. Also, this event is telling the vast silent majority to come out and support us” said Danish Husain, actor and poet who posted Sahmat letters on his blog: “Writers against Terrorism” “The attack here is against the spirit of openmindedness and inquiry that is at the heart of any university,” said Ram Rahman, founding member of Sahmat. It was, they pointed out, a violation of basic human rights. The protesters stressed the dangers of moral policing for India’s democracy. Shubha Mudgal set the tone with her singing. Symbolically, Sahmat’s first act was to distribute postcards designed by artists with stamps and addresses of BJP members for the public to send out. “We need to start being more hard-hitting with the fascists of this country, because fascism is rising, just the way it did in Italy,” said Peter Nagy, director of the New Delhi-based art gallery, Nature Morte.
Among those present at the protest in Delhi were activist Arundhati Roy, artists Jatin Das and Anjolie Ela Menon, politician Sitaram Yechury of the Communist Party of India (Marxist), D Raja of the CPI, art critics, professors and many journalists who were exhorted to report the event extensively. Whether this protest will rally the media and the people to the cause of creative freedom remains to be seen.
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