Revision as of 00:43, 19 March 2015

No end to persecution of artists

From the archives of The Times of India 2010

Dhananjay Mahapatra

Persecution is older than history. It is probably as old as civilization. Every period in history is replete with instances of persecution, mainly aimed at hindering free expression of ideas.

In India, artists and authors continue to suffer for giving wings to their expression. M F Husain is the latest to join the long list. Numerous talented Indians have become NRIs but no one attracted as much attention as Husain did after being conferred the honorary citizenship of Qatar.

He symbolizes persecution at the hands of a few intolerant zealots and, unfortunately, the governments and courts have done precious little to give a sense of security to this celebrated painter, who has been conferred all three Padma awards and had been once nominated to the Rajya Sabha.

Probably, he would have loved to live with his paintings in an era when the temples at Konark and Khajuraho were built. Those were the times when freedom of expression reigned supreme.

Sadly, the governments have mainly been silent spectators to the persecution of writers, authors and artists. Frustratingly, they even registered cases against them to assuage the feelings of violent protesters. It is the Supreme Court which has always spoken out boldly against such mindless hounding of artists and authors by mobs blinded by religion and culture.

K A Abbas faced the wrath of the censor board in 1971 for his documentary ‘‘A Tale of Four Cities’’, which attempted to portray the contrast between the lives of rich and poor in the four metros. It also contained fleeting shots of Mumbai’s red-light area, which the censor board thought should be edited out. And despite the cuts, the film was given Adults Only certificate. When Abbas moved the apex court seeking U certification for his documentary, the government made a U-turn and agreed to the demand. But the SC went on to make scathing remarks about the super-sensitivity of the censor board members.

It said, ‘‘If Nadir Shah made golgothas of skulls, must we leave them out of the story because people must be made to view a historical theme without true history?’’ This remark could well have served as the defence for Bhisham Sahni’s powerful novel ‘‘Tamas’’, later made into a TV-series, which vividly depicted Hindu-Muslim and Sikh-Muslim tensions just before Partition and how it culminated in killings and looting in Lahore prior to Independence. Petitions were filed in the Bombay high court and the Supreme Court seeking a ban on its telecast in 1987.

Both the HC and the apex court were unanimous that the TV-serial was not to be banned. In its 1988 judgment [Ramesh Chotalal Dalal vs Union of India], the SC quoted the standard laid down by celebrated judge Vivian Bose in the case of Bhagwati Charan Shukla in 1947. Justice Bose had said, ‘‘The effect of the words must be judged from the standards of reasonable, strong-minded, firm and courageous men, and not those of weak and vacillating minds, nor of those who scent danger in every hostile point of view.’’ Applying this standard, the Supreme Court said telecast of Tamas was not going to hurt sentiments, but could help educate people not to repeat the past.