Open letter to MF Hussain

You must be feeling bad because you are out of India for a long time. India is as much your motherland as much she is mine. Therefore, you have equal right to represent it, talk and write about it, paint about it, and respect it.

But to be honest, I am not happy with the way you have painted some of your paintings. Please understand that I am not attempting to dictate you what to paint and what not to, I am just telling you how I feel when you paint about a particular set the Hindu Gods. For example, your paintings include these:

Goddess Durga in sexual union with Tiger

Goddess Lakshmi naked on Shree Ganesh’s head

Naked Saraswati

Naked Shri Parvati

Naked Draupadi.

Naked Lord Hanuman and Goddess Sita sitting on thigh of Ravana

Full Clad Muslim King and naked Hindu Brahmin.

These pictures are available at this website: [Link]. They have got these pictures from a book by Daniel Alan Herwitz and published by California State University. Now this is bad; this was between you Vs Hindus and you involved those Americans also? I have noted that on many of your nude pictures of Hindu Goddesses, you have written 'Durga', 'Saraswati', i.e. the names of the respective Gods. I wonder, have you done this keeping in mind the real purchasers of these paintings? An English diplomat who will purchase your painting and pay in Euros, will definitely like the name of the Goddess there on the painting, so that he can target collecting the whole set of Hindu Goddesses in his drawing room! Do you feel happy about it?

You have recently been selected for Raja Ravi Varma Award by the Kerala government [Link]. There is a protest letter on this website also, which the public can send to CM, and Cultural Minister, Kerala, with CC to Prime Minister of India and the President of India. [Link]. I have sent a protest letter through this website. But a one-to-one letter is always better. Therefore, I am writing to you here.

Shashi Tharoor has called you the Picasso of India [Link]. I am happy that the artists in India are getting their due respect. But why are you outside India? Shashi Tharoor has also lived outside India for a long time. That helps, in losing our roots and thinking ourselves as intellectuals. And why should an intellectual like Mr. Tharoor think like a common man; particularly on this issue?

I would like to tell you about a Muslim guy. On Orkut, there was a forum where people discussed whether you are a human being or an anti-national element. The guy wrote this: "Nude paintings of Gods and respected religious figures will definitely attract criticism from the public. And when a Muslim paints a Hindu God in the nude, it is surely going to hurt a lot of people. Even I, a Muslim, don't support Hussain when he paints Hindu Gods in this way". I thanked that guy from my heart for his honest comments. This spirit of the real Indians makes me proud. And your spirit to paint like this makes me sad. A lot of people have asked you to apologize. You know very well that if you apologize and stop painting Hindu Gods in nude (Is any Hindu God remaining, by the way?), you can return back to India. After all, Indians are so kind hearted. But you may be happy there, as a non resident Indian, and may not want to return back. When you die and meet Allah, you will get to see all the Hindu Gods within the very image of Allah, and they will not look exactly as you have painted them in your paintings; I am sure.