Court in India orders seizure of ‘offensive’ paintings

A court in the Indian capital, Delhi, ordered the seizure of two “offensive” paintings by M. F. Hussain, one of India’s most famous painters.

On Monday, a court allowed police to confiscate the artworks following a complaint alleging that the paintings, displayed at an art gallery and depicting two Hindu deities, “hurt religious sentiments”.

Hussein, who died in 2011. at the age of 95, often faced backlash for the depictions of naked Hindu gods in his paintings.

The Delhi Art Gallery (DAG), which held the exhibition, said in a statement that it was “not a party to the legal proceedings and is seeking legal advice”.

The paintings were part of an exhibition called Husain: The Timeless Modernist, showing more than 100 works at DAG from October 26 to December 14.

The complainant, lawyer Amita Sachdeva, told X that on December 4 she had photographed the “offensive paintings” exhibited at the DAG and, after investigating previous complaints against the late artist, filed a complaint with the police five days later.

On December 10, Ms Sachdeva said she visited the gallery with the investigating officer only to find that the paintings had been removed. She claims gallery officials claim they never exhibited the paintings.

The BBC has contacted DAG for comment.

The paintings, which Ms Sachdeva shared online, depict Hindu gods Ganesha and Hanuman alongside nude female figures. She also alleged that the Delhi Police did not file a report.

She later applied to the court to preserve CCTV footage from the gallery during the period when the paintings were reportedly on display, according to media reports.

On Monday, a judge at Delhi’s Patiala courts said police had accessed the footage and submitted their report. According to the investigation, the exhibition was held in a private space and was only intended to display the artist’s original work, the judge added.

The art gallery said in a statement that it was “reviewing the situation” and “trying to monitor developments”.

Maqbool Fida Hussain was one of India’s greatest artists and was called the ‘Picasso of India’, but his art was often controversial in the country. His works have sold for millions of dollars.

His career was marked by controversy when he was accused of obscenity and denounced by hardline Hindus for a painting of a naked goddess.

In 2006 Hussain publicly apologized for his Mother India painting. It shows a naked woman kneeling on the ground, creating the shape of the Native American map. He left the country that year and lived in self-imposed exile in London until his death.

In 2008 Supreme Court of India refused to initiate criminal proceedings against Hussainsaying that his paintings are not obscene and nudity is common in Indian iconography and history.

The court then dismissed an appeal against a high court ruling that quashed the criminal proceedings against Hussain in the cities of Bhopal, Indore and Rajkot, condemning the rise of a “new puritanism” in India.

The court also rejected calls for Hussain, then in exile, to be summoned and asked to explain his paintings, which were accused of offending religious sentiments and violating national integrity.

“There are so many threads, photos and posts like this. Are you going to file lawsuits against all of them? What about temple structures? Hussein’s work is art. If you don’t want to see her, don’t see her. There are so many such art forms in temple structures,” the apex court said.

Many believe that there is a rising tide of illiberalism against artistic expression in India.

In October, the Bombay High Court scolded the customs office to seize artworks by renowned artists FN Souza and Akbar Padamsee on the grounds that they were “obscene material”.

The court ruled that not every nude or sexually explicit painting qualifies as obscene and ordered the release of seven seized artworks.

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