Morality Redefined

Three Paragraphs here are deleted as I am convinced that, India is no more a country assuring the freedom of expression. It’s more like a fascist Germany or Stalin's Russia where you or me have to be really careful when posting something on net even though you feel you are absolutely right.
When did the Indian gods start wearing dress? We have a healthy tradition of nudity, and if all of those Buddha, Jain, and Hindu religious divinities are coming for a get-together, it could easily beat any Australian nude beach in style. And ironically the self-appointed cultural saviors of our times, mainly the Hindu extremist fascists are on prowl, protecting the Indian heritage by destroying the nude paintings and attacking artists. Some of the Art historians blame this redefinition of moral understanding on the celebrated painter Raja Ravi Varma for adorning the nude immortals with luxurious outfits where some others like to believe, it’s the calendar makers of the early 20th century from Sivakasi (A Tamil city well known for its printing industry) directly responsible. And arguably, those popular Indian epic movies, portraying fully covered gods and goddesses in rich costumes would have contributed towards this cultural adulteration. In south India, It was NT Rama Rao, M G Ramachandran, Raj kumar and Prem Nazir who almost substituted the unseen faces of Hindu gods and made use of it to reach the unshakable stardom and some of them, even to the political summits in Andhra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala respectively.

There are no historical traces where any Indian king or administration tried to cover the nudity of the ancient statues or sculptures unlike their Roman counter-parts who used an artistic idea of using fig leaves made out of marble or metal, to cover the shame. Instead we were always proud of our towering sculptures of nude gods, ready to accept the holiest Sanyasis who prefer not to have even a thread on their body when appear in public, but on contrary to this interesting tradition, most of us tend to get mad on innocent cupid struck couples who sit little close to each other in a park. Those who ever went through the great history of India would have an idea of Chanakya's 'Arthasastra', the first ever book on public administration and civil code. It can be seen in the book that 'Ganika vrithi' or commercial sex work was a legal profession in the country then, and there was even a special department on the same straight under the government. He even describes the code to follow and goes even to the length of describing the methods to punish the ganika (the whore), if she denies the service to any customer or if attempts to opt out of the profession. This style of ‘free sex’ might have helped to keep the society in peace with no recorded accounts of juvenile rapes or other brutalities from those days, where it is plenty seen in the sex suppressed modern India. The ancient theoreticians of love making were all Hindu Sanyasis like Vatsayana and Kokkoka.

Let’s hope for a better tomorrow where there won’t be any moral policing by the uneducated, megalomaniac political morons who take the law into their hands causing the arrest of artists (Arrest of Gujarat painter for portraying nude), destruction of museums (Shiv sena’s destruction of Sivaji museum in Pune), and the barbaric streaking protests (VHP’s half naked parades against the theatres where the movie ‘FIRE’ was screened) against the freedom to express, and even torturing young lovers in the park for a mere kiss.(A regular Shivsena drama on every valentine's day).

Let me quote an interesting article on the issue which came recently in an English daily (TOI , 31’st May, 07, P12) by Vinay Bharat-Ram, though I am not sure if it's legal to re-publish it in the whole, so giving the link here.

(jB, 1st June, 2007)


Art Imitates Life
(Hindu India embraced erotica long before M F Husain)
(Vinay Bharat-Ram) find this here....

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Editorial/LEADER_ARTICLE_Art_Imitates_Life/rssarticleshow/2087679.cms