Boundaries on freedom of expression
	YUKTA BAJRACHARYA KATHMANDU, Sept 13: On September 11, a group of men visited Manish Harijan’s art exhibition ‘The Rise of the Collateral’ with a death threat. Taking offense from Harijan’s painting series on Gods and superheroes which was on display at Siddhartha Art Gallery located in Babermahal, by saying that the paintings were anti-Hindu and anti-nationalist, the group of men who have been said to be activists from the World Hindu Federation (WHF) led by Hem Bahadur Karki, former colonel of the Nepal Army, threatened to shoot the artist, sentence him for exile and burn his paintings. “The group had, apparently, been frequently visiting and photographing my art work. That day, while a fellow artist and I were at the gallery, the group came in and asked me if I was the artist. Upon confirming, they said, ‘You know what happened to MF Husain in India, don’t you?’” said Harijan who shares that the group of men were aggressive and not willing to listen to his explanations. “When I started making these paintings, I did not think things would turn out this way because I know I have not painted anything that is offensive. People have simply misinterpreted my work,” said Harijan. Artist Manish Harijan (L) and Curator of Siddhartha Art Gallery, Sangeeta Thapa (R) at the Chief District Office on Wednesday. World Hindu Federation’s Hem Bahadur Karki issued life threat to Harijan. Manish also shares that according to the attackers, they had gone to one of the Nepali artist (whose name Harijan did not want to disclose) with photos of Harijan’s work. The artist told them that some foreigners had approached him to make similar paintings of Hindu Gods for some amount of money, which he rejected. “The activist thus called me a foreigner’s broker, saying I had taken money to create these ‘offensive’ paintings,” shared Harijan. Nepali artists have taken this incident as not only a threat to an individual but an infringement to the freedom of expression of all the artists. Despite the negativity in the situation, Artist Sujan Chitrakar is hopeful. “This incident seems to have stemmed from a clear lack of understanding of the public. It proves that artists have a lot to work on when it comes to helping the public interpret their work,” said Chitrakar. He also believes that a new chapter will open out of this. “The changes in the society come out of moments like this,” said Chitrakar. Commenting on Harijan’s work, he shared, “Harijan’s work, in its true sense, portrays the merging of the Western and the Eastern philosophies. It is an example of the diversity of culture that we are living in.” Sangeeta Thapa, Curator of Siddhartha Art Gallery, also refuses the allegation of Harijan’s paintings being anti-Hindu and anti-nationalist. “If they were so, I would not have exhibited them in the first place,” expressed Thapa, who also wrote a statement regarding Harijan’s works in the exhibition catalogue. “When I asked them to go through the text, they replied that the picture should speak 1,000 words, not the text. Instead of reading it and trying to understand the artist’s perception, they chose to misinterpret his work,” she continued. “The group filed complaints against the artist and the exhibition in several places including the District Administration Office (DAO) demanding that the artist be arrested,” said Thapa. The gallery itself has been padlocked. “I tried to make arrangements for the artist’s security but the police never came. When they did, they came to seal the gallery without a warrant,” Thapa said. “I also went to the Chief District Officer (CDO) to file a case against the death threat. At first they did not agree but after Sangeeta Ma’am came, they consented to take the case,” added Harijan. “We have summoned both the parties involved and are looking into the matters,” informed DSP Dhiraj Pratap Singh of the Kathmandu Metropolitan Police. When asked about the provisions for the security of the artist, he said that it wasn’t a high level threat but that the artist has been warned to take precautions. “Until the debate is resolved, the gallery will be sealed,” informed DSP Singh. When asked about the absence of a legal warrant while sealing the gallery, he said, “We got orders from the CDO. In such cases, we don’t require a warrant. His verbal order is the warrant itself.” “We were told by the CDO that Harijan’s paintings were only appropriate during Gai Jatra and that the artist should paint beautiful paintings that confirm to the traditional ways. They also said that the artist did not have the right to interpret Gods,” added Thapa. A case of invasion on the freedom of individual thought, the artists of Nepal have shown solidarity and are in preparation to protest against this violation of freedom of expression to ensure that such incidents do not take place in the future again.
Published on 2012-09-13 11:01:57

As the artist is not neutral on his philosopy, then the creation is bias.

Sala mulste haru ko bhagwan ko yesto gareko bhaye mari saktho.
Freedom of expression bhandai ma jpt garna paucha ?? Aru ko aastha mathi chot puraauda k huncha bhanera thaha pauna parne ho !
Nepal mai chahincha yesta kalakaar ; ani patrakaar haru lai swotantrata.
What he did is pretty offensive to me.

लौ अब हरिजन ले पनि US को असाइलम हान्न पाउने भयो जस्तो छ|

The pictures depicted above are clearly offensive to hindu people. I am not surprised that he got a threat from extremist people. No mattet who you are or what you do, you always need to consider the feelings of people that are around you.
Nepali people do not have a feeling of preserving their culture and tradition. Pulling yourself out of those practices and doing something derogatory are considered very cool and interesting. Its just a matter of time till we loose our culture and tradition. Half of the youths are slaves on other countries who doesnot even have a clue about the traditions that has been followed by his parents and the other half are either on a line to to fill an application for slavery.
Somebody save my country!!! Sad but true I am not any different from those folks.

Not quite sure about the first and the third painting being offensive...but Medusa with superman/supergirl costume showing the finger is bothering me bros...Greeks should be offended by that art not hindus!

yes they are offensive.

They are offensive to religious fanatics. Just like muslim fanatics, it seems like there are religious fanatics in Nepal and in sajha.

I agree with rethink in this case. It's one thing to feel bad, but it's totally another issue to agree with the likes of terrorist groups hindu organizations giving death threat. Weren't they the kinds of people who bombed the church in Kathmandu? Hypocrites are all over the place. I have deep respect for all these gods, but I will never agree with these hindu extremists. I wonder how they come into existence; and the leader of the group is said to be ex-army colonel. Their parent organizations are based in India, and everyone knows what these hindu extremists do in India. All these exrtremists want to grab the opportunity to get attention and want their share of pie among the dog's battle going in Nepal, and they are succeeding in these, and got some sympathy from so-called educated people in US. When will we begin to see the real face of these corrupted crook politicians? These fanatics are not fighting for saving hindu religion; it they were, there are hundreds of other pertinent issues. Didn't maoists urinate to statues of hindu gods and went to cut bahun's janai or going to beat sanskrit chanting bahuns once? What did they do after coming to power? Baburam took his parents to hindu temples, and that is a good thing, where as Prachanda went as far as to go pray for real live buffalo.

If an innocent and helpless persong is dragged in the midst of the road and is beaten to death by the gundas. No one would dare to say a word, but we aim to SAVE the soul of the supreme god. God comes in different forms, and we fail to see him and ignore and hate him. Yet we amuse ourselves with these petty stuffs and agreeing with the groups giving death threats. Should we wonder if we have religious violence in Nepal soon or pehaps here among nep-ricans?

Cheap popularity...

जमाना ठिक छैन, भलो गर्ने मान्छेलाइ त मार्छन. यो मुला हाकुचालाइ किन तेस्ता चित्र बनाउनुपर्या हो? काल ले कुत्कुत्याको हो कि के हो बजियेलाई?

Its understandable that art has various meanings. I dont know what is the real meaning to those arts. But all I see is some sort of distortion of Hindu religion. He might have some deep meaning to it but it does not potray to a ordinary people like me. I am sorry but it is just a disrespect to our religion. God has its own symbol and value for which people worship. You cannot just draw what ever you like because there is freedom of speech and freedom of right. One cannot go post nude picture of somebody in the internet  saying freedom of speech and this and that. You have to respect someone belief, religion, and privacy. I appreciate his art work but please you have to draw the line some where for everything in the world. If you think you need so much freedom please try depicting some art work about muslim and christian religion. Let us see what response we will get from all over the world.

 
First colorfull drwaing:
Nothing special about it. "Obama ko acting gardaima koi Obama bandaina". So in this drwaing, the male figure wearing a superman costume has pistol in one hand and flower in another. I have not seen any hindu daity in this type of costume. Pose resemblence a bit to Natraj but once again "Obama ko acting gardaima koi obama bandaina" no neeed to get offended.

Second colourful drwaing:

As chaurey pointed out resembles more like Medusa, a Greek mythological charcater. She does not resemble "kali" at all. Because I have not seen kali with so many snakes in her head. "Kalo hudai ma kali huncha ra" ? 

Third colourfull drawing:

Well, one of the figure has similarity to "bhairab". But basic concept of the drawing is wrong. In hindu religion Bhairab represent positive side, so is the captain america in american stories. Two good sides dont fight they will come to the conclusion after discussion.

In conclusion those colorfull draiwngs are product of either very childish mind or if created deliberately, created to evoke emotional reactions. You should not fall in this type of trap.

Guys, poster of a dog and live dog are two different things. The dog in a poster is just a "Image" not real dog. If you hit the dog in the poster, it wont do anyhting, but if you hit a real dog you will see a reaction.

If you believe in god, you must know that those drawings are not god, nobody has seen god. Even if there is god there is no gurantee that they will have "Body" as imagined in hindu religion.

I have a reservation though,

Those colorfull drwaings do not fit in the catagory of "Art". They are comic level drwaings. If you are a comic fan you see lots of this type of colorfull drwaings, but they do not qualify for "Art" and not  worth  "Art exhibition". Looks like in new Nepal comic standard drwaings are considered as a "Art". Big change.

All this artist does is copy comic book superheroes and paint them.

The artist Manish Harijan is a Christian convert sponsored by Christian missionaries to depict Hindusim in a negative way. He recieved the Margret Washington Memorial Scholarship award.

Rid,

You pointed out the thing i was thinking. I had a suspicion that the guy was sponsored or motivated by some other religion to villify hindu icons. What kind of fusion is that with Nataraja with a gun and Kali with flipping fingers and Bhairav getting a severe beatings from freakin Captain America.

Christians work hard and invest a lot to show that Muslims are crazy and now they are trying to push hindus to their crazyness. I am not religious but if i was a hindu i would not let this event define myself as a crazy fanatic.

If thats not Kali, then thats not Medusa either. Medusa is from greek mythology and is not black. She also doesnt ave six hands.

Probably, am the only one who is not hating on this guy and not judging him either or others.
His art has abstract meaning and could mean different to different ppl.

Aba, haami  sojha-sajha nepali , aakash ma baadaal dekhe ni, uh 'Ram bhagwaan jasto' 'uh hanumaan jasto' ,' uh garud jasto' dekhney jaat ley,
yesari sidhai medusa ko tauka bhako jiu ma 6 haat jodd da kaali thanney
ani bhairab ley captain america lai parakram ka saath rokna khojeko bhaan huney drishya ma 'bhairab lai ladayeko' dekhney

ra ahiley ko samaya ma ek matra sansar ko shaktishali manab yaneki 'Obama' ko chitra jasma ek haath ma banduk ra arko ma phool cha ani pheri usko mudra dharmik kisim ko laagney bhaney ni euta santulan kayam gareko jasto dekhiney chitra lai nana bhati dekhney

ajab cha.., jai hos...

j bhaye ni,
keto ko tasbir dekhnu bhanda agadi nai mailey anuman lagai sakya thiye, yo pakkai comic pasal chaharney thito hunu parcha,

nabhandai .. bhakkarai ko thito rahecha..

I liked the art, I took and grasped the intention differently, not in religious manner at all and if he really meant to demean others religious figures, that he only knows within, it's an unfortunate act. It also means he wanted to have some cheap fame in short period of time using these scandalous portrayals of figures.

Uslai shri PashupatiNath ley rakcha garun.

Right wrong aside, dont tell me those depictions were not based upon the religious figure. You'd be either too naiive or in a denial.

These days people are slowly beginning to question traditional, cultural and religious practices that don't make sense. Religion is not as cool as it used to be. It's not fashionable to be religious and in 50 years time the value of religion in everyone's lives are set to decline. There is a religious faction that benefits from religion and they will try very hard to make people believe in religion but it's like in ancient times when the religious figures were adamant that moon was god and sun was god. The truth shall set everyone free.

Can you guys stop being religious fanatics? Religion is bunch of stories and you guys agree that someone should be killed for writing something that draws caricature on religious figures? You guys sure need to set your priorities straight.

mailey bhairab lai bhairab nai bhaneko chu, I don't think I'm on denial. Yeah, I don't want to be part of any religious factions and it doesn't mean anything to me, believe me when I said that I meant it, it doesnt mean anything to me.


and, I agree with reli,
religions kill, it separates, it divides,
humanity unites, the only thing that we don't have these days..