MF HUSSAIN URGED TO WITHDRAW HIS PAINTINGS OF HINDU DEITIES

Kaleem Kawaja, an NRI based in Washington DC, in his statement on May 17, called upon the renowned, self-exiled artist M.F. Hussain to withdraw his controversial paintings of Hindu deities from public view and stop making such paintings in the future.

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June 18, 2022

Kaleem Kawaja, an NRI based in Washington DC, in his statement on May 17, called upon the renowned, self-exiled artist M.F. Hussain to withdraw his controversial paintings of Hindu deities from public view and stop making such paintings in the future.

In the last decade renowned Indian artist Maqbool Fida Hussain became both very famous and very rich.   His remarkably expressive and abstract avant-garde paintings are drawing the attention of many well heeled art collectors and critics in Europe and North America.  His paintings now fetch up to $300,000.

MF Hussain began his career a few decades ago as an impoverished signboard and billboard painter in Mumbai.  But soon his genius as an abstract artist and painter blossomed and he started receiving rave reviews from art critics for his breathtaking canvasses. As a consequence he became quite famous and rich.  In the aftermath of several natural disasters in India, for instance the earthquake in Kashmir, Hussain donated the income from the sale of some of his paintings for the relief of the victims of that disaster.

Consequently Hussain attracted a lot of praise in India for his accomplishments and his philanthropy.  But in the last few years he began a series of paintings that show very scantily dressed female Hindu deities.  In another of his recent paintings ‘Bharat Mata’ he shows Mother India as a nude woman with names of India’s various states and cities inscribed on the bare body.

Kaleem Kawaja believes such paintings hurt the religious sentiments and sensibilities of a wide majority of Hindus and they feel offended.

He said, “Being from India MF Hussain is very familiar with the religious sentiments of Hindus.  Thus it behooves that he be respectful of their sentiments.  Clearly in painting such canvasses Husain is on the wrong track.

“Islam tells Muslims to respect the religious faith of the followers of all other religions. As Muslims we find MF Hussain’s above mentioned risqué paintings offensive. We appeal to him to withdraw such controversial paintings of Hindu deities from public view and stop making such paintings in the future.  In so doing he can earn the goodwill of a large number of his fellow countrymen, something on which we simply cannot put a price tag.”