Rest in peace?

In death, as in life, Husain continued to attract respect and hatred in equal measure online

All major events, be it a natural disaster or the death of an iconic figure, prompt a reading of the zeitgeist the spirit or intellectual climate of the times.

So, for an assessment of how India reacted to the passing of one of her most important artists, I turned to Twitter.

What I found was, as always, a motley of interacting interest groups. There were some who simply mourned ("I don't think India will ever be blessed with someone like him again"), others who took the practical approach ("One thing for certain is the price of his paintings will go up"), those who accused everyone else of making too much of a fuss ("Martyrs of the attack on Parliament have contributed more to India than he has") and, obviously, those who felt the need to try and be funny ("Business schools should have a course on Husain's marketing skills").

There were also tweets that didn't fit, like this from a certain Jayanta Bhattacharya: "Husain loathed anyone who misspelled his name. He insisted it was Husain, not Hussain. No respite even after death. MF Hussain is trending."

I realised there was no point checking what our celebrities had to say, considering they usually make the same noises at the death of anyone famous. Vijay Mallya said he was "deeply saddened by the passing of the artist genius."

Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur informed us of how, by painting until his last days, he had left us with "one of India's greatest legacy of art."

Former MP Pritish Nandy wanted to see if "the government has the courage and imagination to persuade Husain's distraught family to give him a burial in India." And actress Minissha Lamba mysteriously referred to him as "a super power behind all Creative Force in India."

There was, sadly, still an astonishing amount of scorn reserved for the artist. For those behind this disrespect, his death had clearly changed nothing.

"I don't know a thing about modern art," said one such non-admirer. "I'm just glad Indian goddesses will now be spared." For an Abi Shaw, it was a "national celebration day (sic)." A 'Proud Indian Vikrant' even wanted to know who allowed Husain to flee India "when there were criminal cases pending against him."

A tweeter called Gunjan Sinha put it all into perspective: "How hypocritical are we when it comes to death. We called him senile and blasphemous when he was alive, now he's a genius to all of us?"
Lindsay Pereira is Editor, MiD DAY Online