Artists under attack: Why art hurts

NEO TALIBAN: Artist Anjolie Ela Menon regretted that the moral police is making a new Taliban.

        

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India is a pluralistic society but when it comes to the freedom of artistic expression, we seem to run out of space.

The moral police have slammed MF Husain for painting nude pictures of Hindu Gods. An arts student at the Maharaja Sayaji Rao University is arrested because his painting hurt religious sensibilities.

Artists and students across the country have expressed solidarity with Chandra Mohan, a student, and Shivaji Panikkar, Dean of the Art Faculty after the former was arrested when a BJP member found his painting meant for an internal project to be offensive.

Renowned artist Anjolie Ela Menon and artists and students from Delhi, Mumbai and Vadodara Joined the show Art Attack on CNN-IBN, moderated by Anubha Bhonsle, to discuss – has intolerance laid claim to spaces of academia and creative expression?

Blaming the state for the current controversy, Anjolie Ela Menon said that Chandra Mohan has been made a “scapegoat” of the situation and the whole thing is “obviously pre-planned”.

Describing the young student as “vulnerable”, Menon also pointed out that, he has no support – neither his parents are their nor the state provided him support and the state have simply put him behind the bars “without giving him a chance to speak”.

Expressing sympathy for young students, Menon said, “This was supposed to be an exam and these exams are on camera. Only the jury, may be the dean and head of the department get to examine these works. I am amazed that somebody from outside was allowed to buzz in. That’s whom the police should have arrested instead of police being party a trespass of this nature.”

Agreeing that it would have made a difference if the painting was exhibited in a public or private domain, Menon said that the painting meant for exam is entirely a “private affair” and had nothing to do with public. She also said that somebody must have tipped off the mob about the painting, “How else would people have known what is being exhibited or going to be exhibited on camera?”

Against the question, “Can people have the right to explain divergent views?” a student of MS University said, “Of course there can be divergent views. But the question here is about how these divergent views can be addressed. Where is the distorted space, where such discussions can take place and these divergent views brought into one space?”

On the question of the right of any institution like Bajrang Dal to come and express their opinion on such arts inside the university, another student said, “No that is not done. Because this is an institution’s space and there is a procedure for going about it… It was not an exhibition, it was examination work to be viewed by the jury and by the students and by their parents at the most. So, first of all, they were not supposed to be there and if, in case, someone does have a problem, there is a way of dealing with it.”