TRIBUTE TO A SAINT "MF HUSSAIN"

MF Hussain,one of the greatest artists with brush and paint the World have ever produced, is no more.The tribute to him would be "A Saint is no more albeit physically". A Saint! It may sound awkward for some. But what or who is a Saint? Go through any dictionary and the definitions come out would be something like this : A person sanctified; a holy or Godly person; one eminent for piety and virtue; or a person blessed with something Godly. Going by these definitions one can easily say that MF Hussain was indeed a holy or Godly human being. His art, whatever he created, cannot be a work of any other painter. He may be criticized for some of his work in which Hindu and Goddesses are depicted in somewhat "unacceptable" manner.And because of this he was forced to live in exile,far away from the land which he loved like his mother.

Its very easy to bring him under scrutiny by any tom-dick-harry who does not know even the 'P' of painting.  In the 1990s some of MF Hussain's works became controversial because of their portrayal of Hindu deities in the nude or in an allegedly sexual manner.The paintings in question were created in 1970, but did not become an issue until 1996, when they were printed in Vichar Mimansa, a Hindi monthly magazine, which published them in an article headlined "M.F. Husain: A Painter or Butcher". In response, eight criminal complaints were filed against Husain. In 2004,even after the Delhi High Court's dismissal of the complaints Hussain was always under attack by some fanatics. His house was attacked by groups like Bajrang Dal and art works were vandalized.Even Shiv Sena joined hands and supported the attacks.All these anti-sentiments led to Hussain's decision to leave his motherland.

The people or the groups, who protested against him and even threaten him for dire consequences,know only a little of Hussain's paintings. They only know that in some of his paintings the Hindu Gods and Goddesses have been portrayed nude. But they do not know that it is this Hussain who went to Varanasi for 11 years continuously to listen to Balmiki Ramayan Katha, to experience the Charm of the Holy Ganga, to experience the sanctity of being at the shore of the Ganga maiya. He always portrayed his motherland as "Bharat Mata".Then how come he became a symbol of anti-Hinduism. Its wrongful portrayal of a Saint, an extra-ordinary human being who had larger than life aura. He was,in fact is a Saint who had Godly influence in his work. What he did was not a work of a simple painter. He was a class apart and the way he used his brush, only God can do that. He was a messenger of God, a huge portrait in which there was no color of hate in fact he was a Saint and would always be remembered as a Saint-a larger than life portrait.