India court orders seizure of ‘offensive’ paintings

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, has ordered the confiscation of two “offensive” photographs of MF Husain, one of India’s most famous artists.

A court on Monday granted police permission to confiscate the paintings after complaints that the paintings, which were displayed at an art gallery and featured two Hindu deities, “hurt religious sentiments”.

Husain, who died in 2011 at the age of 95, was often met with bruises for his paintings of naked Hindu deities.

The Delhi Art Gallery (DAG) which organized the exhibition said it was “not a party to the case and is seeking legal advice”.

The paintings were part of an exhibition called Husain: The Timeless Modernist, showing more than 100 works at DAG from 26 October to 14 December.

The complainant, Amita Sachdeva, a lawyer, said on X that on December 4, he painted the “obscene pictures” which are being shown at the DAG and, after investigating the previous complaints against the late artist, he filed a complaint with the police five days later.

On December 10, Mr. Sachdeva said that he visited the house with the investigator, but found that the paintings had been removed. He said that the management of the building said that they had never shown the paintings.

The BBC has contacted DAG for comment.

The images shared by Ms Sachdeva online show the Hindu gods Ganesha and Hanuman alongside naked women. He also said that the Delhi Police had failed to file a report.

He later pleaded with the court to preserve the CCTV footage from the warehouse during which the footage was shown, according to media reports.

On Monday, a judge at Delhi’s Patiala House Courts said the police had recovered the footage and submitted their report. According to the investigation, the exhibition was held in a private space and was intended to show the original work of the artist, the judge added.

The art gallery said in a statement that it was “assessing the situation” and “trying to follow the developments”.

Maqbool Fida Husain was one of India’s greatest painters and was called the “Picasso of India” but his art often caused controversy in the country. His works have sold for millions of dollars.

His work was marked by controversy when he was accused of blasphemy and ridiculed by hard-line Hindus for a painting of a naked goddess.

In 2006, Husain publicly apologized for his painting, Mother India. It showed a naked woman kneeling down to form the shape of a map of India. He left the country the same year and settled in London where he worked for himself until his death.

In 2008, the Supreme Court of India refused to initiate Husain’s casesaying that his paintings were not obscene and that nudity was common in Indian art and history.

The court rejected an appeal against the high court’s decision that dismissed Husain’s case in the cities of Bhopal, Indore and Rajkot, criticizing the rise of a new “puritanism” in India.

The court also rejected requests that Husain, who was in exile at the time, be summoned and asked to explain his paintings, which were accused of offending religious sentiments and undermining national integrity.

“There are many such pictures and publications. Are you going to prosecute all of them? What about temple architecture? Husain’s work is art. If you don’t want to see it, don’t see it. There are so many such works of art in temples,” the Supreme Court said.

Many believe that there is a growing intolerance towards art in India.

In October the Bombay High Court criticized the customs department for confiscating the works of famous artists FN Souza and Akbar Padamsee on the grounds that they were “obscene.”

The court said that not all nude or pornographic images are considered obscene and ordered the release of the seven images that were confiscated.

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