Duldul (Horse) by M.F.Hussain

'Muharram-- Painting by M.F.Hussain( Image Courtesy Google)





M.F.Husain Painting a Horse

Dr.Mazhar Naqvi

The 100^th birth anniversary of Indian Picasso Maqbool Fida Hussain passed off quietly in his homeland today. Only Google recalled the great painter  befittingly on a day that should have been celebrated at a much grand scale in India. Among the newspaper houses only Indian Express carried some rare photographs of Hussain as a token of remembrance. The apathy towards the hundredth birth day of one of India’s greatest painters only indicate that fanatics neither forgets nor forgives and out of their fear even very vocal personalities prefer to remain silent. Hussain remained star of the eyes of Indian people for decades. But he became an apple of discord by applying his brush to produce some controversial paintings. Husain irked so much the sentiments of a particular community that he had to spend his last days in exile. He breathed his last in Doha in 2011 and was buried there itself. The controversy associated with his name did not die with him. He continues to suffer even after his death as is evident from the shabby treatment given to his 100^th birth day.  

Whatever his critics may say, the blogger has no doubt that Husain enjoyed blessings of Masoomeen. His love for ’Duldul(Horse of Imam Husain) and Tazia took him to the zenith of career  as a painter. He was born on September 17, 1915 in Pandharpur(Maharashtra).He lost his mother Zainab at the age of two. Husain himself revealed in an article “  I had fallen seriously ill and her desperate prayer was that her life should be taken and mine spared. That is exactly what happened. Though alive I counted myself extremely unfortunate. Can anyone make up for the loss of a mother? I don’t even have a picture of her. She refused to get herself photographed. In those days people were afraid of the camera. They thought it cast an evil eye and shortened life. Sadly, I have nothing which remotely resembles or reminds me of my mother. She is just a name to me, not even a memory.”

Soon after mother’s death, his family moved to Indore where four years later his father Fida Husain married again. He worked as an accountant in a textile mill. Though he was strict but he encouraged his son’s Passion for painting. Fida was indeed a progressive man as he faced the Indore Ulema who objected to Maqbool’s pursuit, saying “ ‘This is not right. What you are doing is against our religion”.

Husain’s passion for horses, a striking feature of his paintings, also began in Indore. Ashura was a very important day in Indore. It was not perceived as a Muslim festival. Hindus equally participated in the Muharram rituals. Maharaja himself joined the procession every year. “To Muslims, Muharram is not a festival of rejoicing. It is an occasion for mourning the martyrdom of the Prophets grandson Hazrat Husain, who was killed in battle. On the tenth day, Muslims would take out tazias (mobile tombs crafted with bamboo, coloured gilt paper and cloth) in a procession as is customary, and immerse them in the river. The Maharaja’s tazia was the grandest of all—a colossal affair, two storeys high!”

Husain further writes “the making of these tazias was a specialized art. In fact the huge ones took a whole year to make. As soon as they were immersed in water, the craftsmen began to make new tazias for the following year. I used to go and watch them being made......During Muharram they also made huge papier mache horses and painted them. They represented the steed named Duldul on which Husain rode to the wars and was martyred. You know that I am known as the painter of horses. All my life I have drawn horses. My fascination for those glorious creatures began with childhood memories of horses in the procession.”

His words exhibit his reverence for Imam’s horse. Husain was never good at studies. As a young boy, he prayed eight hours a day and his family felt as if he is going to be a Maulvi. But his restlessness for painting led to his ouster from the religious school where painting was a taboo and he had dared to paint the cups and plates.

The ouster from school had no impact on him and his passion for painting became so overwhelming that he lost interest in everything else. “My hand kept moving on paper, making shapes and patterns. I painted on broken bits of crockery and on the floor, imitating the traditions of Gujarat and Rajasthan......As I grew older I got to know more and more about the great painters of the world in Europe, the United States, China and Japan—about Matisse and Renoir, Picasso and Paul Klee.”

 Beginning his career as a painter of cinema posters, he earned worldwide respect and acclamation for his work to be rated as India’s Picasso. But the image of twenty foot high effigies of horses carried during Muharram in Indore remained embedded always in his mind.   

“These gigantic horses signified all the valour of the warrior for the young boy and they emerged in some of his earliest paintings as animated, powerful animals" writes Yashodhara Dalmia in her work on M.F. Husain.

His continued love for Imam’s horse resulted in his emergence as one of the finest painter world ever produced. As his name and fame spread,” his  horse swept across continents, amalgamating various influences into a composite form. He also liberated Duldul from his childhood image first by the Chinese rendering of the horse, and then by the plasticity of form in Franz Marc and Mario Marini's balance between horizontal and vertical lines.” Husain's horses, however, are singularly his own" remarks Yashodhara further.

It may sound strange but it is a fact that so long as Husain remained focused on Duldul he had a Midas touch but when he turned his attention to  a Bollywood heroine and painted Goddesses nude, he had to leave the country that he had refused to part with at the time of partition. Husain remained protected in his early days when Mullahs turned against him but none tried to save him when fanatics attacked him for hurting their religious sentiments through his ‘progressive’ paintings. His life proves once again that if you have once dedicated yourself to the love of Masoomeen, then never try anything else or you would also be forgotten like M.F. Hussain gradually. (This article has been contributed to mark 100th birth anniversary of M.F.Hussain)