By IANS,
Panaji : Renowned Goan artist Subodh Kerkar, accused by rightwing groups of denigrating Lord Ganesh, has found support from Mumbai-based intelligentsia who have condemned the “aggressive political mobilisations based on the politics of identity”.
In an open letter released to media Wednesday, the Pen All-India Centre has condemned the Hindu Janajagruti Samiti (HJS) for demanding the closure of Kerkar’s Ganesh exhibition scheduled later this month.
“These attacks on cultural expression come at a very sensitive moment in Goa’s history. They gain urgency when viewed against the backdrop of escalating suspicion of, and violence against, the state’s Muslim population,” office-bearers of the group, Ranjit Hoskote, Naresh Fernandes and Jerry Pinto, have said.
Pen All-India centre is a part of International Pen, an association founded in the 1920 in London “to promote friendship and intellectual cooperation among writers everywhere”. The name was coined as an acronym for Poets, Essayists and Novelists, but the body which has several international editions, now serves as a broad umbrella for artists from a wide range of creative art forms.
Pen All-India’s letter further states that Goa had for nearly a millennia been a multicultural, multireligious and multiethnic place and that it was unfortunate that the region was being “subjected to such aggressive political mobilisations based on the politics of identity”.
“Goa’s demographic profile has changed considerably during the last 30 years, and it now hosts large numbers of ‘outsiders’ who have come there to find work: among them, Muslims from north Karnataka, but also Kashmiris, Hindu Kannadigas, and Biharis,” the letter states.
It adds that the cultural aggression of the HJS should be seen in the larger context of increasing Goan hostility towards “outsiders” and “dissent” generally.
Earlier this week, Kerkar had filed a complaint at the Calangute police station and said that he was being threatened by unknown persons who had warned him to withdraw his Ganesh exhibition or face death.
The rightwing groups had claimed that Kerkar’s “obscene” portrayal of Lord Ganesh amounted to denigration of Hindu religion and offended the feelings of Hindus in Goa.
Kerkar’s paintings and a green installation featuring a large idol of Lord Ganesh amidst heaps of garbage — highlighting the garbage woes of the state — are to feature in an exhibition in the artist’s gallery in Calangute later this month.