epilogue

The question: Name a famous Indian painter, should now get you even fewer answers as Maqbool Fida Husain, popularly known as M.F. Husain, recently accepted the citizenship of Qatar. M.F. Husain’s troubles began in 1996, after a Hindi monthly published an inflammatory article on his paintings of Hindu deities done in the 1970s. There has been an avalanche in the number of legal cases against him ever since. Even exhibitions of his work have been wrongfully vandalized.

Yesterday, the Chief Justice of India, Mr KG Balakrishna suggested that the government should impose a ban on websites that exclusively display pornography. He didn’t stop there, he threw websites that publish hate speeches in the same basket. In India pornography has been illegal for a long time, courtesy of the “not in our culture” card. The questions here are fundamental: Does an Indian adult need cultural policing?