Mumbai: The late Indian modernist painter, M.F. Husain, has once again riled up Hindutva activists ahead of a rare auction of his 25 paintings Thursday at Hamilton House, Mumbai. The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) has called for the scrapping of the auction.
There are neither any new grouses nor any fresh grounds for the outfit to call for the scrapping of the auction. The HJS has claimed that Husain previously hurt Hindu sentiments, and the auction would be akin to a “glorification of his criminal deeds”.
The Hindutva outfit has also submitted a memorandum to this effect to Home Minister Amit Shah, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis, and Mumbai Commissioner of Police Deven Bharti, warning of a public agitation if they refused to meet its demands.
ThePrint reached out to Hindu Janajagruti Samiti over a call, but the member who picked up the call refused to comment. Hamilton House, or Pundole Art Gallery was also contacted via calls and email for its comments. Once a response comes, the report will be updated.
The HJS threats are nothing new. The illustrious art career of Husain, who died in 2011 in London at 95 years of age after a self-imposed exile, was marked with protests, police complaints, and legal tussles with Hindutva outfits back home.
Controversies over Husain’s paintings
Maqbool Fida Husain, known as Picasso of India, was a revered artist who, at the same time, was a child of controversies. He produced nearly 60,000 works of art in his 95 years of life, covering subjects ranging from the Ramayana and Mahabharata to the British colonisation and motifs of urban and rural India.
However, some of his works, especially in the 90s, landed him in the crosshairs of the saffron brigade and political outfits. In 1996, he drew the goddess of knowledge, Saraswati, nude. Hindutva outfits, such as Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Hindu Janajagruti Samiti, strongly criticised it. In the late 1990s, Bajrang Dal activists attacked his exhibition in Ahmedabad, destroying some of his paintings.
Enraged again in 1998 by a painting depicting a nude Sita, sitting on the tail of Hanuman, Bajrang Dal activists attacked his home in South Mumbai. At the time, Husain had to apologise for things to calm down.
“We should find a way once and for all to establish what is art and what is obscenity. It is not an attack on me but on culture and the freedom of expression,” M.F. Husain told the media back then.
His representations of Hindu gods and goddesses such as Shiva and Durga—allegedly controversial—led to legal actions and threats in the early 2000s. After years, nearly a decade later, he again landed in a controversy for painting ‘Bharat Mata‘ nude. He had drawn a nude woman in red, in the shape of India.
At the time, the backlash was severe, with multiple cases filed against him in several states under sections 153A, 295A, and 292 of the Indian Penal Code, which pertain to promoting enmity between communities, insulting religious sentiments, and participating in or promoting businesses selling obscene objects, respectively.
The Bal Thackeray-led Shiv Sena attacked his exhibition titled India in the Era of Mughals in Delhi in 2007, vandalising two of his paintings. Though Husain then apologised for the portrayal, he left the country in 2006 and sought asylum in Doha. He spent his last years between Doha, Dubai, and London.
In 2008, the Delhi High Court dismissed the criminal cases against him. In 2011, the Supreme Court consolidated all the cases in the lower courts. Then, it passed a judgment, extending protection to his art under Article 19(1)(a) of the Constitution, guaranteeing freedom of speech and expression.
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The auction
Back in 2004, Swarup Shrivastava, a Mumbai-based art collector and chairman of Swarup Group of Industries, bought 25 paintings from Husain for a deal. Each painting cost Rs one crore each. The deal was to commission 100 paintings for Rs 100 crore.
However, in 2006, the Central Bureau of Investigation initiated a probe against the Swarup Group and Srivastava for allegedly misappropriating Rs 150 crore from Rs 236 crore taken in loans from the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED).
A tribunal in December 2008 permitted NAFED to secure the Husain paintings among assets of Rs 100 crore. Finally, the case reached the Bombay High Court, which asked for a valuation of the paintings from the Pundole Art Gallery.
Last year, in May, Pundole submitted that the valuation was Rs 25 crore for 25 paintings. Subsequently, the Bombay HC, in a February 2025 order, allowed the sheriff of Mumbai to auction 25 paintings to recover the dues from Shrivastava.
The auction, titled ‘M.F. Husain: An artist’s vision of the XX century’, includes 25 canvases painted as a part of the OPCE, Our Planet Called Earth, series by Husain.
The Hindu Janajagruti Samiti has submitted a memorandum to the government officials to raise objections. The memorandum stated, “M.F. Husain, during the 26/11 Mumbai attacks, painted a nude and disrespectful image of Bharat Mata titled ‘Rape of Mother India’, which is a severe act of sedition. In other paintings, he portrayed Bharat Mata nude with names of Indian cities written on her body.”
“Holding an auction of these 25 paintings is tantamount to indirectly supporting his previous anti-national and anti-social acts. Glorifying such individuals under the guise of ‘artistic freedom‘ is unacceptable. The Patiala House Court in Delhi has recently ordered the seizure of Husain’s controversial paintings, and an investigation is underway,” the HJS added in its memorandum.
In the past, there had been cancellations of his exhibitions in India and revocations of awards in his name, the memorandum further stated.
(Edited by Madhurita Goswami)
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