Incarnations: India in 50 Lives

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The history of India told through the lives of 50 phenomenal people.

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Incarnations: India in 50 Lives: MF Husain: Hindustan Is Free

MF Husain: Hindustan Is Free

BBC Radio 4 - Incarnations: India in 50 Lives, MF Husain: Hindustan Is Free

A portrait of the controversial Indian artist MF Husain.

Sunil Khilnani looks at controversy over the Indian artist MF Husain, who was forced to spend the last days of his life in exile after threats from Hindu extremists.

Professor Sunil Khilnani, from the King's India Institute in London,  looks at controversy over the Indian artist MF Husain, who spent the last days of his life in exile.   Husain is considered by some to be the face of modern art in India but not necessarily by people in India itself.  Husain died in his nineties having completed around ten thousand works.  His paintings often attracted high prices but he became a target for mob anger over his portraits of Hindu goddesses and Indian feminine icons.   Female deities had often shown nude in traditional art, but what enraged right-wing Hindus was that these images were created by a Muslim artist.  "Had Husain been less popular beforehand, he probably would have been less hated." says Professor Khilnani.
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