Let's Call the Bluff Please

A lot has been seen, said and heard about the "cartoon" controversy. Some, like Suhail has, have taken stances of trying to place blame on both the sides. Some are the liberals and some side with the right to be "offended". Today I stumbled upon this article "The Silence of Liberal Muslims" by Vir Sanghvi. A very good point made here is this

It is instructive that the agitation against the Danish cartoons began three months after their publication. In many cases - dare one say, in nearly every case? - the outrage is manufactured by religious and political leaders who whip a frenzy among ignorant followers. Let's stick with The Satanic Verses. Ayatollah Khomeini placed the fatwa on Salman Rushdie's head only because he heard about demonstrations in the Indian subcontinent. He never read the book and nor did any of his assassins.

I couldn't agree more. To extend this argument a bit further if one takes a look at the MF Husain Saraswati paintings controversy it took not just months but years for the sensibilities of Hindus to be offended. And that too when nothing less than Hindu temples themselves have examples of sculptures of nude gods and goddesses. Look here for an example. * And god forbid if Mr Husain had painted a picture of what is described in the above link and which I quote below..

The women having problems with their puberty, menses, conceiving and child-birth take vow to worship Lajja-gowri with all dedication they can command. as part of this ritual they apply butter and kumkum and sometimes lick the yoni of the idol.

That would probably have been enough to ask for his head instead of just vandalism. So the point I am trying to make is that freedom of speech/expression should be absolute. Anybody (Suhail you are included here I guess :) ) who accepts that the cartoonists should have resisted from "provocation" should rethink. A protest today could turn into a murder tomorrow. Almost always there is no spontaneous perception of offence to religious sentiment. As we can see from the Saraswati painting case even in cases when a religious notion is really not offended, political forces or so called guardians of religion (even when they do not understand it fully) will make sure that they try and gain mileage from the incident. Please deny them a safe passage by calling their bluff.

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And while we are on cartoons depicting gods, take a look at the "Cahlo Lanka" animation on this page. Well the saffron brigade might find it offending, what with the crotch grabbing dance ala Michael Jackson :), but my take is that since Hanuman is supposed to be single and not ready to mingle it is but natural that he takes it on himselves to grab it every once in a while :)) (And I am not gonna apologise for saying this :))

*BTW Kamat's Potpourri is one heck of a site. Lots of content on ancient India.