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Husain to stay away, for now

M.F. Husain

LONDON: Celebrated artist M.F. Husain has no immediate plans to return to India and he will celebrate his 93rd birthday on September 17 in Abu Dhabi with his family, sources close to him told The Hindu on Friday.

They were reacting to reports that the artist intended to end his nearly three-year-long self-imposed exile following this week’s Supreme Court judgment which cleared him of obscenity charges brought by right-wing Hindu groups.

Mr. Husain, on a brief visit to London, was not available for comment but a family member, who did not want to be named, scotched speculation about his imminent return to India.

“Of course he does want to return but he is busy with a number of projects in the Gulf and here in the United Kingdom — and until he finishes these there is no question of his going back,” the source said.

Husain, who has been living mostly in Dubai since 2006 following threats from Hindutva groups that claimed to have been offended by his paintings of nude gods and goddesses, has often said that he misses his country and would like to return at the first opportunity.

But, apparently, he does not think that despite the court verdict it is yet safe to return. His supporters in India have called for security for him arguing that he could still be “hounded” by groups that have previously threatened him with “dire” consequences for allegedly offending Hindu sensitivities.

“Nearly 3,000 cases have been filed against him in recent years — enough to go into the Guinness Book of Records,” a friend of the veteran artist said.

Mr. Husain has welcomed the verdict describing it as a “great gift” and a “victory” for the entire Indian contemporary art movement. “The Supreme Court has shown that it is actually supreme,” he was reported as saying.

In its judgment, the Supreme Court described Mr. Husain’s Bharat Mata painting, which has been at the centre of the controversy, as a “work of art,” and ruled there was nothing obscene about it.

“There are many such paintings and sculptures and some of them are in temples,” the Chief Justice of India, K.G. Balakrishnan had observed.

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