In response to Quirky Indian's blog post (click):
It was nice to revisit this blog post. :)
In nearly half a year, I have been able to think of more number of contentious issues. :)
I'll just enlist them (not that I totally go by them, especially being an atheist, but just wanted to point out that legally/ethically issues are or can be made complicated). ;)
1. How do we draw a line between incidental getting hurt by other people and an intent to hurt? Can someone be punished for holding malicious intent of hurting others physically/emotionally, and acting with that intent? IPC section 44 defines injury thus(click) - "...any harm whatever illegally caused to any person, in body, mind, reputation or property." Does depicting a goddess in nude, which is considered socially/legally unacceptable considering public nudity is punishable today, constitute the artist's saying - "He he, see the goddess you worship is nude. She is a..."? I understand the ambiguity that words like "illegal" in the above definition are attached with, but same is the case with phrasing like "outraging the modesty of a woman" (used in definition of sexual assault), which could include just cracking a "nonveg" joke in presence of a female colleague (not involving the female)! What determines "outraging" is the subjective feeling of the female concerned. I remember, one of the bloggers feeling outraged on a construction worker showing his penis in public. Was her outrage not merely "subjective"? What about the worker's "freedom of expression"? The blogger had the liberty of turn her eyes away, forget the incident and walk away!
In something as simple as a sexual intercourse, consent is never expressed through written contracts. If movies/advertisements are to be believed and common sense applied, a lady's seductive teasing (say, in a pub) may or may not be an invitation to have sex. Whether it is or not, can only be determined with some sort of overture. Here is the problem - can the male be blamed for wrong interpretation, and the consequent overture? Or do we realistically expect males to approach females to have sex only upon receiving a written application on stamp paper from the female? So, if the female "retrospectively" (something we had discussed in your past post) feels that she had not indeed sent any sexual signal, then the male is screwed! He had sexually assaulted her in merely "testing waters"! And of course, issues remain exactly the same even with gender "role-reversal"! Because though a male cannot be legally raped, he can be sexually assaulted. What I am bringing to your notice here, is that in most of the laws, subjectivity of one feeling "hurt" is somehow honored. Honestly, I had developed some sort of respect for Hussain's simplicity seeing his interview on Movers and Shakers, long back. But you could go through this blog post, and his duplicity is revolting: http://arvind-iyer.blogspot.com/2006/02/mf-hussains-masterpieces.html But I understand, my personal disgust does not count. What I want to point out is, considering these arguments, is it possible to file cases against M.F. Hussain? Yes, I believe so. And that is what has happened! Here, I am not saying how law should be, but just pointing out, how it is.
2. How do we punish freedom of speech that directs other grown up adults to kill someone of other religions by making them afraid of the that religion's attempts at domination? Just like how religious people have a right to not get offended, they also have right to think for themselves and a right to maintain peace! In light of this fact, one frightening other grown up persons thus should not be held guilty for anything, because he was just expressing himself, and if any violence ensues, it is only those who physically indulge in it should be punished.
3. The above two points, especially, the first one, were almost merely for argument-sake. But the current point is something I am very serious about. In my opinion, there must be some sort of legal liability for deliberately broadcasting factually wrong information or opinions based on wrong/incomplete facts. This would be best illustrated by Ashley Tellis' case. Because, he was posing as an "expert" on the issue, which can guide other peoples' choices considering they cannot gather sufficient information on a complex subject on their own. If I were to tomorrow write a book, selectively describing the health benefits of smoking, can I be held responsible for damage occurring to people on the basis of their believing me and taking up smoking, despite their right to not believe me? [I am giving example of smoking only because it is well known; you could substitute smoking with any other practice that people do not have sufficient knowledge about in terms of its effects on health].
For instance I found Green Peace's propaganda against Bt-brinjal scientifically totally misguiding, and thus also injurious to the interests of the company that had done the research. If I were to be more resourceful I would have definitely thought of filing a case against them. Should this "freedom of expression" which has power to influence others' choices involving areas of limited public knowledge be with legal liabilities? I believe it should be. But then the next question would be, do legal liabilities that get attached to any kind expression be termed as restriction of that freedom?
Anyway, coming back to Hussain, I'm not sure of how true this is, but I'd read somewhere that on being asked why he had never drawn Prophet Mohammed's pictures himself, Hussain had said something to effect that Islam is not that tolerant a religion! If this is true, then it means that he was at least aware that what he was doing could hurt Hindus, but that he expected them to exercise "tolerance" (tolerance is to be exercised only against something that's potentially hurtful). What does this say about his intent to hurt? Fortunately/unfortunately, in law intent is established not through objective information but circumstantial evidence (like past behavior). Another implication of which is that, thus to establish intent in vast majority of cases is upon the discretion of the judge. Hussain's duplicity and thus the intent to hurt are clearly visible if you take into consideration how he has depicted Hindu deities as against Muslim figures. If it was all about his "subjective" expression of feelings, then it should have been irrespective of how other people (irrespective of their religion) perceive his depictions. Why harbor one "set" of feelings towards Hindu deities, but entirely another "set" of feelings against figures respected in Islam? And am afraid but glad as well, such circumstantial evidence is more often than not employed to establish intent in many cases.
If someone were to point out the engravings on Khajuraho, etc., then it must be remembered that acts done in this century have to be judged on the basis of sensibilities of this century. Example of this would be - sati. It was possibly legal in olden days, but not now! Can we use it as an excuse that our "culture" (just like Khajuraho engravings) had found it legitimate? It is wrong because, in today's world we recognize the equal right of people to life irrespective of their gender and whether their spouse is alive or dead.
What Mutthalik did was wrong because they had taken law in their own hands! People filing cases against Hussain are doing nothing wrong. Let the courts decide whether Hussain ought to be punished or not. It needs to be understood that with celebrityhood comes added responsibility to be less hurting (because, what one expresses reached a wider audience). Also, what is the meaning of "expression"? Is expression to simply draw a painting for (self-pleasure as claimed by "artists") and place it in one's bedroom, or does it necessarily have to culminate in "exhibition"? There is a thin line that separates mere expression from communication, and that line is the effort one takes in making their expression reach others. If I write a blog entry and later delete it, I am still expressing myself. But if I write the entry and send you the link, then I am communicating. What does an artist do when he draws a painting and also sends out invitations where his paintings would be displayed?
Personally, I feel, if it were all merely about artistic expression, then Hussain could have just drawn the same nude ladies, and labeled them 'Rambha' or 'Urvashi' instead of "Saraswati" and "Durga", and hardly any of this ruckus would have got created, and he would still have had the "orgasmic release" of creative expression clearly evading the law! ;) See, how cleverly Rushdie did not name anyone as ******* in his story! ;)
Taslima Nasreen, in contrast, was basing her assertions on something more universal than a religion, i.e., human rights and ethics. I do not see Hindus getting largely offended when pointed out that dowry, female feticide and sati are wrong! So, these double standards set for different religions are to be set right, first. Nasreen chose to wrote the things she did in hope that it would do good to Muslim women, and the society as a whole and also the accepted premise females have same rights as males. So, using the prevalent legal standards, she was doing more "good" than "harm" (offending Muslims). What was the intent of Hussain in drawing the paintings and also displaying them in a exhibitions What "good" did doing so do as compared to the "harm" (offending Hindus)?
I feel religions are given way too much legitimacy over other affairs by the government and the judiciary despite touting India as a secular nation, but the tone was set right with establishment of religions and castes as bases for discriminatory "affirmative action" and other sops like Hajj subsidy. So, now the judiciary and government have not right to say, "hey, religion is a private matter; don't take it seriously". They themselves brought it into public domain by making all non-Muslims contribute to Hajj subsidy, and taking over the functioning of Temple trusts, or whatever other interference they have shown in matters of religion.
But despite my making these arguments, I know I am stating something wrong and contrary to what I want the "ideal" world (as I see it) to be. But I do not think people can be prevented from making complaints in the courts merely on legal/ethical grounds. What we can explain is that we need to be pragmatic, and not react on irrelevant things as far as our survival and personal happiness are concerned. But these things are easier for me to say, because I anyway find religions overrated. I do not know about others, but to me, a person with an intent to hurt others going scotfree is somehow unacceptable. It for me, would rather constitute abuse of freedom of speech, rather than its use.
And lastly, I am not sad at losing a "great" artist. All he was doing was making money, which he would do more avidly so, now that he is in Qatar! ;) His crocodile tears do not mean much to me. A person who is so "free" in his thinking would any way not be attached to frivolous things as invisible lines (international boundaries) drawn on land.
TC.
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