Nudity, Copulation, Art and Suffocation: Discovery of India

-Raju Parulekar

In the endeavour of art and culture, existence of God is absolutely nude. Nudity and nakedness is a part of visual art for e.g paintings, sculptures, stone carvings, covering and hiding nudity and nakedness in ancient Hindu philosophy of art is considered as of inferior taste. Not only in ancient India but around the world you will find nude statues and sculptures of Gods and Goddesses. In India, it has been a custom to make nude statues and portraits of Gods and Godesses and their incarnations. This ritual has come into being since before Greek era. In fact, ancient civilisation, now we know as Sanatan Dharma is India’s eternal religion. After evolution of endology, the word ‘Hindutva’was coined. In this article the writer has used ‘Hindutva’ in terms of ancient beginning of civilisation in India and not as a Hindu religion which we loosely use since last 1200 years, after dark-age of Turkey, Moghul, and British slavery. So in this article particularly wherever you read the word ‘Hindutva’, de-learn yourself about the contemporary meaning of Hindutva and re-learn coined word ‘Hindutva’which was actually song of creation in existence mentioned in Naasdiya Sukta, Rugveda which says, ‘before this nature came in to existence there was non-existence of earth, water, air, mortality or immortality and so on….’ After song of creation India’s eternal dharma came in to existence. We use term ‘Hindutva’ for that existence.

 

Yoni and Linga. Shakti and Shiva temple, worshipped by Hindus.

From the beginning Hindutva is one of its kind where the genital organs (linga and yoni) has extraordinary reverence. Linga was known as Shiva’’ and Yoni was known as Shakti’’. The entire creation of Indian culture is about nudity, nakedness, physical relationship between man-woman and any living beings including animals. The same was created by our great artists in all sacred places, temples and in all forms of art, including writings. In India, you can see Ajanta-Ellora, Khajuraho temple, Kamakhya temple and many paintings, sculptures, carvings, sculpture of linga and yoni and various forms of sexual intercourse for pleasure which they believed was a path to attain moksha. So, they worshipped all these forms and creations of art. No other parallel example in human endeavour (some exception of Greek Gods and Goddesses) before Rennaissance in Europe of such openness and genius expression of core fantasies of human life through Gods and Goddeses, temples and sculptures, without any obstacle, taboo and inhibitions. In India, even today after barbaric invasion by Turks, Moghuls and then British those who destroyed ancient Indology. Art and not only art but minds of the people towards openness. Even then the remains of that art can be seen today in some parts of India which were actually taboo and banned material of contemporary political, history since last 1200 years. In 1947, India got independence from British empire but the mindset created by Moghul and British aristocrats and taboos, do’s and don’t’s of Islamic and Victorian culture, becme part of our today’s social, cultural and political life and since independence we became a ‘ban India nation.’ In field of art or any form of art, we were parallel to time and creation of cosmos and its nakedness. Now we are fossils of barbaric slavery of invaders. Such a pathetic fall of artistic freedom of Indology, Hindutva, sanatan dharma and Indic culture and art. In near past when M.F. Hussain, genius artist born in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, India sketched a painting of Goddess Saraswati in nude. The hooligan extremists (I don’t call them hindu as they don’t have a religion) considered it as an attack on ‘Hindu culture’. May Hindu Gods and Goddesses pardon them! Because, in ancient times, semi-nude sculpture of Goddess Sarawati been created by unknown genius Hindu artist and which was priceless, was stolen by Lord Curzon representing British Empire. He took them away to England. There are many such nude gods and goddesses you can find in British museums. Not only Hindu but Jain, Buddhist and from other Indian religions. M.F Hussain was founder member of Bombay Progressive Artist’s Group (i will come on that later on). But Hussain was a Muslim so bunch of extremist hooligans considered it as an act of blasphemy by a Muslim on Hindu religion. These bunch of hooligans never ever tried to understand Hindu ancient paintings, sculpture, philosophy and anatomy behind whole creation. The genius Hussain, pure Indian soul who knows the thread of ancient Indian culture and art. Though he was a Muslim and being a Muslim he had limitations which ultimately became allegations on him by extremist hooligans that “why Hussain is painting ‘our’ goddess in nude form and why does he not show Muslim Gods and goddesses in nude forms?”

Kaamakhya. Yoni puja, the most powerful and sacred shaktipeeth of Hindus. 

Islam is an exceptional religion in history of world which is 1400 years old (actually young). In Islam the Holy Book is so close and faceless that any form of art has no human place or face. Forget about questioning Holy book’ but interpretation, questioning of Holy Book is in-built declared as blasphemy. One’s own reasoning invites death sentence.

This tweet is self-explanatory.

Except Islam, religions all over the world respect nudity and is considered as symbol of divine powers. In post-renaissance, we can find half-nude sculptures of Greek Gods or half-nude or fully nude sculptures and portraits depicting Christianism. In India, places like Khajuraho, Kamakhya Temple and many other temples, genital worship is a part of Indian tradition as written earlier.

  Saraswati mata taken away by lord Karzan to England 

We Indians forget a very important fact. For twelve hundred years, when Indians were slaves of Islam, the Islamic culture stood to lose by 50% in the war, the rest of their defeat is in trying to make them like us, not be like one of them and here with the support of society which was once extremely progressive, extremist hooligans accepted Islamic regressive virtues instead of converting them or teaching them ancient taboo-less, complete openness towards human and dieties existence and creation through sexual pleasure, fantasies and art. This should be considered as deadliest tragic defeat of Hindu culture by extreme fundamentalist Islamic. M.F Hussain is just an example when Indian extremist ask Hussain a likeminded question that why you don’t portray nudity and sexuality of Islamic Gods and Goddesses. They displayed their ignorance and darkness of their minds towards endeavour of art and religion of the world.

In Islam, idol worship is prohibited. Envisioning or giving God a human form is blasphemy. Even painting Prophet Mohammed’s portrait and that of his heirs and worshipping them in any form is forbidden. They are liable to death sentence. A Muslim respects the Prophet but worships only Allah who is abstract (nirgun and niraakaar). The Prophet Muhammed is considered to be the messenger of Allah in Islam and hence liable to highest regard and respect. The status of a woman in Islam is never likened to any goddess. She is not considered to be godly. The Prophet’s wife and daughter are looked upon with respect but they are not given the status of being holy.

 

In Islam, a woman is a man’s property. She enjoys certain rights but within prearranged limits. They make a noise about it as if they have granted their women rights beyond prescribed Human rights. This is completely baseless and untrue. A woman’s role in Islam is to be fully covered in a burkha, wear hijaab and serve her husband or a man/ master in her life. It is next to impossible to sketch a nude or semi-nude image of Gods and goddesses or create a sculpture of the same. Even if an artist tries to depict Islamic God in nude or sculpt him or her in nude, keeping aside the looming death sentence, it can be purely based on imagination and having no ounce of reality to it. There is no historic picture of Muhammed the Prophet himself or sculpture or any form for the purpose of Holy Book. How can one draw his caricature, cartoon or recreate it in any art form? Face of any woman is non-existence like Muhammed himself and they don’t enjoy status of Goddess neither they have any bodily form in history of Islam. How can one draw or create sculpture or create any kind of nudity, caricature of Islamic Gods and Goddesses not in existence? This is a cult which is called fundamentalist Islam. Even if as a rebellion artist you want to do blasphemy in Islam, in reality it is not possible. In imagination, you can draw any person’s body and face, cartoon and caricature of any woman and caption it ‘he/she is Islamic’has no meaning. It is just that you are revolutionary artitistic rebellion attitude against regressive cult.

In Denmark, a 72 year old cartoonist drew a so-called cartoon and caricature of Muhammed Paigamber. That cartoon was not based on original picture as original picture is not available or allowed. In France, Charlie Hebdo’s cartoons were far away from reality but still they had to face death. Here we have to understand one fact; sketching a portrait in nude or cartoon of the Prophet Muhammed has to be based on imagination for in reality the Prophet Muhammed’s picture does not exist. It is forbidden. This is the reason, Islam religion is far far away from Madona, Venus, paintings from Khajuraho, nude statue of Mata (Mother) in Kamakhya temple and have no relation whatsoever with concept of Islam.

Tantrik Yoni Puja. Sacred Hindu cult and art form.

Charlie Hebdo magazine, many a times published nude pictures of Prophet Muhammed. Muslims from all over the world passed a death sentence on them. Editor Stephen Charb of Charlie Hebdo, continued to publish nude pictures of Prophet Muhammed in his magazine, in spite of threats. The Muslim extremists attacked the office of this magazine in Paris and killed many people working there including the editor Charb. (The writer of this article) has himself posted those controversial cartoons from Charlie Hebdo on his twitter’s timeline as homage to the people killed in the attack on the magazine. Readers can go back on the author’s timeline and check.

Maqbul Fida Hussain. A genius artist, from Pandharpur, Maharashtra, India.  

In Islam, rebel is possible through words. Death sentence and blasphemy will be the outcome. So Salman Rushdie in ‘Satanic Verses’and Tasleema Nasreen through many books did that.

Holiness of nudity amongst Hindu Naga sadhus and Jain Digambar Sadhus. 

Salman Rushdie the author of ‘Satanic Verses’was many years ago passed a death sentence as the writings in the book are considered to be an insult to Quraan and Mohammed.

Jain Tirthankar: Bhagwan Mahavir (right), and Rushabh Dev (left). 11C. AD. Original Indian sculpture, taken away to London museum. (Currently at London Museum)  

Tasleema Nasreen through her writings time and again has portrayed woman’s status in Islam and Quraan and their horrific exploitation. Islam considers talking about genital organs as impure and hence no mention is found about it in writings. Tasleema Nasreen openly wrote about it and hence had to leave her country. Islam is religion where ‘Sexomania’ and ‘repression of sex’ co-exists. In fact they are interdependent. Curiosity and Intrigue attracts humans. In case of art, you cannot keep it under wraps and let it grow.
Pictures of God and goddesses, their incarnations belonging to that particular sect, the creation of their sculptures are a continous process that originates within every religion and culture. From Michael Angelo, Leonardo Da Vinci to M.F. Hussain, every artist has created images and sculptures of Gods and Goddesses as they have envisioned them to be. When you create image of God’s incarnation in human form, may it be a painting or a sculpture, its anatomy is very important. This anatomy has to be learned as intricately as possible just like a doctor does, an artist and a sculptor. The thought of moral and immoral does not touch an artists mind. It’s always amoral. If it does then that artist; a painter, writer, sculptor is absolutely mediocore and far away from song of eternal creation which is now a part of Indian society.

Shiva Shakti, Stone carved Hindu sculpture. Ref: Linga Icons in early Indian arts.

M.F Hussain has created beautiful paintings of Lord Ganesh. He had an accurate knowledge of Indian tradition, culture and that of the Gods and Goddesses worshipped in ancient temples. These sculptures are carved in stone and are in nude form. In India, a goddess is given the stature of mother earth. There is no question of nudity between mother and son. And if it does then we can say that the person is full of lust and not an artist. Reactionary groups are always full of lust and are sex maniacs so they object eternal truth of nudity in art which is very much non-Indian and non-hindu. Here again I want to mention I am using ‘Hindu’in its original ancient form and not in today’s terminilogy. Whenever a God or Goddess is bathed early morning, their statues are in nude and then they are dressed. The priest scrubs the statue with his bare hands using ghee, milk, perfume, water and curd, before dressing them up. Exception can be made in case of those sculptures or paintings crafted by the sculptor or artist in ancient period and dressed in clothes while the creative process was going on. But for him to do so, before he could dress up his creation, the artist or the sculptor has to imagine them in nude form before getting the anatomy perfect. An artist is never moral or immoral. He is always amoral. An artist is not a priest. M.F Hussain sketched a nude portrait of Devi Saraswati. It is stupidity to challenge him to do the same for Islam. As mentioned above, Muslim religion has nothing to do with human artistic forms and thoughts. Their sculptures take form in buildings and concrete, palaces and their Kings and his slave Queens. This kind of art has no human face or value. It is kind of artistic redundance.

 

When India was ruled by Victorian cultural thought in British era (British Raj), Raja Ravi Verma, an artist started the tradition of painting images of Hindu deities to be used in calendars and in primitive press and trading in them. Raja Ravi Verma was a great artist but according to the principles of art, he was synthetic and regressive. He used Hindu deities as models in human form, dressed them up and made them populists. The pictures of deities in printed form reached every Hindu household. This gave a wrong precedence to the fact that it was obligatory for an artist to dress up the deities.

 

In reality, the society where Gods and Goddesses’s sculptures and paintings have an uncommon, godly, sexually creative invention is depicted; modern times have slowly given rise to dark times .Kamakhya Devi is considered to be Hindu’s biggest power centre. In Kamakhya temple, vagina (yoni) worship of the goddess is considered to be pure and pious and the blood flowing from it is divine. Penis (linga) worship is a tradition in Shiva temple and an integral part of Hindu culture. Fear of nudity and sect was never a part of Hindu religion. These Hindu liberal principles are in disagreement to Islam. The Hindu extremists have taken Hindu’s victory and Islam’s defeat so seriously that instead of merging Hindu’s open-minded culture and amoral approach into Islam’s regressive cultisim, the Hindu extremists decided to behave in more extreme manner. With this silly thought, the Hindu Extremists started dressing up our amoral Godly art form in clothes and blankets which were originally nude and a wonderful creation. Nowadays, the sculptor while creating a God’s statue makes provision for their clothes. The artists are in the same predicament. In their mind, the line between nudity and lust is vague, nudity scares them.We consider Goddess to be mother earth, our power centre. We share a mother-child relation with her. This has been taught to us as a part of our culture. When a mother sees her child in nude and vice-versa, it is the birth of mother and child. The power-centre of Kamakhya Goddess is her vagina (yoni) and when we do tilak of the blood that flows out through it and that moment is a most divine moment of our culture and it flows since more than five thousand years. Linga and yoni is a symbol of Shiv and Shakti for Hindu culture. Not only that but it is considered as a beginning and core of every creation. So sexual intercourse or any kind of amoral sexual act is considered as a symbol of eternal creation and fertility. Happines, ecstacy and pleasure through sex and sexual fantasy is a part of Hindu art nand culture. Take example of Ajanta-Ellora, Khajuraho temples or Kamashastra of Vaatsaayana or Geetgovind by Jaidev. Advaita (Oneness) of sexual act, fantasies and creative ecstacies and bhakti (worship) is inseperable. Hindu art does not believe in dvaita (divisive) philosophy because art is a cosmic form of existence, creation and fertility which cannot be seperable from worship. Worshipping organs which give us pleasure and fertility (yoni and linga) and intercourse between the two is a ternal philosophy of advaita and shiv-shakti sangam.

 

 

M.F Hussain sketched a nude painting of Goddess Saraswati. It was highly artistic and pure and pious. On the contrary is the image of Bharatmata under the influence of Victorian era that we see from the artistic point of view is draped in a sari and looks like a married Indian woman with vermilon on her forehead and waist length hair flowing freely on her back. The image that comes across on seeing her is not that of an integrated India and neither does she appears to be someone’s mother. This sari-clad Bharatmata is artistically synthetic, meaningless and in a very inferior impression of an art form. The sketch of Bharatmata can be much better and magnamious if we had followed the principles of genius artists who had showed us the path 5000 years back which was eternal and cosmic. Today’s image of Bharatmata is just that of a lady next-door. Now if some extremist or a psychopath threatens you with a knife, forcing you to acknowledge her as Bharatmata, in spite of this it will still remain very ordinary art form in the context of ancient or post-modernism.

After a thousand years of Islam’s rule, we were unable to make them like us, instead we became like them. This is real cultural bankruptcy and question is where will we hide this bankruptcy?

Nudity is not something to be forsaken in our religion and strictly not in modern religion. Islam and Victorian era followed the tradition of keeping nudity under wraps.Religion means nature and nature is amoral. What’s the relation between clothes and immorality? To cite an example, people in hot climatic conditions and those at equator dress up in minimum clothing and those staying in artic weather wear more clothes and cover themselves with warm paraphernalia. Does it mean people wearing more clothes are moral? If clothes decided the moral standings, then people who dress in heavy clothes should be considered more moral.  We fear most the thing that we hide and that fear is in our mind. Islam religion is based on fear. Some of the Abrahamnic religions are too based on fear. But religions born in India are not based on fear. Digambar sect is in Jain. Should we call that sect vulgar? Not only this, the god’s and goddesses in many temples, Stupa’s and sculptures are nude and are carved by artists from ancient era. Then extremists like today did not exist then, hence they could present their art in complete form. God and their incarnations are a part of godliness, not God. God does not take birth and neither does he die. We accept the incarnation in which the godly essence is more. It’s a matter of degree. We all are incarnations. Some are with more essence and some with less. Many sadhus and sadhvis or tantriks or the Naaga sadhus are naked. They are miles away from being vulgar. “M.F Hussain is Muslim hence he deliberately insulted Hindu Gods and Goddesses. Will he do it with Islam?” To raise these questions is not a sign of intellectuals. Only idiots and mediocore can ask such questions.

Islam is not a religion. It is a political cult means it’s a way of life whose religion is second prirority. Journey of human existence begins with exploration in which there is art, music, science. Following is how it appears:

1. Knowingness
2. Incarnation/Prophet
3. Religion (Way of existence of life)
4. Religious organisation (e.g Vatican, Shankaracharya peeth, Vakf board, Khilafat etc…)
5. Political parties who function in the name of religious organisations (No explanations needed).
6. Gangs of criminal hooligans operate in the name of various religions. (Hindus, Christianity, Jain, etc…)

This is how it appears in numerological order.

 

A true artist is involved at different levels in knowingness of existence, (so called) prophets and religion. But he has nothing to do with what the religious organisations (e.g. Shankaracharya Peeth, Khilafat, Vatican, Vakf Board etc) has to say. If he concerns himself with these religious organisations then he will not be able to function. There is a lower rung of political/non-political structures who are active in name of religious organisations worldwide. A true artist will never be able to give them a proper explanation (and he shouldn’t bother to) because an artist and these structures operate on different level and different languages. On basis of might of majority, an artist can be defeated and be listless. But his expression is nature and so is immortal. Those who defeat him on the basis of might are synthetic, fake, sex maniacs and hypocrites. If you read this carefully, you will understand what M.F Hussain, Stefane Charb, Salman Rushdie and Tasleema Nasrin went through.

 

Artistic creation of Gods and Goddesses and their sculptures belonging to every culture around the world (ancient Indian culture is a pioneer) are not only nude forms but are portrayed as copulating, leave aside certain religions. In spite of these paintings and sculptures existing in various copulation poses, we worship them.

 

 

The main reason behind this is, on the scale of natural viewpoint and knowledge, copulation is considered to be the first and the last point of creation. An artist is blessed with this pious ability to re-create copulation in different forms. Those who do not understand this are waiting everywhere and under garbs of religion to kill that artist.

 

They are not opposing copulation or nudity but murdering creation, constitution and knowledge. And when there are governments supporting this act in existence in various countries, that country, state and culture starts decaying.

 

Morality has got nothing to do with constitution, creation and knowledge. Knowledge, constitution and nature are amoral. Morality is a law. There are lakhs of moral laws contradicting nudity and copulation. In fact it is applicable to every matter.

 

(We can take example of the case where Sanjay Dutt was sentenced to five years of imprisonment as per the law in existence through 19^th century British Draconian age, for keeping guns with him. In America it is not a crime to own a gun. He finished his sentence as per the laws in India and now he is refused entry in to America. How a thought behind punishment changes and its repercussions in long run is what I wanted to present to you through this example)

 

Various artists and sculptors from all over the world have experimented in nudity as an art form. India was at the forefront. Temples like Khajuraho, sculptures from Ajanta-Ellora depict Indian culture. If we prevent artists in name of religion from sketching nude pictures of Gods and Goddesses and copulating sculptures then we will be forced to deny our artistic heritage and culture of sculptures which are more than five thousand years old.

 

Nowhere an artist has been abandoned by any religion like Jainism, Buddhism or Hindu religion on the basis of moral laws for creating nude paintings or copulating sculptures. While doing this the higher priests from ancient times had knowledge and godly wisdom and they had foreseen it as a creation. Morality is like a law. Law changes with boundaries and generations! Not only with the boundaries in country but the state too!

 

Take example of India here. Beef is banned in Maharashtra but not in Kerala. Alcohol is banned in Gujarat but not in Maharashtra. Does that mean it is a crime to drink in Gujarat or crime to eat beef in Maharashtra but not in the adjoining state? In India, it is a crime to keep weapons but that is not a crime in America. Various tribes have tradition of polygamu either ways. Even in India, monogamy is a law post-British Raj. These are some of the traditions followed in various part of India, by different nomadic tribes and they are in existence in modern world too.

 

In India during the Victorian rule, when Queen Victoria ruled over most parts of the world, then ‘Code of Conduct’ by the name of ‘Victorian Mannerism’s’ was born. The code was considered to be aristocratically cultural in nature. It consisted of lesson in conduct, way of conversing, eating etiquetts, importance of being fully clothed or wearing clothes that would cover every part of the body and eating with knife and spoon.

 

We can see a glimpse of these Victorian mannerism’s in James Cameroon’s ‘Titanic’. In one of the scenes in Titanic pseudo aristocrat referred to the great artist Picasso, passé   or below average. The atmosphere created of ‘Victorian elite’ in first class had an ever lasting negative impression on the minds of Indian people who were slaves of British then. With the end of British Empire and rise of American dream, Europe, Britain, America came out of it and new era of post-modernism began. They got rid of false moral pretenses for the sake of art and culture.

 

In Victorian era, Alan Turing the founder of computer and the person who decoded encrypted messages from Nazis was a homosexual. Homosexuality was considered to be a crime. He was given two options; either serve imprisonment or undergo ‘hormonal therapy’ for chemical castration. He chose the later. Alan committed suicide. Homosexuality was not a disease in reality. (For homosexuality, genius writer Oscar Wilde faced six years imprisonment). Alan Turing came to be known as father of computer. His findings helped England win the war against Hitler, two years early then estimated and he saved atleast 14 million lives. Posthomously, the Queen of England granted pardon to Alan Turing. What a generous act!!

Contradictory to this, ancient India did not consider Homosexuality as a disease. Modern spiritual guru, Shri. Shri. Ravi Shankar has posted a tweet dated 11^th December 2013, at 10:07 p.m, that in ancient Hindu philosophy homosexuality was not considered as a crime. In fact Lord Ayappa is a creation of Har-Hara’s (symbolic) homosexuality.

 

In India, the Victorian mindset was deep rooted and soon we became its slave. Indian literature (e.g. Geetgovind), Indian ancient art, history, sculptures, caves with carvings in rocks, ornamental writings from Kalidas to Geet Govind, Kaamshastra by Vaatsaayan was all embraced by westerners and majority of Hindus from independent India started struggling to become Victorian in art.

 

India’s mindset soon changed to that of behaviour of a slave of a Victorian elitist aristocrat which continues till this date. Once upon a time, knowledge and creation, art and ideas were above religion, religious organisation and organisations, formed in name of religion. In post-independence era, Hindus with slavery mindset, Muslims, Sikhs, Jain etc extremists, raised art downside-up. They completely messed up.

To re-establish artist’s ancient eternal and immortal freedom, a few a few artists, before India became independent, came together and formed ‘Bombay Progressive Artist’s Group’. The group comprised of M.F Hussain, F.N Sooza, S.H Raza, K.H Aara and H.A Gade. There was a lone sculptor in this group, S.K Bakre.

 

Soon Manish Dey, Akbar Padamsee and Tayyab Mehta became members of this group. In 1950, Vasudev Gaitonde, Krishen Khanna and Mohan Samant (who later settled in America) too joined. This group was not limited to paintings alone but sculpture and the overall thought process of art regarding India’s thousands of years of slavery to Moghuls, 150 years of slavery to British, partition of India and mass-slaughter and rapes followed by barbaric killings of innocent lives in 1947 and in this backdrop, a political, social and cultural rebellious act was taking place in art and philosophy. The description of philosophy of this society is:

 

“Paint with absolute freedom for content and technique, almost anarchic, save that we are governed by one or two sound elemental and eternal laws, of asthetic order, plastic coordination and colour composition”

 

The group disintegrated in 1956 but the revolution that connected India’s artistic, classic roots to Indian world of art (writings, paintings, sculptures or a simple article) went down in history as striving to free Indian art from slavery. No religion, no religious organisation, no extremists belonging to religious organisation, government/governments or modern thinker of slavery groups will not interfere in the freedom of artists because this freedom is eternal and cosmic. This revolution was responsible in rebuilding the bridge to roots that had cut off from Indian art for the past one thousand two hundred years.

Souza who belonged to this group, sketched nude paintings in various forms. By birth he was a catholic. Artists all over the world started spreading godly nudity and copulating art and sculptures which basically originated from Indian culture. Raja Raviverma dressed up the nude images and sculptures of Gods and Goddesses, under the garb of slavery and presented them on calendars.

Raja RaviVerma and Dinanath Dalal (both were great and reknowed artists) printed Gods and Goddesses on calendar and on pre-digital era press and we started worshipping them. This marked the highest low of our immortal, eternal tradition and artistic culture. In fact, much before Raja RaviVerma and Dinanath Dalal, in ancient times, it was a tradition to dress the sculptures in clothes made out of rock but that was in very few in numbers and exception.

Khilafat, Vakf board, Shankaracharya Peeth, Vatican and other religious organisations had no right whatsoever to interfere in art and this has been told again and again by modern artistic culture. The birth place of this modern culture after the renaissance period was Europe, unfortunately not Inda.

In reality, thousands of years ago this happened in India. As mentioned earlier, Islam does not believe worshipping God or Goddess in human or idol form. Then how can one show their God/Goddess in nude or in destroyed form. A true Muslim prays to Allah not to the Prophet Muhammed. That’s the reason Prophet Muslim’s picture is not available in Muslim religion and neither the idea of God to be worshipped exists. The cartoon of Prophet Muhammed that was created in western countries in Denmark and printed in Charlie-Hebdo magazine is an idea belonging to cartoonists and it has no relation with actual the Prophet Muhammed. The violence generated out of it belonged to religious organisations in the name of Islam to spread violence and push its agenda ahead so as to create terror in peoples mind. Culture or religion has nothing to do with it.

That’s the reason, in Muslim culture, paintings and sculptures, Mosque and Minaar, palace and buildings aatained great development. But it had no human face. Islam is one such exceptional example, where a woman has no face, Gods have no face, Prophet has no face and the God whom you are worshipping is completely formless and beyond attributes. So it’s a problem that any artist faces when he wants to sketch heavenly nudity or heavenly copulation with Islam’s historical religion as its base.

The result being, healthy depiction of this kind of nudity or copulation through paintings and sculptures does not exist in Muslim society and hence we see lack of healthy, spiritual effect on the entire Muslim community’s mindset. It has been imprinted on their mind the benefits of sex the men will be granted, after offering prayers to their religious teachers and Mullah-Maulvi’s. It is not restricted in material world where he is alive but also after his death.

The Muslim mindset revolves around solution and remedy about how many women they can consummate, the number of sex slaves and the acquisition of 72 Huras after death which is extremely regressive for women as a religion and culture. One may accept or not. This is the truth. This means, nudity, copulating sculptures, nude paintings, description of sex between Gods and Goddesses and it’s classic expression, if all this does not come from a certain religion then desires instead of fading, rise in full force and then suddenly all teachings revolve around ‘sex’ (even if its not expected to be existent in original religion) and not spirituality. Islam is a perfect example.

It means ban on expression of nudity and desires and copulation, cannot set a person free. Instead of turning into positively amorous it awakens wrong desires and it is clear with this example. Many Islamic jihaadis promise recruits of Jihaad, that after their jihad they will acquire 72 virgin huras for consummation. On this false belief many young boys become suicide bombers. This example is much more telling.

When M.F Hussain was questioned by Hindu extremists if he will sketch nude images of Muslim God like he did of Hindu deity, what answer were they expecting from him? A genius artist, thinker, writer and scientist should keep mute when faced with harassment and continue doing their work, not reacting at all to the questions raised by ignorant extremists and bunch of hooligans. This is the sign of genius. M.F Hussain did just that.

Here, I would like to write about Goddess Saraswati. As per the Hindu Puran (mythology- Hindu matsya-puraan) Saraswati was Brahma’s daughter. After she was born, in her youth, Brahma was attracted towards her and married her. As a punishment (incest- to marry or maintain sexual relations with a family member) for this crime, Lord Shiva beheaded one of Brahma’s head.

If Hussain had painted this part from mythology, I wonder what repercussions he would have to face. Only Brahma knows! There existed Goddess Saraswati’s half-naked or fully-naked sculptures in Indian culture which the extremists are not aware of. Some of which Lord Curzon carried away to Britain.

Not only India but in pre-Renaissance period, in Europe and western countries, a stupid idea was germinating regarding immorality, spirituality, art and science. It was called ‘Dark Age’ in Europe. Post- Renaissance, Europe and many countries from western world were free from these stupid concepts.

But ‘Neo- Hindutva’ based organisations in India kept themselves away and violently criticised artistic thinkers, genius art philosophers, people with high quality capabilities and exceptional intelligence who were never touched upon during Moghul invasion the custom of keeping a women fully covered (which continued in Victorian era) was something moral and pious. These thoughts took roots and spread for which artists, talented and scientists had to pay a heavy price and women are worst victims of this rotten mindset.

Today we worship Gods and Goddesses; Bhavani Mata, Ambaa Mata, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. The statues of these deities have been made in nude forms in ancient times. According to ancient Hindu religion, these Gods and Goddesses are considered to be cosmic mother and cosmic father. Nudity is not related to amorous desires in a relationship, between mother and child, father and child. This is a religious sign and today’s religious organisations are working against this principle. No religion is barred.

In Mahabharat there goes a story about mother and a child who uses clothes as his pride and is a mark of his ignorance. Gandhari wowed to remain blindfold throughout her life for her blind husband. She conserved the light energy in her eyes. Before the Mahabharat war, she thought of creating protective armour around her son Duryodhan and hence asked him to shed off all his clothes. But Duryodhan thought like todays religious extremists and stripped except for clothes that would cover his genital organ and thighs. When Gandhari opened her eyes and bathed his body in her energy source from her eyes, she was aghast to know what Duryodhan had done. The energy created protective armour around Duryodhan’s body except for the genitals and thighs and this happened because of the clothes he was wearing of pride and ignorance. They did not receive protection from Gandhari’s light energy from her eyes. ‘Nude means completely nude, hadn’t I told you?’ Gandhari had remarked.

At the end of Mahabharat, Bheem smashed Duryodhan’s thighs with his mace and that was the end of Duryodhan. Nudity is the last step of creation and Copulation is the last step of awakening. That’s the reason calssic weapons and calssic art are never moral or immoral. They are amoral. If you try to teach a doctor or an artist the morality of a clothed body and terrorise him or her, then the person, society, country and entire human existence, health and civilisation will be destroyed from roots.

The repercussions on society at large are serious and negative in nature. Society and society’s mindset does not remain healthy. One can find simplicity and ease in nudity of trees, birds and animals and very rare nomadic tribes. The mind is healed of amorous thoughts and violence does not happen. In these nomadic tribes there are no cases of rape. Contradictory to this, rapes happen in cities, in families. A woman is tortured and at times raped by her own family member and we hear it in newspapers. What happens in houses happen in society! Where this is originating from is the question we need to ask ourselves. Instead we talk about making stricter laws.

No matter how strict we make our laws, rape and torture continues to happen as per the statistics. The reason being, the elite awakening in artists and intellectuals is bound in egotistical chains by religious groups. Even if it is not favourable to political structures, we cannot overlook the truth that classic science, classic art and lastly and in real sense classic spiritualism (not gurus or godmens) and calssic knowledge cannot be created.

In Upanishad’s there exists a beautiful fable. Knowledge is like fire and it burns the dry grass of ignorance and self-destructs thereafter. This is the reason ignorance ends and with it knowledge too and hence the pride in such classic knowingness ends with it. This is the moral of the fable.

The land where Upanishads are born, on that land we have let the grass of ignorance grow and this is not only dangerous culturally and socially but can be suffocating personally and politically.

The unfortunate incident that happened with M.F. Hussain’s painting happened with Salman Rushdie’s or Taslima Nasreen’s books and here government was involved. It is not the Government belonging to any one political party but the Government coming in to power. What an author should write, what an artist should paint, how a writer and an artist uses religion, everything was decided by the government. Even if you are with the truth, majority of people will decide whether to go with it or against it. Mostly they go against it. Government will decide what to film and what to write.

Political groups, may it be Muslim, Hindu, Christian or belonging to some other religion have their sentiments hurt at times because of plays, paintings, books, drinks, food, goals or due to slogans. A precedence has been set on putting such types of bans on overall freedom of artist, thinker, intellectual thereby torturing him, is an age old practice of communists, radical Islamists and authoritarian dictator. Their propaganda machinery of government pose that they are pro-people. They say they are doing it for people. Indian constitution has granted freedom to its every citizen. An Indian citizen is free to act according to rational thought stated in the Constitution or its existence falls under eternal classic group. To hurt someones sentiments is a fantasy.

Anything can hurt ones sentiments. When BJP came to power, a ban was declared on a play because it hurt Christian religions sentiments. Sometimes back when Congress was in power a play called ‘Sixth Wound of Christ’ was banned because Christian’s, religious sentiments were hurt! So no party is exception to this intellectual bankruptcy. At the same time, Nitish Kumar brought a ban on alcohol in Bihar. In Maharashtra, Beef was banned. Vijay Tendulkar’s plays, ‘Sakharam Bainder’ to ‘Ghashiram Kotwal’ had to face ochlocracy or mob fury. Whereas India is largest beef exporter! M.F Hussain is known as Picasso of modern India but he too faced same fate as Vijay Tendulkar, Taslema Nasreen, Salman Rushdie and many others like them.

In our country number of people dying drinking Baygon is more than dying after consuming alcohol. Baygon is yet to be banned! Farmers commit suicide by hanging themselves but noose is yet to be banned!

An art student during anatomy lecture in Art College, sketches from live, nude models of men and women. It is his/her subject, a part of his curriculum. It is natural for men and women to pose in buff for anatomy class conducted in an Art college wherein it helps the students to learn human anatomy. The same goes for medical students who learn anatomy with the help of bodies of nude men and women.

This doesn’t mean there is an increased level of lust or desire in the minds of the students or models and no factual evidence is available that either they have turned into sex maniacs. On the contrary, if they don’t do it, our society will be devoid of good doctors and artists. No religious organisation demands these young, to-be doctors, to-be artists, ‘if they have the courage to ask their mother or sister to pose in nude or conduct experiments on them’! Which they do everyday with genius writers, painters, artists, thinkers, philosophers and commoners.

The reason I am stating these contradictory thoughts is, moral policing is a mark of extremely regressive society. When our country embraced 19^th century, imperialistic Draconian British laws Indian Penal Code (IPC), moral policing got a strong backing from government. Imperialistic British left Indian slaves and their own country the made new laws for their country. But since independence in 1947, the real Indian government came to power and then began bans, moral policing, humiliation of artists and intellectuals and the arrests have not only increased but have gone up. It is gathering momentum and support in every state.

It doesn’t matter which political party it is! For the sake of votes, the leaders have their own ideas, they do not bother to go deep into the questions and come up with loose and wayward solutions. Also we see lot of caste and religion based groups indulging in ochlocracy or mob rule, 19^th century British laws; all this together have killed classic and the genuius, eternal and the immortal. India has changed into a country of slaves with the support of political parties and Draconian British laws.

For a moment imagine, today some Vatsayan will write Kamasutra, thousands of artists will come together and erect ndue sculptures like Khajuraho, people will eat what they want and drink whenever they like and all this will happen with government’s royal approval (doesn’t matter which government is in power). Can this really happen, is a question we should ask ourselves. A democracy can never tolerate repression. There is a reason for that. Repression of any kind makes a rebel out of a person. Even today, we have people who confidently say they can ‘cure homosexuality’! They are respected in society! What a shame!!

How is it possible for such a regressive thinking country and society to go back into golder era? Or become modern or world power? Does this kind of thinking empower our wings or make wings of fire?

M.F Hussain left India in his last days of life. I got to know a new angle to his leaving India. He was exhausted after being made to face ochlocracy by extremist groups and bunch of hooligans. But that is not the reason he left India. According to him, India is a country of tax terrorism. India’s tax structure is very complex and only babus know how to manipulate not artists or writer. Income tax officers investigated Hussain again and again to know the fluctuation of the price of his paintings. They demanded to know why paintings of same size are priced differently. As an artist he could not answer their questions with logic and that made him a criminal, more or less in their eyes. The vicious circle of torture continued. Unhappy and exhausted with this torturous treatment of tax terrorism, M.F Hussain decided to relocate to Qatar on their invitation and took refuge there.

Born in Pandharpur, Hussain once painted posters for cinema and earned his living. He reached sky from scratches. This great artist on the basis of money he earned from his paintings bought a Lamborgini from Dubai, after he went to Qatar by making a single payment. This would have not been possible in India. After his death, he was cremated in (multi-cultural, multi-religious) London.

On many levels, we see ochlocracy, bunch of hooligans and government function hand-in-hand with the help of religious groups and caste, acting against extraordinary talented, artists, writers and thinkers. This is an on-going process till date that began in the post-independence era (since 15^th August, 1947). Sadly, we don’t see any political organisation, group, person or intellectual leader coming forward and raise fight against this satanic power-centres.

We are sitting on a volcano. This suffocation comes with grave consequences and one day will take Indian society down with it. A hypocrite gets oxygen cylinder and the truth, gas chamber and then arises the need to write like acid that directly melt one’s bones. This article is that drop of acid. This drop will create a wound which will be similar to the wound on Ashwathama’s forehead and it will never heal. Now there is no time left to ask for oil to be rubbed on that wound!!

I maybe a dreamer but one day you will join me and again we will stand upside-downwhere genius’s head will be up and bunch of hooligans legs will shake in front of him.

Just imagine!!

-Raju Parulekar
(Photographs 7th & 12th Courtesy & Thanks-Dr.Subodh Naik)
rajuparulekar1@gmail.com

www.rajuparulekar.us