At the recently held The Arts Hour programme, renowned panelists discussed how tolerant the Indian culture is of new ideas. By Arjita Mishra
Indian culture is the fusion of several languages, traditions, architecture, music and religion. It is one of the oldest cultures. It is always said that the Indian culture is being dominated by western culture in many ways. The younger generation is adapting western culture more than ever and in midst of all this, we are losing our cultural inheritance and values.
There are several films which have been banned over their content in India. Similarly, several artistes are not allowed to exhibit their artworks as, according to some, may pose a threat to the culture and hurt the sentiments. Works of several writers and even academic books like AK Ramanujan’s Three Hundred Ramayanas, et al. have also been purged since they may offend people from a particular community. “Indian artistic culture has not got the liberty to explore,” said Nikki Bedi, British television and radio presenter.
BBC World Service along with the British Council tried to explore how tolerant India is about new ideas. The programme was hosted by Nikki Bedi and the panelists were, Sonia Khurana, a visual media artist, Rajeev lochan, director of National Gallery of Modern Art, Swapan Dasgupta, columnist and writer, writer Raghu Karnad and actor Shilpi Marwah.
The recent issue over appointment of Gajendra Chauhan as FTII (Film and Television Institute of India) society president was also taken up. The FTII students went on hunger strike in Pune to protest his appointment. According to Raghu Karnad, “The stand which the students are taking is extremely important for the institute.”
Bedi also spoke on film censorship and banning while referring to the controversy over Pk. A case was registered against the producer, director and actors for the content shown in the film which were alleged to offend religious feelings and promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion, race, place of birth and language. It questioned the existence of God and the credibility of Godmen.
When we talk about the ancient sculptures in India, the ones at the Khajuraho Group of Monuments are the oldest ones. According to artist Sonia Khurana, “In India, the naked body is seen in a sexual and derogatory terms, unless the person is a saint. Anything which is sacred is still acceptable.” Khurana had made an art piece called Bird a decade ago which depicts a naked woman trying to fly. In her work, she explores how far women can
take off.
MF Hussain, too, was embroiled in controversies for his nude portraits of Hindu goddesses Durga and Saraswati. The renowned artist was charged for hurting the sentiments of the Hindu community. So humiliated he was that he left the country and settled abroad.
“We will cleanse every area of public discourse that has been westernised and where Indian culture and civilisation needs to be restored, be it history we read, our cultural heritage or our institutions that have been polluted over years,” Bedi read out this statement by Mahesh Sharma, Union Culture Minister.
Replying to the statement Dasgupta said, “I don’t find the particular statement offensive. Westernisation includes pornography and sexual depravity. That is a very caricatured version of the west. That is what West is because a lot of Bollywood films have portrayed it as West.”