The Blurring of Distinctions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20071060 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Tapati Guha-Thakurta, Tapati Guha–thakurta (corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Pages | 85-114 |
| Publication date | 2021-07-16 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | CHAPTER |
| Venue | Literary Theory and Criticism (SOURCE_BOOK) |
| Publisher | Routledge India (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.4324/9781003213857-5 |
| OpenAlex | W3183678629 |
| ISBN | 9781003213857 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 6 |
This chapter explores a set of contentions and paradoxes that have arisen from the repeated blurring of distinctions between the ‘artistic’ and the ‘religious’ object across different institutional and public sites in contemporary India. In September 1996, a line drawing of the goddess Saraswati by M. F. Husain, one of the artist’s large repertoire of stylized female nudes done in the 1970s became the object of sudden moral outrage among local activists of the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP), a right-wing political group allied to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). M. F. Nudity has been held out as Husain’s cardinal and most pernicious offence. A number of clauses from the Indian Penal Code – relating to the ‘Indecent Representation of Women’, ‘Offences Relating to Religion’ and ‘Offences against Public Tranquillity’ – were invoked to frame the charges
Epistemology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · History · Philosophy · Psychology · South Asian Cinema and Culture · Vietnamese History and Culture Studies
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |