Syed Haider Raza was conferred with the legion of Honour by the Ambassador of France to India François Richier. Confined to a wheelchair, the 93 -year-old artist still paints for five hours everyday. By Shrabasti Mallik
When Syed Haider Raza picked up the brush for the first time, his canvas largely spoke of abstract figures, both in oil as well as in colour. There were also icons that he painted, heavily inspired from Indian cosmology and philosophy. But in the later part of his life he made the bindu the subject and the sole constant of his paintings. It is through the bindu that Raza not only put India on the global map, like MF Hussian, Tyeb Mehta and Ganesh Pyne, but also brought himself closer to the Indian ideologies. Even at 93 he considers the bindu as the source of his energy.
He was granted a scholarship by the Government of France to study at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSB-A) in Paris. So struck he was with the beauty that he painted several landscapes. Raza continued to live in Paris and held exhibitions there. In 1956, he became
the first non-French artist to receive the prestigious Prix de la critique.
Fifty nine years later, in 2015, he was conferred the highest French civilian honour - the distinction of Commandeur de la légion d'Honneur (the legion of Honour) by the French Ambassador to India, François Richier, on behalf of the President of the French Republic.
The nonagenarian received the honour with humility and as a token of appreciation, presented the embassy with one of his works featuring the bindu with a doha by Kabir. Confined to a wheelchair he said in his weak, feeble voice that he was grateful for the country to consider him worthy of the title, “Khuda meherban rahe hain mujhpe. Main shukr-guzar hoon (God has been kind to me and I am grateful for everything).”
We come to know from the artist that although his body does not permit him to sit for long hours, he still spends five to six hours everyday with his paintbrush. “I feel incomplete if I do not paint. I feel restless,” he said.
Ambassador Richier chose the National Day of France, July 14 to honour Raza. “There could be no better date or time,” he said, “than our National Day, to recognise the works of Raza and the contribution that he has made to the artistic landscape of my country.”
He took the opportunity to release a bilingual edition of Raza’s autobiography Itinary, which was originally published in 2003. The artist wrote the original in French, which has now been translated into English.